Development and Evaluation of a Context-Focused Mobile Web Learning Application to Enhance Knowledge and Mental Health Literacy among Hill Tribe Junior High School Students in Northern Thailand
Keywords:
Mobile web application, Mental health literacy, Hill tribe studentsAbstract
The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the hill tribes’ context-focused mobile web learning application learning to enhance knowledge and mental health literacy among hill tribe junior high school students in Chiang Rai Province. This study was conducted in four phases. Phase I involved a situation analysis and needs assessment through 20 in-depth qualitative interviews. Phase II was the design and development phase, Phase III was a pilot test, and Phase IV was implemented with a target of 60 hill tribe junior high school students. Data were collected from December 2023 to September 2024. The qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis, and the quantitative data were analyzed using repeated-measure ANOVA. The result revealed that mobile web learning applications to promote and support adolescent health should comprise six key functions: (1) Animation-oriented learning stories for mental health literacy in seven languages: Akha, Lahu, Karen, Lisu, Hmong, Yao and Thai, (2) Infographics regarding mental health (3) Mental health screening and recommendation (4) Space or platform to release and express feelings and emotions and (5) A system for providing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and (6) A platform for consulting through the system Line Official Account: www. Wai-Roon-Yak-Roo.com and Facebook Messenger. After the quasi-experiment, a one-group pretest-posttest and follow-up design, it was found that knowledge, mental health literacy, and essential counselling skills were increasing with a statistically significant p-value <0.05. In addition, most participants were very satisfied with the proposed mobile web learning application and mental health literacy training program. In conclusion, promoting mobile web applications combined with mental health literacy programs to increase knowledge, mental health literacy, and counselling skills should be encouraged among this population.
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