Stress Management for College Students

Virtual Intervention Targeting Distress in College Students: A Pilot Study

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a virtual task can reduce distress in college students. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Will those who complete the virtual task have less distress?
2. Will men and women both benefit equally from the virtual task?

Researchers will compare the virtual task to a control task (another virtual task that we expect will not impact distress) to see if distress differs.

Participants will spend 20 minutes engaging in the virtual task (or the control task) on 3 different days all within one week. They will complete a survey about their well-being before starting the first virtual task and again ~6 weeks afterward.

Easily accessible and cost effective strategies for reducing emotional distress and improving stress tolerance in college students and the population generally are desired. The scalability and feasibility of virtual interventions hold promise for reaching segments of the population that find one-on-one psychotherapy aversive. Males in particular have higher perceived treatment stigma relative to women and find may typical traditional therapeutic processes incongruent with their masculine identity and values. The research team has designed an innovative, self-directed, virtual intervention to reduce distress and stress intolerance. The intervention consists of a set of virtual tasks which reflect the Sequential Model of Emotional Processing presented with language, imagery and content that engages men.

Using a randomized clinical trials design, this pilot project will compare the effects of the virtual intervention with a virtual control task on emotional well-being outcomes in college students.

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or older
• college student

Exclusion Criteria:

• Younger than 18 years of age