Prevention services can promote public health by building protective factors and reducing maltreatment risk. Yet, engaging caregivers in prevention services presents a unique set of challenges. Measurement studies are important first steps to increase the knowledge of caregiver engagement in prevention services. The purpose of this scoping review was to investigate how family engagement has been measured and operationalized in the studies of maltreatment prevention/positive parenting programs. The review examined quantitative and mixed methods studies conducted in the U.S., which measured multiple dimensions of client engagement, including behavioral, attitudinal, and relational domains. A total of 88 studies selected from PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO, Social Work Abstracts, Academic Search Premier, and Web of Science were included in this review. Results indicated that studies examine engagement constructs in all three domains of engagement with a primary focus on behavioral engagement. The attitudinal and relational engagement was mostly assessed through general satisfaction surveys, and a limited number of studies utilized validated measures to assess those constructs. While most studies reported acceptable internal reliabilities, only two studies reported other dimensions of psychometric qualities. Only one validated measure was found, which assessed client perceptions of provider cultural competence. More measurement studies are needed to further incorporate multiple dimensions of engagement into the studies of maltreatment prevention programs, which can inform the effort to develop tailored implementation strategies to fully engage various groups of parents in maltreatment prevention programs.

The capability approach (CA), which focuses on individual freedom and choices in the conceptualization of well-being, is gaining traction in recent studies of well-being. At the same time, mental health researchers are increasingly adopting a holistic definition of mental health that encompasses both the absence and presence of mental health. Despite the fit between CA and the latest definition of mental health, limited studies examine mental health through the CA lens. To promote CA-based mental health research, this scoping review provides an overview of the mental health studies that utilized CA. Following Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) guidelines, we reviewed 61 studies published between 2007 to 2023 and written in English from Ovid PsycINFO, Ovid Medline, Embase, and Web of Science. Included studies used CA as a theoretical framework underlying the interventions of interest, to guide research processes or to inform the development and validation of well-being measurements. Most studies conceptualized mental health as a continuum while a few studies focused solely on the presence or absence of psychological disorders. The included studies primarily utilized the cross-sectional design and qualitative (48.1 percent) and quantitative (34.4 percent) data collection methods. The results point to the future directions in CA-based mental health research.

Increased attention has been paid in recent years to the study of human flourishing, yet few established tools exist to measure flourishing in marginalized youth populations. The validity of the adolescent version of the Flourishing Index (AFI) was recently substantiated in a sample of youth aging out of foster care. AFI scores are interpreted here as a brief, multidimensional indicator of flourishing among U.S. youth ages 18 to 24 with foster care experience. Building on prior evidence based on internal structure and measurement invariance, this study examines additional validity evidence based on relations with other variables. Convergent and discriminant patterns of association with the PERMA-Profiler, a widely used multidimensional well-being framework, are examined. Incremental prediction of general self-efficacy beyond PERMA was examined using hierarchical regression. These findings provide additional validity evidence for the use of AFI scores in this population. Further evidence is needed before AFI scores are used for individual-level decisions or for program accountability.

We propose event-based vibrotactile feedback as an effective approach for enhancing bare-hand XR interaction, delivered through commodity smartwatches that users already wear. While controllers and haptic gloves provide rich tactile feedback, they introduce additional hardware that users must carry and wear throughout the day. Importantly, they interpose hardware between the user and the virtual world, occupying the hands, constraining finger motion, and undermining truly unobstructed bare-hand interaction. Our proposed approach delivers short discrete pulses at key manipulation moments such as object contact and state changes, providing tactile confirmation at the wrist without requiring additional hardware or disrupting finger movement. Two user studies with 26 participants demonstrate that this referred feedback significantly enhances user experience at either wrist placement, with 94% finding it helpful and particular benefits during complex tasks like knob rotation where haptic cues reduced visual attention demands. These f indings establish design guidelines for integrating accessible haptics into everyday XR through personal devices, supporting broader adoption of natural hand interaction.

Background/Objectives: Mental health service utilization gaps remain a persistent global public health challenge. Dropout rates from outpatient treatment range from 19.7% to 30.8%, and only 30–60% of individuals with lifetime mental illness are in active recovery at any given time. Existing theoretical frameworks—including Andersen's Behavioral Model, the Health Belief Model, and the COM-B framework—each address isolated phases of the care continuum but offer no unified structure for understanding the complete, sequential journey from first contact through sustained recovery. This article introduces the Access, Initiation, Engagement, Retention, and Recovery (AIERR) model to address this theoretical gap. Methods: A conceptual review was conducted following Hulland's (2020) framework for theory development through narrative synthesis. Literature was identified through targeted searches in PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar, prioritizing peer-reviewed empirical studies, systematic reviews, and foundational theoretical frameworks. Sources were assigned to AIERR stages using predefined decision rules corresponding to each phase's defining characteristics. Results: AIERR maps five sequential, interconnected stages: Access (structural, cultural, and systemic conditions enabling service reach), Initiation (the transition from provider identification to first appointment attendance), Engagement (active and meaningful treatment participation), Retention (sustained continuity of care), and Recovery (long-term reclamation of life quality and community belonging). For each stage, the framework identifies individual-level and structural-level barriers, facilitating conditions, and targeted intervention points. Three features distinguish the model: client-centeredness, explicit bidirectional individual–structural analysis, and stage-specific intervention mapping. Conclusions: AIERR advances mental health services theory by providing an integrative structure that unifies previously siloed frameworks, establishes stage-specificity as a core theoretical principle, and reorients research and intervention strategy toward the upstream structural conditions that produce downstream utilization failures. The model equips researchers with a unified conceptual vocabulary, offers practitioners a stage-specific roadmap for intervention planning, and enables health systems to identify where specific populations are disproportionately losing contact with care. Implications for health equity research, clinical practice, and health systems design are discussed.