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The Effect of Patient Education on Chinese Adolescent and Parental Beliefs About Counselors’ Breaches of Confidentiality

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Abstract

The primary aim of the present study is to explore whether brief education can change Chinese adolescents’ and parents’ beliefs about when counselors would breach confidentiality. The two secondary aims are to examine whether the brief education (1) increases adolescents’ willingness to share private information with their counselor and (2) decreases parents’ expectations of the amount of information their child’s counselor would divulge to them. Results showed that adolescents and parents who read a brief passage about the limitations of confidentiality were significantly less likely to believe counselors would breach confidentiality in situations where counselors reported they would not likely breach confidentiality. Regarding our secondary research aims, results indicate that education increases adolescents’ willingness to share more sensitive information, such as about suicidality and drug use, but it does not change parents’ expectations to have most of the information divulged to them by their child’s counselor.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Zheng Xiao BS & Jun Gao PhD

  2. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Marcus A. Rodriguez MS, Caitlin M. Fang MA & M. Zachary Rosenthal PhD

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Clive Robins PhD & M. Zachary Rosenthal PhD

Authors
  1. Zheng Xiao BS
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  2. Marcus A. Rodriguez MS
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  3. Caitlin M. Fang MA
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  4. Jun Gao PhD
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  5. Clive Robins PhD
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  6. M. Zachary Rosenthal PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jun Gao PhD.

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This study received permission from the Research Ethics Committee of Fudan University. Informed consent was obtained from all participants and their parents.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Work was completed at the Department of Psychology, School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

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Xiao, Z., Rodriguez, M.A., Fang, C.M. et al. The Effect of Patient Education on Chinese Adolescent and Parental Beliefs About Counselors’ Breaches of Confidentiality. J Behav Health Serv Res 46, 340–352 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-018-9639-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-018-9639-2

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