JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

2020 has been a year of tremendous tumult for multiple groups, but young adults have been particularly affected by the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging adulthood is a developmental phase characterized by multiple shifts in identity as well as significant changes in the patterns of daily living -- as such, it is a risky phase for the onset of major mental illness but also a developmental window of opportunity. Individuals who are college students during the time of COVID-19 face significant risk in terms of being in the midst of a developmental transition and then losing several factors that are stabilizing (e.g., housing, routine, social support, job and financial security) for mental health and well-being. Multimodal chronicles of mental health present an opportunity to examine indicators of health in an ongoing and personalized way using mobile sensing devices and wearable internet-of-things. In this paper, in order to provide an in-depth examination of the impact of COVID-19 through the utility of multimodal personal mental health chronicles, we present a case study of a college student monitored using a multimodal mental health navigator system over a nine-month period throughout 2020 spanning the pre-COVID-19 period to deep into the pandemic. We use the data emerging from the multimodal personal chronicle to understand patterns that help to explicate dramatic increases in the participant’s depression scores from pre- to early COVID-19, focusing in on two periods within the COVID-19 period, a period a relative calm and a period of tumult. Using the provider in the loop model, we state the recommendations generated by the provider after viewing the data from the mental health navigator system. We discuss future directions of this system and the conclusions we can draw regarding COVID-19 and college student mental health.