Congitive Behavioral Therapy Workshop for Content Moderators

Work-Related Condition Clinical Trial

Official title:

Acceptability and Feasibility of a Congitive Behavioral Therapy Workshop for Content Moderators: A Pilot Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06383715
• Other study ID #: 2024-624
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: May 1, 2024
• Est. completion date: August 1, 2024

Study information

• Verified date: April 2024
• Source: Universidad Europea de Valencia
• Contact: Carlos López-Pinar, PhD
• Phone: +34665878367
• Email: carloslopez.pinar[@]universidadeuropea.es
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Professional content moderators play a critical role in preventing Internet users from being exposed to more sensitive content. However, recent literature has shown that this work places content moderators at increased risk for several psychological outcomes, including intrusive thoughts and vicarious stress trauma. This pilot study will assess the acceptability and feasibility of a brief (4-session) cognitive-behavioral workshop to reduce these risks.

Description:

The growing amount of user-generated content is forcing companies to hire more and more content moderators (CMs). There is ample empirical evidence that exposure to the trauma of others at work affects well-being and mental health , and research focused on CMs suggests that they experience similar effects as other professionals. This includes an increased risk of developing syndromes such as secondary posttraumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and burnout. Recent literature, although limited, indicates that CMs are already using coping strategies such as creating boundaries between work and personal life, although they expressed a preference for individual therapy with specialized professionals. However, this initial work points to the need for technology companies to develop prevention programs based on preventing exposure to traumatic content (.

Therefore, a CBT workshop consisting of four 90-minute group sessions was designed specifically to prevent work-related consequences in a small sample of content moderators. The workshop will have a cognitive-behavioral orientation, which has been shown to be more effective for posttraumatic symptoms. Psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, job satisfaction, and coping strategies will be measured before and after the intervention to assess the feasibility of the workshop.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 12
• Est. completion date: August 1, 2024
• Est. primary completion date: June 1, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Actively work as a professional content moderator, for at least 6 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Presence of a psychotic or personality disorder as defined by DSM-5 criteria.

• Receive another psychological treatment during the time of the study.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Occupational Stress
• Work-Related Condition
• Work-Related Stress Disorder

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Workshop for Content Moderators
This 4-session group workshop is based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It consists of four sessions: Presentation. Scientific evidence of psychological consequences on content moderatos. Psicoeducation on the effects of vicarious trauma exposure. Presentation of the cognitive model. Identification/operationalization of thoughts. Discussion of possible irrational thoughts. Psychoeducation of emotions and their adaptive function. Behavioral strategies of emotions: exposure therapies and behavioral activation. The role of social support. Strategies for appropriate work and sleep hygiene. Strategies for maintaining gains. Farewell.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Spain	MEGA cloud services	Salamanca

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Universidad Europea de Valencia

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Spain, 

References & Publications (5)

Léonard, M.-J., Saumier, D., & Brunet, A. (2020). When the lawyer becomes traumatized: A scoping review. SAGE Open, 10(3), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020957032

Lewis C, Roberts NP, Andrew M, Starling E, Bisson JI. Psychological therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2020 Mar 10;11(1):1729633. doi: 10.1080/20008198.2020.1729633. eCollection 2020. — View Citation

Seigfried-Spellar, K. C. (2018) Assessing the Psychological Well-being and Coping Mechanisms of Law Enforcement Investigators vs. Digital Forensic Examiners of Child Pornography Investigations. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 33, 215-226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-017-9248-7

Spence, R., Bifulco, A., Bradbury, P., Martellozzo, E., & DeMarco, J. (2023a). The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 17(4), Article X. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2023-X-X

Steiger, M., Bharucha, T. J., Venkatagiri, S., Riedl, M. J., & Lease, M. (2021). The psychological well-being of content moderators: The emotional labor of commercial moderation and avenues for improving support. In CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445092

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)	It is a simple measure of psychological distress. The K10 scale involves 10 questions about emotional states each with a five-level response scale. The measure can be used as a brief screen to identify levels of distress. The tool can be given to patients to complete, or alternatively the questions can be read to the patient by the practitioner.	Week 0, week 4, and week 12
Secondary	Work Satisfaction Scale, JobStat'73	It is made up of 5 questions related to their satisfaction with the job, possible continuity in it and whether they would recommend it to others.	Week 0, week 4, and week 12
Secondary	Coping Mechanisms Scale	It measures how the participant cope with stress, collecting data from 16 strategies.	Week 0, week 4, and week 12
Secondary	PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C)	The PCL-C includes 17 items assessing a variety of symp- tomatic responses to stress, and respondents self-reported the extent to which they were bothered by these symptoms, within the past month, on a scale from 1 (Not at all) to 5 (Extremely).	Week 0, week 4, and week 12