In the United States, 15 million children and adolescents need psychological services; yet only one-third receive psychological services of any kind. Even fewer receive care that is consistent with evidence-based guidelines for best practices. This gap has widened dramatically with the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children, combined with disruptions to school-based mental health services. Mental Health Apps (MHapps) show early promise to alleviate mild to moderate forms of emotional disorders like anxiety and depression, while improving broader domains of functioning, including academic engagement and social competence. These MHapps are designed to promote youth mental health by delivering targeted, skills-based curricula in an interactive and accessible format. Unfortunately, the potential for MHapps has thus far been limited by low engagement, improper use, and high rates of noncompletion. Caring adults can help boost youth engagement in MHapps through what behavioral scientists refer to as "supportive accountability"-that is, regular check-ins, monitoring, troubleshooting, and other interactions. Several studies have highlighted the positive associations between supportive accountability and user engagement, number of logins, use of interactive tools, and outcomes. In fact, they have shown that, with guidance, the effects of technology-delivered interventions are comparable to those obtained in face-to-face interventions. By contrast, self-guided programs have yielded relatively fewer benefits. Moreover, the studies have found no difference in outcomes when youth were supported by clinicians versus everyday caring adults. Based on evidence that effectiveness and adherence to eHealth interventions is enhanced by human support, we developed a software framework (MentorHub) that coordinates the deployment and monitors the use of evidence-based MHapps. We anticipate that MentorHub will be widely used in youth-serving organizations (e.g., youth mentoring programs) and school based settings (e.g., secondary and post-secondary schools). The proposed research in Phase I will further (Aim 1) refine the MentorHub Product to establish usability (UI/UX) and feasibility in a large, youth mentoring program; and (Aim 2) determine the impact of the Product on youth mental health outcomes (transdiagnostic indicators of risk for mental illness, internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, and broader indicators of youth functioning). The pilot RCT study will test the short-term efficacy of the product in a national youth mentoring organization (Big Brothers Big Sisters New York) and involve 300 participants (75 mentor-mentee pairs/dyads randomized to the test group and 75 mentor-mentee pairs/dyads randomized to the control group). By the end of Phase I, we will have a tested product ready for national testing across Big Brother Big Sisters locations and in new school-based settings. By the end of Phase II, we anticipate a fully functioning and evaluated product ready for commercialization.
Public Health Relevance Statement: Project Narrative (3 sentences) The proposal aims to further test and develop a novel multi-sided online platform that equips youth mentors and other caring adults with the tools necessary to support the mental health and social-emotional functioning of youth. The academic partner has developed a model of supportive accountability focused on adherence to technology-delivered emotional/behavioral interventions in mentor/mentee relationships. The small business partner has developed a mobile application framework that mentors use to curate and suggest targeted evidence-based MHapps to mentees and a systematized method to check-in, nudge, monitor and assess their effectiveness in improving mental/behavioral health issues.
Project Terms: Adult; 21+ years old; Adult Human; adulthood; Affect; Elderly; advanced age; elders; geriatric; late life; later life; older adult; older person; senior citizen; Americas; Anxiety; Behavior Therapy; Behavior Conditioning Therapy; Behavior Modification; Behavior Treatment; Behavioral Conditioning Therapy; Behavioral Modification; Behavioral Therapy; Behavioral Treatment; Conditioning Therapy; behavior intervention; behavioral intervention; Mental disorders; Mental health disorders; Psychiatric Disease; Psychiatric Disorder; mental illness; psychiatric illness; psychological disorder; Boston; Child; 0-11 years old; Child Youth; Children (0-21); youngster; Control Groups; Educational Curriculum; Curriculum; lesson plans; Mental Depression; depression; Human; Modern Man; Massachusetts; Mental Health; Mental Hygiene; Psychological Health; Mental Health Services; Mental Hygiene Services; mental health care; mental healthcare; Mentors; Methods; Persons; New York; Research; Risk; Schools; secondary education; Secondary Schools; Technology; Testing; United States; Universities; Work; Accountability; Friends; Businesses; Population Heterogeneity; diverse populations; heterogeneous population; population diversity; Youth; Youth 10-21; Caring; base; improved; Phase; psychologic; psychological; Adolescent; Adolescent Youth; juvenile; juvenile human; Link; mental; Psyche structure; Emotional disorder; Individual; Therapeutic; tool; Sister; Brothers; programs; Scientist; Side; Source; Location; interest; Services; experience; skills; novel; Participant; interpersonal competence; interpersonal competency; social competence; social competency; social skills; social; Emotional; Modeling; behavioral health; Intervention Strategies; interventional strategy; Intervention; Institution; Effectiveness; Address; Child Mental Health; Adherence; randomisation; randomization; randomly assigned; Randomized; Small Business Technology Transfer Research; STTR; Monitor; Behavioral; systematic review; design; designing; Outcome; innovation; innovate; innovative; Evidence based intervention; evidence based guidelines; Evidence based practice guidelines; evidence based recommendations; usability; volunteer; emotion regulation; emotional regulation; commercialization; evidence base; web page; webpage; distress tolerance; mental training; eHealth; e-Health; mobile application; mobile app; mobile device application; application programming interface; application program interface; school district; Software Framework; interactive tool; symptomatology; recruit; comparison intervention; compare intervention; emotional functioning; implementation fidelity; COVID-19 pandemic effects; COVID-19 pandemic affected; COVID-19 pandemic consequence; COVID-19 pandemic impact; COVID-19 pandemic impacted; coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic consequence; coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic impact; effects following the COVID-19 pandemic
