Necessary but not sufficient? Engaging young people in the development of an avatar-based online intervention designed to provide psychosocial support to young people affected by their own or a family member's cancer diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: This study discusses the challenges and successes of engaging young people in a project aimed at developing an online counselling intervention for young people affected by cancer. CONTEXT: For younger people with a diagnosis of cancer or who are caring for someone with cancer, the psychosocial consequences can create significant challenges for their social and educational development. Whilst young people have been shown to be reluctant to make use of traditional face-to-face counselling, research is beginning to suggest that effective therapeutic relationships can be formed with young people online. DESIGN: The first phase of the study involved working with a 'Young Persons' Panel' of healthy school pupils and university students to develop and pilot an online counselling intervention and study materials in preparation for a pilot evaluation of the intervention. INTERVENTION: An avatar-based virtual reality counselling world was created where young people can create their own avatar and receive counselling over the Internet from a qualified counsellor via an avatar in a virtual reality world. FINDINGS: The process of engaging young people in the C:EVOLVE project enabled a unique intervention to be developed and demonstrated positive developmental opportunities. However, despite the rigorous approach to the development of the intervention, initial attempts within the pilot evaluation phase of the study showed difficulties recruiting to the study, and this phase of the study has currently ceased whilst further exploratory work takes place. CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated the complexities of intervention development and evaluation research targeted at young people and the challenges created when attempting to bring clinical practice and research evaluation together.

Oral Health Behaviors and Perceptions Among College Students.

Oral health is a simple and important part of college students' lives but might often be overlooked or undermined because of increased stress levels and unhealthy habits associated with the college setting. Despite the challenges, college days may be one of the best times to establish lifelong healthy habits, including oral health routines. The purpose of this study was to determine the current oral care behaviors and perceptions of students at a midwestern college. This study was nonexperimental in nature with a quantitative method and a cross-sectional design, which included 126 participants. The survey instrument included 2 Likert-type scales. The oral health-related quality-of-life model was used as the theoretical framework to guide the study.