Effects and Mechanisms of Smartphone-Based Stress Management Training on Well-Being in College Students

Studying can be a difficult time, and some students can find it challenging to deal with stress. This research project at Virginia Commonwealth University aims to understand how two different online stress management training programs affect students' daily experiences and activities. This research project will help us understand how those training programs help students to improve their emotional well-being.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Emotion Regulation
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Experimental intervention; Behavioral: Comparison intervention

Detailed Description

Participants will be randomly assigned (like the flip of a coin) to one of the two online stress management training programs. For two weeks, participants will receive daily online lessons that will teach you how to deal with stress.

To investigate how this program affects mood, researchers will monitor participant's daily activities and experiences combining brief daily surveys with activity tracking via smartphones. The activities and experiences will be tracked for a week before the training, two weeks of the training, and one week after. Shortly after the training, researchers will also reach out to participants for a phone interview where they will ask about the training experience in more detail. Afterwards, researchers will check in with participants at the end of the semester for one more week of experience and activity tracking.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 154
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Virginia
    • Richmond, Virginia, United States, 23298
      • Virginia Commonwealth University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 25 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18-25 years old;
• Enrollment as a full-time student;
• Studying in-person;
• Reduced emotional well-being;
• Absence of major depressive, generalized anxiety, and panic disorder diagnoses;
• Little or no experience of the intervention;
• Ownership of a smartphone with an OS no older than iPhone 5 or Android 5 and an active data plan.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of major depression, generalized anxiety, and panic disorder

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Online emotion regulation training version 1	Behavioral: Experimental intervention; Daily lessons received by email to be completed the same day
Active Comparator: Online emotion regulation training version 2	Behavioral: Comparison intervention; Daily lessons receive by email to be completed the same day

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in loneliness	Loneliness will be measured with the UCLA Loneliness Scale an instrument assessing frequency of felt social disconnection.	Baseline to the end of the semester, up to 15 weeks
Change in social connection	Connection to others will be measured with the Two-Way Social Support Scale	Baseline to the end of the semester, up to 15 weeks
Change in depression	Depressive symptoms will be measured using Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale	Baseline to the end of the semester, up to 15 weeks
Change in anxiety	Anxiety symptoms will be measured using Beck's Anxiety Inventory	Baseline to the end of the semester, up to 15 weeks
Changes in daily experiences	Smartphone passive sensing will be accomplished through AWARE which will record frequency (but not content) of short message service (SMS) text messaging and calls, location and mobility (to assess out-of-home departures), and nearby Bluetooth addresses (to assess social proximity). A conversation plugin will make surrounding sound inferences (without retaining audio recordings), including presence of other voices.	Baseline to the end of the intervention, 4 weeks
Changes in daily well-being	Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) will include items to measure mood, loneliness, felt social connection and school belonging, and interactions with others. EMA surveys will be administered through the AWARE app.	Baseline to the end of the intervention, 4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Virginia Commonwealth University
• Collaborators: Mind and Life Institute, Hadley, Massachusetts
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Kirk Brown, PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 15, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 23, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): April 23, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 24, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): August 26, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 9, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 8, 2024
• Last Verified: July 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: HM20024191

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

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