Background The mental health of international students is a growing concern for education providers, students, and their families. Chinese international students have low rates of help seeking owing to language, stigma, and mental health literacy barriers. Web-based help-seeking interventions may improve the rate of help seeking among Chinese international students. Objective This study aimed to describe the development of a mental well-being web app providing personalized feedback and tailored psychoeducation and resources to support help seeking among international university students whose first language is Chinese and test the web application’s uptake and engagement. Methods The bilingual MindYourHead web application contains 6 in-app assessments for various areas of mental health, and users are provided with personalized feedback on symptom severity, psychoeducation tailored to the person’s symptoms and information about relevant interventions, and tailored links to external resources and mental health services. A feasibility study was conducted within a school at the University of Sydney to examine the uptake and engagement of the web application among Chinese international students and any demographic characteristics or help-seeking attitudes or intentions that were associated with its engagement. Results A total of 130 Chinese international students signed up on the web application. There was an uptake of 13.4% (122/908) in the schools’ Chinese student enrollment. Most participants (76/130, 58.5%) preferred to use the web application in Chinese and used informal but not formal help for their mental health. There was considerable attrition owing to a design issue, and only 46 students gained access to the full content of the web application. Of these, 67% (31/46) of participants completed 1 or more of the in-app mental well-being assessments. The most commonly engaged in-app assessments were distress (23/31, 74%), stress (17/31, 55%), and sleep (15/31, 48%), with the majority scoring within the moderate- or high-risk level of the score range. In total, 10% (9/81) of the completed in-app assessments led to clicks to external resources or services. No demographic or help-seeking intentions or attitudes were associated with web-application engagement. Conclusions There were promising levels of demand, uptake, and engagement with the MindYourHead web application. The web application appears to attract students who wished to access mental health information in their native language, those who had poor mental health in the past but relied on informal support, and those who were at moderate or high risk of poor mental well-being. Further research is required to explore ways to improve uptake and engagement and to test the efficacy of the web application on Chinese international students’ mental health literacy, stigma, and help seeking.
BACKGROUND The mental health of international students is a growing concern for education providers, students, and their families. Chinese international students have low rates of help-seeking due to language, stigma, and mental health literacy barriers. Online help-seeking interventions may improve Chinese international student help‐seeking. OBJECTIVE To describe the development of a mental wellbeing app providing personalised feedback and tailored psychoeducation and resources to support help-seeking among Chinese first-language international university students, and test its uptake and engagement. METHODS The MindYourHead app was co-developed through a user-centred design process with Chinese international students in Australia. A feasibility trial was conducted within a School at the University of Sydney to examine the uptake and engagement of the app among Chinese international students. The trial also explored if any demographic characteristics or help-seeking attitudes or intentions were associated with app engagement. RESULTS A total of 130 Chinese international students signed up to the app, suggesting an uptake of 13.4% of the School’s Chinese student enrolment. Students preferred to use the app in Chinese. Almost two thirds of participants indicated that they had experienced poor mental health in the past, but only 20% had sought help from a mental health professional or general practitioner. There was significant attrition due to a design issue and only 46 students gained access to the full contents of the app. Of these, 67.4% of participants completed one or more of the in-app mental wellbeing assessments. The most commonly engaged being distress (50%), stress (37%), and sleep (33%). Participants were more likely to engage with an in-app survey if they had previously sought help for their mental health from a friend. CONCLUSIONS There were promising levels of demand, uptake, and engagement with the MindYourHead app. The app appears to attract students who had a need with poor mental health in the past but reliance on informal support, and those who are at moderate- or high-risk of poor mental wellbeing. Findings suggest that developing mental health apps available in the native language of the target population improves engagement. A randomised control trial is required to test the effect of the app on Chinese international student’s mental health awareness and help seeking.
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