Help Texts Grief Intervention for Bereaved College Students

NCT07228260 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: IRB-25-0709
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 126
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The proposed study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Help Texts, a weekly text-based program, among bereaved students at UCLA. Specifically, the study will evaluate whether Help Texts reduces grief severity and symptoms of depression, and whether it improves academic functioning (e.g., graduation, grades, student enrollment retention). The investigators hypothesize that bereaved UCLA students who receive a 12-month Help Texts weekly digital text intervention will have reduced grief severity and depressive symptoms and increased academic functioning compared to bereaved UCLA students in a waitlist control condition receiving treatment as usual (i.e., list of resources for grief). Participants will complete surveys at four timepoints: baseline and 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months following enrollment. They will be randomly assigned to either the treatment condition (receive 12-month Help Texts subscription at enrollment) or the waitlist control condition (receive list of resources for grief at enrollment, and receive 12-month Help Texts subscription at 6 months following enrollment). The Help Texts program involves texts offering psychoeducation related to grief and coping strategies, delivered twice weekly.

Conditions

Bereavement

Keywords

bereavement; digital intervention; text-based intervention; college students

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Prolonged Grief Disorder-Revised (PG-13-R)

  PG-13-R measures symptoms of Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) mapping onto the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual's conceptualization of clinical grief. The measure assesses symptoms such as yearning for the deceased close person, avoiding reminders of their death, and feelings of loneliness in relation to the death. Each item is rated from 1 (Not at all) to 5 (Overwhelmingly). Total scores range from 10 to 50, with higher scores representing more severe prolonged grief.

  0 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months following enrollment

• Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-3)

  The PHQ-3 measures symptoms of depression over the last 2 weeks, including loss of interest in things, feeling down or hopeless, and feeling tired. Each item is rated from 0 (Not at all) to 3 (Nearly every day). Total scores range from 0 to 9, with higher scores representing more severe symptoms of depression.

  0 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months following enrollment

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Academic Functioning - GPA

  0 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months following enrollment

• Academic Functioning - Negative Impacts to Academic Performance

  0 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months following enrollment

• Academic Functioning - Class Enrollment Status

  0 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months following enrollment

• Academic Functioning - Dropped Course

  0 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months following enrollment

Other Outcomes (1)

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7)

  0 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months following enrollment

Study Arms (2)

Waitlist Control with Treatment as Usual

OTHER

At study enrollment, participants receive treatment as usual--a list of resources relevant to grief. At 6 months following study enrollment, participants will receive a 12-month subscription to Help Texts, a text-based intervention that delivers two texts per week providing bereavement psychoeducation, validation, and coping strategies.

Behavioral: list of resources for grief; Behavioral: text-based intervention for grief

Treatment

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

At study enrollment, participants will receive a 12-month subscription to Help Texts, a text- based intervention that delivers two texts per week providing bereavement psychoeducation, validation, and coping strategies.

Behavioral: text-based intervention for grief

Interventions

list of resources for grief BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive treatment as usual, consisting of a list of resources for coping with grief both on-campus and off-campus

Waitlist Control with Treatment as Usual

text-based intervention for grief BEHAVIORAL

Help Texts delivers texts twice a week over a period of 12-months to provide psychoeducation, validation, and coping strategies relevant to bereavement. The The texts offer some customization in specifying the name of the participant and their deceased loved one, as well as providing texts relevant to the participants' cause of bereavement and relationship to their deceased loved one.

Also known as: Help Texts

Treatment; Waitlist Control with Treatment as Usual

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Enrolled UCLA student
• At least 18 years old
• Experienced death of a close person in the past 12 months
• Able to read English

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, Los Angeles: lead
• University of Arizona: collaborator
• Help Texts: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Franz Hall

Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States

RECRUITING

Related Publications (5)

• Levesque DA, Lunardini MM, Adams SN, Payne EL, Neumann BG. Grief Coach: Feasibility and acceptability of a text message program for bereavement support among grievers in the United Kingdom. Death Stud. 2025;49(4):391-402. doi: 10.1080/07481187.2024.2334080. Epub 2024 Apr 4.

  PMID: 38573792 RESULT

• Chang M, Panda S, Tajrian M, Kim WI, Dunkel Schetter C, Robles TF. Bereavement, resource utilization, and collective grieving since the COVID pandemic: Mixed-methods study of university students and staff. 2024.

  RESULT

• Varga MA, Lanier B, Biber D, Stewart B. Holistic Grief Effects, Mental Health, and Counseling Support in Bereaved College Students. College Student Affairs Journal. 2021;39(1):1-13. doi: 10.1353/csj.2021.0000.

  RESULT

• Sirrine EH, Kliner O, Gollery TJ. College Student Experiences of Grief and Loss Amid the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. Omega (Westport). 2023 Aug;87(3):745-764. doi: 10.1177/00302228211027461. Epub 2021 Jun 23.

  PMID: 34162233 RESULT

• Jones S, Martini M. Sense of self, depression and adaption to grief, in emerging adults who suffered parental loss. Current Psychology. 2023;42(7):5212-25. doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-01843-z.

  RESULT

Central Study Contacts

Michelle Chang, M.A., C.Phil

CONTACT

(323) 284-4695; changmichelle@g.ucla.edu

Theodore F. Robles, Ph.D.

CONTACT

(310) 794-9362; robles@psych.ucla.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Model Details: The treatment group will receive the Help Texts intervention at baseline, whereas the waitlist control group will receive treatment as usual (list of resources for grief) at baseline. At 6 months, the waitlist control group will receive the Help Texts intervention as well.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 23, 2025
• First Posted: November 14, 2025
• Study Start: October 30, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2027
• Last Updated: November 14, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)