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Evaluating the Impact of a Mobile Neurofeedback App for Young Children at School and Home

Published: 02 May 2019 Publication History

Abstract

About 18% of children in industrialized countries suffer from anxiety. We designed a mobile neurofeedback app, called Mind-Full, based on existing design guidelines. Our goal was for young children in lower socio-economic status schools to improve their ability to self-regulate anxiety by using Mind-Full. In this paper we report on quantitative outcomes from a sixteen-week field evaluation with 20 young children (aged 5 to 8). Our methodological contribution includes using a control group, validated measures of anxiety and stress, and assessing transfer and maintenance. Results from teacher and parent behavioral surveys indicated gains in children's ability to self-regulate anxiety at school and home; a decrease in anxious behaviors at home; and cortisol tests showed variable improvement in physiological stress levels. We contribute to HCI for mental health with evidence that it is viable to use a mobile app in lower socio-economic status schools to improve children's mental health.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2019
    9077 pages
    ISBN:9781450359702
    DOI:10.1145/3290605
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    Published: 02 May 2019

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    Author Tags

    1. brain computer interfaces
    2. children
    3. field studies
    4. hci for mental health
    5. positive computing
    6. self-regulation

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    • (2024)“Can you be with that feeling?”: Extending Design Strategies for Interoceptive Awareness for the Context of Mental HealthProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3643054(1-21)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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    • (2024)Are mobile neurofeedback games a feasible way to improve self-regulation of attention for young marginalized children?International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.10069042:COnline publication date: 1-Dec-2024
    • (2023)Application of neurotechnology in students with ADHD: An umbrella reviewComunicar10.3916/C76-2023-0531:76Online publication date: 1-Jul-2023
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