Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health
Date Submitted: Mar 30, 2022
Date Accepted: Oct 26, 2022
Young people’s trust in co-created online resources to promote mental health literacy: Qualitative study
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 which can successfully promote mental health literacy. While digital mental health resources are generally favourably perceived by young people, one of the essential factors in whether they choose to use these interventions is trust.
Objective:
The objective of the present study was to explore young people’s trust-related concerns about and recommendations for the co-created mental health website by using TrustScapes. Our aim is to use the findings to improve the trustworthiness of the website and to inform future creators of online mental health resources.
Methods:
Thirty young people (M = 19.00, SD = 1.509, range = 17-21) participated in TrustScapes focus groups. Thematic analysis was applied to analyse both the TrustScapes worksheets and audio transcripts.
Results:
The 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 co-creating the website with a team of design professionals and young people, were 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 relatable, high-quality design and creators’ credibility whilst 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 as well as the importance of making the trust enabling factors salient for users. We hope that such findings will inform future creators of online mental health resources to make them as trustworthy and effective as possible.
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