TY - JOUR
T1 - An online intervention for vulnerable young adults
T2 - identifying mechanisms of change using a grounded theory approach
AU - Reupert, Andrea E.
AU - Maybery, Darryl
AU - Bartholomew, Catherine
AU - Cuff, Rose
AU - Matar, Jodie
AU - Pettenuzzo, Laura
AU - Foster, Kim
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Crown.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this study is to qualitatively identify the mechanisms of change as young adults, whose parents have a mental illness and/or substance use issue, navigate their way through a 6-week, moderated online intervention. Methods: Using a qualitative, grounded theory approach, data were collected and triangulated for analysis from participants before, during, and after engaging in the intervention. First, 31 young people’s motivations for enrolling in the intervention were identified from one open ended question on an online survey. Second, online chat sessions were analysed to identify those topics the 31 participants engaged in throughout the intervention. Finally, 19 interviews were conducted 2 weeks post-intervention, to ascertain participants’ perceptions of the impacts of the intervention and how the intervention promoted changes. Results: The main storyline was that of participants “making sense” of their parents, themselves and other relationships, in collaboration with peers, in a safe online space. This storyline of “making sense” drove their motivation to join the intervention and was the focus of the online chats. After the intervention, some were closer to having “made sense” of their families while others struggled differentiating themselves away from their families. An anonymous, professionally moderated online site afforded participants opportunities to think about who they were and for some, who they wanted to be. Conclusion: Generating an explanatory theory of how vulnerable young people navigate their way through an online intervention provides important information that can be used to inform future services, interventions, and research.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this study is to qualitatively identify the mechanisms of change as young adults, whose parents have a mental illness and/or substance use issue, navigate their way through a 6-week, moderated online intervention. Methods: Using a qualitative, grounded theory approach, data were collected and triangulated for analysis from participants before, during, and after engaging in the intervention. First, 31 young people’s motivations for enrolling in the intervention were identified from one open ended question on an online survey. Second, online chat sessions were analysed to identify those topics the 31 participants engaged in throughout the intervention. Finally, 19 interviews were conducted 2 weeks post-intervention, to ascertain participants’ perceptions of the impacts of the intervention and how the intervention promoted changes. Results: The main storyline was that of participants “making sense” of their parents, themselves and other relationships, in collaboration with peers, in a safe online space. This storyline of “making sense” drove their motivation to join the intervention and was the focus of the online chats. After the intervention, some were closer to having “made sense” of their families while others struggled differentiating themselves away from their families. An anonymous, professionally moderated online site afforded participants opportunities to think about who they were and for some, who they wanted to be. Conclusion: Generating an explanatory theory of how vulnerable young people navigate their way through an online intervention provides important information that can be used to inform future services, interventions, and research.
KW - Mental illness
KW - Online intervention
KW - Parents
KW - Substance use problem
KW - Young adults
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104293550&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00127-021-02082-0
DO - 10.1007/s00127-021-02082-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 33864095
AN - SCOPUS:85104293550
SN - 0933-7954
VL - 57
SP - 293
EP - 303
JO - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
JF - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
ER -