Beltzer Miranda L, Meyerhoff Jonah, Popowski Sarah A, Mohr David C, Kornfield Rachel
Center for Behavior Intervention Technologies, Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States.
JMIR Form Res. 2023 Oct 6;7:e48152. doi: 10.2196/48152.
Despite the high prevalence of anxiety and depression among young adults, many do not seek formal treatment. Some may turn to digital mental health tools for support instead, including to self-track moods, behaviors, and other variables related to mental health. Researchers have sought to understand processes and motivations involved in self-tracking, but few have considered the specific needs and preferences of young adults who are not engaged in treatment and who seek to use self-tracking to support mental health.
This study seeks to assess the types of experiences young adults not engaged in treatment have had with digital self-tracking for mood and other mental health data and to assess how young adults not seeking treatment want to engage in self-tracking to support their mental health.
We conducted 2 online asynchronous discussion groups with 50 young adults aged 18 years to 25 years who were not engaged in treatment. Participants were recruited after indicating moderate to severe symptoms of depression or anxiety on screening surveys hosted on the website of Mental Health America. Participants who enrolled in the study responded anonymously to discussion prompts on a message board, as well as to each other's responses, and 3 coders performed a thematic analysis of their responses.
Participants had mixed experiences with self-tracking in the past, including disliking when tracking highlighted unwanted behaviors and discontinuing tracking for a variety of reasons. They had more positive past experiences tracking behaviors and tasks they wanted to increase, using open-ended journaling, and with gamified elements to increase motivation. Participants highlighted several design considerations they wanted self-tracking tools to address, including building self-understanding; organization, reminders, and structure; and simplifying the self-tracking experience. Participants wanted self-tracking to help them identify their feelings and how their feelings related to other variables like sleep, exercise, and events in their lives. Participants also highlighted self-tracking as useful for motivating and supporting basic activities and tasks of daily living during periods of feeling overwhelmed or low mood and providing a sense of accomplishment and stability. Although self-tracking can be burdensome, participants were interested and provided suggestions for simplifying the process.
These young adults not engaged in treatment reported interest in using self-tracking to build self-understanding as a goal in and of itself or as a first step in contemplating and preparing for behavior change or treatment-seeking. Alexithymia, amotivation, and feeling overwhelmed may serve both as barriers to self-tracking and opportunities for self-tracking to help.
尽管焦虑和抑郁在年轻人中普遍存在，但许多人并未寻求正规治疗。有些人可能会转而使用数字心理健康工具来寻求支持，包括自我跟踪情绪、行为以及其他与心理健康相关的变量。研究人员试图了解自我跟踪所涉及的过程和动机，但很少有人考虑那些未接受治疗且试图通过自我跟踪来促进心理健康的年轻人的具体需求和偏好。
本研究旨在评估未接受治疗的年轻人在对情绪和其他心理健康数据进行数字自我跟踪方面的经历类型，并评估未寻求治疗的年轻人希望如何通过自我跟踪来促进他们的心理健康。
我们与50名年龄在18岁至25岁之间、未接受治疗的年轻人进行了2次在线异步讨论组。参与者是在“美国心理健康”网站上进行的筛查调查中表明有中度至重度抑郁或焦虑症状后招募的。参与研究的参与者在留言板上对讨论提示以及彼此的回复进行匿名回应，3名编码员对他们的回复进行了主题分析。
参与者过去在自我跟踪方面有不同的经历，包括不喜欢跟踪突出显示的不良行为，以及因各种原因停止跟踪。他们在跟踪想要增加的行为和任务、使用开放式日志记录以及带有游戏化元素以增加动力方面有更积极的过去经历。参与者强调了他们希望自我跟踪工具解决的几个设计考虑因素，包括建立自我理解；组织、提醒和结构；以及简化自我跟踪体验。参与者希望自我跟踪能帮助他们识别自己的感受，以及这些感受与睡眠、锻炼和生活中的事件等其他变量之间的关系。参与者还强调，自我跟踪在感到不堪重负或情绪低落时，对激励和支持日常生活的基本活动和任务很有用，并能带来成就感和稳定感。尽管自我跟踪可能很繁琐，但参与者对此感兴趣并提出了简化过程的建议。
这些未接受治疗的年轻人表示，有兴趣将自我跟踪作为建立自我理解的目标本身，或者作为思考和准备行为改变或寻求治疗的第一步。述情障碍、缺乏动机和感到不堪重负既可能成为自我跟踪的障碍，也可能成为自我跟踪发挥帮助作用的机会。
