COUNSELING CHILDREN AT A HELPLINE: CHATTING OR CALLING?

In a quantitative content analysis, the telephone-based and Web-based support of the Dutch child helpline were studied. Both adult judges and the children themselves indicated that the quality of chat conversations was better than that of telephone conversations. Both the chat and telephone service succeeded in improving children's well-being and decreasing the perceived burden of their problems. The findings lend support to offer a combined telephone-based and Web-based support for child helplines. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.