McCann, Tanya J. (2021) A Student’s Perspective: Exploring the Barriers to University Students’ Engagement in Extra-curricular Online Self-Help Programs. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
An estimated 339,000 young Australians aged 18–24 reported high levels of psychological distress in 2017–18 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). University students are a highrisk demographic for mental health issues, yet few seek professional care when they do. The literature has identified significant barriers to university students obtaining treatment for mental health issues, such as a lack of interpersonal intelligence, pessimistic attitudes toward seeking help, and stigma. Internet-based psychological interventions can effectively assist students suffering from mental health and psychological wellbeing issues and have several advantages over face-to-face interventions. This study used a Nominal Group Technique (NGT) to explore what current first-year university students believed were the main barriers to completing an internet-based extra-curricular self-help program focused on enhancing their psychological wellbeing. Ten first-year psychology students (nine females and one male) participated in the qualitative study. Participants created a list of 37 barriers, then ranked their top seven most important, and rated those seven on a scale from 1 (important) to 10 (extremely important). Most participants identified that the most critical barrier was general mental health, mental functioning, and personality factors, with a mean importance rating of 8.17 out of 10. Privacy concerns, time to complete the program, lack of perceived need, program effectiveness, and the definition of ‘self-help’ was ranked 2nd to 7th, respectively, for the number of votes each received. These findings are interpreted, their implications are discussed, and study limitations and recommendations for future research.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Nancey Hoare |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 31 Jul 2025 00:07 |
| Last Modified: | 31 Jul 2025 00:07 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | student mental health ; help-seeking ; online self-help ; barriers ; Nominal Group Technique |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52549 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
