Psychological Distress in Emerging Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study (DistressEA)

Emerging adulthood (18-29 years) is a critical stage in lifespan development. During this stage, people experience instability: shifts from their families of origin, breakups of relationships and job changes are frequent before most young adults stabilize their lives and make more lasting decisions. This study seeks to understand the psychological distress of emerging adults in Quito, Ecuador and define how it varies over a year.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Psychological Distress

Detailed Description

Emerging adulthood is often a period of some instability with relationship changes and often a series of job changes before life trajectories clarify and more lasting decisions are possible. These changes often produce distress and they might explain why most of the symptoms that impact the individual's mental health throughout their lives appear at this stage, although full-blown disorders are often only diagnosed subsequently. There are several studies that describe the prevalence of mental disorders in this age group, however, there are few studies that refer to how psychological distress changes during this phase of emotional, social, and financial instability. The few existent studies refer mostly to college student populations, with relative neglect of the non-student populations.

The objective of this study is to analyze the intraindividual changes in psychological distress of emerging adults over one year. These changes will be compared between those participants who are college students and those who are not. Sociodemographic data will be recorded in the first assessment and the last assessment, while psychological distress and health-related quality of life will be monitored bimonthly for seven assessment points in total. Everyday relevant events will be also recorded bimonthly for seven assessment points, and this information will be used as a time-varying covariate. An electronic survey will be used for data collection through formr system (https://formr.org/).

The results of this research will show if the distress changes significantly in the studied population for one year and it will be possible to identify some of the events and variables that are related to these changes. This knowledge might help to create interventions that are tailored to the needs of this population.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 1168

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Ecuador
  • Quito, Ecuador, EC170503
    • Metropolitan District

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 29 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The population will be emerging adults from Ecuador students and non-students as one objective is to compare psychological distress variability between both populations.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Competence to read and understand Spanish
• Living in Ecuador
• Being a student (for the student cohort)
• Not attending to a formal student program (for the non-student cohort)

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
University students; This group will include all those participants who declare to be attending a study program to get a higher education degree. No intervention will be applied.
Non-university-attending peers; This group will include all those participants who are not attending a study program to get a higher education degree. No intervention will be applied.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change on the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE)	A 34-item self-reported measure that assess psychological distress and how it changes considering four dimensions: subjective well-being (four items), problems and or symptoms (twelve items), life function (twelve items) and risk to self and others (six items). Higher scores indicate higher psychological distress. It is measure that can be downloaded free of charge from: www.coresystemtrust.org.uk. The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation- Outcome Measure(CORE-OM) has shown good psychometric properties in college students (and a non-student general population sample) from Ecuador (http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-020-00443-z)	One year (seven assessment points at two-month intervals)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
EuroQol five-dimensions - three-level (EQ-5D-3L)	A 5-item self-report measure of health-related quality of life states in adults, considering five dimensions (Mobility, Self-care, Usual activities, Pain & discomfort, Anxiety & Depression), each of which has three severity levels that are described by statements appropriate to that dimension. As result a 5-digit number describes person's health state profile. Higher scores represent more problems with regard to each dimension.	One year (seven assessment points at two-month intervals)
EuroQol Visual Analogue Scale (EQ VAS)	This scale records the patient's self-rated health on a vertical visual analogue scale that ranges from 0= 'Best imaginable health state' to 100 = 'Worst imaginable health state'. The VAS will be used as a quantitative measure of health outcome .	One year (seven assessment points at two-month intervals)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Universidad de las Americas - Quito

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Paz C, Osejo-Taco G, Evans C. Trajectories of success and/or distress: protocol for an observational cohort study investigating changing psychological distress among emerging Ecuadorian adults over a year. BMJ Open. 2021 Dec 20;11(12):e056361. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056361.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 15, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 7, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 7, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 15, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): October 22, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 25, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 23, 2023
• Last Verified: October 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Mental Health; Longitudinal Studies; Observational Study; Students; Young Adult; Life Change Events; Surveys and Questionnaires; Self Report
• Other Study ID Numbers: PSI.CPE.20.01

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No