An Exploratory Study of the Needs Students Have for Newly Established Peer Support

Abstract

This study examined the needs of students for a newly established peer support (PS) activity at a university. An online questionnaire consisting of demographic variables, perception of PS, help-seeking intention toward PS and other support resources, degree of distress, and open-ended questions, was completed by 173 university students, primarily psychology majors. The results showed that the help-seeking intention toward PS was the second highest after friends and family. Next, analysis of the open-ended questionnaires using text mining suggested that students with low help-seeking intentions toward PS and high levels of distress had needs for support other than consultation, such as holding social events. Conversely, students with high help-seeking intentions toward PS and high levels of distress needed PS as a consultation service. These findings suggest that in higher distress levels, students’ needs for PS differed depending on their help-seeking intentions toward PS, and provide suggestions for activities that should be developed at PS in the future. Finally, expanding the survey to capture trends among college students in general is necessary.