Partnerships for Prevention: A plan for managing student stress, anxiety, and pain through interactive media.

Duquesne University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The primary SEPA project is focused on anxiety and stress, which are incidental to everyone’s daily life. For children and teens, learning how to navigate these challenges is critical to a healthy lifestyle, yet little is done in school to teach students about these feelings and the underlying biology and physiology; a limitation that is placing students at risk. Adding to what was already a growing trend in mental health challenges for students, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/2021 created new stresses and anxieties. Our recent survey of student stressors carried out pre-pandemic and repeated during the pandemic asked students about their stressors, and also asked parent’s their perception of their children and teacher’s perception of their students. Among other things, students scored their stress about the health of others 62% higher than what the parents perceived the child’s level of concern to be. Similarly, students concern about their own health was 66% higher than their parent’s perception. These data indicate that on top of all the stressors present in the lives of students, they have added concerns about health issues associated with the pandemic, not the least of them being anxiety over vaccination. Understanding science without a basic foundation can be intimidating for students, families and teachers. This is especially true with the flood of miss-information on the web and social media leading to mistrust. Unprepared, students are left with confusion that can fuel depression or other mental health challenges. For example, recent studies by the CDC show that in 2021, nearly 1 in 5 students age 12 to 17 were receiving mental health treatment. Countless more are undiagnosed and un-treated. In the worst case, failing to address mental health challenges can negatively influence academics, sports, arts and social interactions, possibly leading to depression and other mental health diseases including self-harm, opioid use disorder or the tragedy of the disease of suicide. Our hypothesis is that understanding anxiety and stress can be influenced by narrative-based educational stories for late elementary and middle school. Creating an understanding of the biology of the brain, body and emotions plus developing healthy habits can set the stage for preventative mental health resiliency providing benefits for now and for later in life. Using formative assessment to better understand the world view of the student we develop an integrated collection of narrative based, digital and analog multimedia including YouTube animated videos, Adaptive Reader stories and small group, face-to-face table-top games. With illustrations of the fundamental biology underlying the physiology and neural mechanisms of stress and anxiety the stories will reveal research-backed coping strategies and how they can serve as the first line of defense, helping individuals to listen to their bodies to understand what they can control, and also when it's time to seek professional advice. Each resource is further supported by teacher guides, curriculum and student readings. This transmedia approach facilitates low barriers to use and ease of entry through different modalities maximizing utility for the teacher or home schooler.