Changing the game: Design and evaluation of mobile and biowearable technologies to support children's emotion regulation skills development in everyday life

仅在加拿大，大约五分之一的成年人患有精神疾病。这些终身精神健康障碍中有一半是在14岁之前确定的。这些年轻人中只有不到20%得到了适当的治疗。新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情加剧了这一问题。 情绪调节是一项基本的生活技能，对各种心理健康障碍、幸福感、适应能力和学习成绩有着长期的积极影响。在幼儿期学习调节有终身的好处。学习情绪调节包括理解如何使用认知和/或行为策略来改变情绪体验。例如，将注意力从压力源上转移开，或者放松身体来改变焦虑反应。技能发展是具有挑战性的，因为它需要在安全的情感唤起的情况下练习心理策略;涉及难以表达的内部过程;需要支持将技能从培训课程转移到日常生活中。 我过去的研究（NSERC发现和加速器）提供的证据表明，移动生物可穿戴计算技术通过以下方式为这些挑战提供了可访问的解决方案：1）人工生成情感唤起的实践场景（使用游戏，智能玩具）; 2）内部调节过程中儿童特定的生物反馈; 3）移动的个性化现场支持。我们的研究团队是第一个为5至10岁的儿童开发实时个性化的移动神经反馈游戏平台。我们在中期部署（尼泊尔，加拿大）中研究了我们的系统，包括混合性别，文化和社会经济阶层的儿童，以确保普遍性并促进多样性和包容性。这些初步研究显示了可行性，围绕功效的混合结果，并揭示了在该设计空间的新研究中需要考虑的关键社会技术因素。 在这个新的建议，我们独特的联合收割机理论的情绪调节与体现和情境学习，提出了一个以儿童为中心的模型，概念化的调节作为一种心理技能。我们使用这个模型来确定互动机制，可能会导致显着收益的技能发展。我们将开发创新的使能技术，使用以儿童为中心的设计实践来实例化这些互动机制。两种不同的移动生物可穿戴系统将是我提出的研究计划的关键成果。正如我过去在这个领域的研究一样，这些系统将被部署在现场，并与现有的合作者和社区利益相关者进行严格的评估。 重要成果包括新的技术和交互设计知识。HPQ将高度参与这一跨学科研究，为不同儿童群体设计和评估有效和可访问的数字心理健康支持。研究结果还将为从事数字心理健康工作的公司、政府机构和教育工作者提供信息。

In Canada alone, about one in five adults live with mental illness. Half of these lifelong mental health disorders are established by the age of 14. Less than 20% of these young people receive adequate treatment. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated this problem. Emotion regulation is a fundamental life skill with long-term positive impacts on various mental health disorders, well-being, adjustment and academic performance. Learning to regulate in early childhood has lifelong advantages. Learning emotion regulation involves understanding how cognitive and/or behavioral strategies can be used to modify emotional experiences. For example, redeploying attention away from a stressor or relaxing the body to modify an anxiety response. Skills development is challenging because it requires practice of psychomotor strategies in safe emotionally evocative situations; involves internal processes that are difficult to articulate; and needs supports to transfer skills from training sessions into everyday life. My past research (NSERC Discovery & Accelerator) provided evidence that mobile-biowearable computing technologies offer accessible solutions to these challenges through: 1) artificially generating emotionally evocative practice scenarios (using games, smart toys); 2) child-specific biofeedback on internal regulation processes; and 3) mobile delivery of personalized in-situ supports. Our research team was the first to develop a mobile-neurofeedback game platform with real-time personalization for children aged 5 to 10. We studied our system in mid-term deployments (Nepal, Canada), including children of mixed genders, cultures and socio-economic classes to ensure generalizability and promote diversity and inclusion. These preliminary studies showed viability, mixed results around efficacy and revealed key socio-technological factors to consider in new investigations in this design space. In this new proposal we uniquely combine theories of emotion regulation with embodied and situated learning to propose a child-centric model that conceptualizes regulation as a psychomotor skill. We use this model to identify interaction mechanisms that may result in significant gains in skills development. We will develop innovative enabling technologies that instantiate these interaction mechanisms using child-centred design practices. Two different mobile-biowearable systems will be a key outcome of my proposed research program. As in my past research in this space, these systems will be deployed in the field and rigorously evaluated with existing collaborators and community stakeholders. Significant outcomes include new technical and interaction design knowledge. HPQ will be highly involved in this interdisciplinary research at the forefront of designing and evaluating effective and accessible digital mental health supports for diverse groups of children. Results will also inform companies, government agencies and educators working in digital mental health.