April 7-9, 2022 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Abstract: College Students’ Experiences Using and Seeking Digital Mental Health Services during COVID-19
Significance: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many have turned to the use of eHealth platforms in order to receive mental health treatment that either arose or substantially deteriorated due to the social isolation associated with the pandemic. While 75% of mental health conditions are indicated between the ages of 12 and 25, younger demographics are unlikely to reach out for help to restore their mental health (Nobiling & Maykrantz, 2017; Alvarez-Jimenez et al., 2020). The goal of this study was to explore this relationship and examine how college students have (or not) sought out digital mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used theoretical constructs of Health Belief Model (HBM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to guide our investigation. Method: The current study recruited participants from undergraduate communication courses at a large university in the southern United States in order to reach the target demographic of young adults (N=224; mean age=19.71). Participants were surveyed on their attitudes, behavioral control, and perceived social norms surrounding the behaviors of seeking out and getting digital mental health treatment or support. Additionally, participants also reported their perceived severity, susceptibility, barriers, benefits, cues to action, attitude, subjective norms, and self-efficacy surrounding both developing a mental health illness and getting treatment. Results: In line with postulates of TPB and HBM, several constructs were correlated with individuals’ self-efficacy, or perceived ability to seek out digital mental health services, including perceived severity (p<.05), perceived barriers (p<.001), subjective norms (p<.001), perceived susceptibility (p<.001), cues to action (p<.001), attitudes (p<.05), and perceived behavioral control (p<.001). Additionally, One-way ANOVAs we run to assess impact of several variables on the theoretical constructs including race, gender, and political affiliation. Results indicate that there are statistically significant differences between groups for gender and self-efficacy, perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control. Statistically significant differences between groups were also present amongst political affiliation and perceived barriers, susceptibility, cues to action, attitudes and perceived behavioral control. Conclusion: We believe that this study is a step in the right direction to bridge the gap between digital mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate that while many college-aged individuals are receptive to engaging in digital mental health services, there are still many barriers preventing them from utilizing these services such as cost, time, and the perceived norms surrounding mental health services.The theoretical constructs of HBM resulted in insignificance while TPB resulted significant. Future research needs to focus on encouraging students to implement digital mental health services if they are struggling while researchers test other health communication theories to find the best fit. Additionally, researchers should further explore the effects of gender and race on the constructs impacting use of digital mental health services.