Brief App-based Mood Monitoring and Mindfulness Intervention for First-year College Students

Brief App-based Mood Monitoring and Mindfulness Intervention for First-year College Students

The investigators examined whether brief, app-based interventions were helpful in alleviating mental health symptoms during the transition to college. In particular, the investigators were interested in whether a brief mobile-app mindfulness intervention combined with mood monitoring was more effective in alleviating first-year students' psychological distress than mood monitoring alone.

The transition to college is associated with worsening mental health symptoms. This study tested whether a brief mobile-app mindfulness intervention combined with mood monitoring was more effective in alleviating first-year students' psychological distress than mood monitoring alone. Participants were 130 first-year students. The investigators randomly assigned 88 students to a mindfulness-plus-mood-monitoring or a mood-monitoring-only group and asked them to use an app 3 times a day for 3 weeks. They, along with an assessment-only control group (n=42), completed self-report questionnaires at baseline, post-intervention, and 6 and 12 weeks later.

Inclusion Criteria:

• enrolled first-year student at university

Exclusion Criteria:

• serious suicidal concerns