Our Generation: Developing an App to Engender Peacebuilding and Resilient Mindsets in Young People

Study Objectives: The effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their negative impacts on mental health, self-regulatory capacities, education, employment, and crime are well documented. Correspondingly, the multitude of harmful effects because of ACEs may compound and increase maladaptive outcomes later in life, including suicidal behaviours Research has suggested that building resilience may help reduce risk among those at risk of suicide, and the general population. Building resilience at a population level has the capacity to reduce the likelihood of many stress-related disorders and, consequently, self-harm and suicidal behaviours. This work reports on the research underpinning the development of an app to promote and evaluate evidence-based resilience-and peace building interventions by engaging children, young people, and their key contacts, in activities and games which build emotional resilience, self-awareness, and emotional regulation.

Methods and Materials: A monitoring and evaluation framework, developed for the OUR Generation project, informed development of the app. This framework included seven indicators identified from academic literature as contributors to emotional resilience and peacebuilding, including empathy, intergroup trust, mental health and well-being, perspective-taking, outgroup attitudes, intergroup contact and coping and problem-solving. Workshops were held with six groups of young people aged 8-23 years to explore ideas for the gamification of the app. An app developer was then enlisted to work within the guidance from the workshops and the indicator framework. Questionnaires completed at the end of each game will evidence changes in attitudes, knowledge, behaviours, and skills related to each of the seven indicators, identified as contributors to improved mental health and wellbeing, emotional resilience, and peacebuilding.
Results and Conclusion: Evidence illustrates that resilience training and interventions can support a decrease in psychological distress and increase suicide resilience. Broadening assessment of interventions beyond mental health measures, and beyond one population, can help illuminate specific avenues and recognise the risk and protective factors that contribute to the differential outcomes. This app will provide a population wide resource that can be used to improve resilience and peace building, and evaluate changes in attitudes, knowledge, behaviours, and skills across these indicators through the gamification of interventions relating to these.