Mental wellbeing in young people is understandably a growing focus, both within the UK and around the Woodland World. There have been a range of studies looking at the implementation of universal interventions in young people to try and maintain wellbeing and prevent illness. Unfortunately, to date, the literature has shown that universal interventions are not effective at promoting wellbeing in young people (see Soffia’s recent blog on universal DBT interventions in schools).
An Ofcom report in 2023 outlined that 9 out of 10 children have a mobile phone by the age of 11 and that 98% of 16-to-17-year-olds own a smartphone. There are concerns that using smartphones may be increasing anxiety and depression in this age group (Haidt, 2024) – but could the smartphone also be a solution?
So far, studies trialling smartphone apps have tended to be small scale (e.g., less than 100 participants), which limits reliability. However, Watkins et …