The Effects of Online Single-Session Interventions on College Student Well-being

NCT ID: NCT04287374

Last Updated: 2020-09-04

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 294 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2020-03-31
• Study Completion Date: 2020-08-31

Brief Summary

This study seeks to investigate the effects of an online single-session intervention on college student mental health and well-being. Undergraduate students from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard will be randomized to a 30-minute single-session intervention or a study skills control group. Students' depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, positive and negative affect, and subjective well-being will be assessed up to 12 weeks post-intervention.

Detailed Description

The design of our study is a randomized control trial. After enrollment in the study, participants will randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In each condition, participants will be asked to complete an initial survey of mental health and well-being measures. Following this survey, participants will complete either a well-being skills single-session intervention or control single-session intervention (study skills) depending on which condition they were assigned to. These single-session interventions educate the participant on their focal concept and teach them exercises to improve that skill. Completing the single-session intervention will take approximately 20-30 minutes.

After completing their single-session intervention, all participants will retake the measures of mental health and well-being presented to them at the beginning of the program. Participants will also be asked to complete measures of intervention feasibility, acceptability and appropriateness at this time.

Following this initial intervention, participants will retake the measures of well-being and mental health at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks after they completed the intervention. This will allow us to fulfill our first objective by determining how long single-session interventions improve undergraduate mental health and well-being.

Conditions

Well-Being; Depressive Symptoms; Anxiety; Affect

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: DOUBLE

Study Groups

Multi-component Well-being Intervention

Reading and writing activities based on cognitive restructuring (rephrasing automatic negative thoughts), gratitude (noticing and appreciating good things in life), and behavioral activation (identifying and scheduling positive activities)

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Multi-component Well-being Intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The intervention asks participants to complete exercises based on three different skills. These skills include cognitive restructuring, gratitude and behavioral activation. After completing the program, participants will pick their favorite exercise to complete on a weekly basis for homework. In order to increase compliance with the homework, participants will complete a short plan in which they will identify when, where and with who they will complete the homework. The whole intervention takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.

Study Skills Control

Reading and writing activities designed to teach evidence-based study strategies.

Group Type: SHAM_COMPARATOR

Study Skills

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants are taught three different study skills/strategies. They are asked to make a plan to continue using these strategies after completing the intervention. The whole intervention takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.

Interventions

Multi-component Well-being Intervention

The intervention asks participants to complete exercises based on three different skills. These skills include cognitive restructuring, gratitude and behavioral activation. After completing the program, participants will pick their favorite exercise to complete on a weekly basis for homework. In order to increase compliance with the homework, participants will complete a short plan in which they will identify when, where and with who they will complete the homework. The whole intervention takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Study Skills

Participants are taught three different study skills/strategies. They are asked to make a plan to continue using these strategies after completing the intervention. The whole intervention takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Current undergraduate student at select universities
• Able to access the internet
• Can participate in follow-up surveys for three months post sign-up

Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to access the internet
• Will not be able to respond to the follow-up surveys post-intervention

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 22 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Pennsylvania

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Robert DeRubeis, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

University of Pennsylvania

Akash Wasil

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Pennsylvania

Locations

Harvard University

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

834854

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id