The COVID-19 pandemic upended the lives of families with young children as school closures and social distancing requirements left caregivers struggling to facilitate educational experiences, maintain social connections, and ensure financial stability. Considering families' increased reliance on technology to survive, this research documents parents' lived experiences adapting to technology's outsized role alongside other shifts in family life associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we describe a 10-week study with 30 enrolled families with children aged 3 to 13 in the United States using the asynchronous remote communities (ARC) methodology to 1) understand the benefits and challenges faced by families as they adapted technology at home to navigate the pandemic, and 2) to ideate improvements to those experiences through co-design. We found that amidst gaps in infrastructural support from schools, workplaces, and communities, parents experienced deep anxiety and took on new roles, including tech support, school administrator, and curator of meaningful activities for their children. As parents shared bold and creative technology-based solutions for improving family well-being, schooling experiences, social life, and beyond, they demonstrated their capacity to contribute to new models of learning and family life. Our findings are a call to action for CSCW researchers, designers, and family-focused practitioners to work with learning communities that incorporate parent, teacher, and technology experiences in their academic and community planning.

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Background Many teenagers in the United States experience challenges with symptoms of depression, and they lack adequate resources for accessing in-person mental health care. Involving teens and clinicians in designing technologies that use evidence-based practices that reduce barriers to accessing mental health care is crucial. Interventions based on behavioral activation (BA) help teens understand the relationship between mood and activity, help them practice goal-directed behaviors to improve mood, and may be particularly well-suited to delivery via internet-based platforms. Objective This study aims to understand the needs and challenges that teens and mental health clinicians face in depression management and involve them in the design process of a remote intervention that uses asynchronous remote communities. Our goal is to understand the benefits and challenges of adapting BA to an internet-based platform that supports the asynchronous remote community approach as a delivery tool for teen depression management. Methods We enrolled mental health clinicians (n=10) and teens (n=8) in separate, private, internet-based groups on Slack (Slack Technologies Inc). They participated in 20-minute design activities for 10 weeks and were then invited to interviews about their experiences in the study. Results Both teen and clinician participants wanted internet-based support for BA as a supplement to in-person therapy. Although participants perceived the asynchronous format as conducive to supporting accessible care, teens and clinicians raised concerns about safety, privacy, and the moderating of the internet-based group. Design decisions that address these concerns need to be balanced with the potential benefits of learning coping skills, increasing access to mental health care, and promoting asynchronous human connection to support teens. Conclusions We discuss considerations for balancing tensions in privacy and safety while designing and selecting internet-based platforms to support remote care and integrating evidence-based support when designing digital technologies for the treatment of teens with depression.

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BACKGROUND Many teenagers in the United States experience challenges with symptoms of depression, and they lack adequate resources for accessing in-person mental health care. Involving teens and clinicians in designing technologies that use evidence-based practices that reduce barriers to accessing mental health care is crucial. Interventions based on behavioral activation (BA) help teens understand the relationship between mood and activity, help them practice goal-directed behaviors to improve mood, and may be particularly well-suited to delivery via internet-based platforms. OBJECTIVE This study aims to understand the needs and challenges that teens and mental health clinicians face in depression management and involve them in the design process of a remote intervention that uses asynchronous remote communities. Our goal is to understand the benefits and challenges of adapting BA to an internet-based platform that supports the asynchronous remote community approach as a delivery tool for teen depression management. METHODS We enrolled mental health clinicians (n=10) and teens (n=8) in separate, private, internet-based groups on Slack (Slack Technologies Inc). They participated in 20-minute design activities for 10 weeks and were then invited to interviews about their experiences in the study. RESULTS Both teen and clinician participants wanted internet-based support for BA as a supplement to in-person therapy. Although participants perceived the asynchronous format as conducive to supporting accessible care, teens and clinicians raised concerns about safety, privacy, and the moderating of the internet-based group. Design decisions that address these concerns need to be balanced with the potential benefits of learning coping skills, increasing access to mental health care, and promoting asynchronous human connection to support teens. CONCLUSIONS We discuss considerations for balancing tensions in privacy and safety while designing and selecting internet-based platforms to support remote care and integrating evidence-based support when designing digital technologies for the treatment of teens with depression. CLINICALTRIAL