Stephen Schueller
· Professor of PsychologyVerifiedUniversity of California, Irvine · English
Active 2006–2026
About
Stephen Schueller is a clinical psychologist who studies how technology can improve mental health services by expanding access and improving accessibility. His work includes the development, evaluation, and implementation of digital mental health products in diverse settings and populations. He is affiliated with the Connected Learning Lab and has contributed to projects and discussions related to youth wellbeing, mental health apps, and the impact of social media on youth mental health. His research and public engagement focus on leveraging technology to address the high demand for mental health care and to explore the effectiveness and potential risks of digital mental health tools.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Psychology
- Medicine
- Psychiatry
- Political Science
- Applied psychology
- Nursing
- Psychotherapist
- Clinical psychology
- Medical education
- Knowledge management
- Social psychology
- Business
- World Wide Web
- Sociology
- Artificial Intelligence
- Engineering ethics
- Economics
- Public relations
- Environmental health
- Human–computer interaction
- Process management
- Demography
- Engineering
Selected publications
PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-01-23
preprintOpen accessDigital, self-guided, single-session interventions (SSIs) offer a structured psychological intervention within one interaction. We crowdsourced 66 diverse 10-minute SSIs for depression and selected 11 for testing in a pre-registered experiment (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT06856668). American adults (N = 7,505) experiencing elevated depressive symptoms were recruited online and randomly assigned to one of the 11 crowdsourced SSIs, a previously-validated active comparison SSI, or a control without intervention content. Nearly all SSIs boosted agency and hope for improvement immediately after completion (ds ≤ 0.37). However, only two SSIs significantly reduced depression at four-week follow-up (ds = 0.14 and 0.15). Unexpectedly, some SSIs may have decreased readiness to change at four weeks (ds ≤ 0.14). The most successful SSIs provided memorable, engaging, and actionable guidance on a skill that directly addressed users’ struggles. Future work should aim to leverage SSIs’ short-term gains to promote sustained behavior change or service engagement.
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health · 2026-02-18
articleOpen accessCumulative adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and psychological distress have been shown to negatively affect mental health across the lifespan. Less is known, however, about how ACEs might impact mental health help-seeking behavior in adulthood, especially among Asian Americans, a population with high exposure to trauma who also face cultural barriers to mental health care. The study’s aim was to evaluate the prevalence of ACEs within a sample of Asian American respondents, the relationship of ACEs and psychological distress with help-seeking, and the association of ACEs with different types of help-seeking behaviors. Data from the 2021 California Health Interview Survey (N = 4,345) were analyzed. Pairwise comparisons examined differences in ACEs and covariates across the seven Asian American subgroups (Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, South Asian, and Other Asian American). Multivariable logistic regression analyses evaluated the relationship between ACEs and covariates with professional and emerging digital mental health help-seeking behaviors. The joint effect between ACEs and Asian American subgroup was evaluated for each type of mental health help-seeking. Covariates included psychological distress, gender, age, marital status, insurance, education, English proficiency, self-rated health, and being U.S.-born. Asian American adults with 4 + ACEs were more likely to seek mental health help from primary care practitioners, mental health professionals, and social media/blogs/online forums than respondents with ≤ 3 ACEs. Moderate/severe psychological distress increased likelihood to seek mental health help. No significant interaction between ACEs and Asian American subgroup was found. Findings indicate that Asian American respondents with elevated ACEs and distress are more likely to seek mental health help from professional and emerging digital resources. This suggests a demand for these resources among those with higher needs. Differences across ACEs and distress levels in help-seeking behaviors emphasize the need for culturally tailored interventions and accessible mental health resources to better support the diverse help-seeking preferences within the Asian American community.
2026-01-24
articleOpen accessDigital, self-guided, single-session interventions (SSIs) offer a structured psychological intervention within one interaction. We crowdsourced 66 diverse 10-minute SSIs for depression and selected 11 for testing in a pre-registered experiment (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT06856668). American adults (N = 7,505) experiencing elevated depressive symptoms were recruited online and randomly assigned to one of the 11 crowdsourced SSIs, a previously-validated active comparison SSI, or a control without intervention content. Nearly all SSIs boosted agency and hope for improvement immediately after completion (ds ≤ 0.37). However, only two SSIs significantly reduced depression at four-week follow-up (ds = 0.14 and 0.15). Unexpectedly, some SSIs may have decreased readiness to change at four weeks (ds ≤ 0.14). The most successful SSIs provided memorable, engaging, and actionable guidance on a skill that directly addressed users’ struggles. Future work should aim to leverage SSIs’ short-term gains to promote sustained behavior change or service engagement.
We don’t know how social media bans will affect youth but we’re doing it anyway!
2026-02-28
articleOpen accessAround the world, governments are banning youth from social media. Proponents of bans claim that banning or restricting social media access is necessary to curb the youth mental health crisis and support youth well-being. We examine whether evidence supports this claim, and we find that existing experimental evidence on social media restriction excludes youth participants who would be subject to these bans and yields inconsistent findings. We challenge the assumption that bans will eliminate or change social media use among youth, and we find that social media bans may or may not actually reduce or change youth social media use, and if they do, changes in youth social media use may cause unintended consequences. Finally, we provide recommendations for how to evaluate whether these bans achieve their stated aims of improving youth outcomes. Recent and upcoming bans represent an opportunity for scientific advancement, but evaluation efforts need to be carefully constructed or risk providing poor information that cannot advance the science nor guide evidence-based policymaking.
Internet Interventions · 2026-01-26
articleOpen accessMental health problems among college students have increased significantly and barriers to care contribute to a substantial treatment gap. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) show promise for overcoming barriers, but engagement with DMHIs is challenging, underscoring the need for low-burden strategies. This pilot trial evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a six-week, low-burden, preventative DMHI that delivered supportive text messages and personalized feedback (PF) to first-semester college students. Students ( N = 120, 64% women, 55% non-Hispanic White) who had mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 scores between 5 and 14) and were not engaged in formal mental health care were randomized to intervention ( n = 90) or assessment-only ( n = 30) conditions. Those in the intervention condition received a weekly PF report and/or supportive text messages at random intervals as part of an embedded micro-randomized trial (MRT). Primary outcomes were feasibility and acceptability of the intervention components. Exploratory analyses examined 1) clinical outcomes after six weeks for the intervention and assessment-only conditions, and 2) weekly clinical outcomes within the intervention group based on the MRT. The trial demonstrated high feasibility (95% enrollment; 87% retention) and strong intervention acceptability, especially for PF and assessment components. Exploratory analyses did not reveal consistent patterns in between- and within-group comparisons. Low-burden strategies for assessment and intervention are feasible and acceptable to first-year college students at risk for depression. There is significant potential for integrating these lower-intensity strategies into a full-scale trial that adaptively delivers higher-intensity DMHIs and/or integrate human-delivered components in response to needs over time. • 95% of eligible participants enrolled in the trial; 87% retention over six weeks • 77% agreed personalized feedback reports provided valuable mental health insights. • Over 90% agreed daily and weekly surveys helped to promote self-reflection. • Supportive text messages were seen as less useful; only 46% found them helpful. • Scalable DMHI model with potential for integration with higher-intensity supports
JMIR Mental Health · 2026-01-30
articleOpen accessBackground: Treatment-as-usual (TAU) conditions are intended to reflect the support typically received in routine treatment settings. For digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) delivered online, TAU conditions should reflect the usual patterns of online help-seeking. The lack of ecologically valid TAU control conditions has been a gap in effectiveness trials of online DMHIs. In this study, mental health-related popular online content (eg, advice TikToks, lived experience vlogs, and self-care infographics) was examined as a valuable TAU control condition. Objective: This study examined the feasibility of popular online content as a TAU control condition in DMHI trials. Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of two randomized controlled trials. Both trials recruited participants online, primarily via an online study recruitment platform. In study 1 (N=916), US adults with elevated depression or anxiety were randomized to either (1) complete a single-session DHMI for depression and anxiety (n=291), (2) search the web for popular online content relevant to their struggles (n=312), or (3) search a curated library of mental health-related popular online content (n=313). In study 2 (N=431), US adults with elevated loneliness were randomized to (1) complete a single-session DHMI for loneliness (n=136), (2) search a curated library of popular online content related to loneliness (n=145), or (3) complete an attention-matched control condition (n=150). All 6 programs took approximately 10 to 20 minutes to complete and were entirely self-guided. Participants rated each program's credibility and expected benefit, as well as their feelings of distress (study 1) and loneliness (study 2). The studies did not involve interaction between participants and the research team. Results: In study 1, dropout during the treatment was 4.8% (14/291) for the single-session intervention, 25.9% (81/312) for online help-seeking, and 9.6% (30/313) for the curated library. The curated library's credibility and expected benefit score did not differ from that of the single-session intervention (Cohen d=0.08; P=.88) and was higher than that of unguided help-seeking (Cohen d=0.23; P=.01). In study 2, dropout was higher in the curated library condition (7/145, 4.8%) than in the single-session intervention and the attention-matched control condition (0/136, 0.0% and 0/150, 0.0%). The mean credibility and expected benefit score for the curated library was comparable to that of the attention-matched control condition (Cohen d=0.00; P>.99) but lower than that of the single-session intervention (Cohen d=0.32; P=.02). Changes in distress and loneliness from baseline to 8-week follow-up did not differ across the conditions in study 1. All effect sizes were small in study 1 (Cohen d<0.15), and no comparisons were statistically significant (P>.06). Similarly, in study 2, all effect sizes were small (Cohen d<0.12), and no comparisons were statistically significant (P>.25). Conclusions: Curated libraries of popular online content are a feasible, ecologically valid TAU benchmark for effectiveness trials of online DMHIs. Future research on TAU conditions in online help-seeking contexts should better align with observed DMHI attrition rates and account for the increasingly central role of conversational artificial intelligence in online mental health support.
Engagement in Digital Health Interventions: Open Questions for Research and Design
2026-04-13
articleEngagement as a concept can explain why Digital Health Interventions (DHIs) produce individual variance in outcomes, and sometimes limited effectiveness, especially in practice. However, previous literature on engagement across different domains (e.g., Psychology, Implementation Science, Human-Computer Interaction) yields disparate conceptualizations, research methods, design strategies, and measurement methods. Therefore, this workshop aims to: bring together a diverse group of researchers within the field of DHIs with an interest in engagement; provide an overview of how engagement has been used, in terms of concept, measures, and strategies; work towards a shared understanding of how engagement, with its diverse measures and strategies, can be leveraged to inform the design, development, and evaluation of meaningful DHIs. We welcome submissions either as a description of a use case that includes: how engagement was defined, measured, designed for by our participants, as well as their lessons learned; or as a short position paper describing their interest in the topic, future plans for measuring/designing for engagement, and current challenges. Our post-workshop plans aim to draw from this transdisciplinary collaboration to document lessons learned on how to employ engagement in DHI development, research and design.
2025-06-12
preprintOpen accessOnline self-guided single-session interventions (SSIs), which provide a complete mental health intervention in one brief experience (typically 20-30 minutes), promise to increase global access to evidence-based support. One way to expand current SSIs’ reach is to shorten them, but doing so could also compromise their effectiveness. We conducted two randomized trials to test if shortening evidence-based SSIs reduces their effectiveness among adult online workers facing mental health struggles. In study 1 (n = 262), an 8-minute SSI reduced loneliness over eight weeks more than a 23-minute version of it did (b = 2.64; d = 0.22; 95% CI 0.02, 0.41; p = .03). In study 2 (n = 1,145), a 15-minute, 9-minute, 5-minute, and 3-minute version of an SSI did not significantly differ in how much they affected depression eight weeks later (ps &gt; 0.14). Our results suggest that longer SSIs are not necessarily more helpful than shorter ones.
2025-03-04
preprintOpen access<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> Mindfulness-based apps can be an effective and accessible resource for mental health support. However, little is known about their use outside of research settings and what user characteristics relate to app use. </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> This study aimed to examine the characteristics of people who decided to use, not use, or stop using Headspace within the context of a large-scale public deployment, which offered the mindfulness meditation app Headspace as a free mental health resource to community members. </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> Nearly 100,000 community members received Headspace. All members (N=92,311) received an email inviting them to complete a voluntary and uncompensated survey. In total, 2725 participants completed the survey. The 20-minute survey asked about the use of Headspace, user experience, mental health problems, mental health stigma, and mental health use. Logistic regression models were used to examine relationships between predictors and nonuse, past use, or current use of Headspace. </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> Participants who were still using Headspace at the time of completing the survey (2076/2725, 76.18%) were more likely to experience mental health challenges and distress and make more use of other digital mental health resources (ie, online tools and connecting with people online) than people who were not using Headspace. In addition, current users of Headspace rated the app higher on user experience compared with past users. The most common reasons for abandoning Headspace were that people were already using other strategies to support their mental health (198/570, 34.7%), no longer needed Headspace (73/570, 12.8%), or did not think Headspace was useful (46/570, 8.1%). </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> Results indicate that a person’s mental health challenges, a perceived need for support, and familiarity with digital resources were associated with continued use of Headspace. While the most common reason for not using Headspace was that people were already using other resources, it is important to consider the continuity of mental health support beyond these free programs for those who may not have easy access to other resources<i>.</i> We discuss potential implications of our findings for offering and using apps such as Headspace as a mental health resource, along with factors that influence engagement with this app. </sec>
Psychiatric Quarterly · 2025-11-13
articleOpen accessDigital mental health interventions (DMHIs) provide tools to seek mental health resources, providers, and facilitate and/or complement in-person treatment. Limited research has examined what factors are associated with DMHI uptake. We used California Health Interview Survey data to examine DMHI use among California adults (2019-2022), estimating three multi-variable logistic regression models to assess if DMHI use to seek mental health support (Model 1), connect with mental health professionals (Model 2), and connect with others with similar concerns (Model 3) varied by psychological distress or sociodemographic variables. We used Wald Chi-square statistics tests to examine reasons for not using DMHIs by the same variables. DMHI use to seek mental health support (OR = 1.6) and connect with professionals (OR = 1.4) increased between 2019-2022. High psychological distress individuals used DMHIs for all three outcomes significantly more than low/no distress individuals (Model 1: OR = 14.9; Model 2: OR = 11.9; Model 3: OR = 13.0). The top reason for not using online tools regardless of distress was in-person treatment. The second reasons were low perceived treatment utility (high/medium distress individuals), and low perceived need (low/no distress individuals). Overall, younger, female, more educated, insured, unmarried, and non-Hispanic White participants were more likely to use DMHIs than older, male, less educated, uninsured, married, and Asian counterparts. Adult DMHI use to seek mental health support and professional treatment increased between pre-pandemic and pandemic years. Many respondents who did not use DMHIs sought in-person support. Future research can examine how to increase perceived DMHI efficacy among people with high/medium distress.
Recent grants
NIH · $53k · 2014
NIH · $678k · 2019
Frequent coauthors
- 69 shared
David C. Mohr
Northwestern University
- 53 shared
Ricardo F. Muñoz
- 47 shared
Nicole A. Stadnick
Health Services Research & Development
- 42 shared
Elizabeth V. Eikey
Human Longevity (United States)
- 41 shared
Eliseo J. Pérez‐Stable
- 36 shared
Eduardo L. Bunge
- 36 shared
Ken Chen
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- 36 shared
Elizabeth Shaughnessy
University of Cincinnati
Education
- 2011
PhD, Psychology
University of Pennsylvania
- 2006
MA, Psychology
University of Pennsylvania
- 2005
BA, Psychology
University of California Riverside
- Resume-aware match score
- Save to shortlist
- AI-drafted outreach
See your match with Stephen Schueller
PhdFit ranks faculty by your research interests, methods, and publications — grounded in their actual work, not templates.
- Free to start
- No credit card
- 30-second signup