Technology and Well-Being in Ireland the role and Pesky gnats

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Technology and Well-Being in Ireland the role and Pesky gnats"

Mark Simpson
5 years ago
Views:

1 Technology and Well-Being in Ireland the role and Pesky gnats Supervised by: Professor Gary O Reilly (Dept. of Psychology) & Dr. David Coyle (Dept. of Computer Science)

2 Overview Perceptions of technology and young people today Background to one promising area of technologyenabled mental health computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (ccbt) My project outline

majority of young internet users (n = 25,142) -Significant portion of those

Digital technology is not intrinsically harmful.

3 The headlines! The evidence... - Overall, online risk affects a significant minority, but by no means a majority of young internet users (n = 25,142) -Significant portion of those experiencing negative content are able to deal with it (EU Kids Online, 2014) Digital technology is not intrinsically harmful. Little difference in wellbeing between lots of screen-time vs. none (n = 120,115) (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2017) Berryman et al. (2017) few links between social media use and mental health problems

5 Background Depression and/or anxiety are considered to be common mental health problems in school-aged children (Polanczyk et al., 2015) In Ireland, it is estimated that by the age of 13, 1 in 3 young people are likely to have experienced some type of mental disorder (Cannon et al., 2013) Despite high levels of digital literacy and overall technological engagement, there is a lack of high-quality research evaluating such technology.

6 Background to ccbt Most mental disorders begin during youth the needs of those affected by this are mostly unmet (Patel et al., 2007, The Lancet) ccbt shown to be feasible with children, and adults with intellectual disabilities

7 My project research aims Psychological evaluation of Pesky gnats using a RCT and qualitative methodology in a health/education context. Is it effective? What might predict effectiveness (or lack thereof) and why?

8 Mixed Methods Approach Systematic review Proposed Secondment RCT of proposed intervention Qualitative evaluation of participants Final Secondment Thesis write-up

9 Intended outcomes To provide an accessible evidence-based computer game and app to support the mental health of school-aged children. To advance understanding of the psychological factors implicated in effective technology-assisted mental health interventions. To produce a high impact model and case study of a technology-enabled mental health intervention to inform future policy and research.

Thank you! References Berryman, C. et al (2017). Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults, Psychiatry Quarterly DOI: DOI 10.1007/s11126-017-9535-6 Cannon, M., Coughlan, H., Clarke, M.

10 Thank you! References Berryman, C. et al (2017). Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults, Psychiatry Quarterly DOI: DOI /s Cannon, M., Coughlan, H., Clarke, M., Harley, M., & Kelleher, I. (2013). The Mental Health of Young People in Ireland: A report of the Psychiatric Epidemology Research across the Lifespan (PERL) Group. EU Kids Online (2014) EU Kids Online: findings, methods, recommendations. EU Kids Online, LSE. Polanczyk, G. V., Salum, G. A., Sugaya, L. S., Caye, A., & Rohde, L. A. (2015). Annual Research Review: A meta-analysis of the worldwide prevalence of mental disorders in children and adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56(3), Przybylski, A. K., & Weinstein, N. (2017). A large-scale test of the Goldicks Hypothesis: Quantifying the relations between digital-screen use and the mental well-being of adolescents. Psychological Science, 28(2), Stay in touch darragh.mccashin@ucd.ie Website:

SECOND AUSTRALIAN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT SURVEY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING HIGHLIGHTS

The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents 3 SECOND AUSTRALIAN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT SURVEY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING HIGHLIGHTS A second national survey of the mental health and wellbeing of Australian