Major
Psychology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2021
Access Type
Restricted Access
Abstract
Mentoring programs, including Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), provide services that would otherwise be nearly unattainable to underprivileged youth. Technology-delivered interventions, or TDIs, provide new approaches to positive youth development by targeting and improving upon specific emotional and behavioral challenges through self-guided tools. Most adolescents struggle to continue using TDIs, but thrive when they are paired with face-to-face contact. Mentors, such as those in BBBS, provide the structure needed to help adolescents thrive. This study will monitor the effects of peer supportive accountability, a form of coaching, on youth mental health through the use of Mental Health apps (MHapps), specifically through an app called CheckMates. Mentors will engage mentees in real-world practice of adaptive skills and behaviors as well as monitor their mentees’ MHapp use to provide support as they engage in this skills-practice. I hypothesize that mentees will experience more positive mental health outcomes from MHapp use when paired with suppor
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Sarah Broner, Psychology; Maya Hareli, Psychology; Dr. Colleen Conley, Psychology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Supportive Accountability in Mental-Health Mentoring of Youth
Mentoring programs, including Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), provide services that would otherwise be nearly unattainable to underprivileged youth. Technology-delivered interventions, or TDIs, provide new approaches to positive youth development by targeting and improving upon specific emotional and behavioral challenges through self-guided tools. Most adolescents struggle to continue using TDIs, but thrive when they are paired with face-to-face contact. Mentors, such as those in BBBS, provide the structure needed to help adolescents thrive. This study will monitor the effects of peer supportive accountability, a form of coaching, on youth mental health through the use of Mental Health apps (MHapps), specifically through an app called CheckMates. Mentors will engage mentees in real-world practice of adaptive skills and behaviors as well as monitor their mentees’ MHapp use to provide support as they engage in this skills-practice. I hypothesize that mentees will experience more positive mental health outcomes from MHapp use when paired with suppor