Adolescent Perspectives on How an Adjunctive Mobile App for Social Anxiety Treatment Impacts Treatment Engagement in Telehealth Group Therapy

Celine Lu, Wendy Chu, Shannon Madden, Bambang Parmanto and Jennifer Susan Silk
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Celine Lu: Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Wendy Chu: Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Shannon Madden: Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Bambang Parmanto: Department of Health Information Management, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Jennifer Susan Silk: Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Adjunctive mobile mental health apps to supplement mental health treatment have been growing in recent years given their ability to address treatment engagement barriers. However, few studies have explicitly examined how these mobile apps impact treatment engagement, and even fewer have investigated this topic through adolescents’ perspectives. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with five adolescents who used an adjunctive mobile mental health app in combination with telehealth cognitive behavioral group therapy for social anxiety. Using a multidimensional framework of treatment engagement, we elicited their perspectives on how the app impacted their engagement in telehealth group therapy and gathered their suggestions for improving the app. Using a consensual qualitative research approach, we learned that adolescents felt the app increased their comfort with others in therapy and their expectations about the effectiveness of mental health apps. They also indicated that the app prepared them for in-session participation and facilitated out-of-session skills practice. Adolescents had valuable suggestions such as adding app features to facilitate social connectedness between group members and adding appointment reminders in the app. This preliminary study highlights implications for future adjunctive mobile mental health app developers and researchers to increase adolescents’ treatment engagement in mental health services.

Keywords: adjunctive mobile mental health apps; treatment engagement; social anxiety; cognitive behavioral therapy; adolescents; telehealth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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