The acceptability of wearable devices for promoting adolescent mental wellbeing: A systematic review.

Background: Wearable devices present unique opportunities to gather behavioural and physiological data to augment digital health interventions for adolescents. However, the acceptability of these tools for mental wellbeing remains underexplored. Objective: This systematic review synthesises existing research on the factors that influence the acceptability of wearable devices for adolescent mental wellbeing support. Methods: Studies were included if they focused on participants aged 10-24, examined wearable devices for mental wellbeing, and presented acceptability-related outcomes. A search strategy was applied to five academic databases (Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and PsycINFO) up to April 11 Results: Screening identified 19 studies with 1,055 total participants. Most studies were mixed methods (n=12), used wrist-worn devices (n=14), and measured heart activity (n=9). The main factors influencing acceptability included perceived effectiveness, device comfort, technical reliability, social acceptability, privacy and safety concerns, and contextual adaptation to different settings and participant needs. Conclusion: The findings highlight that the acceptability of wearables is largely context dependent. Additionally, while wearables were noted to increase awareness and motivation, they could also amplify negative emotions which underscored a tension between the potential benefits and harms of wearables for adolescents. Limitations included heterogeneity in study design, variable reporting quality, and limited methodological consistency across studies.