Online social work engagement and empowerment for young internet users: A quasi-experiment.

Background: The increasing penetration of Internet use among young people poses challenges for youth service engagement through bricks-and-mortar youth centers owing to the decline in the number of walk-ins. This study was to identify the psychosocial and behavioral outcome changes effected through online engagement and empowerment interventions offered to at-risk youths by three local social work youth service providers.

Methods: A quasi-experimental design was adopted to compare the effects of online engagement and empowerment on 182 young service users with 191 age- and gender-matched controlled participants over nine months.

Results: Significant improvement in emotional distress and social withdrawal behaviors were found in the intervention group.

Limitations: Non-randomized study, nonequivalent comparison group DISCUSSION: Whether online social work services can substitute offline services should be further examined in randomized controlled trials. Online social work intervention identifies its acceptability among young people and professional feedback holds promise for providing a complimentary route of alleviating emotional distress and social withdrawal in at-risk youths.