Outcomes of Best-Practice Guided Digital Mental Health Interventions for Youth and Young Adults with Emerging Symptoms: Part II. A Systematic Review of User Experience Outcomes

Opie, Jessica; Vuong, An; Welsh, Ellen; Esler, TB; Raza Khan, Urooj; Khalil, Hanan

doi:10.26181/26402767.v1

- No file added yet -

Outcomes of Best-Practice Guided Digital Mental Health Interventions for Youth and Young Adults with Emerging Symptoms: Part II. A Systematic Review of User Experience Outcomes

journal contribution

posted on 2024-07-30, 05:32 authored by Jessica OpieJessica Opie, An Vuong, Ellen WelshEllen Welsh, TB Esler, Urooj Raza KhanUrooj Raza Khan, Hanan KhalilHanan Khalil

Although many young people demonstrate resilience and strength, research and clinical evidence highlight an upward trend in mental health concerns among those aged 12 to 25 years. Youth-specific digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) aim to address this trend by providing timely access to mental health support for young people (12–25 years). However, there is a considerable gap in understanding young people user experiences with digital interventions. This review, co-designed with Australia’s leading mental health organization Beyond Blue, utilizes a systematic methodology to synthesize evidence on user experience in youth-oriented digital mental health interventions that are fully or partially guided. Five relevant online databases were searched for articles published from 2018 to 2023, yielding 22,482 articles for screening and 22 studies were included in the present analysis. User experience outcomes relating to satisfaction and engagement were assessed for each included intervention, with experience indicators relating to usefulness, usability, value, credibility, and desirability being examined. Elements associated with positive/negative outcomes were extracted. Elements shown to positively influence user experience included peer engagement, modern app-based delivery, asynchronous support, and personalized content. In contrast, users disliked static content, homework/log-keeping, the requirement for multiple devices, and social media integration. Asynchronous interventions showed high satisfaction but faced engagement issues, with combined asynchronous/synchronous interventions reporting better completion rates. DMHIs offer a promising platform for youth mental health support and has the potential to dramatically increase the reach of interventions through the adoption of technological and user experience best practices. While young people respond positively to many aspects of intervention modernization, such as interactive, app-based design, other concepts, such as social media integration, they need to be adopted by the field more cautiously to ensure trust and engagement.

Funding

This research was supported by Beyond Blue.

History

Publication Date

2024-06-01

Journal

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review

Volume

27

Pagination

476 - 508

Publisher

Springer Nature

ISSN

1096-4037

Rights Statement

© The Author(s) 2024 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.