Facilitating engagement of universal school-based digital mental health solutions through user experience: A qualitative exploration.

Digital mental health intervention (DMHI) programs offered in schools present a readily-accessible and flexible means for educating, empowering, and supporting adolescents in maintaining a balanced mental health, especially during uncertain and stressful times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies indicate that the effectiveness of DMHI programs in improving students' mental well-being and in preventing from their mental health complications depends on the users' engagement. This study focuses on identifying the user experience factors that can facilitate user engagement with universal school-based DMHI programs (i.e., the DMHI programs delivered to the students regardless of their mental health risks or conditions). To identify said factors, we sought to gain a deeper understanding of perceptions, opinions, and preferences of actual end-users (i.e., the adolescents) regarding their experiences with both digital and non-digital mental health resources. Specifically, interviews were conducted with two participant groups to uncover the reasons that could lead the adolescents to better engage with school-based DMHI programs, as well as the shortcomings that could prevent that from happening: (a) adolescent users who had either a high or a low level of engagement with universal DMHI programs of a specific school-based digital mental health solution; and (b) adolescents who had voluntarily used non-digital or non-school-based digital mental health resources for purposes other than treatment. Through a thematic analysis of interview data, the most important (or primary) and the additionally desirable (or secondary) factors that could lead to a higher engagement level for school-based DMHI programs were identified. Lastly, using the evidence gathered from our interviews, specific recommendations are proposed that could help in targeting each identified engagement factor and in increasing the likelihood that school-based DMHI programs achieve their desired outcome for high school students.

An extended health belief model for COVID-19: understanding the media-based processes leading to social distancing and panic buying.

Building on the health belief model (HBM), this research tests, over six months, how the exposure to COVID-related information in the media affects fear, which in turn conditions beliefs about the severity of the virus, susceptibility of getting the virus, and benefits of safety measures. These health beliefs ultimately lead to social distancing and panic buying. As a first contribution, we find that fear is not directly triggered by the objective severity of a crisis, but rather formed over time by the way individuals are exposed to media. Second, we show that fear affects behaviors through the components of the HBM which relate to the risks/benefits of a situation. Last, we find that critical thinking about media content amplifies the "adaptive" responses of our model (e.g., health beliefs, social distancing) and reduces its "maladaptive" responses (e.g., panic buying). Interestingly, we note that the beneficial effect of critical thinking about media content disappears as the level of fear increases over time. The implications of these findings for policymakers, media companies, and theory are further discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11747-022-00865-8.

The Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Mitigation Measures on Mass Transit and Car Use

As the world adapts to COVID-19, the transport behaviour of commuters has been greatly modified. Governments and transit authorities will need strong, well-received mitigation measures and education campaigns to maintain the historically upward trend of sustainable mass transit usage following this pandemic. This study, from a survey of 1968 Canadians in early May 2020, reveals that, following the end of stay-at-home orders, commuters intend to use their cars more and mass transit less. Driving these behavioural changes are commuters’perceptions that mass transit use will negatively impact their health safety, peace of mind, and travel experience. The results also show that certain mitigation measures, such as more frequent cleaning and mandatory hand washing, are likely to reduce this decline, whereas e-monitoring and the use of health certificates will be detrimental to mass transit ridership through user perception. These results can help lessen the environmental impact of the public returning to work by encouraging their continued use of more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.