Pilot Evaluation of Peer-support Coaching to Increase Adherence to Online Self-help for College Mental Health

Utah State University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Treatment Adherence

Treatments

Behavioral: Phone Coaching

Behavioral: ACT Guide

Behavioral: Text Message Coaching

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT04573465

11308

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to test if coaching can improve program adherence to an online mental health program in college students if delivered by undergraduate peers. Participants will be randomly assigned to either receive phone coaching, text message coaching, or no coaching. It is hypothesized that participants who receive phone coaching will exhibit greater adherence to the provided online mental health program than participants who receive text message coaching or no coaching.

Full description

The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility and effectiveness of an innovative peer support coaching model for college students. The primary aim of the coaching model is to increase participants' adherence to ACT Guide, an online mental health program. To test the effects of peer-support coaching on ACT Guide adherence rates and outcomes, the investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trial with three conditions (peer-support phone coaching, peer-support text message coaching, and a no support control group) using a sample of 300 Utah State University undergraduate students. Individuals who indicate interest in participating will complete an automated online workflow through Qualtrics which will include informed consent, baseline assessment, ACT Guide registration, and randomization into one of the three conditions. Participants will then gain access to a research version of ACT Guide, either with no additional support, with concurrent peer-support coaching, or with concurrent peer-support text messaging based on their randomly assigned condition. Coaching will take place over 10 weeks, with the post assessment being administered 10 weeks after baseline assessment. The investigators hypothesize that participants will adhere to coaching (80% completing ≥ 6 coaching calls; 80% responding to texts > 6 weeks), be satisfied with coaching (M = 5 "agree" on a 6-point self-reported coaching satisfaction scale), and that coaching fidelity will be maintained (80% of audited coaching calls/texts meeting criteria for fidelity). The investigators also hypothesize that participants who receive peer-support phone coaching will complete more ACT Guide modules and will report greater improvements in mental health relative to both the text messaging and no support conditions, and that the text messaging condition will perform greater in this regard than the no support condition.

Enrollment

236 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

USU undergraduate student
Fluent in English

Exclusion criteria

Must have not used ACT Guide in the past

Trial design

Primary purpose

Supportive Care

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

None (Open label)

236 participants in 3 patient groups

Phone Coaching Condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive weekly, 10-15 minute phone coaching from a trained peer-support coach throughout the 10 weeks that they use ACT Guide, an online program for general mental health. Coaches will adhere to an ACT-based protocol that includes reinforcing adherence, identifying and problem solving non-adherence, strengthening and generalizing ACT skills, and using ACT skills to increase commitment to ongoing program adherence.

Treatment:

Behavioral: ACT Guide

Behavioral: Phone Coaching

Text Message Coaching Condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants assigned to the text messaging condition will receive weekly text messages from their peer-support coach throughout the 10 weeks that they use ACT Guide, an online program for general mental health. These text messages will reflect content delivered in the phone coaching group, but through a briefer protocol that accounts for the abbreviated, asynchronous nature of texting. Text messages will similarly focus on reinforcing adherence, problem solving non-adherence, strengthening ACT skills, and using ACT to increase program adherence. However, these areas will be covered in short messages and with limited exchanges between participants and coaches due to the asynchronous nature of texting.

Treatment:

Behavioral: ACT Guide

Behavioral: Text Message Coaching

No Coaching Condition

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will be asked to use ACT Guide, an online program for general mental health, over the course of 10 weeks while receiving no coaching.

Treatment:

Behavioral: ACT Guide