Wysa

Background and Purpose: Black high school-aged youth living in neighborhoods with high rates of violence face many barriers to receiving emotional and behavioral health support, including the often financial and geographic inaccessibility of and the potential stigma around seeking out these health resources. However, as more young people have access to smartphones, there may be opportunities to break down these barriers in digitally creative and innovative ways. In order to assess the interest in a digital alternative to traditional methods of mental health resources, we designed a qualitative study to see if Black youth who reside in neighborhoods with high rates of violence would use an emotionally intelligent chatbot (named in the title) that uses artificial intelligence to address emotional, and or, behavioral health issues.

Methods: We recruited 12 Black high school students from Brooklyn, NY between the ages of 16 and 18, with the only inclusion criteria being the ability to download the app to their smartphone. The study began with an orientation session to introduce participants to the app’s functions and capabilities. During orientation, each participant filled out a questionnaire about their social media use and downloaded the app to their smartphones. The participants were then instructed to use the app over the next two-weeks at their own discretion, with the only requirement being they use it at least once. After two weeks, participants attended an hour-long focus group to share their experiences with the app and provide feedback, along with completing a post-intervention questionnaire. Participant responses were then thematically analyzed.

Findings: Our study revealed that Black youth thought the app could be useful for other people their age who reside in similar communities. Participants expressed that the most attractive parts of the app were the anonymity and confidentiality of conversations. Other functions of the app that participants reacted positively to were consistent reminders and check-ins, breathing exercises, and providing reflective questions. However, participants also expressed that responses from app were repetitive which took away from the authenticity of the conversations; the exercises and tools were difficult to locate; and the feedback was more oriented towards future coping rather than suggestions for something happening at that moment. The most common feedback provided by participants was that app would give coping suggestions about feelings they were not expressing. 

Conclusions and Implications: Despite participants expressing areas for improvement, there was unanimous consensus among participants that they would recommend the app for youth their age. Participants believed that the app had the ability to help individuals with everyday life stress and anxiety. Living in an age of unfounded digital access, new AI technologies can reach key demographics who may not have access or be comfortable with traditional mental health resources. Additionally, participants provided critical feedback to researchers and the app developers regarding improvements and adapting the application to be more culturally relevant. Black youth living in neighborhoods with high rates of violence have valuable expertise to offer tech companies seeking and hoping to build tools for positive and helpful social impacts.