Digital health interventions to reduce stress in adolescents - Development of an accessible, digital preventive health tool to promote stress recovery
Year: 2021
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Mental illness among Swedish adolescents is increasing, which partly might be a result of an observed increase in stress. Consequently, the number of adolescents seeking and receiving psychiatric care from pediatric psychiatry is higher than ever, and has resulted in a worsened accessibility with longer waiting times for appointments and treatment. As such, preventive care and health promotion interventions are more important than ever, and using digital solutions and tools to achieve this can be particularly suitable for adolescents as they possess the technical skills to use them. This master's thesis was performed on behalf of Region Skåne and their project Ungdomsportalen, which is developed in collaboration with Innovation Skåne. Ungdomsportalen is part of a digital platform to promote mental health for children and adolescents currently under development. The purpose of the thesis was to identify what needs adolescents have in regards to stress, develop and communicate a concept for content in Ungdomsportalen that could solve these, as well as simultaneously investigating suitable methods for co-designing a digital health intervention together with adolescents. In the early stages of the project, several needs were discovered and identified through interviews and questionnaires, where the need for increased recovery was chosen to move forward with. With this in mind, an iterative phase began where several concepts for digital solutions were generated and then evaluated through workshops and other evaluation methods. The final concept consists of three self-tests in which the user is able to identify their need for more recovery, find out which activities they can do to increase recovery and evaluate the success of these activities. This concept has the potential to increase recovery among adolescents, however, this needs to be further evaluated with the target group.
Authors: Kågeman, Jessica, Wenäll, Linnea
Language: English
Subfield: Applied Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7065200955