Measuring psychological engagement in youth activity involvement

Designing and Evaluating a VR Lobby for a Socially Enriching Remote Opera Watching Experience

The latest social VR technologies have enabled users to attend traditional media and arts performances together while being geographically removed, making such experiences accessible despite budget, distance, and other restrictions. In this work, we aim at improving the way remote performances are shared by designing and evaluating a VR theatre lobby which serves as a space for users to gather, interact, and relive the common experience of watching a virtual opera. We conducted an initial test with experts ($\mathrm{N}=10$, i.e., designers and opera enthusiasts) in pairs using our VR lobby prototype, developed based on the theoretical lobby design concept. A unique aspect of our experience is its highly realistic representation of users in the virtual space. The test results guided refinements to the VR lobby structure and implementation, aiming to improve the user experience and align it more closely with the social VR lobby's intended purpose. With the enhanced prototype, we ran a between-subject controlled study ($\mathrm{N}=40$) to compare the user experience in the social VR lobby between individuals and paired participants. To do so, we designed and validated a questionnaire to measure the user experience in the VR lobby. Results of our mixed-methods analysis, including interviews, questionnaire results, and user behavior, reveal the strength of our social VR lobby in connecting with other users, consuming the opera in a deeper manner, and exploring new possibilities beyond what is common in real life. All supplemental materials are available at https://github.com/cwi-dis/IEEEVR2024-VRLobby.

"You can create a little bit more closure in your own story when someone really connects with it": exploring how involvement in youth peer support work can promote peer development

BACKGROUND

Peer support relates to the provision of social/emotional support that is delivered by individuals with lived experience of a key characteristic that is shared with clients. Although the main objective of peer support is to enhance client outcomes, through their involvement, peers derive a secondary benefit to their own personal development. This study applied a hybrid participatory-realist approach to identify what works, for whom, why and in what circumstances within the LOFT Transitional Age Youth (TAY) peer services. This paper presents findings related to the processes and possible benefits of being involved in peer work for the peer supporters themselves.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were completed with peer and non-peer staff from the TAY program. A qualitative analysis applied a retroductive approach that involved both inductive and deductive processes to identify relevant themes.

RESULTS

Four program theories and one over-arching context were identified through the analyses. Program theories were related to: (1) enhancing self-efficacy and self-determination through peer involvement in program design, (2) increasing peer resiliency and self-care through effective supervision, (3) developing professional skills and opportunities for career advancement through peer practice and (4) overcoming stigma through the recognition of the value of peer lived experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Peer practice holds significant potential for the enhancement of the mental health system as well as to increase our understanding of stigma. The findings from this study offer critical new insights into the dynamics of how professional peer practice can support the personal development of youth peers and how programming can be intentionally designed to enhance these benefits.

Engagement in a Preventive Intervention for Preadolescent Children in Foster Care: Considerations for Intervention Design

Engagement in mental health-focused preventive interventions is understudied. Demographic, child, and system-level predictors of engagement were explored in a study with children in foster care (N = 222, Mage = 10.3) who participated in a 30-week intervention. Attendance and engagement in mentor visits and skills groups were rated weekly. Only 4 of 21 predictors showed bivariate associations with attendance/engagement: child sex, IQ, behavior problems, and trauma symptoms. SEM models with these three variables and a measure of adverse childhood experience (ACEs), were used to develop a model of engagement. Males had poorer mentor visit and group engagement. Group attendance was positively associated with trauma symptoms and negatively associated with ACEs. Group engagement was associated with higher IQ and fewer behavior problems. A contextually-sensitive intervention can result in high engagement for a vulnerable and diverse population, yet a few child factors still impacted engagement, and when identified could be ameliorated.Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifiers: NCT00809315 & NCT00810056.

Engaging young people within a collaborative knowledge mobilization network: Development and evaluation

Background

It is critical that mental health systems place a focus on prevention and early intervention focused on young people while integrating youth voice to guide priority directions.

Objective

This study was designed to better understand how youth advisories can be utilized to influence strategic directions within integrated knowledge mobilization networks operating within the youth mental health system.

Design

To support this objective, we reviewed the detailed stages of development in establishing a youth advisory within a national network designed to support the integration of youth services. We also engaged the advisory in a participatory evaluation process that examined the extent to which the network had created processes to include youth voice in decision‐making.

Results

Results from the surveys identified moderate to high levels of individual engagement as well as strong development of processes and procedures that support the inclusion of youth voice across the network.

Discussion

Major successes and challenges are presented and discussed with respect to the development of the advisory. The findings are useful for youth advocates and adult allies working to support youth engagement (YE) in knowledge mobilization to enhance the mental health services system. This study also contributes to research and evaluation efforts examining YE and represents an exemplar methodology for evaluating YE efforts at the system level.

Patient or Public Contribution

Young people as mental health service users and youth mental health advocates were involved in the design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the data as well as the preparation of this manuscript.

Organized Activity Involvement Predicts Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Adolescence

Despite the expected benefits of organized activity involvement (e.g., sports, clubs), inconsistencies in associations between activity involvement and internalizing and externalizing problems may be explained in part by limitations of measurements and variations between individuals. To address these gaps, a latent variable of organized activity participation was tested as a predictor of internalizing and externalizing problems, and initial child adjustment was tested as a moderator of the outcomes from activity participation. Participants included 431 adolescents (52.2% female; ages 12-13 in seventh grade) from the Child Development Project. Adolescents self-reported activity involvement (seventh grade) and internalizing problems (seventh and ninth grades); mothers reported on adolescents' externalizing problems (seventh and eighth grade). Structural equation models showed that an activity involvement latent variable predicted lower internalizing problems. The interaction between activity involvement and initial level of externalizing problems predicted externalizing problems. Specifically, higher levels of activity involvement predicted lower levels of externalizing problems at initially lower levels of externalizing problems. However, at higher levels of initial externalizing problems, higher levels of activity involvement predicted higher levels of externalizing problems. The results suggest that activity involvement reduces risk for subsequent internalizing problems but could increase or decrease risk for subsequent externalizing problems depending on initial levels of externalizing problems.

Examining Integrated Youth Services Using the Bioecological Model: Alignments and Opportunities

Integrated youth service (IYS) is a collaborative approach that brings practitioners together from across disciplines to provide comprehensive services including mental health care for youth and their families. IYS models serve as an advancement in practice as they go beyond the capacity of individual programs and services to reduce the fragmentation of care. Yet, there continue to be opportunities to expand on this perspective and promote health beyond the scope of formalized services. The bioecological model is a theoretical model that examines individual development within multiple systems of influence as well as through interactional processes between the individual and their environment. This paper provides an overview of the bioecological model and the major components of the IYS model, describing alignment and complementarity. The bioecological model provides some explanations for why IYS models may be effective and helps to provide direction to expand applied practice toward a more holistic perspective.