Table 1.
Characteristics of the empirical research on mental health CAsa for youth (N=39).
| Dimensions and codes | Value, n (%) | Key trends | ||||
| Research phase | Most of the empirical research involved development and summative evaluation; less work involved formative evaluation to (re)design mental health CAs with youth | |||||
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Design | 15 (38) |
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Development | 29 (74) |
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Formative evaluation | 15 (38) |
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Summative evaluation | 36 (92) |
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| Research design | Most of the research involved user testing or experiments to evaluate mental health CAs | |||||
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User testing | 18 (46) |
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Experiment | 18 (46) |
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| Research participants and duration | Most commonly, the research on mental health CAs was conducted with <100 participants who are adolescents and young adults without mental health conditions for <4 wk | |||||
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Participant age (y) | |||||
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Adolescents (12-18) | 16 (41) |
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Young adults (18-30) | 14 (36) |
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Youth (14-25) | 9 (23) |
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Participant group | |||||
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General population | 21 (54) |
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At-risk population | 18 (46) |
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Number of participants | |||||
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<100 | 28 (72) |
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100-200 | 6 (15) |
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>200 | 2 (5) |
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Duration of CA interaction | |||||
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1 time | 6 (15) |
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<4 wk | 12 (31) |
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4-8 wk | 5 (13) |
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9-16 wk | 1 (3) |
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Research ethics | Research ethics such as institutional review and consent were addressed in most research; however, only a few research studies addressed data privacy and safety of youth participants | ||||
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Consent | 26 (67) |
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Institutional review | 26 (67) |
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Data confidentiality | 8 (20) |
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Safety | 4 (10) |
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aCA: conversational agent.