The image and familiarity of student counseling service and willingness to use the service

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between image and familiarity that college students had about student counseling service and their willingness to make use of the service. A questionnaire was administered to 421 college students. Factor analysis of the image found two positive sides: helpfulness and support in crisis, and two negative ones: disadvantage and uneasiness. Men had an image that was higher on support in crisis and disadvantage than women. Women were more familiar with the service, but no sex difference was found in the willingness to visit it. First-year students were lower in terms of their familiarity, but no image differences were found among students of different years. Regression analysis of the willingness indicated that different predictors became significant, depending on the sex and year of the respondents. It was suggested that different information about counseling service should be disseminated, so as to maximize the willingness, depending on the sex and year of the students.