NCT05576883

Optimization of a Mobile Transdiagnostic Emotion Regulation Intervention for University Students

Optimizing a Mobile Transdiagnostic Emotion Regulation Intervention for University Students: A Micro Randomized Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 161 (actual)
• Sponsor: Erasmus University Rotterdam · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 27 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study will explore the functioning of a mobile transdiagnostic emotion regulation intervention designed for university students to optimize the uptake and the effectiveness of the intervention.

Detailed description

It is estimated that globally between 12 and 50% of all university students are affected by mental health problems, the most common ones being anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Over the past years online-based interventions have been spotlighted by researchers and clinicians as an avenue for a better outreach and provision of low threshold interventions aimed at primary and secondary prevention of mental health problems among the university students population. As part of a student wellbeing program at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), a transdiagnostic mobile intervention consisting of a suite of preventative self-guided tools is being developed. Its' goal is to help students better manage their mental health by teaching them adaptive emotional regulation strategies. The intervention includes exercises from different therapeutic approaches, and targets transdiagnostic factors such as negative self-referential thoughts, rumination, experiences of prolonged negative emotional states, and mental health literacy. The intervention is delivered via a smartphone and consists of 20 therapeutic exercises teaching students strategies like upregulation of positive affect, staying present in the moment, cognitive defusion, relaxation and breathing techniques, and self compassion skills. The main goals of the study are to evaluate whether the intervention and its components have the intended effects on student's emotional states as well as get insight into students' engagement patterns and experience with the intervention. This will be done by utilizing an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach combining novel methods of online-intervention assessment, specifically Micro Randomized Trials (MRT) with semi-structured interviews, which will provide information on the lived experiences of the participants with the intervention and provide explanation of the quantitative results. The results of this trial will support the optimization and further development of the mobile application that will later be evaluated for its full-scale effectiveness.

Conditions

• Emotion Regulation
• Stress
• Depressive Symptoms
• Anxiety

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Transdiagnostic emotion regulation intervention	The intervention under study includes 5 therapeutic approaches, namely: Positive psychology \[PP\], Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy \[ACT\], Breathing and relaxation, and Self-compassion \[SC\]. The intervention consists of 4 core features: (i) monitoring through filling in EMAs assessing participants emotional states (ii) feedback through visualization of participant emotional states upon every completion of the EMAs (iii) exercises targeting different emotion regulation skills \[i.e., upregulation of positive affect, mindfulness, cognitive defusion, breathing and relaxation, self-compassion) and health facts (i.e., control intervention) describing health information including nutrition, exercise, sleeping habits. (iv) psychoeducative articles describing the 5 therapeutic approaches (PP, ACT, Mindfulness, Breathing and Relaxation, SC)

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-02-10
• Primary completion: 2023-06-13
• Completion: 2023-06-13
• First posted: 2022-10-13
• Last updated: 2024-01-17

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Netherlands