Opportunities for Technology in Promoting Resilience and Well-Being in Schools

Abstract

The rapid uptake of technology in recent years has changed the ways that young people interact with each other and with their world. Technology offers a medium that facilitates interaction, engagement, and agency, and can be effectively used to improve mental health outcomes. The Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has been a thought leader in this space. Established in 2011 as part of the Australian Government Department of Industry and Innovation’s CRC program, the Young and Well CRC has the purpose to explore the role of technology in young people’s lives, and to determine how those technologies can be used to improve the mental health and well-being of those aged 12–25. The proliferation of technology in young people’s lives has been demonstrated in a series of studies exploring the nature of Internet use among young Australians. Specifically, the 2008 headspace National Youth and Parent Community Survey revealed that young people spent an average of 2 h or less online (1.7 h for 12–17 year olds and 2.0 h for 18–25 year olds; Burns JM, Davenport TA, Durkin LA, Luscombe GM, Hickie IB. Med J Aust 192:S22–S26, 2010). More recent data from the Young and Well National Surveys reveal that this figure has increased to 3.4 h per day on average for 16–25 year olds in 2012 (Burns JM, Birrell E, Bismark M, Pirkis J, Davenport TA, Hickie IB, Weinberg MK, Ellis L. Austr Health Rev 40(5):584–590, 2016) and to 4.5 h per day in 2014.