Abstract

This study explores the critical link between travel behavior and mental health, focusing on young adults who have expressed suicidal ideation. By analyzing how daily activities and movement patterns impact mental well being, the research aims to explore travel related mental health approaches for individuals. The importance of this work lies in its potential to improve the quality of life for individuals by informing more personalized and effective mental health strategies. Through comprehensive data analysis and statistical modeling, the research aims to uncover insights into how travel behavior influences motivation levels and mental well-being across different neurological and physiological groups. The dataset used in this study includes location-based services (LBS) data collected from participants over varying periods of time, allowing for a longitudinal analysis of travel patterns and mental health parameters for individuals. Participants were part of either autism, social anxiety, or control groups, and their travel behavior and mental health data were analyzed using statistical models. The relationship between suicidality, motivation levels, and travel behaviors was explored, along with the impact of engagement in activities at different location types on motivation levels. The study used the DBSCAN-TE (density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise, time, and entropy) algorithm to identify activities from the LBS data, with efforts made to address data quality issues and impute missing activity in formation. Significant differences in activity engagement and motivation levels were observed among individuals in the autism, social anxiety, and control groups.The study found that those in the control group took part in more activities and expressed higher levels of motivation than those in the autism or social anxiety groups. In addition, simply increasing activity engagement may not be sufficient to significantly boost motivation levels. However, for those in the control group, more activities in parks lead to a statistically significant increase in motivation and for those in the autism group, more activities to grocery stores lead to a statistically significant decrease in motivation. The research highlights the complex interplay between travel behavior, activity engagement, and mental health outcomes, emphasizing the need for tailored interventions based on individual needs. The study faced limitations related to data quality, including sparse data due to participants turning off their phones or the app failing to record data accurately. The lack of detailed information on activity duration and the inability to confirm activity engagement for all participants were also noted as limitations. All in all, this research sheds light on the complex relationship between travel behavior and mental health among young adults with suicidal ideation. By understanding how travel patterns impact motivation levels and mental well-being, tailored interventions can be developed to support individuals grappling with mental health challenges. Future studies should focus on improving data quality and incorporating measures to enhance the reliability of activity data collection for more robust analyses.

Degree

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering

Rights

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