Brief Mood Enhancement Intervention

Enhancing Mood Among Graduate Students: Evaluation of a Brief, Phone-Administered Behavioral Intervention

The purpose of the current study is to test the efficacy of two brief, behavioral interventions intended to improve burnout among doctoral-level graduate students (n = 102). Specifically, individuals will be randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions: 1) Reward: a brief intervention to help participants increase engagement in healthy and rewarding values-driven behaviors, 2) Approach: a brief intervention to help participants identify and decrease emotion-driven avoidance of important goals, or 3) Control: a control condition that involves monitoring only. Multilevel modeling will be used to assess changes in burnout, mood, and stress, following the interventions, controlling for participants' individual baseline levels of these variables.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Burnout, Professional; Stress, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Reward; Behavioral: Approach

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 66
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27705
      • Duke University Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Currently enrolled in any in-person (not online) Ph.D. program in the state of North Carolina
• Demonstrating above average levels of burnout
• Has regular access to the Internet
• Has a Social Security Number
• Is able to read and understand English

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current mania or psychosis
• Current suicidal ideation
• Are currently in psychotherapy, have been in psychotherapy in the past 8 weeks, or are planning to start psychotherapy during the course of the 10-day study
• Have had any changes in psychiatric medications in the past 8 weeks, are not taking medications as prescribed or are planning to change medications during the course of the 10-day study
• Are currently taking benzodiazepines Pro Re Nata (PRN)
• Are under 18 years old

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Reward; A brief, phone-administered intervention designed to help graduate students increase the number of pleasant and rewarding activities in their daily lives.	Behavioral: Reward; Brief behavioral intervention (administered during a 45-minute phone call) that is designed to improve graduate student burnout by helping participants to identify activities that are rewarding and pleasurable and to integrate these activities into their schedule.
Experimental: Approach; A brief, phone-administered intervention designed to help graduate students block procrastination and avoidance and to approach important activities they are currently avoiding.	Behavioral: Approach; Brief behavioral intervention (administered during a 45-minute phone call) that is designed to improve graduate student burnout by helping participants to identify activities that are challenging, but important to their long-term goals and values, and to integrate these activities into their schedule.
No Intervention: Monitoring; Participants will monitor their current behaviors, mood, and burnout with no directed intervention to change behavior

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in burnout, as measured by the School Burnout Inventory total score	Self-report questionnaire assessing burnout	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in stress, as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale total score	Self-report questionnaire assessing stress	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in mastery, as measured by the Pearlin Personal Mastery Scale total score	Self-report questionnaires assessing mastery	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in avoidance, as measured by the Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire total score	Self-report questionnaires assessing avoidance	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in mood, as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule total scores for Positive and Negative Affect	Self-report questionnaire assessing mood	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in reward, as measured by the Environmental Reward Observation Scale total score	Self-report questionnaires assessing environmental reward	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in behavioral activation, as measured by the Activation sub-scale of the Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale	Self-report questionnaires assessing behavioral activation	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in functional impairment, as measured by the Modified Work and Social Adjustment Scale total score	Self-report questionnaire assessing functional impairment	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in quality of life, as measured by the WHOQOL-BREF total score	Self-report questionnaire assessing quality of life	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in depression symptoms, as measured by the General Depression scale of the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms	Self-report questionnaire assessing depression symptoms	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in mastery, as measured by the average of the daily Importance ratings of activities (0-10) on the Daily Activities Monitoring Form	Self-report monitoring form describing activities during the day, how enjoyable they were, and how important they were	baseline (days 0-3) and intervention (days 3-10)
Change in avoidance, as measured by the total score of the Avoidance/Rumination sub-scale of the Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale	Self-report questionnaire assessing avoidance and rumination	baseline (day 0) and post-intervention (day 10)
Change in environmental reward, as measured by the average of the daily Pleasure ratings of activities (0-10) on the Daily Activities Monitoring Form	Self-report monitoring form describing activities during the day, how enjoyable they were, and how important they were	baseline (days 0-3) and intervention (days 3-10)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Duke University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: November 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 30, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 2, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): November 4, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 23, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 21, 2018
• Last Verified: February 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: stress; mood; burnout; graduate student
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Occupational Stress; Occupational Diseases; Burnout, Professional; Burnout, Psychological; Stress, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: PRO00074337