Friday, November 06, 2009

Face-to-Face vs. Facebook

For our plugged-in, internet savvy, Gen Y's the question arises; when it comes to the bigger, deeper emotional issues are you going to seek therapy online or are you still going to prefer face-to-face therapy?
Our very own professor Dr. Vickie Rogers set out to determine the response from a perspective that had not been previously studied, that of the psychiatric nurse.
"The purpose of this study was to compare differences in emotional self-disclosure between young adult Internet users who prefer face-to-face therapy to those who prefer Internet therapy. A convenience sample of 328 was recruited from Facebook to complete an online survey. A total of 263 preferred face-to-face therapy (F2FT) while 65 preferred Internet therapy (IT). Significant differences were found with the F2FT group willing to disclose emotions of depression, jealously, anxiety, and fear to a therapist more frequently than the IT group. The majority reported a preference for F2FT over IT." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This study provides an important first step to determine the emotional self-disclosure differences and preferences in our young adult population. Given the high number of participants that reported a history of therapy, a need for psychiatric nurses to reach out with new ways to deliver therapy to better serve these clients, seems warranted.
Full-text of the article was published in October in the journal, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, and is available on Reserve in the Library.

Citation: Rogers, V., Griffin, M., Wykle, M., & Fitzpatrick, J. (2009). Internet versus Face-to-Face Therapy: Emotional Self-Disclosure Issues for Young Adults. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 30(10), 596-602. doi:10.1080/01612840903003520.

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