International Students Intervention

A Psychosocial Intervention to Protect Purdue International Students

The proposed project aims to provide international students on F-1, J-1, or M-1 visas at Purdue additional culturally-relevant support by implementing and testing a psychosocial intervention. The intervention was designed based on the results of a recently published research study (Bhojwani et al., 2020) about international student concerns and needs in the time of COVID-19. This intervention is designed to test the effectiveness of a strengths-based intervention that targets the particular needs of international students during COVID. The intervention was designed based on evidence-based Cognitive-Behavioral and Systemic Therapy (Jafar et. al, 2016; Saravanan et. al., 2017) approaches to addressing stress and anxiety in a culturally-relevant manner and to decrease social isolation.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Social Isolation
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Asynchronous Intervention; Behavioral: Synchronous Intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 77
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Indiana
    • West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, 47907
      • Purdue University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• International students who report being on J-1, F-1, or M-1 visas
• Currently enrolled in classes at Purdue at either the undergraduate or graduate level either remotely or in-person
• 18 years or older

Exclusion Criteria:

• active suicidality and/or homicidality

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Asynchronous Group; The asynchronous intervention will provide access to information and resources for mental health support via Brightspace. The intervention will be six weeks long and each week will have a topic. The weekly topics include (1) identifying feelings; (2) biology of emotions; (3) mindfulness; (4) recognizing and responding to stress; (5) mental health stigma; and (6) self-care/self-advocacy. Each week, you will be required to complete four types of activities: education, reflective exercises, an activity, and a short assessment. All of these resources will be provided on Brightspace to be completed on your own time but the activities must be completed during the week they are assigned. You will not have to interact with other international students if you are in the asynchronous intervention group.	Behavioral: Asynchronous Intervention; The asynchronous intervention will provide access to information and resources for mental health support via Brightspace. The intervention will be six weeks long and each week will have a topic. The weekly topics include: (1) identifying feelings; (2) biology of emotions; (3) mindfulness; (4) recognizing and responding to stress; (5) mental health stigma; and (6) self-care/self-advocacy. Each week, you will be required to complete four types of activities: education, reflective exercises, an activity, and a short assessment. All of these resources will be provided on Brightspace to be completed on your own time but the activities must be completed during the week they are assigned. You will not have to interact with other international students if you are in the asynchronous intervention group.
Experimental: Synchronous Group; If you are assigned to the synchronous intervention group, you will be required to complete the asynchronous interventions on Brightspace AND attend a weekly one-hour support group. These support groups will meet virtually using a restricted WebEx channel and will be recorded. In this support group, students will discuss the weekly activities and build connections and support with each other. This group will be led by advanced doctoral students in counseling psychology and overseen by a counseling psychology faculty member, who is also a licensed psychologist.	Behavioral: Asynchronous Intervention; The asynchronous intervention will provide access to information and resources for mental health support via Brightspace. The intervention will be six weeks long and each week will have a topic. The weekly topics include: (1) identifying feelings; (2) biology of emotions; (3) mindfulness; (4) recognizing and responding to stress; (5) mental health stigma; and (6) self-care/self-advocacy. Each week, you will be required to complete four types of activities: education, reflective exercises, an activity, and a short assessment. All of these resources will be provided on Brightspace to be completed on your own time but the activities must be completed during the week they are assigned. You will not have to interact with other international students if you are in the asynchronous intervention group.; Behavioral: Synchronous Intervention; Weekly one-hour support groups. These support groups will meet virtually using a restricted WebEx channel and will be recorded. In this support group, students will discuss the weekly activities and build connection and support with each other. This group will be led by advanced doctoral students in counseling psychology and overseen by a counseling psychology faculty member, who is also a licensed psychologist.
No Intervention: Waitlist; If you are assigned to the wait-list group, you will not have access to the asynchronous or synchronous interventions during the course of this study. After this study is completed, you will have access to the asynchronous intervention on Brightspace.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline of CCAPS-34 scores to Post-intervention	CCAPS-34 assesses seven domains of psychological symptoms salient to college students, average scores will be used [range 0-4], with higher scores indicating worse outcome	6 weeks
Change from Baseline of DASC-21 scores to Post-intervention	DASC-21 assesses depression and anxiety symptoms, average scores will be used [range 0-3], with higher scores indicating worse outcome	6 weeks
Change from Baseline of CCAPS-34 scores to 10 weeks	CCAPS-34 assesses seven domains of psychological symptoms salient to college students, average scores will be used [range 0-4], with higher scores indicating worse outcome	10 weeks
Change from Baseline of DASC-21 scores to 10-weeks	DASC-21 assesses depression and anxiety symptoms, average scores will be used [range 0-3], with higher scores indicating worse outcome	10 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Social Connectedness Scale (SCS)	SCS assesses indivividuals' social connectedness, range from 1 to 6, reverse coded with higher scores indicating better outcome	through the study completion, an average of 10 weeks
Campus Climate	Adapted from Glass, C. R. (2012). with 6 items to measure students' connection with the university specifically, range 0 to 4, with higher scores indicating better campus climate	through the study completion, an average of 10 weeks
Group Session Rating Scale (GSRS)	GSRS is only administered for the intervention synchronous group, range from 1 to 10, with higher scores indicating better group cohesion	weekly for 6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Purdue University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Bhojwani, J., Joy, E., Hoxsey, A., & Case, A. S. (2020). Being an International Student in the Age of COVID-19. Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence and ADVANCE Working Paper Series, 3(2), Special Issue: 47-60.
• Zhou X, Zhou AQ., & Sun X. Prevalence of common mental concerns and service utilization among international students studying in the US. Counselling Psychology Quarterly. 2021: 1-21.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 18, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 18, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): May 18, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 16, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 22, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): June 30, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 30, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 22, 2021
• Last Verified: June 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: virtual intervention; international students
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020-1334

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