Does Enjoyment Drive Adherence in Digital Mental Health Interventions? Program Enjoyability and Engagement in Children of Divorce-Coping with Divorce

Authors: Zachary Dumelle, Ariel Hammerman, Yana Serjantov, James Williams

Field of Study: Psychology

Program Affiliation: The SMILE Lab

Faculty Mentors: Jesse Boring

Easel: 62

Timeslot: Afternoon

Abstract: The positive effects of digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) targeted towards children and adolescents are very well documented (Bryant et al., 2024; Fernández-Batanero et al., 2025). Systematic reviews of the DMHI literature have consistently noted low program adherence as a primary barrier to DMHI success (Forbes et al., 2023; Garrido et al., 2019). Children of Divorce-Coping with Divorce (CoD-CoD) is a preventative DMHI for adolescents experiencing parental divorce. CoD-CoD’s 68.9% completion rate was the highest reported rate in a randomized trial of a DMHI for youth at the time of its publishing (Boring et al., 2015). The present study will evaluate the hypothesis that program enjoyment is related to CoD-CoD’s high participant adherence, and will also identify the program elements that participants enjoyed. It is hypothesized that enjoyability will be a significant predictor of program completion and that humor will emerge as a key factor in participant feedback regarding program enjoyability.