Projects

• Role: Principal Investigator (PI)

• Partner & Sponsoring Organization: International Programs, University of Iowa; Department of Psychiatry, Ajou University Hospital, South Korea

• Focus Population: U.S. Middle and High School Students

• Timeline: 2025–2027 (Ongoing)

Adolescent mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, and stress-related difficulties, have become a global public health concern, placing increasing demands on school-based support systems in both the United States and South Korea. Despite growing awareness, many schools, particularly in rural or workforce-limited contexts, llack scalable and sustainable tools to provide early, low-intensity mental health support. This project addresses that gap through the cross-cultural adaptation and pilot implementation of NAVO, a mobile mental health application originally developed and implemented in South Korea.

NAVO is a mobile mental health application originally developed by Ajou University’s Department of Psychiatry in South Korea as part of a broader research program focused on digital therapeutics and multi-modal intervention platforms. The platform integrates app-based psychoeducational content with brief, human-guided coaching to support adolescents’ emotional awareness, coping skills, and help-seeking behaviors. NAVO consists of structured modules targeting self-understanding, emotional regulation, and adaptive behavioral change and has been implemented in over 100 Korean schools, demonstrating feasibility and scalability within real-world educational settings.

Within this Korea-based research program, the PI of the present project serves as a co-investigator, contributing expertise related to youth mental health, school-based intervention, and implementation considerations. This role is distinct from the present project, which represents an independent, PI-led effort centered on the cultural adaptation and contextual implementation of NAVO in the United States.

The current project focuses on translating, culturally adapting, and piloting NAVO within U.S. school settings. As PI, the project lead directs the adaptation process to ensure linguistic, cultural, and contextual alignment with U.S. adolescents and school mental health practices and examines feasibility, usability, and student engagement. This work establishes a sustained Korea–U.S. research partnership, generates foundational cross-cultural pilot data, supports student training in technology-assisted mental health delivery, and lays the groundwork for future externally funded research. Within U.S. schools, NAVO is positioned as a complementary, technology-enabled resource within multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), designed to extend school mental health capacity through scalable, low-intensity intervention.