Helping Adolescents When Time is of the Essence

The authors investigate how duration of a chat conversation impact adolescents’ perceptions of service quality of a child helpline and test whether this impact varies depending upon the seriousness of the issues discussed. The study reveals that duration of the chat positively influences the perceived service quality, but only for adolescents chatting about very serious topics. Furthermore, the study shows that satisfaction with a service encounter can positively influence the well-being of adolescents and their willingness to recommend the service to peers.