Breast Cancer Survivors' Attitudes Towards Internet-Based Psychotherapy

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women and treatment has notable consequences on quality of life and recovery. Internet-based psychotherapy represents a useful resource to monitor and support BC survivors, yet no study to date examined attitudes towards internet-based psychotherapy in this specific group. We expect that participants' attitudes will be influenced by their general opinion about digital technology in therapy and self-curiosity. 48 women who had BC were invited to read the descriptions of four internet-based psychotherapy (i.e., Webchat, Videoconference, Virtual Reality, and Avatar therapy) and then responded to questions regarding their perceptions (e.g., useful, reassuring). Moreover, they filled in self-report questionnaires on internet-based therapy attitudes and self-curiosity. BC survivors were more positive towards technologies offering rich interaction with the therapist (Virtual Reality and Videoconference). General attitudes towards eHealth was associated with self-curiosity. Future research may further explore contingent and personal factors influencing acceptance of technological resources for psychotherapy in BC.