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.
Publications List (Select)
Book Chapters
Laffier, J., Westley, M., & Rehman, A. (in press). The art of mentoring trauma-informed educators: Considerations for teacher education programs. In C. Smith & G. Salinitri (Eds.), Mentoring to support teacher candidate development. Springer Nature.
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Laffier, J., Perry, B., & Westley, M. (in press). Combating hate-based behaviours in the rural lives of youth: Lessons learned from the first National Youth Forum on Hate in Canada. In C. Jones & A. Farrell (Eds.), Rural education in Canada. Canadian Scholars.
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Laffier, J., Rehman, A., & Westley, M. (2025). The promise of digital wellness to promote youth well-being and healthy communities. In J. Ferreira (Ed.), Interpersonal relationships in the digital age. IntechOpen. https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/1205975
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Laffier, J., & Rehman, A. (2023). Virtual reality and trauma: Consideration for future teachers and trauma-informed practices. In A. Fegely & T. Cherner (Eds.), Bridging the XR technology-to-practice gap: Methods and strategies for blending extended realities into classroom instruction (Vol. 2). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/222293/
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Petrarca, D., Van Nuland, S., Laffier, J., & Ruttenberg-Rozen, R. (2022). Ontario Tech
University’s Bachelor of Education program--A continuous state of learning. In J. Kitchen & D. Petrarca (Eds.), Initial teacher education in Ontario: The four-semester teacher education programs after five years. In Canadian research in teacher education: A polygraph series (Vol. 12) [eBook]. Canadian Association for Teacher Education/Canadian Society for the Study of Education. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/114502
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Laffier, J. (2020). Depression and suicide in the virtual worlds of youth. In D. Lester (Ed.),
Understanding suicide ideation (pp. 137-165). Nova Science Publishers. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-38551-008
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Laffier, J., & Rehman, A. (2023). Deepfakes and harm to women. Journal of Digital Life and Learning, 3(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.51357/jdll.v3i1.218
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Hughes, J., Robb, J. A., Hagerman, M. S., Laffier, J., & Cotnam-Kappel, M. (2022). What makes a maker teacher? Examining key characteristics of two maker educators. International Journal of Educational Research, 3, 100118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2021.100118
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Hughes, J., Morrison, L., Mamolo, A., Laffier, J., & de Castell, S. (2019). Addressing bullying through critical making. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(1), 309-325. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12714
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Laffier, J. (2016). Empowering bullying victims through artistic expression. Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal, 29(1), 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/08322473.2016.1171987
Refereed Conference Proceedings Publications
Laffier, J., Westley, M., Rehman, A., Erikson, G., & Sonderby, R. (2025). Tech with a conscious: A technology intervention for student mental health. INTED: 19th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference (pp. 7186-7194). Valencia, Spain: IATED. doi: 10.21125/inted.2025.1863
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Laffier, J., Rehman, A., & Westley, M. (2025). A theoretical framework for integrating AI and mental health literacies to enhance youth well-being and education. INTED: 19th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference (pp. 7179-7185). Valencia, Spain: IATED. doi: 10.21125/inted.2025.1862
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Laffier, J. (2025). Digital Wellness: A new Psychological Framework that supports psychoeducational practices. INTED: 19th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference (pp. 7148-7154). Valencia, Spain: IATED. doi: 10.21125/inted.2025.1857
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Rehman, A., Laffier, J., & Westley, M. (2025). Leveraging AI to enhance mental health support in post-secondary institutions. INTED: 19th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference (pp. 6191-6195). Valencia, Spain: IATED. doi: 10.21125/inted.2025.1604
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Westley, M., & Laffier, J. (2024). Caution: This content may be triggering! Consideration for
classroom media and trauma-informed practices by educators. EDULEARN24: 16th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (pp. 373-379). Valencia, Spain: IATED. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2024.0149
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Laffier, J., & Westley, M. (2024). Exploring classroom media, trauma, and impacts on
marginalized youth. EDULEARN24: 16th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (pp. 7877-7886). Valencia, Spain: IATED. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2024.1848
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Laffier, J., Rehman, A., & Westley, M. (2024). Exploring digital wellness perspectives among graduate students. EDULEARN24: 16th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (pp. 3055-3059). Valencia, Spain: IATED. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2024.0811
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Laffier, J. & Rehman, A. (2024). A youth in policing initiative in Ontario: Empowering youth to be mental health advocates in their schools and communities. EDULEARN24: 16th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (pp. 3060-3067). https://library.iated.org/view/LAFFIER2024AYO
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Laffier, J., & Westley, M. (2024). Exploring trauma-informed practices for media use in the classroom and recommendations for educator training. In J. Cohen & G. Solano (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 2116-2122). Las Vegas, Nevada, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/224268/
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Collins, C., Arbour, S., Beals, N., Yama, S., Laffier, J., & Zhao, Z. (2022). Covid Connect: Chat-Driven Anonymous Story-Sharing for Peer Support. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 301–318). New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533545
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Laffier, J., & Westley, M. (2022). Young adults, movies, and trauma: Educating pre-service teachers about trauma informed practices. In E. Langran (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 325-333). San Diego, CA, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221123/
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Laffier, J., & Bowman, M. (2021). Graffiti in the 21st-century classroom: Promoting learning and empowerment for students with traditional and digital graffiti. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 1-6). United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/219631/
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Laffier, J., & Luchka, L. (2021). Supporting 21st-century student learning and well-being with comics: A review of the literature. In E. Langran & L. Archambault (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1269-1275). Online, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/219283/
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Laffier, J., & Hughes, J. (2021). 'Making' on the path to wellness: How the maker culture can support student wellness. In E. Langran & L. Archambault (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1021-1027). Online, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/219250/
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Laffier, J., Hughes, J., & Petrarca, D. (2020). What future teachers think of ‘Creativity’ and what this means for their future teaching practice. In D. Schmidt-Crawford (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1140-1148). Online, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/215876/
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Kay, R., & Laffier, J. (2020). Exploring gender differences in how preservice teachers learn new technology. In Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 401-405). Online, The Netherlands: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/217329/
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Laffier, J. (2019). Online learning: Why is it a source of stress for some post-secondary students? In S. Carliner (Ed.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (pp. 306-315). New Orleans, Louisiana, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/p/212792
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Hughes, J., Laffier, J., Mamolo, A., Morrison, L., & Petrarca, D. (2016). Full STEAM ahead: Building preservice teachers’ capacity in maker space pedagogies. The Higher Education in Transformation Symposium, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. https://arrow.tudublin.ie/heit164/2/