Understanding Mental Wellbeing and Tools for Support with Taiwanese Emerging Adults: An Eastern Cultural Perspective

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems and Challenges:

  • Although research on mental health is increasing, the majority of studies are based on Western cultural perspectives, with very few addressing mental health concepts and coping strategies within Eastern cultural contexts.
  • Core values such as social relationships, family concepts, and collectivism in Eastern cultures, particularly in Taiwan's local culture, have yet to be fully understood in terms of their impact on mental health.
  • Most studies on digital mental health support tools focus on users from Western countries, neglecting the needs and characteristics of populations in East Asian cultural contexts.

• Significance:

  • Young adults in Taiwan (aged 18-29) are facing multiple pressures, including academic transitions, career planning, and interpersonal relationships, making them a vulnerable group for mental health issues.
  • Exploring mental health issues within an Eastern cultural context can provide diverse perspectives and insights for global mental health research and technology design.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • The authors aim to fill the gap in existing mental health research by incorporating an Eastern cultural perspective.
  • They focus on the unique influence of collectivism and family ethics in Taiwanese culture on mental health, while also exploring the role of digital tools in supporting these populations in managing their mental health.

Solution

• Methods or Solutions:

  • The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 young adults in Taiwan to deeply explore their understanding of mental health, the challenges they face, coping strategies, and the role of digital tools in managing mental health.

• Innovations:

  • Proposed a mental health management framework based on Eastern culture and Taiwan's local social context, discussing the profound impact of cultural values on psychological behaviors.
  • Unlike previous studies that treat digital health tools as "standalone specialized tools," this research emphasizes the supportive functions of everyday non-specialized tools (e.g., social media and streaming platforms).

• Implementation Steps:

  1. Develop an interview plan covering mental health concepts, challenges faced, coping strategies, and usage of digital tools.
  2. Collect and organize data: Conduct interviews via Zoom and analyze data using qualitative coding methods.
  3. Extract themes: Analyze factors influencing mental health and the role of digital support tools from multiple dimensions (social, cultural, personal).

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:

  • Identified the core influence of social relationships and collectivism on mental health within Taiwanese culture, highlighting the significant impact of social and family expectations (e.g., academics, career, marriage) on psychological stress.
  • Found that participants not only pursue personal mental balance but also value social relationships and collective harmony.
  • Determined multi-level factors affecting mental health, including cultural, social, political, and individual dimensions.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • Emphasized the need to incorporate cultural uniqueness in design, particularly the values of collectivism, balance, and social harmony in Eastern cultures.
  • Provided design inspirations for integrating spiritual and religious practices (e.g., prayer and divination) to enhance cultural sensitivity in localized digital tool design.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Interviews revealed that participants primarily relied on everyday digital tools such as social media and music streaming platforms, rather than specialized mental health applications.
  • Many participants highlighted how these tools supported their mental health management through immediacy and flexibility.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • The study participants were limited to young adults in Taiwan, which may not fully represent other cultural contexts or age groups.
  • Some interviews were conducted in English, which might have affected the accuracy of participants' expressions.
  • Future research could explore the applicability to broader subcultural groups and ways to improve specialized mental health digital tools to better suit Eastern users.

Conclusion and Design Implications

• To support mental health management within Eastern cultural contexts, digital tool design should focus on:
  1. Addressing diverse needs for social connection by providing features that allow users to control the depth of interactions.
  2. Supporting functions to cope with social influences, such as anonymous interactions or mechanisms for positive social support.
  3. Incorporating Eastern philosophies (e.g., Taoist balance theory) to design tools that enhance emotional and life balance.
  4. Introducing features related to fatalism, such as virtual divination or spiritual support options.
  5. Tackling mental health stigmatization by offering more natural and universal ways to encourage users to engage with related digital tools.

Through culturally-based digital tool design research, this study provides significant references for global design and localization of mental health support tools in the field of human-computer interaction.