NCT04573465

Pilot Evaluation of Peer-support Coaching to Increase Adherence to Online Self-help for College Mental Health

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 236 (actual)
• Sponsor: Utah State University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study aims to test if coaching can improve program adherence to an online mental health program in college students if delivered by undergraduate peers. Participants will be randomly assigned to either receive phone coaching, text message coaching, or no coaching. It is hypothesized that participants who receive phone coaching will exhibit greater adherence to the provided online mental health program than participants who receive text message coaching or no coaching.

Detailed description

The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility and effectiveness of an innovative peer support coaching model for college students. The primary aim of the coaching model is to increase participants' adherence to ACT Guide, an online mental health program. To test the effects of peer-support coaching on ACT Guide adherence rates and outcomes, the investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trial with three conditions (peer-support phone coaching, peer-support text message coaching, and a no support control group) using a sample of 300 Utah State University undergraduate students. Individuals who indicate interest in participating will complete an automated online workflow through Qualtrics which will include informed consent, baseline assessment, ACT Guide registration, and randomization into one of the three conditions. Participants will then gain access to a research version of ACT Guide, either with no additional support, with concurrent peer-support coaching, or with concurrent peer-support text messaging based on their randomly assigned condition. Coaching will take place over 10 weeks, with the post assessment being administered 10 weeks after baseline assessment. The investigators hypothesize that participants will adhere to coaching (80% completing ≥ 6 coaching calls; 80% responding to texts \> 6 weeks), be satisfied with coaching (M = 5 "agree" on a 6-point self-reported coaching satisfaction scale), and that coaching fidelity will be maintained (80% of audited coaching calls/texts meeting criteria for fidelity). The investigators also hypothesize that participants who receive peer-support phone coaching will complete more ACT Guide modules and will report greater improvements in mental health relative to both the text messaging and no support conditions, and that the text messaging condition will perform greater in this regard than the no support condition.

Conditions

• Treatment Adherence

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Phone Coaching	Participants receiving phone coaching receive one 10-15 minute phone call each week from their randomly assigned peer-support coach. During coaching calls, the peer-support coach will discuss ACT Guide usage with the participant (e.g., asking how many modules the participant completed, asking what the participant liked/disliked about the modules, etc.).
BEHAVIORAL	Text Message Coaching	Participants receiving text message coaching receive text messages on a weekly basis from their randomly assigned peer-support coach. Text messages from the peer-support coach will discuss ACT Guide usage with the participant (e.g., asking how many modules the participant completed).
BEHAVIORAL	ACT Guide	ACT Guide is an online self-help program based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), targeting acceptance, mindfulness, and values-based processes. It is intended to be used for 20 to 40 minutes at time, a few times a week. While using ACT Guide, participants will read about concepts relevant to ACT and engage in guided experiential exercises, with additional exercises being assigned to be completed in between sessions as homework.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-09-28
• Primary completion: 2021-06-24
• Completion: 2021-07-05
• First posted: 2020-10-05
• Last updated: 2021-09-29

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States