R u there? : the user experience of Mobile Instant Messenger couselling

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorTredoux, Colinen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorGroll, Nicholas Jayen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-06-30T08:01:36Z
dc.date.available2015-06-30T08:01:36Z
dc.date.issued2014en_ZA
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractMental health care provision has always lagged behind general health services, especially in rural, poor countries. With the widespread adoption of mobile phones, many South Africans now have easy access to health-related information and services, including counselling via Mobile-Instant-Messenger (MIM). This research hopes to address the paucity of literature n MIM-based counselling. Using an adaptive, Mobile-based questionnaire, I collected quantitative and qualitative data about the service users (n= 568) of a popular MIM-counselling servicecalled ‘DAS/Angel’, offered free of charge, via MXit -a popular Mobile-Instant-Messenger program.The service user group was found to be predominantly young (Mage= 20.17, sd = 4.97), largely unemployed (44.19%), Black African (72.98%)with a gender split (53.79% female, 46.21% male) similar to population gender demography, χ2 (1, N = 567) = .43, p = .51. Despite the MIM-counselling being offered in English, service users’ first languages varied widely, across all 11 official South African languages. Qualitative data about the experience of using MIM-counselling was analysed using thematic analysis with two coders, with a significant level of agreement (κ> .80) across all 4 categorical datasets.The MIM-counselling experience was described positively as safe and accessible, which encouraged openness, and negatively in terms of practical concerns related to service access times, and specific shortfalls related to the quality of counselling provision. Reasons for non-use of MIM-counselling (n= 2285) were explored, as were experiences of using telephone counselling and face-to-face counselling. The findings are discussed in terms of concerns from the literature such as the lack of face-to-face contact and ethical issues of the medium. The ability of the medium to overcome access barriers to mental health care is considered in terms of the potential role of MIM-counselling.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationGroll, N. J. (2014). <i>R u there? : the user experience of Mobile Instant Messenger couselling</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13184en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationGroll, Nicholas Jay. <i>"R u there? : the user experience of Mobile Instant Messenger couselling."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13184en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationGroll, N. 2014. R u there? : the user experience of Mobile Instant Messenger couselling. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Groll, Nicholas Jay AB - Mental health care provision has always lagged behind general health services, especially in rural, poor countries. With the widespread adoption of mobile phones, many South Africans now have easy access to health-related information and services, including counselling via Mobile-Instant-Messenger (MIM). This research hopes to address the paucity of literature n MIM-based counselling. Using an adaptive, Mobile-based questionnaire, I collected quantitative and qualitative data about the service users (n= 568) of a popular MIM-counselling servicecalled ‘DAS/Angel’, offered free of charge, via MXit -a popular Mobile-Instant-Messenger program.The service user group was found to be predominantly young (Mage= 20.17, sd = 4.97), largely unemployed (44.19%), Black African (72.98%)with a gender split (53.79% female, 46.21% male) similar to population gender demography, &#967;2 (1, N = 567) = .43, p = .51. Despite the MIM-counselling being offered in English, service users’ first languages varied widely, across all 11 official South African languages. Qualitative data about the experience of using MIM-counselling was analysed using thematic analysis with two coders, with a significant level of agreement (&#954;> .80) across all 4 categorical datasets.The MIM-counselling experience was described positively as safe and accessible, which encouraged openness, and negatively in terms of practical concerns related to service access times, and specific shortfalls related to the quality of counselling provision. Reasons for non-use of MIM-counselling (n= 2285) were explored, as were experiences of using telephone counselling and face-to-face counselling. The findings are discussed in terms of concerns from the literature such as the lack of face-to-face contact and ethical issues of the medium. The ability of the medium to overcome access barriers to mental health care is considered in terms of the potential role of MIM-counselling. DA - 2014 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2014 T1 - R u there? : the user experience of Mobile Instant Messenger couselling TI - R u there? : the user experience of Mobile Instant Messenger couselling UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13184 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/13184
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationGroll NJ. R u there? : the user experience of Mobile Instant Messenger couselling. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology, 2014 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13184en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Psychologyen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherClinical Psychologyen_ZA
dc.titleR u there? : the user experience of Mobile Instant Messenger cousellingen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMAen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
thesis_hum_2014_groll_n.pdf
Size:
2.48 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Masters