Program Context

Addressing Adolescent Mental Well-Being in the Digital Age 

Adolescent mental well-being has become an increasingly hot-button issue in recent years. Research indicates a steady decline in mental well-being among young people since at least 2011, a trend significantly worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies have revealed that anxiety and depression symptoms were prevalent in children and adolescents (age ≤ 19), with approximately 1.8–49.5% and 2.2–63.8% of youths suffering from each condition, respectively. Additionally, irritability and anger were issues commonly reported, with the former affecting up to 73.2% and the latter 51.3% of the youth. 

Exploring Solutions 

In response to this crisis, interventions ranging from school-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to pet ownership programs have been proposed. However, with the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been increasing interest in exploring digital solutions to support mental well-being. While AI-driven support tools are still in early development stages, their potential for providing immediate and personalized support opens a unique avenue for addressing adolescent well-being intervention.

Pilot Results 

The use of AI chatbots to support mental well-being has shown promise in recent years. Pilot evaluations of uME, in particular, have shown encouraging results–albeit with smaller-sized cohorts. This larger-scale program evaluation is designed to critically assess both the effectiveness of uME and inform the direction this project should take.

Footnotes

  1. Wiens, K., Bhattarai, A., Pedram, P., Dores, A., Williams, J., Bulloch, A., & Patten, S. (2020). A growing need for youth mental health services in Canada: examining trends in youth mental health from 2011 to 2018. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 29, e115. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796020000281↩︎

  2. Panchal, U., Salazar de Pablo, G., Franco, M., Moreno, C., Parellada, M., Arango, C., & Fusar-Poli, P. (2023). The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on child and adolescent mental health: systematic review. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 32(7), 1151–1177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01856-w↩︎

  3. McGorry, P. D., Mei, C., Chanen, A., Hodges, C., Alvarez-Jimenez, M., & Killackey, E. (2022). Designing and scaling up integrated youth mental health care. World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 21(1), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20938↩︎