How to Design Just and Equitable Digital Experiences to Support Adolescent Wellbeing

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

This multidisciplinary symposium will address how to design digital experiences to support adolescent wellbeing. Specifically, symposium participants will grapple with the challenge of designing digital experiences that do not recapitulate the inequity and injustice present in traditional mental health care. The first presenter will report findings from her work developing and delivering a multidimensional digital healing course for Black and Afro-descendent high school students. She will apply her findings to the co-design of a digital affinity-space for Black youth that addresses racialized mental health issues and provides a digital safe space during the dual pandemic of COVID-19 and anti-Black violence. The second presenter will report the results of a five-year immersive ethnographic study of queer youth of color on Tumblr through the topics of mental health and human-centered design. He will translate his findings into a digital design agenda for queer youth of color mental health. The third presenter will report findings from her partnerships with two groups of community stakeholders to design digital mental health tools for underserved youth. She will use her findings to emphasize the importance of collaborating with the individuals and organizations who will implement digital interventions targeting adolescents. The final presenter will report insights from a topic model analysis of 491,446 self-harm-related posts by adolescents on a large peer support mental health platform. Taken together, these presentations will advance our understanding of just and equitable digital mental health for adolescents who need mental health support.

Sub Unit

• Technology, Media & Child Development

Chair

• Monika Neff Lind, University of Oregon

Discussant

• Stephen Schueller, University of California - Irvine

Individual Presentations

• Designing for LGBTQI+ Youth of Color Mental Health: Lessons from Peak Tumblr - Presenting Author: Alexander Cho, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Partnering with Stakeholders in the Design of Digital Mental Health Services Supporting Underserved Youth - Presenting Author: Ashley A Knapp, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Katherine Cohen, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Robert Simmons, Oak Park Public Library; Non-Presenting Author: Stephen Jackson, Oak Park Public Library; Non-Presenting Author: Darcel Washington, Oak Park Public Library; Non-Presenting Author: Emily Lattie, Northwestern University

• When “Self-Harm” Means “Suicide”: Design Lessons from Adolescents’ Posts on a Peer Support Platform - Presenting Author: Monika Neff Lind, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Afsaneh Razi, University of Central Florida; Non-Presenting Author: Hanneke Scholten, University of Twente; Non-Presenting Author: Nicholas Allen, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Munmun De Choudhury, Georgia Institute of Technology; Non-Presenting Author: Madeleine George, RTI International; Non-Presenting Author: Isabela Granic, Radboud University; Non-Presenting Author: Shalini Lal, University of Montreal; Non-Presenting Author: Pamela Wisniewski, University of Central Florida