Question

The prevalence of mental health issues has been an increasing concern for young adults. Although counselling can effectively improve the mental health conditions of individuals, research has shown that young adults may be unwilling to seek counselling when they face mental health issues.

In a recent study, Shi et al. (2020) investigated the influence of different psychosocial variables on young adults’ intention to seek counselling in Singapore and Hong Kong. Read the following article for more information about the study (you can access the article via the SUSS library).

Shi, J., Kim, H. K., Su, Y., & Kong, H. (2020). Mental health conditions in young Asian adults and motivation to seek counselling: A cross-country study. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 32(6–7), 328–333.

https://doi.org.suss.remotexs.co/10.1177/1010539520937091

Analyse the given study and critique the research methodology is adopted. Apply relevant concepts and information from course materials, the given article, and additional research to answer the following questions.

a) Discuss the target population of the study and identify the specific type of sampling strategy that the researchers used to recruit participants in Hong Kong. Additionally, discuss the benefit(s) and limitation(s) of the identified sampling strategy. Propose a different sampling strategy that can address the limitation(s) that you identify in the context of the given study.

b) The researchers administered an online survey to collect data in Singapore in the study. Examine possible concerns about administering the survey via the internet and propose a different survey administration method that can address the concerns about the online surveys in the context of the given study. Discuss the benefits of the alternative survey administration method that you propose.

c) Discuss at least TWO issues that may threaten the validity of the cross-country comparison of survey results in the given study. Propose at least one action that the researchers can take to address each issue that you identify.

d) In the given study, the response rate differs across countries. Explain whether a higher response rate indicates better quality of survey data in the context of the given study. Moreover, discuss how the researchers can increase the response rate.