Designing Mental Health Technologies that Support the Social Ecosystem of College Students

Emily G. Lattie, Rachel Kornfield, Kathryn E. Ringland, Renwen Zhang, Nathan Winquist, Madhu Reddy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

The last decade has seen increased reports of mental health problems among college students, with college counseling centers struggling to keep up with the demand for services. Digital mental health tools offer a potential solution to expand the reach of mental health services for college students. In this paper, we present findings from a series of design activities conducted with college students and counseling center staff aimed at identifying needs and preferences for digital mental health tools. Results emphasize the social ecosystems and social support networks in a college student's life. Our findings highlight the predominant role of known peers, and the ancillary roles of unknown peers and non-peers (e.g., faculty, family) in influencing the types of digital mental health tools students desire, and the ways in which they want to learn about mental health tools. We identify considerations for designing digital mental health tools for college students that take into account the identified social factors and roles.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450367080
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 21 2020
Event2020 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020 - Honolulu, United States
Duration: Apr 25 2020Apr 30 2020

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference2020 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHonolulu
Period4/25/204/30/20

Funding

We thank our participants for their participation in the workshops and interviews. This work was supported by a research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (K08 MH112878). Rachel Kornfield’s and Kathryn Ringland’s participation was supported by a training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (T32 MH115882). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

Keywords

  • co-design
  • college students
  • mental health
  • support technology
  • user centered design

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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