Frazer Faculty of Education, Ontario Tech University
Mental Health in the Digital Age Lab
Researching digital wellness and holistic well-being across the lifespan to promote flourishing in the digital age.
Our Mission
The Mental Health in the Digital Age Lab is a research hub that explores the intersections between mental health, technology and learning across the lifespan. We investigate what it means to flourish in the digital age by researching digital wellness, individual and collective well-being, positive psychology, flourishing, educational psychology and trauma-informed care. Through our action-based research, we are committed to promoting holistic wellness, thereby making our communities healthier.
Our Research Foundation
Our overall research goals focus on the intersections between mental health, technology, and learning and performance across the lifespan. Learn more about how we explore these intersections by hovering over different areas of our interactive logo below!
Mental Health
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Our mental health can impact every aspect of our well-being, including physical, social, emotional, and spiritual health. At the Lab, we investigate how our mental health impacts our ability to learn and perform at various ages and developmental stages.
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We explore a wide-range of mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, substance use and dependencies, trauma, self-harm, body image concerns, suicide ideation, and more. Our goal is to use this research to provide evidence-based strategies for children and youth, parents, educators, and community members to support mental well-being and flourishing for individuals and communities.
Learning and Performance
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Our ability to learn and perform is influenced by many factors, including our physical and mental health, environment, and the support systems around us. Understanding how these variables can affect our learning and performance at school, work, home or in community settings is essential to supporting healthy development. ​
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At the Lab, we investigate how people learn, grow, and perform in everyday life, and examine the role of technology in these processes. We aim to identify ways to optimize learning and working experiences in an increasingly digital world.
Technology
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In the digital age, technology is embedded into our every day lives and there are significant opportunities to support our well-being, learning and performance, but also risks. Technology is a "double-edged sword," where there are opportunities to support our well-being, increase accessibility, foster connections, and promote learning; but also risks to our well-being, heightened inequalities through the digital divide, increased risk of social isolation, and impacts on skills such as critical thinking. At the Lab, we explore moderating variables to determine best practices that allow us to reap the many benefits of technology while mitigating the risks.
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Human-Centred and Action-Based Research
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Individual and collective well-being are central to every piece of research we do at the Lab. Our core goal is to make our communities healthier, and that means focusing on evidence-based strategies to support individual wellness and community well-being in online and offline spaces. Through action-based research and engaging in research-to-practice activities, we investigate what it means for each of us to flourish in the digital world.
Holistic Approaches to Wellness in the Digital Age
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A holistic approach to wellness considers physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual well-being. At the Lab, we also believe that digital wellness is another core domain that needs to be included in these approaches and conversations. Therefore, our research focuses on how technology impacts all areas of well-being, and how individuals and communities can achieve digital wellness in order to flourish.
Our Research & Outreach Areas
Our Lab focuses on educational and psychological research that explores moderators that influence the success of prevention and intervention approaches. Our five core research and outreach areas include digital wellness, individual and collective well-being, positive psychology and flourishing, educational psychology and trauma-informed care.
Digital Wellness
Digital wellness refers to the impact of technology on an individual's well-being and emphasizes the need for a balanced relationship with our digital devices and online platforms. This relationship is unique to each person and changes as we grow and develop throughout our life.
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At the Lab, digital wellness is a central research component to all of our work. We investigate key skills for digital wellness, including emotional intelligence, socio-emotional learning (SEL), mental health, digital and AI literacies, critical thinking, mindfulness, and self-regulation and how to develop these skills at different life stages. We also explore tech with a conscience and research how technology can be designed with digital wellness principles to promote healthy, mindful and meaningful engagement. Our team focuses on how we can reap the many benefits of technology while mitigating risks so that we can thrive in our digital world!
Individual and Collective
Well-Being
Individual and collective well-being are reciprocal; individuals who experience mental well-being and thriving contribute positively to their communities and supportive communities, in turn, promote individual flourishing. In the digital age, it is also essential to also consider how our online environments contribute to our well-being and whether these spaces promote or harm collective well-being.
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Our Lab team explores holistic approaches to well-being, focusing on the physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual domains of individual and community wellness. We investigate best practices for prevention and intervention methods to foster wellness at multiple levels, including individual, family, organizational and community systems.
Positive Psychology and Flourishing
Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that emphasizes an individual's need for a sense of meaning and purpose within the human experience to flourish. Through a strengths-based approach, positive psychology focuses on five core domains: experiencing positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, and a sense of meaning and accomplishment. Flourishing is a central concept in positive psychology and refers to living a life that is fulfilling and meaningful and we are functioning optimally.
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At the Lab, we explore how positive psychological principles and theories can be integrated into education, technology design and delivery, workplaces (e.g., healthcare, business, law), and within our communities to promote individual and community flourishing online and offline.
Positive Education
As part of the Frazer Faculty of Education at Ontario Tech University, we also research and develop outreach initiatives in positive education. Positive education is an emerging field that combines educational psychology and positive psychology to focus on student learning, development and growth from a holistic perspective. Core principles include gratitude, mindfulness and resilience.
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We explore positive education practices to support learners across the lifespan - from preschool through older adulthood! In addition to studying ways to integrate gratitude, mindfulness and resilience into classrooms and workplaces, we also investigate the roles of creative arts, creativity, cultural competencies, empowerment, growth mindsets and strengths-based approaches in educational settings and learning processes.
Trauma-Informed Care
Trauma-informed care (TIC) is an approach that recognizes the widespread nature of trauma in our communities and prioritizes safety, trust, and empowerment to provide effective support for individuals. TIC practices should be integrated into all levels of an organization (e.g., individual practitioners, policies, leadership teams, services, physical environments, digital spaces/tools) to foster a sense of safety for everyone.
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We take a trauma-informed approach in all aspects of our work at the Lab and investigate how educators, parents, tech designers, healthcare practitioners, employers, lawyers, first responders and community leaders can embed TIC into their own practices to promote healing and resilience. Through this research, we provide actionable and evidence-based strategies for trauma-informed educational approaches, workplaces, technology use and design, and therapeutic and crisis interventions.
Impact Goals: Community Flourishing through CAKE
We are passionate knowledge mobilizers and love engaging with our local and global community! At the Lab, our leading impact goal is to promote community flourishing and use research, knowledge, action, and education to make our communities healthier - online and offline!
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We do this through, what we call, CAKE:
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Community Outreach
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Action-Based Research
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Knowledge Mobilization
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Empowerment Projects
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Our team partners with community members to explore real-world challenges together. We believe in the power of connection and collaboration, and that bringing diverse perspectives to the table leads to deeper learning, stronger engagement and, therefore, meaningful and practical solutions!
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Our *virtual* doors are always open - we invite you to connect, collaborate and share a piece of CAKE with us!