JoyPop Mobile Mental Health App With Post-Secondary Students

NCT06154369 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 100251
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 160
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Students within post-secondary education settings are experiencing increasing stress, distress, and mental health difficulties. Many post-secondary education settings have identified student mental health and wellbeing as a priority and yet are struggling to adequately meet the needs of students. This has led to exploring whether technology can be used to help promote mental health and wellbeing among students. The JoyPop app is one mobile mental health app with a growing evidence base. It was developed to support improved emotion regulation - a key challenge among students struggling with distress and mental health difficulties. Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, the primary objective of this research is to determine the effectiveness of the JoyPop app in improving emotion regulation among post-secondary students when compared to no intervention. The secondary objectives are to: (1) Assess change in mental health, wellbeing, and resilience between students in each condition to better understand the app's broader impact; (2) Conduct an economic analysis to determine whether receiving the app reduces other health service use and associated costs; (4) Assess students' perspective on the quality of the JoyPop app.

Conditions

Emotion Regulation; Depression; Anxiety; Stress; Well-Being, Psychological

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (7)

• Change in emotion regulation (overall)

  Emotion regulation will be assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form. Total scores range from 18 to 90 with higher scores indicating greater difficulties in emotion regulation.

  Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in emotion regulation (strategies)

  Emotion regulation strategies will be assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form strategies subscale. Total scores range from 3 to 15 with higher scores indicating greater difficulties.

  Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in emotion regulation (non-acceptance)

  Emotion regulation strategies will be assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form non-acceptance subscale. Total scores range from 3 to 15, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties.

  Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in emotion regulation (impulse)

  Emotion regulation strategies will be assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form impulse subscale. Total scores range from 3 to 15, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties.

  Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in emotion regulation (goals)

  Emotion regulation strategies will be assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form impulse subscale. Total scores range from 3 to 15, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties.

  Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in emotion regulation (awareness)

  Emotion regulation strategies will be assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form awareness subscale. Total scores range from 3 to 15, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties.

  Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in emotion regulation (clarity)

  Emotion regulation strategies will be assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form clarity subscale. Total scores range from 3 to 15, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties.

  Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

Secondary Outcomes (7)

• Change in psychological distress

  Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in depressive symptoms

  Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in anxious symptoms

  Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in stress

  Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post) and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• Change in mental health symptoms

  General Health Questionnaire 12 will be administered at baseline (pre), after 2 weeks (mid), after 4 weeks (post), and after 8 weeks (follow up)

Other Outcomes (8)

• Self-reported healthcare utilization

  Service utilization measure will be administered at baseline (pre), after two weeks (mid), after four weeks (post), and after 8 weeks (follow up)

• App quality (overall)

  User Version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale will be administered to the intervention group after 4 weeks (post)

• App quality (engagement)

  User Version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale will be administered to the intervention group after 4 weeks (post)

Study Arms (2)

JoyPop

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will receive access to the Joypop app for 8 weeks.

Behavioral: JoyPop

No Intervention

NO INTERVENTION

No intervention will be offered. After 8 weeks in the control condition, participants will be offered access to the JoyPop app.

Interventions

JoyPop BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be asked to use the app at least twice daily for the first 4 weeks with no further instructions on feature usage or time spent using the app.

JoyPop

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 25 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Post-secondary student
• Between 18-25 years old
• Speak/read fluently in English
• Available to attend a virtual or in-person orientation session
• In order to download the JoyPop app, participants will need access to an iOS device (e.g., iPhone, iPad). Refurbished iPhones containing just the JoyPop app may be provided to participants to use for the duration of the trial if they do not have access to their own

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Lakehead University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Lakehead University

Thunder Bay, Ontario, P7B5E1, Canada

Location

Related Publications (1)

• MacIsaac A, Mann V, Toombs E, Schmidt F, Olthuis JV, Stewart SH, Newton A, Ohinmaa A, Mushquash AR. Promoting mental health and wellbeing among post-secondary students with the JoyPop app: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2024 Sep 2;25(1):576. doi: 10.1186/s13063-024-08424-y.

  PMID: 39223596 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Emotional Regulation; Depression; Anxiety Disorders; Psychological Well-Being

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Self-Control; Social Behavior; Behavior; Behavioral Symptoms; Mental Disorders; Personal Satisfaction

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR
• Masking Details: Given the nature of this trial, it will not be possible to blind participants to their allocation. As measures are self report, blinding of outcome measures is also not possible. Protect against bias will occur by blinding investigators to condition (i.e., only staff directly managing participants will be unblinded).
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Model Details: A pragmatic, randomized controlled trial will be used. Participants will be randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to the control (no intervention) or intervention (JoyPop) condition. Block randomization (block size of 8) will be used to randomly assign participants to each condition.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 23, 2023
• First Posted: December 4, 2023
• Study Start: November 22, 2023
• Primary Completion: November 25, 2024
• Study Completion: November 25, 2024
• Last Updated: September 9, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-09

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

CA (1)