Physical & mental health

This study will use micro-longitudinal methods, including smartphone-based self-reports and to a wearable smartwatch, to understand daily emotional and social experiences of young adults who engage in non-suicidal self-injury, disordered eating, or depression. Data are collected several times per day, allowing fine-grained understanding of proximal antecedents and consequences.

Funding Partners: SickKids Foundation/CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child & Youth Health New Investigator award
Research Team: Brianna Turner
Contact: briannat@uvic.ca

Dino Island is a gamified cognitive intervention for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Dino Island is based on a validated neuroscientific approach to cognitive remediation rooted in brain injury research (process-specific approaches). Using repetition and hierarchically-graded activities, the process-specific approach has been shown to change brain systems at a neural level, as well as behaviour related to these specific cognitive areas. While children engage with the game, an adult also provides them with metacognitive strategies, an approach to cognitive remediation known as the compensatory approach which is critical for maximizing and generalizing outcomes.

The Intervention is being delivered to children with congenital cardiac disease in partnership with British Columbia Children’s Hospital

Partners: BC Children’s Hospital/UBC
Funding Partner: BCCH Grant
Research Team: Katryn Armstrong, Sarah Hutchison, & Sarah Macoun
Contact: sjmacoun@uvic.ca

Dr. Ames is currently conducting a scoping review on wearable activity trackers (e.g. Fitbits) used in research with child and adolescent populations, including the methods used and incentives needed.

Funding Partner: UVic Internal Research/Creative Project Grant
Research Team: Megan Ames, Heba Elgharbawy, & Travis Menuz 
Contact: mames@uvic.ca

Contact with nature has long been associated with health and many claims of nature’s inherent therapeutic values are espoused. The ways in which contact with nature influences psychological interventions for substance use and mental health has received limited attention in the research. This project seeks to better understand the concept of nature as a co-therapist.

Research Team: Nevin Harper & team
Contact: njharper@uvic.ca

In line with the BC Government’s Pathway to Hope, this work examines potential ways to enhance the prevention of youth mental health crises. It is clear that the current health system is not equipped to handle the current youth mental health climate through traditional 1-on-1 methods. Prevention methods include healthy stress management, self-care techniques, and bullying methods. The researchers are also consulting youth through focus groups about how youth receive and seek services and treatments. The research team consulted with adults who were identified as champions of youth mental health in the community.

Funding Partner: SSHRC
Community Partner: Foundry
Research Team: Bonnie Leadbeater & team
Contact: bleadbea@uvic.ca

This project examines British Columbians’ attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccinations and other public health measures, intent to vaccinate, and the contributing factors. The research team plans to workshop their findings in small group settings, facilitated by the BC Support Unit.

Funding Partners: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Genome BC, BCCDC
Research team: Katelin Albert, Garry Gray, & team
Contact: katelinalbert@uvic.ca

The Teens @ Home project collected data from teens aged 12-18 at various points during the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in summer 2020 and continuing on an ongoing basis. The research team inquires about the youths’ physical and mental health, including rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal ideation, as well as potential contributing factors, including stressors. The research team is in the process of securing funding for an extended qualitative follow-up on the supports teens found most helpful during COVID-19.

Wave 1 Results research brief

Website: https://www.teensathomeduringcovid.com/
Funding partners: UVic Faculty of Social Sciences COVID-19 Research Fund, SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
Research team: Megan Ames, Stephanie Craig (York University), & Debra Pepler (York University)
Contact: mames@uvic.ca

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, experts warned of a potential mental health crisis due to social isolation. Researchers conducted three surveys, each with over 5000 Canadians, at different time points during the pandemic. This project investigates the symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, post-traumatic stress symptoms, suicidal ideation, and the proposed drivers of suicidal ideation including isolation, lack of belonging, alcohol/substance use, and sleep problems. Researchers also included questions to probe the different kinds of coping strategies and resilience factors people are employing.

The second portion of this study is ongoing. Researchers are deploying targeted surveys to better the mental health impacts of the pandemic in specific subpopulations, particularly healthcare workers, Indigenous persons, and those living in rural or remote regions.

Funding Partners: Canadian Institutes of Health Research COVID-19 Mental Health and Substance Use Service Needs and Delivery program (co-funded with Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research), BC Ministry of Health Seed Grant, UVic Research Accelerator Fund
Research Team: Brianna Turner, Theone Paterson, Chris Lalonde, & Karen Kobayashi
Contact: briannat@uvic.ca

Dino Island is a gamified cognitive intervention for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Dino Island is based on a validated neuroscientific approach to cognitive remediation rooted in brain injury research (process-specific approaches). Using repetition and hierarchically-graded activities, the process-specific approach has been shown to change brain systems at a neural level, as well as behaviour related to these specific cognitive areas. While children engage with the game, an adult also provides them with metacognitive strategies, an approach to cognitive remediation known as the compensatory approach which is critical for maximizing and generalizing outcomes.

Presently, the Dino Island team is focusing on validating the gamified intervention in various communities and across a range of developmental disability diagnoses. The intervention is being implemented through schools, in community settings, in clinics, and at home by parents.

Funding Partners: Kids Brain Health Network/Ministry of Health Grant, Cycle III
Partners: HealthTech Connex Centre for Neurology Studies, Kids Uncomplicated/The Uncomplicated Family (Alberta), The Centre for Child Development of the Lower Mainland, Woodview Autism and Mental Health Services (Ontario), Sooke SD, Gulf Islands SD, Quest School (Alberta), Surrey SD
Research Team: Sarah Macoun & team
Contact: sjmacoun@uvic.ca

Draco uses a smartphone app to explore the effectiveness of web-based technology designed to increase the physical activity of preteen children getting less than the recommended 60 minutes per day. Drawing inspiration from the popular Tamagotchi toys from the 1990s, Draco not only encourages children to care for their pets but incorporates real-life physical activity. The research team is currently evaluating Draco’s effectiveness compared to a similar physical activity app with no game features.

Funding partners: CIHR, University of Victoria Internal Funding, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award
Research team: Sam Liu & team
Contact: samliu@uvic.ca

Generation Health, led by CFYS research fellow Dr. Sam Liu, uses digital technology to tackle childhood obesity in Canada. The project employs a family-based intervention targeting 8 to 12-year-old children and aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a stand-alone web-based and a blended in-person and web-based program. The aim of the study is to improve health-related outcomes in children who are overweight or obese across BC. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the research team received additional funding through the university to further support families.

Funding Partners: CIHR IRSC, MITACs, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, BC Ministry of Health, Child Obesity Foundation, University of Victoria
Research team: Sam Liu & team
Contact: samliu@uvic.ca
Website: https://generationhealth.ca/ 

This project aims to develop a leadership skills-based program to supplement bullying prevention efforts within schools. The intervention has been implemented in school districts within BC, as well as adapted into both French and Portuguese. It aims to bolster leadership skills that promote social responsibility to ultimately reduce aggression, problem behaviours, and peer victimization in youth. Schools in Canada and Brazil that are successful in promoting social responsibility and the collective endorsement of prosocial norms have been shown to also reduce instances of bullying.

Funding Partners: SSHRC & Templeton Foundation
Research Team: Paweena Sukhawathanakul, Bonnie Leadbeater, Kendra Thomas (University of Indianapolis), Jonathan Santos (University of Nebraska), Josafá da Cunha (Universidade Federal do Paraná)
Contact: paweenas@uvic.ca

In collaboration with the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre, an evaluation of existing school based prevention programs focused on consent culture across Sooke & Victoria SDs is being conducted. Findings are ongoing.

Community Partners: Victoria Sexual Assault Centre, Sooke School District, Victoria School District
Funding: Public Health Agency of Canada
Research team/collaborators: Mandeep Kaur Mucina (PI)
Contact: mmucina@uvic.ca 

Research fellow Dr. Nevin Harper is leading an ongoing investigation of Canadian wilderness therapy program outcomes and processes. Questions of client fit, readiness for change, and variables influencing outcomes are being assessed.

Funding Partner(s): SSHRC
Research Team: Nevin Harper & team
Contact: njharper@uvic.ca

Questions of ethical practice in wilderness therapy are being investigated in this project via a large youth wilderness therapy database. For example, wilderness therapy, as practiced by many organizations in the United States, utilizes forced transportation of youth into remote programs, often against the will of the child, and often unannounced.

Research Team: Nevin Harper & team
Contact: njharper@uvic.ca

This project explores building cross agency capacity to prevent sexual exploitation of youth. The team is currently writing a report, reflecting on the kinds conversations about sexual exploitation in Victoria as well as the general lack of experience and engagement in this topic.

Community Partner: Pacific Centre Family Service Assocation – MYST program
Funding Partner: United Way
Research Team: Sibylle Artz (PI) & Mandeep Kaur Mucina (Co-PI)
Contact: mmucina@uvic.ca 

Youth are overrepresented in traffic (pedestrian, cycling, driving) incidents caused by judgment errors or distraction (NHTSA, 2013). The purpose of this research project is to investigate when and why youth and young adults (16-30 years) adopt (or not) safe traffic behaviours, and to explore with them (as well as adult practice and policy stakeholders) the foundation for effective educational materials to increase safe traffic behaviours as both driver/rider and passengers. Additionally, the project will reach out to local youth 12 to 15 years with adapted educational materials empowering them as passengers with the potential to influence adult traffic behaviours. This research will be informed by behavioural and educational theories and research, as well as evidence from other jurisdictions, that involve dimensions that inform, explain, practice and monitor behaviour for long-term and sustainable safe traffic behaviours. Legacies of the project include new approaches for engaging youth/young adults in evidence-based reflection on traffic safety, multimedia educational materials and strengthened partnerships across youth traffic safety stakeholders.

Funding Partner: CRD Traffic Safety Commission
Research team: Dr. Frederick Grouzet, Tricia Roche and team
Contact: fgrouzet@uvic.ca

This longitudinal study examines the relation between preschoolers’ language skills, particularly their conversational skills, and their cognitive self-regulation.  The hypothesis guiding this research is that the relation between language and cognitive self-regulation is bidirectional.

Funding Partner: SSHRC Insight Grant
Research Team: Ulrich Mueller & team
Contact: umueller@uvic.ca

In collaboration with the Cowichan Therapeutic Riding Association (CTRA), research fellow Dr. Viviene Temple and her team aimed to document the best practices of equine-assisted therapies, including program objectives, processes, and activities. This work provided evidence of exemplary summer camp practice; evidence that has tangible benefits for the CTRA in marketing their programs and seeking funding to support programming. Additionally, the project provided the wider therapeutic riding and adapted physical activity communities with a resource to inform their own practices.

Funding Partner: Internal UVic Grant
Research Team: Viviene Temple & team
Contact: vtemple@uvic.ca

The Many Minds project enrolled two consecutive years (2017 and 2018) of incoming first-year university students. Over the course of a year, participants completed monthly self-reports between October and April, assessing their risk-taking behaviour. The transition to university is a time of tremendous change in the lives of young adults, with many students living on their own for the first time, new social contexts, and new academic demands. The research team is interested in how students navigate those transitions and how that might impact risk-taking, both in adaptive and potentially harmful manners. The team is currently analyzing the data.

Funding Partner: SSHRC Insight Development grant
Research Team: Brianna Turner & team
Contact: briannat@uvic.ca

Impaired driving remains one of the leading causes of death among youth. In addition to the recent legalization of marijuana in Canada, road safety becomes a growing concern to not only drivers and bikers, but also passengers.  Partnering with the CRD, the center is conducting youth-based research: On the Road, investigating the attitude of numerous safe driving behaviours among youth 15-30 who live in the CRD.  In doing this research, we are hoping to gain some understanding of youth driving behaviours and most importantly, to better build Victoria into a safer city.

Funding partner: CRD Traffic Safety and SSHRC
Research team: Dr. Frederick Grouzet and team
Contact: fgrouzet@uvic.ca

Dino Island is a gamified cognitive intervention for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Dino Island is based on a validated neuroscientific approach to cognitive remediation rooted in brain injury research (process-specific approaches). Using repetition and hierarchically-graded activities, the process-specific approach has been shown to change brain systems at a neural level, as well as behaviour related to these specific cognitive areas. While children engage with the game, an adult also provides them with metacognitive strategies, an approach to cognitive remediation known as the compensatory approach which is critical for maximizing and generalizing outcomes.

One of the first uses of the Dino Island intervention is in partnership with the Cummings School of Medicine. Parents of children born very preterm are delivering the intervention to their children.

Partners: Cummings School of Medicine, Dr. Signey Bray and Deborah Dewey
Funding: CIHR
Research team: Sarah Macoun & team
Contact: sjmacoun@uvic.ca

This research examines the shared responsibility and tensions that may accompany vaccines, sexual health, and sex education. CFYS research fellow Dr. Albert analyzes the relationships between adolescent girls, their parents, their broader families, the state, and the sex education they receive. She also explores the way health information and identities are constructed around sexual health and vaccine politics.

Funding: SSHRC
Research team: Katelin Albert
Contact: katelinalbert@uvic.ca

This ongoing work by CFYS research fellow Dr. Viviene Temple strives to produce tangible evidence-based interventions for parents, care providers, and teachers that allow them to enhance the motor skills and/or physical activity levels of children they work with. The major effort in this regard is an 8-year longitudinal study of children’s physical development from kindergarten to grade 5. Dissemination efforts related to this project in the past four years include publications and presentations in a variety of settings.

Funding Partner: SSHRC
Research Team: Viviene Temple & team
Contact: vtemple@uvic.ca

Over the last 17 years, CFYS research fellow Dr. Sandra Gibbons has met annually with a group of teachers from the Victoria, BC, area. Each year, the teachers undertake various projects with their classes, often under a common theme, but always related to making adolescent girls feel socially connected while partaking in physical activity. Some teachers use peer teaching methods, others have their class take on a service project, and some have created buddy programs with elementary classes. Many teachers allow students to help design the class. Most recently, the teachers implemented a nature-based component to their physical and health education curriculum. As teachers move on from the group, new teachers join, ensuring the longevity of the program.

Funding Partner: SSHRC
Research Team: Sandra Gibbons and Jennifer Gruno
Contact: sgibbons@uvic.ca

The Victoria Healthy Youth Survey offers a glimpse into the transition into young adulthood. Beginning in 2003, Dr. Leadbeater’s research team conducted interviews with a group of over 600 18-year-old youth living in Greater Victoria every two years until 2013, at which point the youth were nearing their 30^th birthday. The survey aims to give a comprehensive picture of youth mental health, physical health, relationship quality, substance use, general well-being, and purpose in life, as well as the diversity of experience and opportunity afforded to youth. There are currently over 30 articles that use this data, as well as an official report on cannabis use. The team, now led by Dr. Ames, hopes to follow up with the youth now as they reach middle adulthood.

Learn more about the findings from the infographic, and health infographic. You can read the full report here.
Funding partner: CIHR & SSHRC
Research team: Bonnie Leadbeater, Megan Ames, & team
Contact: bleadbea@uvic.ca