TY - JOUR
T1 - Peer Facilitators as Core Co-developers of an Online Peer Encouragement Network (OPEN2chat) for Austrian Adolescents
AU - Mittmann, Gloria
AU - Schmalwieser, Susanne Sophie
AU - Diendorfer, Tamara
AU - Schrank, Beate
AU - Boeckle, Markus
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Ludwig Boltzmann Society and the Karl-Landsteiner University of Health Sciences.
Funding Information:
We acknowledge support from the Open Access Publishing Fund of Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems, Austria. We kindly thank Andrea Jesser and Christina Frank for supporting us during the collection of the empirical data, Anna-Lena Mädge for helping to transcribe the audio files, Stefan Kühne and Christina Frank for the valuable feedback on the manuscript. We want to appreciate the contribution of NÖ Landesgesundheitsagentur, a legal entity of University Hospitals in Lower Austria, for providing the organizational framework to conduct this research.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Mittmann, Schmalwieser, Diendorfer, Schrank and Boeckle.
PY - 2022/6/16
Y1 - 2022/6/16
N2 - Adolescence is a crucial developmental time, and it is essential to ensure stable mental health during the transition to adulthood. Peer-to-peer networks seem to be a promising tool to support adolescents during that time. While co-development often concentrates on the end-user, this paper focuses on the peer facilitators of an online peer encouragement network (OPEN2chat), where adolescents can chat with peer facilitators about their problems. We conducted 3 group discussions with 18 peer facilitators after a testing phase to improve the process of these interactions. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data after transcription. The four main themes were the responsibility of the peer facilitators toward their peers, especially their role of giving advice; the interaction process itself; time management; and technology aspects of the application. Including these stakeholders in the development process empowered the young people, helped eliminate problems with the application, and made the researchers more sensitive toward potential issues and emotions that peer facilitators encounter that may have been missed without a co-development process. Eliminating these problems might also help establish a better environment and support system for the actual end-users.
AB - Adolescence is a crucial developmental time, and it is essential to ensure stable mental health during the transition to adulthood. Peer-to-peer networks seem to be a promising tool to support adolescents during that time. While co-development often concentrates on the end-user, this paper focuses on the peer facilitators of an online peer encouragement network (OPEN2chat), where adolescents can chat with peer facilitators about their problems. We conducted 3 group discussions with 18 peer facilitators after a testing phase to improve the process of these interactions. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data after transcription. The four main themes were the responsibility of the peer facilitators toward their peers, especially their role of giving advice; the interaction process itself; time management; and technology aspects of the application. Including these stakeholders in the development process empowered the young people, helped eliminate problems with the application, and made the researchers more sensitive toward potential issues and emotions that peer facilitators encounter that may have been missed without a co-development process. Eliminating these problems might also help establish a better environment and support system for the actual end-users.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133547623&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fdgth.2022.833006
DO - 10.3389/fdgth.2022.833006
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35783598
SN - 2673-253X
VL - 4
SP - 833006
JO - Frontiers in digital health
JF - Frontiers in digital health
M1 - 833006
ER -