Examining Technological and Psychological Factors Influencing Behavior Intention of Online Counselling Services

With an increasing number of mental health services moving online in Indonesia, online counselling platforms have emerged as an important yet remain unexplored. This study focuses on the technological and psychological factors which affect user’s behavioral intention toward online counseling services, such as perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived risk (PR), and trust(T). The study utilized the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), perceived risk theory and Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to investigate the influence of these emotional factors over adoption of online counseling that are not traditionally explored in TAM. It is also guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), perceived risk theory and Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and identifies the role of these emotional factors affecting adoption decisions in cases beyond the scope of TAM framework. Structured questionnaires were used to gather data from 100 respondents with demographic people aging 17 to above 31 years old, and analyzed using PLS-SEM developed by SmartPLS software using Monte Carlo simulation with 5,000 iterations to test the structural robustness. The results show that trust (β = 0.402, p < 0.001) and perceived usefulness (β = 0.333, p = 0.004) have significant and positive relationships with behavioral intention, and perceived ease of use (β = -0.052, p = 0.631 ) has no significant with behavioral intention. There was a significant and negative relationship between perceived risk and trust (β = -0.470, p < 0.001), and trust was found to mediate between perceived risk and behavioral intention. These findings open the way for the domain of digital mental healthcare and illustrate the importance of psychological factors (especially trust) above the technological usability in emotionally sensitive digital services contexts. The results of the study provides theoretical and practical recommendations to mental health practitioners, developers of online counselling platforms, and policy-makers in Indonesia to improve the trust of their users and to lower barriers for user adoption in the field of digital mental health.Keyword: Behavioral Intention, Online Counseling, Technology Acceptance Model, Perceived risk, Trust, Protection Motivation Theory, Digital Mental Health, Indonesia