By Dr Louisa Salhi, head of research, Kooth
Online peer support networks, like Kooth’s, empower young people to connect with each other, share their experiences, offer emotional support, and cultivate a sense of community and belonging (Prescott et al., 2017). Which is why Kooth involves young people in the design and features of its online platform.
Benefits of online peer support
Kooth users engage in peer-to-peer support anonymously in a safe and moderated online environment, allowing for open and honest communication. Online peer forums provide a supportive environment for young people to share and receive emotional and informational support (Horgan et al., 2013).
These online communities help young people feel less alone and normalise their experiences, which can lead to reduced stigma surrounding mental health (Prescott et al., 2017).
Kooth’s peer support promotes mental wellbeing through user connections, a feature often absent in conventional mental healthcare services. Engagement in online peer communities may reduce self-harming behaviour and provide social connections that young people previously sometimes lacked (Smith-Merry et al., 2019). This has also been found in an evaluation by LSE among Kooth service users.
Safe, anonymous peer community
For young people, it’s crucial to have trust in their online peers before they can offer or receive support (Gibson & Trnka, 2020). Through careful moderation, Kooth ensures young people can share their experiences in a safe and trusted community without fear of bullying or judgement.
Before being published, a trained moderator carefully reviews every post on Kooth’s peer forum, following strict community guidelines, protecting service users from exposure to inappropriate content or misinformation. The anonymity of users guarantees the safety and privacy of their personal information. By not allowing users to message each other directly, Kooth prevents any inappropriate relationships.
Delivering what young people value
Banwell and colleagues (2022) reports a majority of Kooth service users (74.6%)—8,240 of 11,045 users—find peer-community posts helpful.
When asked about the peer community features, young people said it was important for them to find articles that are informative to them (93%), join a forum or discussion board on a topic that interests them (90%), write articles about their experiences or emotions (85%), and ask the peer community for support (95%).