Background and Research Plan
HARMONY - Holistic Assessment of Real-time Mental Health and Online Youth – is a study that investigates the mental health and well-being of young people, run in collaboration with Rete Operativa. The aim of this study is to investigate how adolescents use social media objectively, how they perceive and relate to it subjectively, and how fluctuations in their social media use are associated with changes in their mental health over time.
What will happen in the study?
What is Data Donation?
Data donation utilises social media users’ rights to access the data any social media platform collects on them. We have developed a software where individuals are able to see their social media data in an easy-to-read format, and if they feel comfortable doing so, share parts of this information with researchers in a private way.
This tool has been developed in close collaboration with data scientists and legal experts to ensure it is safe and DSG/GDPR compliant.
This project collects data electronically over approximately two weeks. During the two weeks,
you will:
Download a mobile app called Avicenna (available here) to provide consent and complete a questionnaire (about 15 minutes) focusing on your lifestyle, well-being and social media use.
Complete a set of games on a tablet at Rete Operativa (about 45 minutes) to assess your cognitive skills.
Log in to the Avicenna and complete a very short survey (less than 3 minutes each) three times a day for two weeks. These short surveys will ask about your feelings at that moment, your daily activities and your social media use.
Download your social media data from TikTok and/or Instagram. After reviewing the visualised data, which will show details of your social media activity (you can scroll down to watch a video of how this visualisation looks), you’ll have the option to donate this data for research purposes (data donation, more information below). You are only required to donate the aspects of data that you feel comfortable sharing.
Who can take part?
We are recruiting 100 young people living in Ticino and attending Rete Operativa services to try out our tool, gather their experiences. We are looking for participants between 14 and 18 years of age who own a smartphone, use social media (ideally TikTok and/or Instagram).
Why you should take part?
You can earn up to 30 CHF (Migros vouchers) for participation. This is also a great opportunity for young people to get hands-on experience with new and innovative research!
Here is an example of how you would visualise your data
Our tool transforms complicated data into easy-to-understand visuals, and you can use it to make informed decision about whether you would like to share them with researchers.
There are three reasons why this is a great tool for research:
Your data will remain on your local PC until you press ‘Donate’ on the Next platform.
All uploaded data will be securely stored and anonymised for analysis purposes.
Only authorised members of our research team will have access to the uploaded data, and stringent confidentiality measures will be upheld at all times.