In a society that has a high prevalence of mental health disorders, especially among adolescents and students, and a shortage of mental health professionals, it is indispensable to find solutions to make methods supporting mental well-being and resilience available in a scalable, low-threshold manner. While the use of cognitive behavioral therapy-based approaches using Conversational Agents (CAs) has seen a growing research interest, the delivery of other therapy approaches such as resource-oriented psychotherapy through CAs has not been covered sufficiently yet. This paper expands a novel concept of CA-based mental health support for students through identification of psychosocial resources and stressors and investigates its acceptance, usability, adherence, and perceived impact on mental well-being and resilience in a single-arm user study with healthy participants (N = 14). Specifically, it is investigated which factors influence frequency of use and perceived impact of the proposed system. Quantitative and qualitative questionnaires are administered pre-, and post-usage over a two week study period. Study outcomes indicate a high usability, while adherence and acceptance show moderate results. While minor changes in symptoms of depression and anxiety can be seen in the pre-post condition, measured symptoms, mental well-being, and resilience show no statistically significant differences before and after two weeks of system usage. Results indicate an effect of language proficiency and general technological affinity on frequency of use and perceived impact on mental health.Qualitative results indicate possible system extensions that could increase acceptance, adherence, and perceived impact in future system iterations.

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Conversational Agent-Based Mental Health Support for Students: Identifying Psychosocial Resources and Stressors with WUM

  • Julian Striegl,
  • Maximilan Buchholz,
  • Tillmann Auguszt,
  • Claudia Loitsch

摘要

In a society that has a high prevalence of mental health disorders, especially among adolescents and students, and a shortage of mental health professionals, it is indispensable to find solutions to make methods supporting mental well-being and resilience available in a scalable, low-threshold manner. While the use of cognitive behavioral therapy-based approaches using Conversational Agents (CAs) has seen a growing research interest, the delivery of other therapy approaches such as resource-oriented psychotherapy through CAs has not been covered sufficiently yet. This paper expands a novel concept of CA-based mental health support for students through identification of psychosocial resources and stressors and investigates its acceptance, usability, adherence, and perceived impact on mental well-being and resilience in a single-arm user study with healthy participants (N = 14). Specifically, it is investigated which factors influence frequency of use and perceived impact of the proposed system. Quantitative and qualitative questionnaires are administered pre-, and post-usage over a two week study period. Study outcomes indicate a high usability, while adherence and acceptance show moderate results. While minor changes in symptoms of depression and anxiety can be seen in the pre-post condition, measured symptoms, mental well-being, and resilience show no statistically significant differences before and after two weeks of system usage. Results indicate an effect of language proficiency and general technological affinity on frequency of use and perceived impact on mental health.Qualitative results indicate possible system extensions that could increase acceptance, adherence, and perceived impact in future system iterations.