JoyPop Mobile Mental Health App With Post-Secondary Students

NCT ID: NCT06154369

Last Updated: 2025-09-09

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 160 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-11-22
• Study Completion Date: 2024-11-25

Brief Summary

Students within post-secondary education settings are experiencing increasing stress, distress, and mental health difficulties. Many post-secondary education settings have identified student mental health and wellbeing as a priority and yet are struggling to adequately meet the needs of students. This has led to exploring whether technology can be used to help promote mental health and wellbeing among students. The JoyPop app is one mobile mental health app with a growing evidence base. It was developed to support improved emotion regulation - a key challenge among students struggling with distress and mental health difficulties. Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, the primary objective of this research is to determine the effectiveness of the JoyPop app in improving emotion regulation among post-secondary students when compared to no intervention. The secondary objectives are to: (1) Assess change in mental health, wellbeing, and resilience between students in each condition to better understand the app's broader impact; (2) Conduct an economic analysis to determine whether receiving the app reduces other health service use and associated costs; (4) Assess students' perspective on the quality of the JoyPop app.

Detailed Description

Students within post-secondary education settings are presented with many exciting opportunities and challenges. However, this is a time when many students experience increasing stress, distress, and mental health difficulties. Many post-secondary education settings have identified student mental health and wellbeing as a priority and yet are struggling to adequately meet the needs of students. This has led to exploring whether technology can be used to help promote mental health and wellbeing among students. Mobile mental health applications (apps) are of particular interest given students' access and use of mobile devices. Despite the promise of mobile mental health apps, significant gaps exist between the growing number of apps available in the public domain and empirical demonstration of the beneficial impacts of apps for users.

The JoyPop app is one mobile mental health app with a growing evidence base. It was developed to support improved emotion regulation - a key challenge among students struggling with distress and mental health difficulties. Of the apps that address emotion regulation, most have not been evaluated, are narrow in scope, or have only been evaluated among non-diverse adult populations. The JoyPop app includes a broader focus, and this research is unique given its focus on rigorously evaluating the JoyPop app as a tool for students within post-secondary settings.

Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, the primary objective is to determine the effectiveness of the JoyPop app in improving emotion regulation among post-secondary students when compared to no intervention. The secondary objectives are to: (1) Assess change in mental health, wellbeing, and resilience between students in each condition to better understand the app's broader impact; (2) Conduct an economic analysis to determine whether receiving the app reduces other health service use and associated costs; (4) Assess students' perspective on the quality of the JoyPop app.

Conditions

Emotion Regulation; Depression; Anxiety; Stress; Well-Being, Psychological

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: OTHER
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

JoyPop

Participants will receive access to the Joypop app for 8 weeks.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

JoyPop

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be asked to use the app at least twice daily for the first 4 weeks with no further instructions on feature usage or time spent using the app.

No Intervention

No intervention will be offered. After 8 weeks in the control condition, participants will be offered access to the JoyPop app.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

JoyPop

Participants will be asked to use the app at least twice daily for the first 4 weeks with no further instructions on feature usage or time spent using the app.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Post-secondary student
• Between 18-25 years old
• Speak/read fluently in English
• Available to attend a virtual or in-person orientation session
• In order to download the JoyPop app, participants will need access to an iOS device (e.g., iPhone, iPad). Refurbished iPhones containing just the JoyPop app may be provided to participants to use for the duration of the trial if they do not have access to their own

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 25 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Lakehead University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Aislin Mushquash

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Lakehead University

Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

Countries

Canada

References

MacIsaac A, Mann V, Toombs E, Schmidt F, Olthuis JV, Stewart SH, Newton A, Ohinmaa A, Mushquash AR. Promoting mental health and wellbeing among post-secondary students with the JoyPop app: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2024 Sep 2;25(1):576. doi: 10.1186/s13063-024-08424-y.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 39223596 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

100251

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id