Coded Essays on Youth Mental Health from Rural Kilifi, 2023

De-identified, qualitatively coded data derived from essays submitted to a mental health essay competition held across schools in Kilifi, Kenya. The dataset was created by Lydia Katini Mwangasha in 2023, with essays collected between February and May. Essays were analyzed using a structured coding matrix organized by themes including definitions, causes, effects, promoters, myths, and community practices.

Use Cases

• Analyze youth perceptions of mental health causes and effects based on the described thematic coding.
• Study community practices and myths surrounding mental illness based on the essay content.
• Identify promoters of good mental health from the perspectives of secondary school students.
• Train or benchmark models for thematic analysis of qualitative text data.

Strengths

• Data is de-identified, addressing privacy concerns for sensitive mental health topics.
• Essays were analyzed using a structured coding matrix organized by specific themes.
• Collection period is specified as between February and May 2023.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count, file formats, and license are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

KWTRP Research Data Repository

Collection Method

Essays submitted to a secondary school mental health essay competition, analyzed with qualitative coding.

Time Range

Essays collected between February and May 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 06:13:34; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Rural Kilifi, Kenya.