How college students diagnosed with anxiety disorders and/or depression use everyday technology

Abstract

Anxiety disorders and/or depression are the most frequently diagnosed mental health problems (MHP) among American college students. Everyday technology (EDT) is being used with those who have MHP to help them cope with the mental/cognitive disabilities arising from having anxiety and/or depression. Deveau investigated the types of EDT students with MHP use to manage their roles as college students. While this research indicated that individuals with MHP were open to learning about EDT they can use, the author recommended further investigation of the topic. This qualitative study further investigated what types of EDT college students use to manage their anxiety disorder and/or depression. Our research found that while college students with anxiety and depression are familiar with and willing to use EDT to help compensate for some of the issues they have resulting from their anxiety and depression, some reported that the use of EDT contributes to their problems. Implications for further investigation include continuing to examine the use of EDT amongst a larger group of college students. Future research should also investigate creating a peer run technology group, taught by interested student such as occupational therapy, psychology or computer science students to name a few, to inform students about apps to manage scheduling, routines, medication management and symptoms management. Additionally, the positive and negative aspects of social media and how to manage ones use of it use would be a relevant topic for group discussion.

Implications for rehabilitation

• While most college students currently use everyday technology as a part of their lives, it has positive and negative meanings to college students who have anxiety and/or depression.

• Finding out what a user wants to do with technology and the meaning it has for them is a critical part of insuring the right match between a person and an assistive technology intervention.

• Consider a full range of no to high technology options when working with college students who experience the mental/cognitive disabilities resulting from mental health problems to identify assistive technology solutions.

Keywords:

• Everyday technology
• mental/cognitive disability
• mental illness
• assistive technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.