BACKGROUND
Social isolation at the onset of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic conditioned increased use of online formats in counseling. The demands counselors face in online counseling focus primarily on changes concerning the organization of work and the establishment of therapeutic relationships. These include the decrease of access to facial expressions and gestures and potential problems with special technical features. Currently, little research has been done on stressors in digitized counseling and the associated health consequences.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study is to identify specific stressors and resources in online counseling and to develop and validate a tailored questionnaire instrument. Further the study aims at identifying organizational and technological mediators for the association between these stressors and resources and the experience of stress.
METHODS
The stressors and resources arising from online counseling were surveyed by means of a self-developed questionnaire (QueStrOn), based on several theoretical models. The questionnaire was examined by means of an explorative factor analysis. Mediator analyses were used to examine how the resources and stressors should be assessed in context.
RESULTS
The final sample consisted of 174 social counselors and psychotherapists from various social counseling fields. The results indicated that the QueStrOn had acceptable validity and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha exceeded 0.87 for the overall scale). Explorative factor analysis identified four underlying factors: 'online work organization’, ‘online framework’, ‘online communication’ and 'online work content'. Mediator analyses examined underlying effects of organizational, technical and motivational factors.
CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that the QueStrOn is a concise and practical instrument for use in various digitized health care contexts.