PsychChild

Project Description Narrative:

The U.S. is experiencing a children’s mental health crisis. "Screentime" activities are inextricably linked to all aspects of youth mental health, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, ADHD, addiction, bullying, self-harm, and suicidality. However, most clinicians (and most adults, in general) have a minimal understanding of what young people watch, play, and read during their screen time. This enormous knowledge gap is alarming and constantly expanding, as school age children spend an average of 4-6 hours per day (outside of school) looking at screens and interacting with digital devices (the average is 6-9 hours per day for teens).

PsychChild will create a free, educational website and companion YouTube channel to teach clinicians how to understand and leverage children’s screentime activities as powerful components of the treatment experience. The researchers plan to scale PsychChild beyond this award period by continually growing the website and channel with additional educational content. Gaining a working knowledge of screentime activities will transform the way clinicians evaluate and interpret their patient’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors — which will translate to more collaborative, accurate, and effective mental healthcare.