Digital technologies for non-invasive stress detection, monitoring, and mitigation in children and adolescents: a scoping review
Abstract
Background: Stress in childhood and adolescence can disrupt emotional, cognitive, and physiological development and contribute to long-term health consequences. Conventional assessments, such as cortisol sampling and retrospective questionnaires, are often invasive, burdensome, and poorly suited for repeated pediatric use. Advances in mobile health, wearable devices, and other non-invasive sensing approaches offer new opportunities for real-time stress detection, monitoring, and mitigation in children and adolescents.
Objective: This scoping review synthesizes evidence on non-invasive technologies for pediatric stress detection, monitoring, and mitigation, with attention to mobile, wearable, and ubiquitous health applications. It maps reported technologies, protocols, study contexts, and intervention approaches, and identifies gaps for future research and practice.
Methods: Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, four bibliographic databases-PubMed, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and ACM Digital Library-were searched, with Google Scholar screened as a supplementary source. Searches covered peer-reviewed studies published from January 2013 to April 2026. Eligible studies involved participants aged 0-18 years, evaluated non-invasive technological methods for stress detection, monitoring, or mitigation, and reported empirical outcomes. Data were charted across technology type, stress induction and validation, study context, age group, evaluation method, datasets, and intervention strategies.…
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