Honest, Open, Proud - College for Post-Secondary Students with Mental Health Challenges

Self-stigma and Strategic Disclosure Amongst Canadian Postsecondary Students

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of an online format of the group-based intervention "Honest Open Proud-College" among Canadian post-secondary students.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Mental Health Issue; Stigmatization; Disclosure
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Honest Open Proud - College (HOP-C)

Detailed Description

Mental health issues have been highlighted as a growing concern within the post-secondary student population. Studies show that one significant concern for post-secondary students pertains to disclosing their mental challenges to others. Disclosure decisions are especially relevant for postsecondary students in the context of academic and social support. Students with mental health challenges who do not receive helpful accommodations may experience greater stress related to academics. Students also note that, in navigating their social sphere, they often need to consider what aspects of their mental health challenges to share in what situations.

As such, students often need to make decisions about whether to conceal or disclose their mental health challenges, both of which have their own pros and cons. Disclosure is a complex decision that requires consideration of personal and contextual factors. Honest, Open, Proud-College (HOP-C) is a peer-led, group-based intervention, that supports post-secondary students in the process of making decisions to disclose their mental health conditions. This study will evaluate the impacts of HOP-C administered through a videoconferencing platform on personal, social, and disclosure related outcomes.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 63
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
      • Lakehead University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 17 to 29 years old
• Enrolment in an university or college in Canada
• Self-identify as experiencing mental health challenges
• Moderate level of self-reported self-stigma (score 4 or higher on the screening item "Do you feel ashamed about dealing with anxiety, depression, or any other mental health challenges?", rated from 1, not at all, to 7, very much)

Exclusion Criteria:

-

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

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Honest Open Proud - College (HOP-C)	Behavioral: Honest Open Proud - College (HOP-C); The program consists of three weekly workshops that are two hours in duration. There is a fourth booster workshop (two hours in duration) one month following program completion. All workshops will be held over an online videoconferencing platform. HOP-C is a group program led by trained peer facilitators who have lived mental illness experience. Major topics that the program covers are: discussing different types of disclosure;; conducting a cost-benefit analysis of disclosing in different situations;; strategies to anticipate how certain people will respond to disclosure when deciding on who to disclose to;; disclosure via social media; and; a guided creation of participants' own disclosure narrative. During the booster workshop, participants will be encouraged to reflect on their disclosure decisions, and periodically revisit their disclosure cost-benefit analysis in deciding if and when to disclose in the future.
No Intervention: Waitlist Control; Participants randomized to the waitlist control condition complete the study measures at the same timepoints as the experimental group while remaining on a waiting list for the program. Following this, participants randomized to the waitlist are invited to participate in HOP-C without completing study measures.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale-Short Form (Corrigan et al., 2012)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)
Attitudes to Disclosure Questionnaire (Mayer et al., 2022)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)
Empowerment Scale (Rogers et al., 1997)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Stigma Stress Scale (Rüsch, Corrigan, Powell, et al., 2009; Rüsch, Corrigan, Wassel, et al., 2009)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)
Self-Efficacy about Disclosure Scale (Conley et al., 2019; Rüsch et al., 2014)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)
Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)
General Help Seeking Questionnaire (Wilson et al., 2005)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)
Actual Help Seeking Questionnaire (Rickwood et al., 2005)	Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovidbond, 1995)		Baseline, Post Intervention (3 weeks), and Post Booster (7 weeks)
Online Experience Questionnaire	Assesses participants' experience with HOP-C in an online format. Consists of 10 items asking about comfortability and presentation of session content over the video conferencing platform. There is an additional question welcoming other comments and concerns.	Post Intervention (3 weeks)
Disclosure Worksheet	Assess disclosure behaviours using the "Details of Your Disclosure- How Did it Go?" Worksheet in the HOP-C manual. This worksheet collects information on whether the participant disclosed, who they disclosed to, and the participant's self-reported satisfaction with the exchange and the positivity of the exchange.	Post Intervention (3 weeks) and Post Booster (7 weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Lakehead University
• Collaborators: Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 17, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 30, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): October 30, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 3, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 3, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): May 7, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 4, 2025
• Last Verified: March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Stigma; Mental Illness; Disclosure; Group Intervention; Self-Stigma; Post-Secondary Students
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1468496

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No