College Student Stress: Transitions Over Time

University of Michigan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Depressive Symptoms

Treatments: Behavioral: Surveys; Behavioral: Supportive Text messages; Behavioral: Personalized Feedback (PF) Report

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06583096

HUM00257547

K23MH131761 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This research study is being conducted to better understand how college students develop and cope with stress and to identify opportunities to help students notice and respond to stress early before symptoms contribute to significant negative consequences.

This project will be completed in two parts. In the first part (not a trial) participants will be asked to complete a screening survey to determine eligibility. Eligible participants (i.e., those with mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms and not receiving mental health care) will continue into the clinical trial portion (part two). There were 120 students in the clinical trial phase of the study, where 30 were randomly assigned to "assessment only" and 90 to the "intervention" condition.

Enrollment: 120 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 17+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• First-year college students that are full-time or part-time students enrolled at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor or Flint campuses
• Mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms, and are not receiving professional mental health services will be eligible

Exclusion criteria

• Under the age of 17
• Currently be receiving mental health therapy/counseling from a healthcare professional
• Experiencing minimal depressive symptoms (defined in protocol)
• Experiencing moderately severe to severe depressive symptoms (defined in protocol)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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120 participants in 2 patient groups

Assessment Only

Other group

Description:

Weekly surveys only.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Surveys

Intervention - surveys, text messages, and feedback reports

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the intervention arm will be randomized to receive (or not receive) text messages in a given week, with a daily randomization to receive (or not receive) a text message if randomized to receive text messages that week. Additionally, participants will be randomized each week to receive (or not receive) personalized feedback reports.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Personalized Feedback (PF) Report

Behavioral: Supportive Text messages

Behavioral: Surveys