Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to Advance Adolescent Mental Health

Adolescent mental health needs are rising globally, with anxiety, depression, ADHD, and related conditions contributing substantially to morbidity and impaired functioning. Concurrently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) are enabling new modalities for screening, personalized intervention, psychoeducation, and skills practice within school, community, and clinical settings. Despite promising early evidence, important gaps remain regarding clinical effectiveness, engagement and accessibility among diverse youth, ethical and privacy safeguards for minors, and pathways to scale within real-world services.

This Research Topic aims to build an evidence base for AI- and AR-enabled approaches that improve access, engagement, and outcomes for adolescents. We seek multidisciplinary contributions that rigorously evaluate digital interventions, define standards for usability and outcome measurement, and clarify implementation, equity, and policy considerations necessary for safe and scalable integration into youth mental health ecosystems.

To gather further insights into technology-enabled approaches for adolescent mental health—spanning evaluation, engagement, outcomes, implementation, and safeguards for minors—we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Design and evaluation of AI-, AR-, or XR-based prevention, early intervention, or treatment for adolescents, including RCTs, quasi-experiments, pragmatic trials, and real-world implementations;
• User engagement, acceptability, accessibility, and usability metrics tailored to adolescents, including school- and community-based delivery;
• Clinical outcomes and outcome measurement (symptoms, functioning, school attendance/participation), and implementation outcomes (feasibility, fidelity, cost, equity, scalability);
• Ethical, privacy, safety, and governance considerations for minors, including transparency, bias mitigation, consent/assent, and data protection-by-design;
• Interdisciplinary models linking clinicians, technologists, educators, families, and policymakers to enable adoption in care pathways;
• Subgroup and contextual analyses (e.g., ADHD/ASD, underserved and minoritized youth, rural/low-resource settings), moderators/mediators, and longitudinal follow-up;
• Methodological and reporting guidance for adolescent digital mental health, including engagement, harms monitoring, and adverse event reporting standards.

We welcome the following Article Types: Original Research; Review; Systematic Review; Mini Review; Brief Research Report; Hypothesis & Theory; Perspective; Policy & Practice Reviews; Case Report.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Adolescent Mental Health, Technology-Assisted Interventions, Youth Well-being, Extended Reality (XR)

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.