The DOI matches its Crossref record; 23 of the 23 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Young students' use of the Internet for mental health information and support
Abstract
Accessible summary • Young people experience difficulties in accessing mainstream mental health services, yet are experiencing increasing rates of mental health problems. • There is a growth in the use of the Internet for health information and support. • This study aimed to elicit the views of 922 students on using the Internet for health information and support. • The findings of this study can help inform website design and web-based interventions for young people with mental health problems. Abstract It is recognized that young people experience difficulties in accessing mainstream mental health services particularly because of the stigma that remains associated with mental health problems. One potential solution is to use the many websites available offering information and support for mental health problems, such support and information could be offered by Psychiatric Nurses. However, young peoples' usage and views on using the Internet for this purpose has yet to be examined. This quantitative descriptive study aimed to elicit the views of 922 University students, aged between 18 and 24 years, on using the Internet for mental health information and support. Data were collected using a 30-item self-designed questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings indicated that 72.4% of participants used the Internet several times a day. In addition, 30.8% had previously searched for mental health information online, predominantly on depression. While it was found that 68% of participants indicated that they would use the Internet for mental health support if they needed to, 79.4% would still prefer face to face support. It is concluded that young people are willing to use the Internet for mental health information and that it represents a viable source of support for this age group.
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“some young people’s preference for face-to-face services [73,74]”
From Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review (2014) · cites this paper as [74]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Research on delivery mode preference among university students is limited and shows varying results: US students preferred IMIs over in-person services (24), whereas Irish students preferred in-person services (79%) over websites for mental health (25).”
From Mental health services for German university students: acceptance of intervention targets and preference for delivery modes (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
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In the citing paper
“Horgan and Sweeney [15] found that 30.8% of their participants, who were college students, had used the internet for information related to mental health, conducting searches mainly on depression.”
From A Cross-Cultural Comparison of an Extended Planned Risk Information Seeking Model on Mental Health Among College Students: Cross-Sectional Study (2020) · cites this paper as Horgan and Sweeney [15]
In the citing paper
“A small proportion of participants (4.7%) said that they used online mental health services because they believed it would be a good place to get initial information about mental health [74].”
From Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review (2014) · cites this paper as [74]
In the citing paper
“allowed personal stories to be shared with others [55,73-76]”
From Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review (2014) · cites this paper as [74]
In the citing paper
“young people suggested that these services were accessible and available [51,53,55,71,74]”
From Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review (2014) · cites this paper as [74]
In the citing paper
“anonymous [51,71,74,75]”
From Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review (2014) · cites this paper as [74]
In the citing paper
“non-validated and possibly biased measures [56,64,74,77]”
From Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review (2014) · cites this paper as [74]
In the citing paper
“Another interesting finding was that online services appeared to increase mental health literacy [53,74-77,79], although two studies found no change in mental health literacy [68,78].”
From Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review (2014) · cites this paper as [74]
In the citing paper
“the lack of trust of websites [74]”
From Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review (2014) · cites this paper as [74]
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Citations
Cites
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Internet information-seeking in mental health: Population survey
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“In the UK, a study by Powell & Clarke (2006) reported that 24% of their total sample identified the internet as one of the top three sources of information on mental health.”
Influential
Research works printed but not linked: 6
- Andrews, 1999, The Mental Health of Australians
- Central Statistics Office, 2008, Information Society Statistics. First Results 2008
- Donald, 2000, The Queensland Young Peoples' Mental Health Survey Report
- Health Service Executive, 2007, Insight 07. Health and Social Services in Ireland - A Survey of Consumer Satisfaction
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Hoare, E., Milton, K., Foster, C., & Allender, S. (2016) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0432-4 · Cited by 616
“Similarly, it has been suggested that the Internet may offer increased access to health information, including mental health support [72, 73], and this relationship requires further investigation.”
BackgroundYoung People’s Online Help-Seeking and Mental Health Difficulties: Systematic Narrative Review
Pretorius, C., Chambers, D., & Coyle, D. (2019) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/13873 · Cited by 506
“The studies identified by this review indicated that many young people were going online to look for a space where they could share their feelings without fear of judgement or labelling but at the same time, it was important that these spaces protected their privacy [30,33,43].”
InfluentialE-Mental Health: A Rapid Review of the Literature
Lal, S., & Adair, C. E. (2014) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.201300009 · Cited by 417
Do online mental health services improve help-seeking for young people? A systematic review
Kauer, S. D., Mangan, C., & Sanci, L. (2014) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.3103 · Cited by 339
“Study Characteristics Eighteen publications met the inclusion criteria including two qualitative [51,55], 12 cross-sectional [53,56,60,63,64,71-77], one quasi-experimental [68], and three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) [52,78,79].”
BackgroundInfluentialTang, S., Werner-Seidler, A., Torok, M., Mackinnon, A. J., & Christensen, H. (2021) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102021 · Cited by 284
Metadata
- Authors
- HORGAN, Á., & SWEENEY, J.
- Affiliations
- University College Cork (IE)
- Venue
- Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 117-123
- ISSN
- 1351-0126 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2850
- OpenAlex
- W1993563855
- Cited by
- 303
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 10.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Arrow@dit (Dublin Institute of Technology) (acceptedVersion)
- Cork Open Research Archive (University College Cork, Ireland) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- youth, mental health information, online health information, mental health support, university students, internet use, mental health stigma, access to mental health care, online intervention, psychiatric nurses, depression
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Mental Disorders, Communication, Depressive Disorder, Female, Health Education, Humans, Ireland, Male, Motivation, Psychiatric Nursing, Surveys and Questionnaires, Self Care, Social Support, Software, Students, Internet, Nurse's Role, Young Adult
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