Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Summer 2025

Abstract

Untreated mental illness is exceedingly common in college students in the United States, and therapy and mental illness continue to be stigmatized. Many could benefit from the utilization of therapy and thus the current study sought to identify preferences college students hold regarding specific characteristic attributes of potential therapists. We investigated preferences regarding race, gender identity, political affiliation, and modality of therapy. College students in the United States were recruited from Prolific (N=182) and completed an online survey questionnaire. Results from a conjoint analysis procedure showed that gender identity of potential therapists was the most important attribute when it comes to selecting a potential therapist, followed by political affiliation, modality of therapy, and race. We ran paired samples t-tests, and each attribute was found to be significantly more important in therapist selection than the one below it (i.e. gender identity was significantly more important than political affiliation). Our results provide important implications for how we can better meet the mental health needs of college students.

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Rights Statement

In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted