What are young adults saying about mental health? An analysis of Internet blogs

Despite the high prevalence of mental health concerns, few young adults access treatment. While much research has focused on understanding the barriers to service access, few studies have explored unbiased accounts of the experiences of young adults with mental health concerns. It is through hearing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of medical Internet research Vol. 14; no. 1; p. e17
Main Authors:	Marcus, Madalyn A, Westra, Henny A, Eastwood, John D, Barnes, Kirsten L
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Canada Gunther Eysenbach MD MPH, Associate Professor 30-01-2012 Gunther Eysenbach JMIR Publications
Subjects:	Access Accounts Adolescent Adult Age Alienation Analysis Anxiety Attitudes Bias Bipolar disorder Blogging Blogs Emotional disorders Female Grounded theory Health behavior Health care access Health literacy Health problems Health Services Accessibility Humans Internet Keywords Loneliness Male Mental depression Mental disorders Mental Health Mental health care Mental Health Services Mood disorders Original Paper Patient Acceptance of Health Care Perception Powerlessness Psychiatry Qualitative research Receptivity Research methodology Search engines Understanding Young Adult Young adults Young people United Kingdom > UK England United States > US
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Summary:	Despite the high prevalence of mental health concerns, few young adults access treatment. While much research has focused on understanding the barriers to service access, few studies have explored unbiased accounts of the experiences of young adults with mental health concerns. It is through hearing these experiences and gaining an in-depth understanding of what is being said by young adults that improvements can be made to interventions focused on increasing access to care. To move beyond past research by using an innovative qualitative research method of analyzing the blogs of young adults (18-25 years of age) with mental health concerns to understand their experiences. We used an enhanced Internet search vehicle, DEVONagent, to extract Internet blogs using primary keywords related to mental health. Blogs (N = 8) were selected based on age of authors (18-25 years), gender, relevance to mental health, and recency of the entries. Blogs excerpts were analyzed using a combination of grounded theory and consensual qualitative research methods. Two core categories emerged from the qualitative analysis of the bloggers accounts: I am powerless (intrapersonal) and I am utterly alone (interpersonal). Overall, the young adult bloggers expressed significant feelings of powerlessness as a result of their mental health concerns and simultaneously felt a profound sense of loneliness, alienation, and lack of connection with others. The present study suggests that one reason young adults do not seek care might be that they view the mental health system negatively and feel disconnected from these services. To decrease young adults' sense of powerlessness and isolation, efforts should focus on creating and developing resources and services that allow young adults to feel connected and empowered. Through an understanding of the experiences of young adults with mental health problems, and their experiences of and attitudes toward receiving care, we provide some recommendations for improving receptivity and knowledge of mental health care services.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1438-8871 1439-4456 1438-8871
DOI:	10.2196/jmir.1868