Higuera-Lozano Irati, Uusimäki Virvatuli, Pitkänen Tuuli, Denayer Elke, Dewaele Alexis, Felvinczi Katalin, Goossens Lien, Kaló Zsuzsa, Rényi Mónika, Cabello María
Department of Psychiatry, Autonomous University of Madrid, Arzobispo morcillo, 4, Madrid, 28029, Spain, 34 914975988.
Fundación de Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario La Princesa (IIS-Princesa), Madrid, Spain.
JMIR Ment Health. 2025 Aug 20;12:e67949. doi: 10.2196/67949.
Online counseling chat services are increasingly used by young people worldwide. A growing body of literature supports the use and effectiveness of these services for adolescent mental health. However, there is also a need to provide an overview of the main existing resources to identify unmet needs and gaps in the field.
This study aims to provide an overview of existing online counseling chat services targeting individuals aged 12-30 years in 4 European countries (Belgium, Finland, Hungary, and Spain), and to identify potential needs and gaps by comparing the collected data with recognized quality standard criteria that define the best practices in the field of counseling.
A web search was conducted in the 4 participating countries using the same keywords to identify the main chat services. The final selection of chat services was made using a stratified purposive sampling method. A common data extraction database was developed to record information from these websites. Finally, the extracted information was compared against the fulfillment of 7 selected criteria from the Child Helpline International Quality Standards Framework. Additionally, certain chat characteristics were compared with the number of Child Helpline Quality Standard criteria fulfilled.
The search identified a total of 66 service providers offering 71 different chat services. Nongovernmental organizations accounted for more than half of the total service providers42 of 66 (64%). Additional helplines, such as hotlines, were also available through 54 of 66 (82%) service providers. Artificial intelligence tools were incorporated into 6 of 66 (9%) chat services. Differences were observed between countries; for example, the use of volunteers as counselors was predominant in Hungary and Belgium. Topic-specific chat services were common in Belgium and Spain, whereas in Finland and Hungary, chat services generally welcomed a wide range of topics for young people to discuss. Comparisons with Child Helpline International's recommendations revealed some gaps-for example, only 9 of 71 (13%) chat services operated 24 hours a day, and only 10 of 71 (14%) offered interactions in minority groups or foreign languages. Additionally, the use of free social media platforms for chat services was prevalent in some countries, which could compromise users' privacy. Being part of the Child Helpline International consortium was marginally associated with meeting a higher number of standard criteria (β coefficient 1.55; P=.08).
This study provides a comprehensive overview of existing online chat counseling services in 4 European countries. Our findings suggest that some existing chat services for young people could be improved in areas such as accessibility, data security, and the inclusion of vulnerable groups.
在线咨询聊天服务在全球范围内越来越受到年轻人的青睐。越来越多的文献支持这些服务对青少年心理健康的作用及有效性。然而，仍有必要概述现有的主要资源，以确定该领域未满足的需求和差距。
本研究旨在概述针对4个欧洲国家（比利时、芬兰、匈牙利和西班牙）12至30岁人群的现有在线咨询聊天服务，并通过将收集到的数据与定义咨询领域最佳实践的公认质量标准进行比较，识别潜在需求和差距。
在4个参与国进行网络搜索，使用相同关键词识别主要聊天服务。采用分层目的抽样方法对聊天服务进行最终筛选。开发了一个通用的数据提取数据库来记录这些网站的信息。最后，将提取的信息与儿童热线国际质量标准框架中选定的7项标准的满足情况进行比较。此外，还将某些聊天特征与满足儿童热线质量标准的数量进行了比较。
搜索共识别出66个服务提供商，提供71种不同的聊天服务。非政府组织占服务提供商总数的一半以上，66个中有42个（64%）。另外，66个服务提供商中有54个（82%）还提供其他求助热线，如热线电话。66个聊天服务中有6个（9%）采用了人工智能工具。各国之间存在差异；例如，匈牙利和比利时以志愿者作为咨询师为主。特定主题的聊天服务在比利时和西班牙很常见，而在芬兰和匈牙利，聊天服务通常欢迎年轻人讨论广泛的话题。与儿童热线国际的建议相比，发现了一些差距，例如，71个聊天服务中只有9个（13%）每天24小时运营，71个中只有10个（14%）提供少数群体或外语交流。此外，在一些国家，使用免费社交媒体平台进行聊天服务很普遍，这可能会损害用户隐私。成为儿童热线国际联盟的成员与满足更多标准之间存在微弱关联（β系数1.55；P = 0.08）。
本研究全面概述了4个欧洲国家现有的在线聊天咨询服务。我们的研究结果表明，一些现有的针对年轻人的聊天服务在可及性、数据安全和弱势群体纳入等方面可以改进。
