Capturing the Attitudes of Adolescent Males’ Towards Computerised Mental Health Help‐Seeking

Abstract

Objective: Adolescent males are often reluctant to seek help for mental health problems. Computerised psychological treatment may be a more appealing method of psychological intervention for this population because it minimises many of the barriers to traditional treatment. However, it is not clear if current computerised mental health treatment programs both attract and engage adolescent males with anxiety disorders. A qualitative methodology was utilised to investigate adolescent males' attitudes to computerised mental health intervention generally and more specifically, computerised anxiety treatment programs. Method: The views of 29 adolescent males, both with and without experience of clinical anxiety symptoms, were elicited using semistructured interviews and focus groups. Verbatim transcripts were analysed using content analysis. Results: The major themes identified related to computerised help-seeking involving "risk," "effort" and "the need for a human connection." Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that a number of barriers exist in relation to adolescent males utilising computerised mental health interventions, such as unfamiliarity with this form of help, perceived control over decision-making, effort involved and concerns around confidentiality. However, the findings also suggest that an increased awareness of computerised mental health help-seeking, facilitated through schools, parents or social media, also has the potential to increase formal help-seeking in this population.

Children and young people’s concerns and needs relating to their use of health technology to self-manage long-term conditions: a scoping review

“…Technologies were categorised using a previously reported typology 51 : internet (eg, websites, forums, chat rooms and e-tools) (n=9) 13 16 23 26 33–35 37 46 ; social media (dedicated platforms, eg, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) (n=3) 47–49 ; mHealth (eg, mobile phone apps and text messaging) (n=14) 18 19 22 24 28 29 31 39–45 ; telehealth (eg, video conferencing and telephone consultations) (n=1) 17 ; interactive online treatment programmes (n=3) 14 15 50 ; and devices (eg, wearables and other devices/hardware) 25 30 32 (n=3). Five studies involved combinations of technologies.…”

“…CYP were concerned that stigma could arise from technology visibility, for example, the potential for social embarrassment prevented them from using devices in public. 14 Many technologies were designed to enable CYP to engage with an online community of users, which in some cases included other CYP from the healthy population, which led to CYPs’ concerns about cyberbullying. 14 50 Some CYP felt that technologies involving online communities should have separate condition-specific spaces to reduce the risk of discrimination and support inclusivity.…”

“… 14 Many technologies were designed to enable CYP to engage with an online community of users, which in some cases included other CYP from the healthy population, which led to CYPs’ concerns about cyberbullying. 14 50 Some CYP felt that technologies involving online communities should have separate condition-specific spaces to reduce the risk of discrimination and support inclusivity. 20 44 48 Suggestions included private messaging or chat options.…”

“… 25 Concerns surrounding data sharing and confidentiality of personal information were also evident. 14 22 33 39 48 CYP had preferences about whom they would share data with and were concerned about the perceived dangers and negative implications of sharing data widely. 25 31 40 For example, the risks of being ‘hacked’ 13 26 and the importance of privacy settings 24 in various social media platforms and apps; privacy related to content that CYP created 50 and fears of being monitored or watched by parents and/or clinicians 17 24 30 47 ; and the permanence of data on websites and apps.…”

Online anxiety resources for Canadian youth: a systematic environmental scan

“…A total of 19 Information Sources relating to youth's experiences and information needs around seeking help for anxiety were identified, 17 (Arcaro et al, 2017;Calear et al, 2020;Clark et al, 2018aClark et al, , 2018bClark et al, 2020;Coles et al, 2015;Dayan, 2019;Elshire-Dulle, 2019;Grist et al, 2018;Haavik et al, 2019;Havinga et al, 2018;Langley et al, 2018;Leech et al, 2019;Moir et al, 2015;Purcell et al, 2015;Romanson, 2018;Summerhurst et al, 2017; through the primary literature search, one via Google Scholar (Gandhi et al, 2016), and one through the Internet search (Canada, 2018). Characteristics for each of these Information Sources are presented in Table 3.…”