Smartphone App to Address Loneliness Among College Students: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Loneliness is a widespread and significant problem on college campuses. Prolonged loneliness in young adulthood is a risk factor for concurrent and future mental health problems and attrition, making college a critical time for support. Cognitive and behavioral interventions show promise for decreas...
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Veröffentlicht in: | JMIR mental health 2020-10, Vol.7 (10), p.e21496-e21496 |
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Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | Loneliness is a widespread and significant problem on college campuses. Prolonged loneliness in young adulthood is a risk factor for concurrent and future mental health problems and attrition, making college a critical time for support. Cognitive and behavioral interventions show promise for decreasing loneliness and can be widely disseminated through technology.
This pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the initial efficacy, feasibility, and desirability of a smartphone app, Nod, designed to deliver cognitive and behavioral skill-building exercises to reduce loneliness during the transition to college.
First-year college students (N=221, mean age 18.7 years, 59% female) were recruited online during incoming student orientation, and randomized to either receive immediate access to Nod (experimental group, n=100) or access after 4 weeks (control group, n=121). The app delivered skills via fully automated (1) "social challenges," suggested activities designed to build social connections; (2) reflections, brief cognitive reframing exercises; and (3) student testimonials that encouraged a growth mindset toward social connection building. Main intention-to-treat analyses were used to compare the conditions on self-assessed loneliness, depressive symptoms, and other mental health and college adjustment outcomes at week 4, controlling for baseline values on those variables. Analyses were also performed to test the hypothesis that the treatment benefits would be particularly pronounced for participants with heightened psychological vulnerability at baseline (ie, higher baseline depressive symptoms and loneliness).
Retention was 97% at week 4, and participants viewed an average 36.7 pages of app content. There were no significant condition differences in loneliness at week 4 (F
=0.05, P=.82; η |
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ISSN: | 2368-7959 2368-7959 |
DOI: | 10.2196/21496 |