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The Morning Anchor | Confidential Research Materials
The Morning Anchor is a prevention-first, privacy-preserving daily check-in application designed to bridge the gap between counseling sessions. It supports individuals (ages 13+) in recovery or behavioral health programs through evidence-based digital support tools.
The Morning Anchor's support model integrates several evidence-based approaches:
Daily reflection prompts use MI principles - open-ended questions, affirmations, and reflective listening techniques adapted for self-guided use. Prompts are tiered by mood, stress, and urge levels to meet users where they are.
Trigger identification and logging help users build awareness of their behavioral patterns. The Support Plan feature guides users through identifying warning signs, coping strategies, and safe environment modifications.
The app supports what we call the "impulse gap" - the space between urge recognition and action. Through pause tactics (Box Breathing, Body Awareness exercises), the app helps users expand this gap over time. Aggregate engagement with these tools is tracked for research analysis.
Streak tracking, badge systems, and daily affirmations leverage positive reinforcement. Today's Anchor feature provides personalized daily actions drawn from 12 support focus pools with 40 anchors each, ensuring variety and relevance.
All personal check-in data (mood, stress, urge ratings, triggers, reflections, support plan content) is stored exclusively on-device using AsyncStorage. This data never leaves the user's device and is not accessible to administrators, researchers, or The Morning Anchor team.
The only data transmitted to the server is anonymous, aggregate event counts. When a user completes a check-in or uses a feature, an anonymous event increment is sent to the server. These increments are aggregated at the organization level in daily buckets.
| Data Type | Storage | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Mood/stress/urge ratings | Device only | User only |
| Trigger logs | Device only | User only |
| Support Plan content | Device only | User only |
| Reflections & journal entries | Device only | User only |
| Feature usage counts | Server (aggregate) | Org admin (if 3+ users) |
| Check-in completion counts | Server (aggregate) | Org admin (if 3+ users) |
| Safety resource views | Server (aggregate) | Org admin (if 3+ users) |
Analytics data is only displayed to organization administrators when 3 or more unique users are active within the organization. This prevents individual identification through small-group inference.
Pilots are deployed per-organization with unique access codes. Each organization receives a set of individual seat codes (MA-XXXX-XXXX format) or a shared organization code. Codes are tied to anonymous install IDs - no personal information is collected during activation.
Standard pilot duration is 60 days. Data collection occurs across three tiers:
| Category | Metrics |
|---|---|
| Engagement Tools | Pause actions used, grounding exercises completed, body awareness sessions |
| Between-Session | Completion rates, 7-day retention, 30-day retention, dropout indicators |
| Seasonal Engagement | Monthly active user tracking, seasonal variation indicators |
| Survey Outcomes | Confidence scores, urge gap improvement, motivation levels, pause tactic success rate, retention likelihood |
Three anonymous surveys are administered at key intervals to track self-reported outcomes without compromising privacy:
Measures initial confidence in using between-session tools, comfort with the check-in process, and early perceived value. Captures whether users are finding the daily ritual manageable and meaningful.
Assesses perceived changes in the "urge gap" - whether users feel the space between urge and action has expanded. Tracks pause tactic usage frequency and perceived effectiveness. Measures confidence trajectory.
Evaluates motivation trajectory, feature utility ranking, likelihood of continued use, and self-reported behavioral changes. Includes open-text reflection on the most meaningful aspect of the program.
60-day pilot reports are generated server-side with survey correlation metrics and can be exported as CSV for external analysis. Organization administrators can access real-time aggregate dashboards with chart visualizations and narrative report generation.
The Morning Anchor includes multiple safety layers: