How do we best help children and young people who reach out for help?

Poor well-being among children and young people occurs more and more frequently in Denmark these years. For example, figures from the Danish contribution to The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study: WHO Collaborative Cross-national Survey show that the proportion of 15-year-old boys with low life satisfaction from 2014 to 2022 increased from seven to 11 percent, while the proportion among 15-year-old girls in the same period went from 17 to 22 percent.

When children and young people are not thriving, they can choose to contact one of the counselling services where it is possible to remain anonymous. For example, it can be Børnetelefonen, a Danish equivalent to Child Helpline International, GirlTalk or Foreningen Spiseforstyrrelser og Selvskade, the national association for persons with eating disorders and self-harming behaviour.

So unlike when the municipality or other adults take action on behalf of the child or young person, it is the young person who reaches out, often anonymously.

At the same time, it is a principle of the counselling services that they must be able to function, even if the young person only contacts them once and never again.

But what is the potential and impact of these offers of counselling? And how can this potential best be realized? New research project will soon set out to answer these questions.

»We were interested in how and in relation to what the counselling services make a difference for the children and young people. For example, how the counselling services can help children and young people so that they know what to do, or to have more faith that they can help themselves. Or for them to get an idea of where they can go to get more help,« says Hanne Warming, Professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde University, who in cooperation with Anders Ejrnæs is leading the research with support from Independent Research Fund Denmark.

The inquiries to the counselling services can be about anything from heartache to harassment on the internet or mental health problems and sexual identity.

The research group will therefore also delve into how a counsellor can help in different situations. And what it means for the impact of the counselling, how the counsellor focuses on the problem in relation to listening to and following the child or young person.

Investigating the immediate impact

To gain insight into the young people's experience of the counselling, the researchers will use both a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews.

The questionnaires will be sent out immediately after the counselling has taken place and again 14 days later.

»We assume that if the young people have experienced that they have been met, have been understood, and that they have experienced it as helpful, then it is in some sense also helpful for them. And then we follow up 14 days later to see if they have found it helpful. Here, the assumption is that if they find that the impact has only worked here and now, we will find out after the 14 days,« explains Hanne Warming.

In total, the goal is for the questionnaire to be answered by 4,000 children and young people, while 20 undergo an actual interview.

During the interview, the child or young person talks about his or her own life situation, about the counselling itself and about everyday life. In this way, the researchers gain insight into the complexity behind contacting a counselling service.

Finally, the researchers will also review written counselling, when possible, for example written chat with a counsellor. This makes it possible to get into the engine room of the counselling and gain insight into the dynamics that make the counselling helpful or unhelpful.

The questionnaire survey, the 20 interviews and the review of written counselling take place in parallel. This gives the researchers the opportunity to constantly make corrections if they receive information that is worth including in the various parts of the project.

The desire for advice provides an opportunity for early help

During the four-year project, the project group will collaborate with RådgivningsDanmark, which organises approximately 80 counselling services.

In addition to Hanne Warming, the project group will consist of her colleague Anders Ejrnæs, also a Professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Business, as well as two PhD students and a quality consultant from RådgivningsDanmark.

Seminars will be held regularly where researchers will share what they find and receive reflections with feedback from the industry's own representatives.

»In terms of practice, after four years, I would like to be faced with something that says that when I, as a counsellor, have a certain type of counselling, this is what I need to be aware of. For example, in relation to the weighting between a more problem-focused and a child-adolescent-focused approach. It can also be an increased awareness of and guidance on how the counselling is best adapted to different children and young people. So that the counsellor and the organisations have something they can put into play in the ongoing quality work in order to help children and young people in the best possible way,« Hanne Warming emphasizes, and sees a clear advantage for society:

»The counselling services have the potential to identify some of the children and young people who are not thriving or are on their way to not thriving and give them a push in the right direction. And research can help to realise this potential. It is a very early intervention because it is before others notice it or take it seriously. The fact that children and young people reach out themselves is a special window to help them, because they are motivated for something to happen.«