"Not Quite What I'm Looking For:" Exploring the Appeal of E-Therapy Among Young Migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand

However, these tools do not appear to be widely used by migrant young adults. Very little research has explored whether these tools appeal to migrant young adults.</strong></p><p>Aim To explore the appeal and non-appeal of e-therapy, including the publicly available evidence-based Just a Thought (JaT) suite of cCBT interventions, among overseas-born emerging adults living in Aotearoa New Zealand.</p><p>

Methods

Guided by a critical realist perspective, this qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with ten migrant young adults. Participants came from diverse migration and cultural backgrounds, including eight from backgrounds more likely to be racialised or ethnically minoritised within Aotearoa New Zealand’s dominant Pākehā social context. All participants had encountered JaT and had considered whether it was worth using.

The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.</p><p>Findings The findings were organised across three connected sections. First, four themes showed that participants’ consideration of e-therapy was shaped by far more than the features of the tools themselves. Their evaluations were influenced by their own early understandings of mental health, cultural and family norms around distress and help-seeking, migration experiences, and existing coping practices.</p><p>Second, participants described e-therapy as appealing in principle, but often not personally compelling enough to become a preferred form of support.

The theme E-therapy: “Not quite what I’m looking for” captured how e-therapy was valued for its accessibility, affordability, privacy, flexibility, and convenience. However, participants also described it as generic, insufficiently relational, and culturally limited. The theme Just a Thought: “Appealing at first glance, but not quite enough” showed that JaT was often seen as credible, well-designed, and potentially useful, but its appeal weakened when participants considered whether it felt sufficiently personal, meaningful, or suited to their needs.</p><p>Third, participants suggested that e-therapy would be more appealing if it were more culturally relatable and more closely designed around how migrant young adults learn, relate, and engage.

They called for support that felt less generic, more interactive and responsive, and better attuned to diverse cultural, relational, and migration-related contexts.</p><p>Conclusion These findings suggest that improving the appeal of e-therapy for young migrants requires more than making it available or accessible. E-therapy must also feel personally relevant, culturally meaningful, emotionally credible, and compatible with how migrant young adults understand distress and support.

This thesis contributes to the limited Aotearoa New Zealand and global literature on migrant young adults’ perspectives on e-therapy. It also highlights appeal as a distinct and important stage before uptake, engagement, or sustained use, showing that e-therapy must feel relevant, safe, and worthwhile before engagement can begin.</p>