Improving College Students' Mental Help-Seeking Intention During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Mental Health Issue Clinical Trial

— MHI  

Official title:

Improving College Students' Mental Help-Seeking Intention During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05451706
• Other study ID #: ClevelandSU
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 1, 2020
• Est. completion date: January 31, 2021

Study information

• Verified date: February 2024
• Source: Cleveland State University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study aimed at testing the effectiveness of a longitudinal intervention in increasing college students' intention to seek mental help during the pandemic.

Description:

This study aimed at testing the effectiveness of a longitudinal intervention in increasing college students' intention to seek mental help during the pandemic.

A four-armed randomized controlled experiment was conducted to compare two self-persuasion methods against two control conditions. Assessments took place at baseline (T0), post-first treatment (T1), post-second treatment (six weeks, T2), and ten-week follow-up (T3).

The results showed that the intervention significantly increased students' help-seeking intention, attitude, and efficacy at different time points. It also reduced mental help-seeking-related stigma after the first task.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 926
• Est. completion date: January 31, 2021
• Est. primary completion date: January 30, 2021
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 100 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years old or older

• Full-time undergraduate students

• Had more than a moderate amount of mental distress

Exclusion Criteria:

• Under 18 years old

• Not full-time undergraduate students

• Had less than a moderate amount of mental distress

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• COVID-19
• Help-Seeking Behavior
• Mental Health Issue

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Mental help-seeking self-persuasion
Employing a longitudinal design, this study used a self-persuasion framework in a 4-arm intervention to increase college students' help-seeking intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Texas A&M University	College Station	Texas

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Cleveland State University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Help-Seeking Intention	Help-Seeking Intention was measured by one item created based on recommendations by Ajzen (2002). Measured on a 5-point scale (1 = extremely unlikely, 5 = extremely likely), this item asked, "If you have a personal-emotional problem, how likely is it that you would seek help from a mental health professional (a psychologist, psychologist, or psychotherapist)?" Higher scores on this item suggest higher intentions to seek professional mental help.	10 weeks
Primary	Help-Seeking Behavior	Help-Seeking Behavior was measured by a validated item modified from previous research based on the transtheoretical model (Sarkin et al., 2001). The item asked about if a participant has sought mental help from a health care professional. Answers to this item included "1 = not intending to seek help in the next six months," "2 = intending to seek help in the next six months," "3 = planning to seek help in the next 30 days," "4 = have already sought help but for less than six months," and "5 = have been under treatment for more than six months."	10 weeks
Secondary	Mental help-seeking attitudes	participants rated 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree") on ten items of the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPHS-SF) (Fischer & Farina, 1995).	10 weeks
Secondary	Self-stigma of seeking mental help	Participants rated 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree") on ten items adopted from the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help (SSOSH) scale (Vogel et al., 2006).	10/2020 - 1/10 weeks
Secondary	Mental help-seeking efficacy	Mental Help-Seeking Efficacy was measured by five items modified from previous research (Mo & Mak, 2009) and recommendations (Ajzen, 2002). Participants rated 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree") on the answers.	10 weeks