Currently submitted to: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Jul 16, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 16, 2026 - Sep 10, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Design Priorities for a Self-Guided Digital Mental Health Intervention Supporting Wellbeing during the Transition to Adulthood: A Nominal Group Technique Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The transition to adulthood for young adults aged between 18-29 is increasingly characterized by stressors linked to risks for both short– and long term mental ill health. While a self-guided digital mental health intervention (DMHIs) holds promise as a means of support, there is a need to understand what content and features Swedish young adults and stakeholders consider the most important.
Objective:
Exploring Swedish interest holders’ perceptions of young adults’ user needs and priorities for content and features in a self-guided digital mental health intervention promoting their mental wellbeing during the transition to adulthood.
Methods:
We conducted four workshops with young adult high school students, young adults with long-term mental ill health issues and professionals (n=53) using a Nominal Group Technique (NGT). Thereafter, an expert panel of young adults (n=6) prioritized the findings from these workshops based on importance..
Results:
The highest priorities were emotionally supportive content normalizing the ups and downs of the transition to adulthood, strengthening self‑compassion and mental health literacy, actively working towards preventing experiences of involuntary loneliness and self‑stigma. Ensuring anonymity and robust IT‑security was also viewed as fundamental for trust. In contrast, more advanced technological features, such as goal and reward systems, user-control and personalization, generative AI based support and built‑in games, were ranked lower.
Conclusions:
This study identified key interest-group informed priorities for digital mental health interventions and translated them into a theory-informed design framework centered on supporting autonomy and user volition (“on my own terms”), competence and performance capacity (“I can handle this”), as well as relatedness and role habituation (“we’re in this together”). The findings highlight the importance of simplicity, practical skill-building for daily life, and connection with others to support usage among young adults.
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