Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
O-ACE POP is a randomised controlled trial of an online cultural experience named Ways of Being, compared to a typical museum website (the Ashmolean Museum). The primary aim is to compare these two interventions by efficacy on mood, distress (depression and anxiety), flourishing and investigate potential mechanisms of action, as well as the feasibility of a larger scale RCT.
People of target age will be actively recruited with a link to Participant information and E-consent procedures for those who fulfil inclusion criteria and consent to entering their email address.
Consenting participants will enter a demographic questionnaire. Participants will then be emailed a unique ID number and requested to complete a baseline assessment on a computer, including self-report measures and online tasks. Participants will then be randomised to WoB or the Ashmolean Website. Once randomised participants will be requested to log on to the intervention at least once a day for the next three days
Randomisation and blinding Randomisation procedures will be followed. The participants will be aware of which intervention they have been allocated to. All measures are online and self-report.
Ways of Being (WoB) is an online cultural experience designed to reduce distress (symptoms of anxiety and depression) and promote positive mental health in people aged 16-24. It is a web-experience based on qualitative research and co-production with people aged 16-24. The experience is based on human centred narratives related to the objects and artworks of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and partner museums. In addition, other people's viewpoints on the objects and artworks or narrative, are a focus of the experience. The experience combines text, audio and aesthetic elements.
The Ashmolean Website is a generic museum website owned by the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford. The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in the UK, and has incredibly rich and diverse collections from around the globe, ranging from classical civilisation to the Pre-Raphaelites and modern art. The website is aimed at general museum visitors, tourists, families, primary, secondary and tertiary learners, teachers, and those with specialist cultural interests.
Statistical Analysis Plan The main outcome will be the mean PANAS score at each time point. These will be regressed on time (pre-intervention vs. during, exit and follow up), a group indicator (WoB vs. the Ashmolean Website), and their interaction.
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
| Label | Type | Description | Intervention Names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ways of Being online Experience | Experimental | Ways of Being (WoB) every day for three days |
|
| Ashmolean Website | Other | The Ashmolean Website every day for three days |
|
| Name | Type | Description | Arm Group Labels | Other Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WofB | Other | Online experience designed to reduce anxiety and depression and support mental health and wellbeing |
|
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| PANAS | Is a widely used scale of emotion and comprises 20 items, 10 measuring positive affect (excited, inspired etc) and 10 measuring negative affect (upset, afraid etc), on a Likert Scale of 1 (very slightly) to 5 (extremely). We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe) | Baseline, Days 2-4 (morning and evening), Day 5, six weeks |
| K10 | The K10 is a well validated self-report measure of distress (depression and anxiety). We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe) | Baseline, Day 5, six weeks |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Facial expression recognition task | The facial expression recognition task provides an objective measure of emotional bias which is associated with vulnerability to depression. We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe) | Baseline, Day 5, six weeks |
| Probabilistic Incentive Learning Task |
Not provided
Inclusion Criteria:
People ages 16-24
Exclusion Criteria:
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
| Facility | Status | City | State | ZIP | Country | Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashmolean Museum Website | Oxford | Oxfordshire | United Kingdom |
| PubMed Identifier | Type | Citation | Retractions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 42049312 | Derived | Syed Sheriff R, Riga E, O'Dell B, Chandler L, Adams H, Glogowska M; Public contributor, University of Birmingham. Online cultural experiences for mental health in people aged 16-24: a qualitative analysis of multisource data from a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2026 Apr 28;16(4):e105217. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-105217. | |
| 34294126 |
Not provided
Not provided
The data will be made available on OSF once peer reviewed
The data will be made available on OSF once peer reviewed
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D003863 | Depression |
| D001008 | Anxiety Disorders |
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D001526 | Behavioral Symptoms |
| D001519 | Behavior |
| D001523 | Mental Disorders |
Not provided
Not provided
Two arm study, 1:1 randomisation (stratified by gender)
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
| Ashmolean Website | Other | A generic museum website owned by the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford. |
|
This is an instrumental learning task in which the participant gains or loses points by choosing between two paired images. The participant is told that some images are more likely (but not always) to be associated with gains and some with losses. The explicit aim is to maximize points. We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe) |
| Baseline, Day 5, six weeks |
| Flourishing | The Flourishing Scale is an 8-item measure of self-perceived success in domains such as self-esteem, relationships, optimism and purpose. We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe) | Baseline, Day 5, six weeks |
| Loneliness | The UCLA Loneliness Scale is a self-report inventory that uses a Likert-type scale to assess subjective feelings of loneliness. In addition we will add an item directly asking about loneliness. We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe). | Baseline, Day 5, six weeks |
| Syed Sheriff RJ, Vuorre M, Riga E, Przybylski AK, Adams H, Harmer CJ, Geddes JR. A cultural experience to support mental health in people aged 16-24 during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to a typical museum website: study protocol of an online randomised controlled trial. Trials. 2021 Jul 22;22(1):482. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05441-z. |