| The Internet has become a new force within the mental health delivery system, resulting in a need for examination of its social impact. Minimal information is available concerning the long-term effects or the ethical integrity of online counseling as an intervention strategy. This nonexperimental descriptive study, grounded in social systems theory, investigated the attitudes and knowledge of professional counselors in order to determine whether significant relationships existed among variables. The sample was drawn from a database of professional counselors who were sent surveys exploring issues related to their attitudes, opinions, and level of knowledge regarding the practice of online counseling. The issues addressed included confidentiality, informed consent, ability to provide specific interventions to online clients, necessary computer skills, nonverbal communication, online counseling training, and licensure. T-tests, correlation, and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. The results indicated some significant relationships between counselors' professional degree and opinions regarding online counseling and between counselors' computer skill level and opinions regarding online counseling. No significant relationships were found among the counselors' demographic traits and their knowledge level. However, the results also indicated an overall below average opinion and knowledge of online counseling. The social change implication of this study is that it uncovers the need for several changes: conducting additional research from a broader, multicultural perspective, developing a multidisciplinary regulatory body, requiring accredited courses on Internet counseling for membership renewal, and requiring courses on this topic for degree attainment in mental health professions. |
