SMS counselling at a child helpline: counsellor strategies, children’s stressors and well-being

ABSTRACT

Providing helpline services to children via texting (i.e. Short Message Service or SMS) is being used increasingly. However, little is known about the quality of SMS counselling and its effect on the service users. Through a quantitative content analysis of 448 SMS sessions at the Danish child helpline, we studied counsellor behaviour and session impact. We found higher levels of children’s well-being and empowerment after contacting the service. Multiple regression models showed that a positive impact of counselling was related to higher density of child-centred counsellor behaviour and moderate levels of problem-centred counsellor behaviour. These findings were consistent across most stressors with positive effects in the small-to-medium range. SMS counselling shows potential as a tool for counselling children and youth.

KEYWORDS:

• Child helpline
• SMS counselling
• mediated communication
• texting
• content analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Børns Vilkår, Trygfonden, Innovation Fund Denmark, the children and counsellors at the Danish child helpline, Charlotte Smerup, Winnie Lærkelund Hansen, Anna Cappelen, Anne Fensløv Larsen, Jasmin Wistoft and Torben Bechmann-Jensen for helping with and supporting this research.

Disclosure statement

The research is externally funded and part of a PhD project. The first author is formally employed at the Danish child helpline.

Notes on contributors

Trine Natasja Sindahl is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and an employee of the Danish child helpline (Børns Vilkår). She has worked, supervised and conducted research and development projects within the area of mediated counselling since 1995.

Ruben G. Fukkink is a professor at the University of Amsterdam and at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. He has published in peer-reviewed journals on the effects of child helplines, peer counselling and online parental support.

Rasmus Helles is associate professor in the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His research is within the field of digital media and communication, media sociology, media policy and regulation, and empirical methodologies and theory of science.

ORCID

Trine Natasja Sindahl http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5008-6581

Ruben G. Fukkink http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6212-9553

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by TrygFonden and Innovation Fund Denmark [grant number 4135-00101B].