Abstract
Introduction: Online counselling represents a new medium for finding health information. The aim of the research is to determine the importance of analysis of adolescents' issues in order to understand their problems, needs and desires. Methods: In 2012 the system for the classification of questions by the type of problem was introduced. In relation to the contents the questions were first sorted to the parent category then followed by the categorization according to the subject matter. The calculation comprised the portions, averages and quartiles, and in some cases even Cramer's V coefficients. The analysis covered the entire defined population (3,257 coded questions). Results: Most of the users are girls (76 %), the most representative group encompasses adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years (57 %). Most questions were grouped into the categories Sexuality and sexual health (24 %), Relationships (23 %) and Body (20 %). The length of posts increases with the age of the user (Cr's V = 0.18), but differs by the gender (a higher proportion of longer questions (Cr's V = 0.15) were posted by girls) and the themes (Cr's V = 0.31). Discussion and conclusion: The categorizing of questions is suitable for the identification and analysis of adolescents' problems, needs and desires. Regular categorisation of questions with analysis will serve as a useful research tool for youth work.
Highlights
Online counselling represents a new medium for finding health information
The findings of similar recent research projects in Slovenia show that the use of Internet does not supplant the direct communication of young people in real environments, while the use of Internet social networks offers psychologically less stable young people more secure environment (Rapuš Pavel, 2012)
The coding - analysis by problem typology - included
Summary
Online counselling represents a new medium for finding health information. The aim of the research is to determine the importance of analysis of adolescents' issues in order to understand their problems, needs and desires. Results: Most of the users are girls (76 %), the most representative group encompasses adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years (57 %). More recent studies of adolescent health information sources have included the internet and the results show that the use of this medium by adolescents is increasing rapidly (Borzekowski & Vaughn, 2001b; Hansen, et al, 2003; Skinner, et al, 2003; Gray, et al, 2005; Ybarra & Suman, 2006; Mishna, et al, 2008). The Internet can serve as an important tool in acquiring health information for several reasons: first, adolescents can access this medium; second, the Internet offers adolescents a confidential and less threatening way to get information that might otherwise be difficult or compromising to obtain; third, the interactive nature of the Internet can provide adolescents 'personalized' information (Borzekowski & Vaughn, 2001a, pp. 813-814)
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