Exploring Digital Affordances in Online Mental Health Resources: A Scoping Review of Methodologies and Populations

This scoping review synthesizes research on the affordances of Online Mental Health Resources (OMHRs) utilizing the PRISMA-ScR framework. Aimed at understanding how different affordances are investigated in research focused on OMHRs, the review searched four databases, identifying 14 relevant studies from an initial pool of 453 records. Results highlight a variety of affordances, such as social sharing, accessibility, anonymity, and personalization, and how they differ across OMHR types like social media, online support groups, and web-based therapies. These findings also identify opportunities and suggestions for future research in the field to better understand the role of specific affordances in enhancing the utility and user experience of OMHRs. Recommendations for areas of future research are discussed.