Do young people prefer older psychotherapists?

In times of demographic change, psychotherapists tend to stay longer in their jobs. Against the background of two contradictory age stereotypes (wise/generous versus senile/outdated old person), this analogue study investigates young adults’ preference for old over young psychotherapists, depending on presenting problem. In a within-subjects design, therapy-motivated young female participants (N = 79) received two kinds of hypothetical presenting problems, ‘universal problems’ (addressing fundamental questions of life virulent across the adult life span) and ‘young problems’ (life events that are developmentally close to and specific for young adulthood in today’s world). For each presenting problem, participants were presented with two naturalistic photographs of an old (55 + years) and a young (< 35 years) female psychotherapist; in a two-alternative forced choice decision task, participants were then asked to decide whom of the two psychotherapists they would prefer. Participants had neither an overall preference for old nor for young psychotherapists. As expected, we found a preference for old psychotherapists in case of ‘universal problems’ (friend’s death, natural disaster, quarreling with one’s past). In turn, a preference for young psychotherapists was observed in case of ‘young problems’ (cyberbullying, paternalizing parents, lovesickness). Effect size was medium-to-large. Organizations that provide services to younger people may want to inquire about a patient’s preference about age of a therapist prior to treatment. As catering to patient’s preferences for therapy has been shown to lead to better engagement and therapy outcomes, health care providers should try to meet the patient’s needs.