International Students Intervention

Purdue University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Social Isolation

Treatments: Behavioral: Synchronous Intervention; Behavioral: Asynchronous Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04945902

2020-1334

Details and patient eligibility

About

The proposed project aims to provide international students on F-1, J-1, or M-1 visas at Purdue additional culturally-relevant support by implementing and testing a psychosocial intervention. The intervention was designed based on the results of a recently published research study (Bhojwani et al., 2020) about international student concerns and needs in the time of COVID-19. This intervention is designed to test the effectiveness of a strengths-based intervention that targets the particular needs of international students during COVID. The intervention was designed based on evidence-based Cognitive-Behavioral and Systemic Therapy (Jafar et. al, 2016; Saravanan et. al., 2017) approaches to addressing stress and anxiety in a culturally-relevant manner and to decrease social isolation.

Enrollment: 77 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• International students who report being on J-1, F-1, or M-1 visas
• Currently enrolled in classes at Purdue at either the undergraduate or graduate level either remotely or in-person
• 18 years or older

Exclusion criteria

• active suicidality and/or homicidality

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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77 participants in 3 patient groups

Asynchronous Group

Active Comparator group

Description:

The asynchronous intervention will provide access to information and resources for mental health support via Brightspace. The intervention will be six weeks long and each week will have a topic. The weekly topics include (1) identifying feelings; (2) biology of emotions; (3) mindfulness; (4) recognizing and responding to stress; (5) mental health stigma; and (6) self-care/self-advocacy. Each week, you will be required to complete four types of activities: education, reflective exercises, an activity, and a short assessment. All of these resources will be provided on Brightspace to be completed on your own time but the activities must be completed during the week they are assigned. You will not have to interact with other international students if you are in the asynchronous intervention group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Asynchronous Intervention

Synchronous Group

Experimental group

Description:

If you are assigned to the synchronous intervention group, you will be required to complete the asynchronous interventions on Brightspace AND attend a weekly one-hour support group. These support groups will meet virtually using a restricted WebEx channel and will be recorded. In this support group, students will discuss the weekly activities and build connections and support with each other. This group will be led by advanced doctoral students in counseling psychology and overseen by a counseling psychology faculty member, who is also a licensed psychologist.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Asynchronous Intervention

Behavioral: Synchronous Intervention

Waitlist

No Intervention group

Description:

If you are assigned to the wait-list group, you will not have access to the asynchronous or synchronous interventions during the course of this study. After this study is completed, you will have access to the asynchronous intervention on Brightspace.