Young people’s trust in cocreated web-based resources to promote mental health literacy: focus group study

Ito-Jaeger, Sachiyo, Vallejos, Elvira Perez, Logathasan, Saruka, Curran, Thomas ORCID: 0000-0003-2443-5079 and Crawford, Paul (2023) Young people’s trust in cocreated web-based resources to promote mental health literacy: focus group study. JMIR Mental Health, 10. ISSN 2368-7959

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Abstract

Background: There is a pressing need to create resources to promote mental health literacy among young people. Digital media is one of the methods that can be used to successfully promote mental health literacy. Although digital mental health resources are generally favorably perceived by young people, one of the essential factors in whether they choose to use these interventions is trust. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore young people’s trust-related concerns about and recommendations for the cocreated mental health website “What’s Up With Everyone” by using TrustScapes. Our aim was to use the findings to improve the trustworthiness of the website and to inform future creators of web-based mental health resources. Methods: In total, 30 young people (mean age 19, SD 1.509; range 17-21 years) participated in TrustScapes focus groups. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze both the TrustScapes worksheets and audio transcripts. Results: Qualitative analysis revealed that the mental health website contains elements perceived to be both trustworthy and untrustworthy by young people. The relatable and high-quality design, which was achieved by cocreating the website with a team of design professionals and young people, was considered to increase trust. Creators’ credibility also positively affected trust, but the logos and other information about the creators were recommended to be more salient for users. Suggestions were made to update the privacy policy and cookie settings and include communication functions on the platform to improve the trustworthiness of the website. Conclusions: Factors perceived to be trustworthy included the website's relatable, high-quality design and creators’ credibility, whereas those perceived to be untrustworthy included the privacy policy and cookie settings. The findings highlighted the significance of collaborating with end users and industrial partners and the importance of making the trust-enabling factors salient for users. We hope that these findings will inform future creators of web-based mental health resources to make these resources as trustworthy and effective as possible.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Author.
Divisions:	Psychological and Behavioural Science
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications H Social Sciences
Date Deposited:	24 Mar 2023 15:36
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2024 20:06
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/118510

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