Transcript Peggy McFall - Department of Psychology

How helpful are self-help Web
resources?
The use of on-line self-help Web sites is an important addition for the
treatment of many disorders. Because of the increasing number of
these sites we wanted to know if the sites are being used as
effectively as possible. We asked which kind of resource is the most
helpful and if this helpfulness changes for different disorders. We
found that there is a significant effect between Web site resources
but no effect between disorders.
Why do the research?
•Research has shown that self-help groups are effective.
•The benefit of self-help Web resources is that they are always
available when people need them most.
•There is also a proliferation of self-help Web resources becoming
available on the Web.
•While there are several benefits to on-line support, there are also
some risks
•People might not seek professional help when
necessary because of on-line support
•People may receive misleading information
•The risk of identity theft and other security issues.
•Research is required to assess if self-help Web resources are
beneficial and if they are being used to their full potential.
What are the research
questions?
• Are some self-help resources more helpful than others?
• Are some self-help resources more helpful for some disorders than
others?
How are we going to find the
answers?
•Undergraduate psychology students (N=120) fulfilling course
requirements took part in this study.
•Three scenarios (Figure 1) and a 25 item online questionnaire was
developed. The questionnaire asked about different self-help Web
resources in regard to the scenario such as:
•How helpful do you think an on-line self-help bulletin board
would be?
•Do you think your person would use an on-line self-help
bulletin board?
•One of the three scenarios was randomly assigned to each
participant, the scenario was read and participants completed the
questionnaire.
Factual
Psychologist
via video
Listing of
local
resources
conferencing
Psychologist
via
Chat room
Online
Self-help
Self
diagnostic
quiz
Web resource would be for
someone in the scenario?
Would the person in the
scenario use this
resource?
A significant difference between
the eight different types of Web
resources was found
A significant difference between
the eight different types of Web
resources was found
Highest rated resources
Listing of local
resources
Psychologist via
chat room
Psychologist
via email or
bulletin board
Instant
messaging/
chat
Bulletin/
message
board
Mark (Depression), Jamie (Eating
Disorder),
Marcia (Alcohol Dependency)
Figure 1: Jamie scenario
Jamie is obsessed with her weight and her parents are becoming
increasingly more concerned about her eating behaviour. She has
been dieting for the past two years, after being chided by her family
and friends for being “pudgy”. She sets weight goals and as she
reaches them, she sets new ones. When Jamie is asked about her
food intake she often lists foods that she has flushed down the toilet.
Jamie says that there were occasions over the past few years when
she has been fairly “down” but she still feels driven to diet. She is 5'2”
tall and weights 88 lbs. She estimates she is eating around 500
calories per day.
What did we find?
• no significant differences was found between the three
disorders for any of our questions
Highest rated resources
3.83 (1.04)
Instant messaging or
chat room
3.24 (1.10)
3.82 (1.14)
Psychologist via
chat room
2.89 (1.08)
Self diagnostic quiz
2.99 (1.20)
Psychologist via email
3.78 (1.01)
or bulletin board
Particpant awareness and use of self-help groups
50
Percentage of participants
Abstract
G. Peggy McFall, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta
How helpful do you think this
45
40
What type of
self-help
groups w ere
you aw are
of?
What type of
self-help
group w ould
you turn to?
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
None
Face-to-face
On-line
Both
Type of self-help group
What does this mean?
• There was a significant effect between the eight types of self-help
Web resources
• One surprising result was that bulletin boards were rated the lowest
•It seems when looking at self-help Web sites that bulletin boards
are used most frequently. The question is: Do lay persons think
bulletin boards would not be effective, while persons using self-help
Web sites find them helpful. OR Are self-help Web sites making
bulletin boards more readily available so that people are forced to
use them to get on-line support.
Acknowledgements
•Connie Varnhagen for her continual encouragement and guidance
•The Instructional Technology Lab for all of their input and practical help