Evaluating the Influence of Self-Efficacy, Trepidation of Stigma, and Previous Counseling Experience on University Students’ Attitudes Toward Psychological and Social Counseling: Implications for Intervention

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the influence that self-efficacy, trepidation of stigma, and previous counseling experience had on university students’ attitudes toward counseling. Participants’ data were examined separately for students with earlier counseling experience and no earlier counseling experience. One-way analyses of variance showed the group that had no previous counseling reported more concerns of being stigmatized by counseling, rated themselves as more encouraged individuals, and had lower perceptions of self-efficacy than the group with previous counseling experience. These results suggest that students who have not experienced counseling are a varied group, ranging from very encouraged individuals to those doubting their own capabilities. Pearson Product–Moment correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationships between stigma, self-efficacy, and attitude toward counseling for student participants. Results indicated that more optimistic attitudes toward counseling were positively related to female. These analyses also revealed that self-efficacy was associated with being male and with higher levels of encouragement. Two multiple regressions were calculated to investigate which of the variables listed earlier were the best predictors of participants’ attitudes toward counseling. Among participants who had previous counseling experience, gender and age were the significant predictors of attitude toward counseling. An analysis of covariance revealed that the majority of the variance in attitudes toward counseling was accounted for previous counseling experience. Findings suggest that although the trepidation of being stigmatized may not affect students’ attitudes toward counseling, it remains an important variable in the decision to seek or not seek counseling services.