Well-Being, Psychological
Conditions
Keywords
Digital Mental Health, College Students, Well-being
Brief summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if intervention with Landing Place mental health app can support wellness in college students. The main questions it aims to answer are: Can the app increased well-being in college students? Will the app have increased use and usability by the college students? Researchers will compare two groups of participants to see if the app intervention will increase wellbeing and app usability rates. Participants will randomly assigned into group 1 and 2. Group 1 will not use the app at all. Group 2 will use the app almost every day for 4 weeks.
Detailed description
Mental health concerns across the United States have increased substantially, affecting individuals across age groups, geographic regions, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Emerging adults demonstrate the highest prevalence of mental health conditions among adult populations, while simultaneously exhibiting the lowest rates of treatment utilization. Barriers to treatment for this population include limited affordability, accessibility, availability, and acceptability of mental health services. Digital mental health interventions have demonstrated effectiveness across a range of outcomes, including symptom reduction, self-management, and well-being enhancement. Smartphone-based applications, in particular, have been evaluated as tools to integrate mental health support through scalable and accessible technologies. Such applications may offer features including guided self-help activities, mindfulness practices, journaling, mood tracking, psychoeducational content, and location-based resources for mental health services. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health challenges among U.S. college students have intensified, with documented impacts on academic performance and overall functioning. These challenges are further exacerbated by stigma, financial constraints, and limited access to campus-based or community mental health services, particularly for students from historically marginalized backgrounds. In response to these needs, Penn State Behrend's Virtual/Augmented Reality (VAR) Lab developed the Landing Place mental health app, a free digital intervention designed to support mental wellness among college students in the Erie region. The application was developed with an emphasis on usability, privacy, and accessibility, and is tailored to the developmental and contextual needs of young adults. Planned future iterations of the application aim to extend its use to additional populations, such as survivors of domestic violence. The Landing Place app incorporates artificial intelligence, supported features and evidence-based therapeutic components, including mindfulness exercises, goal-setting activities, journaling, mood tracking, and educational content related to mental health and coping strategies. This clinical trial evaluates the effectiveness, usability, and acceptability of the application when used as a self-guided mental wellness intervention among college students. The study examines multiple forms of data, including behavioral change measures, user engagement metrics, usability assessments, and participant feedback, to assess the app's utility in supporting well-being. It is hypothesized that participants who use the application will demonstrate increased well-being compared to a control group, along with higher engagement and acceptability of the app-based intervention modality.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALmental health app
The intervention will be the use of an AI-powered mental health app that includes activities based on evidence-based therapeutic techniques, mindfulness, goal setting, journaling, mood tracking, and educational material. The app is secure, easy-to-use, and customized for the needs of the college students.
Sponsors
Penn State University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Penn State Behrend students * Over the age of 18 * Must have an iPhone
Exclusion criteria
* People outside of Penn State * Minors * People currently in therapy
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Well-being related to Attention and Cognitive Functioning | From enrollment to the end of intervention at 5 weeks | Attention-related symptoms will be assessed using the DSM-5-TR Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Measure, a self-report scale evaluating attentional functioning. Scores vary by subscale, with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity. |
| Well-being related to Health-related quality of life | From enrollment to the end of the intervention at 5 weeks | Health-related quality of life will be measured using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36). The instrument generates domain scores ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better perceived health and well-being. |
| Well-being related to Mental Health Symptom Severity | From enrollment to the end of the intervention at 5 weeks | Mental health symptom severity will be assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales - 21 Items (DASS-21), a self-report instrument measuring symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Scores range from 0 to 63, with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity. |
| Well-being related to Functional Impairment | From enrollment to the end of the intervention at 5 weeks | Functional impairment will be evaluated using the Brief Functional Impairment Scale - Long Form (BFIS-LF), which assesses impairment across daily functioning domains. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater functional impairment. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Usability | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 5 weeks | App usability will be assessed using the mHealth App Usability Questionnaire - Standalone Patient App Version (MAUQ-SPA), a self-report instrument designed to evaluate the usability of standalone mHealth applications. Items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale, and total scores range from 1 to 7, with higher scores indicating better perceived usability. |
| Usage | From enrollment to the end of the intervention at 5 weeks | Patterns of mobile health application use will be assessed using the mHealth Usage Questionnaire, a self-report measure evaluating frequency and duration of app use. Scores are reported in units on a scale, with higher scores indicating greater application use. |
| Engagement | From enrollment to the end of the intervention at 5 weeks | Engagement with mobile health technology will be measured using the mHealth Technology Use Questionnaire, which assesses overall use and engagement with mHealth technologies. Scores are reported in units on a scale, with higher scores indicating greater technology engagement. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
CONTACTChristopher R Shelton, PhD
Outcome results
None listed