The Effectiveness of WhatsApp in Pastoral Counseling Services for Generation Z in the Digital Space

Data Collection Procedures Literature searches were conducted systematically using keyword-based search strategies with Boolean (AND, OR) operators. The combination of keywords used includes: (“pastoral counseling” OR “spiritual care” OR “pastoral counseling”) AND (“digital era” OR “online” OR “WhatsApp”) AND (“Generation Z” OR “Gen Z” OR “digital natives”). The inclusion criteria set are academic articles that discuss counseling or digital mental health for the adolescent/young adult population in the 2021 – 2025 time frame. From an initial pool of about 120 potential sources, a total of 21 articles were selected for final analysis based on relevance and quality.[XYZ14.1] Data Analysis Techniques Data collected from the selected literature were analyzed using thematic content analysis techniques. This analysis process is carried out through several systematic stages: familiarization, open coding, theme search, theme review, and theme definition and naming. This process allows for a rich narrative synthesis of findings across the literature to answer research questions.