Universal online interventions might engage psychologically distressed university students who are unlikely to seek formal help

TLDR

University students are at high risk for mental health problems but rarely seek professional help. The study investigates whether online interventions can promote wellbeing among university students. The authors surveyed.

Abstract

AbstractUniversity students are a high risk population for mental health problems, yet few seek professional help when experiencing problems. This study explored the potential role of an online intervention for promoting wellbeing in university students, by investigating students' help-seeking behaviour, intention to use online interventions and student content preference for such interventionss; 254 university students responded to an online survey designed for this study. As predicted, students were less likely to seek help as levels of psychological distress increased. Conversely, intention to use an online intervention increased at higher levels of distress, with 39.1%, 49.4% and 57.7% of low, moderate and severely distressed students respectively indicating they would use an online program supporting student well-being. Results suggest that online interventions may be a useful way to provide help to students in need who otherwise may not seek formal help.Keywords: Internetearly interventionuniversity studentpsychological distresshelp-seeking