The relationship of acculturation and gender to attitudes toward counseling in Italian and Greek American college students.

Abstract

This exploratory study examined attitudes toward professional psychological services and help provider characteristics among 232 self-identified Italian and Greek American college students in 3 Northeast colleges. Regarding general attitudes toward psychological services in the Italian American sample, women had a greater recognition of personal need for help and higher confidence in the ability of mental health professionals to meet these needs than did men. With regard to preferred counselor demographic characteristics, regardless of gender, lower acculturated Italian American students had a stronger preference for seeing an ethnically similar counselor. With the Greek American sample, there was an interaction effect between acculturation level and gender on attitudes toward services. Among the higher acculturated Greek students, women were more open regarding their personal concerns than men; however, within the lower acculturated cohort, no gender differences were found. With regard to counselor characteristic variables, and similar to Italian Americans, regardless of gender, lower acculturated Greek Americans had a stronger preference for seeing an ethnically similar counselor to discuss a personal problem. Limitations and implications for further research are noted.

The Relationship Between Emotional Openness and the Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Counseling of English-Speaking Caribbean College Students

“…This finding contrasts somewhat with previous research by Dadfar and Friedlander (1982), which suggested that international students in general who lived in the United States longest, reported more positive attitudes towards seeking professional counseling. This contrast suggests perhaps that Caribbean college students are more likely to retain the values of their country of origin and resist the values of the new culture longer than other international student populations that have been researched (Liao et al 2005;Ponterotto et al 2001). This is in line with previous research that suggests that Caribbeans find it more difficult than other groups to assimilate into American culture (Pessar 1995;Stepick 1998).…”

British and Indian attitudes toward ‘Western’ counselling: A quantitative comparative study

“…Research, particularly amongst Greek and Italian students living in the United States, has shown that women are more favourable about seeking counselling and support for personal need than men. The researchers argued that this is because 'women were more open regarding their personal concerns than men' (Ponterotto et al, 2001). However, for Indians the reason for more men being favourable to counselling than women could be due to the degree of cultural commitments (Price & McNeill, 1992).…”

Assessment of Greek University Students’ Counselling Needs and Attitudes: An Exploratory Study

“…As far as we know this is the first study to assess attitudes toward counselling in a purely Greek sample. The only other relevant study has been conducted by Ponterotto et al (2001) using an immigrant GreekAmerican student sample; those researchers reporting that high-acculturated female participants were more open in discussing their psychological concerns that were male participants.…”