This presentation outlines an exploratory knowledge mobilization study where research-based and evidence-based posts were shared on instagram (@resilienceinyouth) to see if instagram was a feasible outlet for resilience knowledge mobilization. Research conducted by researchers in the CIHRTeamSV grant was shared on instagram via links to ResearchGate. The development of a resilience-based app for youth is described and an overview of its features is given.

1. Resilience Knowledge
Mobilization and the
ResilienceInYouth App
1

2. Knowledge Mobilization via Social Media
➢ 73% of teens have a smartphone; 76% use social media
○ 92% of teens go online daily(Lenhart et al., 2015)
➢ Effective platform for communication with public (vs. mass
media)
→ cost-effective & sustainable (Dowshen, Lee, Lehman, Castillo, & Mollen,
2015)
➢ Social media (SM) has been shown to be effective in reaching
large numbers of adolescents(Lister et al., 2015)
➢ SM platforms provide opportunity to test research reach:
○ Connect public with advocacy/academia/research/etc.
➢ Active Twitter engagement → increase in profile views & article
downloads/citations (Wekerle, Vakili, Stewart, & Black, …)
○ Encourages investigation into SM as forum for evidence-based
conversation about public health topics
○ Does this approach work directly with youth/youth stakeholders?
2

3. Instagram Experiment
Exploratory study
(To date, few published studies about
Instagram)
Barriers
➢ Not useful in conclusive decision
making
➢ Cannot be applied to general
population
➢ Interpretation of qualitative data
has risk of bias
Online photo-sharing networking service
➔ Capture and share photos and videos through mobile devices (Hu,
Manikonda, & Kambhampati, 2014)
➔ 52% of teens use Instagram (Lenhart et al., 2015)
3
Research Questions
1. Is Instagram effective in engaging
in evidence-based resilience
messages?
● Outcomes: Followers, Engagement (#
views and likes) for evidence-based
posts
2. Is Instagram effective in engaging
with specific research articles?
● Outcomes: Engagement for research-
based posts (# views and likes for
posts with links to research),
Researchgate views

4. Instagram Experiment
Study Design: Baseline, ABAB
Week Dates Description
1 Mon, Feb 19 -
Sun, Feb 25
Baseline
2 Mon, Feb 26 -
Sun, Mar 4
Intervention (post 3x a day)
3 Mon, Mar 5 -
Sun, Mar 11
No intervention (no posting)
4 Mon, Mar 12 -
Sun, Mar 18
Intervention (post 3x a day)
5 Mon, Mar 19 -
Sun, Mar 25
No intervention (no posting)
Instagram
● Impressions
● Reach
● Profile Views
● Website Clicks
● Top Posts
○ Top 6 posts from past 7 days
● Followers
○ When followers are on
Instagram
○ Where followers are located
○ Number of new followers
○ Gender breakdown
ResearchGate
● Reads
Information collected weekly on:@resilienceinyouth
4

5. Resilience is knowing that you will persevere.
#ResilienceInYouth #Resilience #Wellness #WellnessWarrior #WellnessJourney #Overcome
#Positivity #PositiveVibes #Strength #Empowerment
#Resilient #ResilientSquad #ResilientFuture #Wellbeing #WellnessZone
Example: Evidence-Based Post
5

6. This data was obtained from a study by Smith et al. (2017), entitled “Is socially prescribed
perfectionism veridical? A new take on the stressfulness of perfectionism”.
READ THIS #OpenAccess ARTICLE HERE:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312615742_Is_socially_prescribed_perfectionism_veridical_A_new_take_on_t
he_stressfulness_of_perfectionism
#ResilienceInYouth #Resilience #Research #Wellness #WellnessWarrior #WellnessJourney #Perfectionism #Social
#StressFree #Pressure #Resilient #ResilientSquad #ResilientFuture #Wellbeing #WellnessZone
Example: Research-Based Post
6

7. Data Collected So
Far...
7

8. Instagram Followers
8
Date
Followers
Intervention Weeks

9. Posts with Highest Likes
Feb. 27
41 likes
9
Resilience is knowing that you will persevere.
#ResilienceInYouth #Resilience #Wellness
#WellnessWarrior #WellnessJourney #Overcome
#Positivity #PositiveVibes #Strength
#Empowerment
#Resilient #ResilientSquad #ResilientFuture
#Wellbeing #WellnessZone
This data was obtained from a study by Smith,
Vidovic, Sherry, Stewart, & Saklofske (2018),
entitled “Are perfectionism dimensions risk
factors for anxiety symptoms? A meta-analysis
of 11 longitudinal studies”. READ THIS
#OpenAccess ARTICLE HERE: [RG link]
#ResilienceInYouth #Resilience #Research
#Wellness #WellnessWarrior #WellnessJourney
#Perfectionism #Perfect #Doubt #Mistakes
#Resilient #ResilientSquad #ResilientFuture
#Wellbeing #WellnessZone
Resilience is learning from your
struggles.
#ResilienceInYouth #Resilience
#Wellness #WellnessWarrior
#WellnessJourney #Overcome
#Positivity #PositiveVibes #Strength
#Empowerment #Resilient
#ResilientSquad #ResilientFuture
#Wellbeing #WellnessZone
Feb. 28
35 likes
Mar. 16
35 likes

10. Reads on ResearchGate
10
Date
Reads
Intervention Weeks

11. Limitations
➢ Uneven amount of posts per article each week
➢ Non-chronological post display order on followers’
feeds
○ According to Instagram’s algorithm
○ Posting order not directly related to engagement with
posts
➢ No way to track re-posting
11

12. Social Media Usage Benefits
➢ SM users will engage with
sensitive topics (not just positive
messages)
➢ Engaged with organizations &
professionals
○ Good network for sharing
research among professionals
➢ Smartphone technology can help encourage youth to be
stakeholders in their own mental health
➢ SM (such as Instagram) can be venue to promote evidence-
based resilience messages, promote resilience-based app
12

13. Introduction to the
ResilienceInYouth
App
An innovative app developed with evidence-based features
to promote mental wellness and foster resilience in
underserved populations of at-risk youth.
13

14. What is resilience?
“Resilience is both the capacity of individuals to navigate their
way to the psychological, social, cultural, and physical
resources that sustain their well-being, and their capacity
individually and collectively to negotiate for these resources to
be provided in culturally meaningful ways.” –Ungar, 2008
● Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) lead to poor
outcomes
● We can mitigate poor outcomes
by fostering resilience in high
ACEs youth
14

15. How does the app promote
resilience?
• The app was designed with feedback from resilience researchers,
youth organizations (TEAR, CAS, Kids Help Phone) and youth input
• App has been designed to foster two adaptive resilience strategies
in particular:
1. Emotion Regulation (ER)
→monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions
(Thompson, 1994)
2. Cognitive Organization
→management of knowledge
• These functions are associated with the pre-frontal cortex
→youth exposed to maltreatment have a greater risk of abnormal
development of this region (Hart & Rubia, 2012) 15

16. Who will the app target?
• Underserved populations of youth:
→Crown Wards
→Aboriginal youth in remote locations
High ACEs and access barriers to mental health services/mental
health promotion education
• Adolescents-10 to 19 years old (WHO, 2015)
→first occurrences of mental health disorders (eg., depression,
anxiety) (McGorry, Purcell, Goldstone, & Amminger, 2011)
→adolescent risk-taking behavior (eg., substance abuse, sexual
risk taking, smoking—coping mechanisms)
16

17. What is Emotion Regulation ?
• Emotions are a normal part of our everyday lives
• The occurrence of strong emotions are common before
one engages in self-injury
• Emotions: guilt, sadness, anger, self-blame, low self-
worth
• Self-injury can serve as a short-term fix to stop certain
emotions (eg. emotionally overwhelmed)
• Describes an individual’s ability to effectively manage
and respond to an emotional experience
17

18. Emotion Regulation linked to
Child Maltreatment
• Maltreatment characteristics with emotion regulation
triggering traumatic-relevant symptoms in female
adolescents (eg. PTSD)
• Maltreatment characteristics predicted variance in 4
symptoms: anger, anxiety, dissociation & post-traumatic
stress
18

19. App Features: Circle of Six
• Six individuals the user has
programmed into the app that they
can contact by clicking their icon when
they are distressed/need to talk
→social worker, peers, family
→can share mood rating/journal entry
• Adult role models help shape at-risk
adolescents’ resilient identity
→balance of autonomy and “benign
control” (Ungar, 2004)
• Establishing positive relationships
leads to ↓ stress symptoms
↑ relational learning
(Wekerle, Waechter, & Chung, 2012) 19

20. Mood Rating/Journal
• Asked to rate six emotions on slide
scale:
→positive: vibrant, happy, hopeful
→negative: sad, frustrated, angry
• Asked to complete journal reflection
after mood rating is given
→beneficial to ER and cognitive
organization;↑ mental and physical
wellbeing;↑ academic
performance;
↓ distress
(Pennebaker, 1997; Pennebaker & Francis,
1996)
• Option to share with others
→communication tool
20

21. Mood Graph
• The user is able to see how their mood fluctuated over time
↑ emotional awareness (ER)
• Stable mood patterns lead to overall better mood and reduced
risk for certain mental health issues in comparison to those
with vast fluctuations in mood (Grubar, Kogan, Quoidback, & Mauss,
2013; Williams, 1981; Cowdry, Gardner, O’Leary, Leibenluft, & Rubinow, 1991)
• Healthier for mood ratings to remain close to the center-
“Sunshine Band”
21

22. Activities
• User is given suggestions of
healthy activities-positive
distraction
• They are able to log how
much time was dedicated to
each activity
• Physical activity, yoga and
meditation are associated
with ↑ emotional wellbeing
↑ social
wellbeing
↑ overall
wellbeing
In at-risk youth
(Lubans, Plotnikoff & Lubans, 2011;
Waechter & Wekerle, 2015)
22

23. Avatar Creator
• The user is able to
customize the avatar
used throughout the
app to enhance its
self-reflectiveness
• Highly self-reflective
avatars may be linked
to a higher sense of self
awareness and
therefore, increased
resilience
(Vasalou & Joinson, 2009)
23

24. Calendar
→ organization: schedule appointments, tests, etc.
→ view past journal entries, mood ratings, activity log
24

25. Petris Game
• The user is prompted to play Tetris throughout the day
→cognitive organization, ER and positive distraction
• Strategy games linked to
self-regulation over time
(Gabbiadini & Greitemeyer, 2017)
• Playing Tetris linked to
decrease in traumatic
memory flashbacks
(Holmes, James, Coode-Bate, &
Deeprose, 2009; James et al., 2009)
• Positive effects on spatial
working memory
(Bikic, Christensen, Leckman, Bilenberg, & Dalsgaard, 2017)
25

26. Connection to Tetris
• Holmes et al. (2009) published:
Can Playing the Computer Game
“Tetris” Reduce the Build-Up of
Flashbacks for Trauma? A
Proposal from Cognitive
Science
• Playing Tetris after viewing traumatic
content decreases involuntary
memory flashbacks of the event
• Tetris can be effective in reducing
traumatic flashbacks pertaining to
psychological distress and dysfunction
• Tetris may not be limited to the
immediate post-trauma period but
can continue to compete for
26

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