Depression, Anxiety, Self-Injurious Behavior
Conditions
Keywords
mindfulness, rumination, worry
Brief summary
The investigators examined whether brief, app-based interventions were helpful in alleviating mental health symptoms during the transition to college. In particular, the investigators were interested in whether a brief mobile-app mindfulness intervention combined with mood monitoring was more effective in alleviating first-year students' psychological distress than mood monitoring alone.
Detailed description
The transition to college is associated with worsening mental health symptoms. This study tested whether a brief mobile-app mindfulness intervention combined with mood monitoring was more effective in alleviating first-year students' psychological distress than mood monitoring alone. Participants were 130 first-year students. The investigators randomly assigned 88 students to a mindfulness-plus-mood-monitoring or a mood-monitoring-only group and asked them to use an app 3 times a day for 3 weeks. They, along with an assessment-only control group (n=42), completed self-report questionnaires at baseline, post-intervention, and 6 and 12 weeks later.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMindfulness plus mood monitoring
mobile app that provides guided mindfulness exercises in addition to prompting for mood monitoring three times per day
BEHAVIORALMood monitoring
mobile app that prompts for mood monitoring three times per day
Sponsors
Lawrence University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* enrolled first-year student at university
Exclusion criteria
* serious suicidal concerns
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Worry | immediately after the intervention | Penn State Worry Questionnaire; higher scores indicate greater worry |
| Depressive Symptoms | immediately after the intervention | Beck Depression Inventory; higher scores indicate greater depression |
| Anxiety Symptoms | immediately after the intervention | Beck Anxiety Inventory; higher scores indicate greater anxiety |
| Urges to Self-injure | immediately after the intervention | Alexian Brothers Urges to Self-Injure scale; higher scores indicate greater urges |
| Rumination | immediately after the intervention | Ruminative Response Scale; higher scores indicate higher rumination |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Depressive Symptoms | 6 weeks following the intervention | Beck Depression Inventory; higher scores indicate greater depression |
| Anxiety Symptoms | 6 weeks following the intervention | Beck Anxiety Inventory; higher scores indicate greater anxiety |
| Urges to self-injure | 6 weeks following the intervention | Alexian Brothers Urges to Self-Injure scale; higher scores indicate greater urges |
| Rumination | 6 weeks following the intervention | Ruminative Response Scale; higher scores indicate higher rumination |
| Worry | 6 weeks following the intervention | Penn State Worry Questionnaire; higher scores indicate greater worry |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed