Mental Health App and Impact on Wellbeing

NCT ID: NCT07331922

Last Updated: 2026-01-13

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 160 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2026-01-31
• Study Completion Date: 2026-05-31

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if intervention with Landing Place mental health app can support wellness in college students. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Can the app increased well-being in college students? Will the app have increased use and usability by the college students? Researchers will compare two groups of participants to see if the app intervention will increase wellbeing and app usability rates.

Participants will randomly assigned into group 1 and 2. Group 1 will not use the app at all. Group 2 will use the app almost every day for 4 weeks.

Detailed Description

Mental health concerns across the United States have increased substantially, affecting individuals across age groups, geographic regions, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Emerging adults demonstrate the highest prevalence of mental health conditions among adult populations, while simultaneously exhibiting the lowest rates of treatment utilization. Barriers to treatment for this population include limited affordability, accessibility, availability, and acceptability of mental health services.

Digital mental health interventions have demonstrated effectiveness across a range of outcomes, including symptom reduction, self-management, and well-being enhancement. Smartphone-based applications, in particular, have been evaluated as tools to integrate mental health support through scalable and accessible technologies. Such applications may offer features including guided self-help activities, mindfulness practices, journaling, mood tracking, psychoeducational content, and location-based resources for mental health services.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health challenges among U.S. college students have intensified, with documented impacts on academic performance and overall functioning. These challenges are further exacerbated by stigma, financial constraints, and limited access to campus-based or community mental health services, particularly for students from historically marginalized backgrounds.

In response to these needs, Penn State Behrend's Virtual/Augmented Reality (VAR) Lab developed the Landing Place mental health app, a free digital intervention designed to support mental wellness among college students in the Erie region. The application was developed with an emphasis on usability, privacy, and accessibility, and is tailored to the developmental and contextual needs of young adults. Planned future iterations of the application aim to extend its use to additional populations, such as survivors of domestic violence.

The Landing Place app incorporates artificial intelligence, supported features and evidence-based therapeutic components, including mindfulness exercises, goal-setting activities, journaling, mood tracking, and educational content related to mental health and coping strategies. This clinical trial evaluates the effectiveness, usability, and acceptability of the application when used as a self-guided mental wellness intervention among college students.

The study examines multiple forms of data, including behavioral change measures, user engagement metrics, usability assessments, and participant feedback, to assess the app's utility in supporting well-being. It is hypothesized that participants who use the application will demonstrate increased well-being compared to a control group, along with higher engagement and acceptability of the app-based intervention modality.

Conditions

Well-Being, Psychological

Study Design

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

Study Groups

Control Group

Group 1 will not use the app at all.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

App-intervention group

Group 2 will use the mental health app almost every day for 4 weeks. The following activities must be completed in-app by participants in this arm:

• Cognitive exercise (2 per week)
• Mindfulness (2 per week)
• Mood tracker (4 per week)
• Chat feature (2 per week)
• Articles (3 across the 4 weeks)
• Journal (3 across the 4 weeks)
• To-do (related to the goal, once a week)
• Goals (1 goal at the beginning)

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

mental health app

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The intervention will be the use of an AI-powered mental health app that includes activities based on evidence-based therapeutic techniques, mindfulness, goal setting, journaling, mood tracking, and educational material. The app is secure, easy-to-use, and customized for the needs of the college students.

Interventions

mental health app

The intervention will be the use of an AI-powered mental health app that includes activities based on evidence-based therapeutic techniques, mindfulness, goal setting, journaling, mood tracking, and educational material. The app is secure, easy-to-use, and customized for the needs of the college students.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Penn State Behrend students
• Over the age of 18
• Must have an iPhone

Exclusion Criteria

• People outside of Penn State
• Minors
• People currently in therapy

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

Sponsors

Penn State University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Christopher Shelton

PhD

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

PennState the Beherend College/VAR Lab

Erie, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Christopher R Shelton, PhD

Role: CONTACT

cshelton@psu.edu

814-898-6082

Facility Contacts

Christopher R Shelton, PhD

Role: primary

cshelton@psu.edu

: 814-898-6082

References

Andersson, G., & Titov, N. (2014). Advantages and limitations of Internet-based interventions for common mental disorders. World Psychiatry; Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 13(1), 4-11. doi:10.1002/wps.20083 PMID:24497236 Barak, A., Hen, L., Boniel-Nissim, M., & Shapira, N. (2008). A comprehensive review and a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of internet-based psychotherapeutic interventions. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 26(2-4), 109-160. doi:10.1080/15228830802094429 Boggs, J. M., Beck, A., Felder, J. N., Dimidjian, S., Metcalf, C. A., & Segal, Z. V. (2014). Web-Based Intervention in Mindfulness Meditation for Reducing Residual Depressive Symptoms and Relapse Prophylaxis: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(3), e87. doi:10.2196/jmir.3129 PMID:24662625 Hedman, E., El Alaoui, S., Lindefors, N., Andersson, E., Rück, C., Ghaderi, A., Kaldo, V., Lekander, M., Andersson, G., & Ljótsson, B. (2014). Clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Internet- vs. group-based cognitive behavior therapy for social anxiety disorder: 4-year follow-up of a randomized trial. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 59, 20-29. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2014.05.010 PMID:24949908 Luxton, D. D., McCann, R. A., Bush, N. E., Mishkind, M. C., & Reger, G. M. (2011). mHealth for mental health: Integrating smartphone technology in behavioral healthcare. Professional Psychology, Research and Practice, 42(6), 505-512. doi:10.1037/a0024485 Proudfoot, J. G. (2004). Computer-based treatment for anxiety and depression: Is it feasible? Is it effective? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 28(3), 353-363. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.03.008 PMID:15225977 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2017). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. SMA 17-5044, NSDUH Series H-52). Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

Other Identifiers

STUDY00024830

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id