Impact of Device Free Summer Camp on Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing

The goal of this clinical trial is to understand if attendance of a device-free summer camp, representing a shift from a digital environment to one that is device free and involves in person social interaction, can change mental health status and brain physiology in teens age 12-17. The main question it aims to answer is:

• How much is aggregate mental health and its various dimensions and components changed at the end of the camp attendance relative to the start of camp.
• How much is brain physiology, as measured by EEG change, changed at the end of camp relative to the start of camp.

Participants are recruited from among teens signed up to attend 2 or 3.5 week sessions a summer camp in Maine. Participants were asked to complete the MHQ, a comprehensive mental health assessment spanning 47 emotional, social and cognitive aspects and on the first day of camp and then again on the day before departure. In addition participants were asked questions on their school and camp experiences at the start and end of camp respectively.

Participants were also invited to participate in a socio-emotional task and/or have EEG measurements read on the first day of camp and the day before departure form camp. The socio-emotional task involved speaking or performing in front of a group of 4 or 5 people and rating one's own feelings performing this task as well as rating the perceived feelings of other group members when they were performing the task.