Building Primary-School Children's Resilience through a Web-Based Interactive Learning Environment:...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Educational Technology
• Mental Health Interventions

Background:

• Psychological resilience is vital for adaptive coping with stress, particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Increased stress in parents and children necessitates immediate interventions to bolster children's resilience.
• Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) offers accessible stress management solutions, overcoming limitations of in-person therapy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a web-based learning environment's effectiveness in enhancing resilience among 9-10-year-old children.
• To assess the impact on reducing anxiety symptoms and improving emotion and stress management recognition.
• To determine the usability of the interactive learning environment.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was employed.
• The experimental group (20 children) used the web-based environment for 6 weekly sessions; the control group (21 children) did not.
• Data collected via anxiety scales, open-ended questions on emotion/stress recognition, and usability surveys.

Main Results:

• A significant decrease in obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms was observed in the experimental group.
• Significant improvements were noted in emotion recognition, identification of stress symptoms, and stress management techniques.
• The learning environment achieved a satisfactory usability score (76.75/100), indicating good user experience.

Conclusions:

• Interactive web-based environments provide accessible and cost-effective resilience interventions for children.
• These platforms can be utilized in formal education, distance learning, and informal settings for parents and children.
• Such tools represent a promising, low-intensity intervention for enhancing children's mental well-being and coping skills.