18 March 2020
The study shows that the duration of a text-based counseling session, the length of the counselor’s messages, and quick response time by the counselor are important factors in determining the impact of counseling. It involved young people under the age of 23 who relied on a dialogue-based, human-handled child hotline.
The researchers concluded that even without face-to-face interaction, clients may benefit from the texting as long as the counselor responds promptly, using long, dense, expressive messages. The number of messages exchanged is not as important as the total length of the texting session.The article can be read free of charge until 10 April on the publisher's website.