Loneliness and suicide mitigation for students using GPT3-enabled chatbots.

Mental health is a crisis for learners globally, and digital support is increasingly seen as a critical resource. Concurrently, Intelligent Social Agents receive exponentially more engagement than other conversational systems, but their use in digital therapy provision is nascent. A survey of 1006 student users of the Intelligent Social Agent, Replika, investigated participants' loneliness, perceived social support, use patterns, and beliefs about Replika. We found participants were more lonely than typical student populations but still perceived high social support. Many used Replika in multiple, overlapping ways-as a friend, a therapist, and an intellectual mirror. Many also held overlapping and often conflicting beliefs about Replika-calling it a machine, an intelligence, and a human. Critically, 3% reported that Replika halted their suicidal ideation. A comparative analysis of this group with the wider participant population is provided.

Athlete Enjoyment of Prior Education Moderates change in Concussion-Reporting Intention after Interactive Education.

Undiagnosed concussions increase risk of additional injuries and can prolong recovery. Because of the difficulties recognizing concussive symptoms, concussion education must specifically target improving athlete concussion reporting. Many concussion education programs are designed without significant input from athletes, resulting in a less enjoyable athlete experience, with potential implications on program efficacy. Athlete enjoyment of previous concussion education programs moderates the improvement in concussion-reporting intention after experiencing the research version of CrashCourse (CC) concussion education. Prospective cohort study. Level of evidence: Level IV. Quantitative assessment utilizing ANOVA with moderation analysis of 173 male high school football players, aged 13 to 17, who completed baseline assessments of concussion knowledge, concussion reporting, and attitudes about prior educational interventions. Athletes were subsequently shown CC, before a follow-up assessment was administered assessing the same domains. At baseline, only 58.5% of athletes reported that they enjoyed their previous concussion education. After CC, athletes were significantly more likely to endorse that they would report a suspected concussion (from 69.3% of athletes to 85.6%; P < .01). Enjoyment of previous concussion education moderated concussion-reporting intention after CC (P = .02), with CC having a greater effect on concussion-reporting intention in athletes with low enjoyment of previous concussion education (b = 0.21, P = .02), than on individuals with high enjoyment of previous concussion education (P = .99). Enjoyment of CC did not have a moderating effect on concussion-reporting intention. Athletes who previously did not enjoy concussion education exhibited greater gains in concussion-reporting intention than athletes who enjoyed previous education. Given the potential risks associated with undiagnosed concussions, concussion education has sought to improve concussion reporting. Because most athletes participate in concussion education programs due to league or state mandates, improving concussion-reporting intention in these low-enjoyment athletes is of particular relevance to improving concussion-reporting intention broadly.

Evaluating the Effect of Concussion-Education Programs on Intent to Report Concussion in High School Football.

CONTEXT: Concussion underreporting leads to delays in diagnosis and treatment, prolonging recovery time. Athletes' self-reporting of concussion symptoms, therefore, reduces risk. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of 3 concussion-education programs in improving concussion-reporting intention. DESIGN: Randomized controlled clinical trial. SETTING: Three high schools in California. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 118 male football players (age = 14.88 ± 1.19 years). INTERVENTION(S): Participants were randomly assigned to receive concussion education via CrashCourse (CC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) video education materials (CDC-Vi), or CDC written education materials (CDC-Wr). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The primary outcome was concussion-reporting intention, which was assessed at baseline, immediately after education, and at 1-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes were concussion knowledge, concussion-reporting attitudes, perceived concussion-reporting norms, and perceived behavioral control. RESULTS: Across all education formats, a total sample of athletes improved in concussion-reporting intention at immediate and 1-month follow-ups (mean improvements = 6.8% and 11.4%, respectively; F4,224 = 11.1, P < .001). Similar findings were observed across all education formats in secondary analyses examining knowledge, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control. However, we noted differences in concussion-reporting intention by education format and time (F4,224 = 2.8, P = .03). Post hoc analysis showed that athletes who received CC had increased concussion-reporting intentions at immediate and 1-month follow-ups (baseline = 4.7, immediate follow-up = 6.1, 1-month follow-up = 6.0; F16,61.1 = 6.1, P = .007) compared with increases only at 1-month follow-up for CDC-Vi (baseline = 4.3, immediate follow-up = 5.2, 1-month follow-up = 5.8; F1.6,61.6 = 8.4, P = .001) and no improvement for CDC-Wr (P = .10). Secondary analyses indicated differences between CC and both CDC interventions in concussion knowledge and attitudes at immediate and 1-month follow-ups. We identified no differences in perceived behavioral control among interventions (F4,216 = 0.2, P = .93) or perceived concussion-reporting norms across (F4,224 = 0.3, P = .73) or among (F4,224 = 1.7, P = .15) interventions. CONCLUSIONS: All athletes exhibited an improved intent to report concussions, increased concussion knowledge, better concussion attitudes, and more perceived behavioral control at both immediate and 1-month follow-ups. However, athletes randomized to receive CC reported a greater intent to report concussion, more knowledge, and improved concussion-reporting attitudes when compared with those who received CDC-Vi and CDC-Wr.

Participating in Two Video Concussion Education Programs Sequentially Improves Concussion-Reporting Intention.

Undiagnosed concussions increase the risk of additional concussion and persistent symptoms from concussion. Because there are no reliable objective markers of concussion, self-reporting of subjective and non-visible symptoms are critical to ensuring proper concussion management. For this reason, educational interventions target concussion reporting, but the majority of studies have examined the efficacy of single educational interventions or compared interventions to one another. This randomized crossover study sought to identify whether there was benefit to administering multiple concussion education programs in tandem, back to back. The study randomized 313 male high school football players to first receive CrashCourse concussion education (CC) or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention video concussion education (CDC) followed by crossover with the other education. Athlete concussion-reporting intention, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and enjoyment of education were assessed at baseline and after each intervention. There were statistically significant improvements across all measures, both after single intervention and crossover (all p < 0.001). Secondary analyses examining differences between education found that athletes reported higher enjoyment of concussion education immediately after participating in CC, as compared to CDC (p < 0.001). These findings demonstrate an additive benefit to implementing CC and CDC education in tandem, without decrement in enjoyment of concussion education after experiencing dual educations; in fact, enjoyment of concussion education improved after receiving education programs back to back. These educational programs appear to complement one another, and the results support the use of multi-modal concussion education to differentially target and maximize concussion reporting.

Immersive Virtual Reality Field Trips Facilitate Learning About Climate Change.

Across four studies, two controlled lab experiments and two field studies, we tested the efficacy of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) as an education medium for teaching the consequences of climate change, particularly ocean acidification. Over 270 participants from four different learning settings experienced an immersive underwater world designed to show the process and effects of rising sea water acidity. In all of our investigations, after experiencing immersive VR people demonstrated knowledge gains or inquisitiveness about climate science and in some cases, displayed more positive attitudes toward the environment after comparing pre- and post-test assessments. The analyses also revealed a potential post-hoc mechanism for the learning effects, as the more that people explored the spatial learning environment, the more they demonstrated a change in knowledge about ocean acidification. This work is unique by showing distinct learning gains or an interest in learning across a variety of participants (high school, college students, adults), measures (learning gain scores, tracking data about movement in the virtual world, qualitative responses from classroom teachers), and content (multiple versions varying in length and content about climate change were tested). Our findings explicate the opportunity to use immersive VR for environmental education and to drive information-seeking about important social issues such as climate change.

Media use, face-to-face communication, media multitasking, and social well-being among 8- to 12-year-old girls.

An online survey of 3,461 North American girls ages 8-12 conducted in the summer of 2010 through Discovery Girls magazine examined the relationships between social well-being and young girls' media use--including video, video games, music listening, reading/homework, e-mailing/posting on social media sites, texting/instant messaging, and talking on phones/video chatting--and face-to-face communication. This study introduced both a more granular measure of media multitasking and a new comparative measure of media use versus time spent in face-to-face communication. Regression analyses indicated that negative social well-being was positively associated with levels of uses of media that are centrally about interpersonal interaction (e.g., phone, online communication) as well as uses of media that are not (e.g., video, music, and reading). Video use was particularly strongly associated with negative social well-being indicators. Media multitasking was also associated with negative social indicators. Conversely, face-to-face communication was strongly associated with positive social well-being. Cell phone ownership and having a television or computer in one's room had little direct association with children's socioemotional well-being. We hypothesize possible causes for these relationships, call for research designs to address causality, and outline possible implications of such findings for the social well-being of younger adolescents.