JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

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.

Objective:

The aim of the study is to identify risk factors for an increased stress experience in online counseling and to develop and validate an instrument that allows to assess stressors.

Methods:

The stressors arising from online counseling were surveyed by means of a self-developed questionnaire. The questionnaire was examined by means of an explorative factor analysis. Linear regression was used to analyze how the variables can predict distress.

Results:

The 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'. Further the regression model showed that the identified factors are predictors of stress level.

Conclusions:

The results suggest that the QueStrOn instrument is a practical tool for assessing stressors in the profes-sional use of online counseling.