Description

Psychological problems are prevalent among university students and are associated with lower mental wellbeing and resilience. Universities provide an excellent environment for students to enhance mental wellbeing, resilience, and acquire life skills.

Caring Universities (CU) is an internationally embedded consortium of nine Dutch universities aimed at improving students' mental wellbeing. The CU project consists of two components: 1) an annual online questionnaire assessing students' mental health; and 2) a platform offering free, guided eHealth interventions to enhance mental well-being.

One of the interventions on the CU platform - called LifeHack - seeks to enhance mental wellbeing by increasing resilience, teaching life skills, and strengthening mental wellbeing. LifeHack is a guided eHealth intervention based on cognitive behavioural therapy, comprising 13 modules of approximately 30 minutes each focusing on four themes (mood management, productivity, self-worth, and relationships). We investigated the effects of LifeHack with pre-post measurements (total n = 216 at post-test) and found that after following LifeHack, mental wellbeing improved with small to moderate effect sizes. Additionally, students reported satisfaction with the programme and the eCoach. However, participants indicated lack of motivation and early symptom reduction as important reasons for drop-out. Furthermore, the diverse topics covered in LifeHack may not be relevant to all students, leading to more dropouts.

Currently, there are two versions of LifeHack: one 'structured', where modules must be completed in order, and one 'free choice', where all modules are available from the start and none are mandatory. For the proposed study, the free choice version of LifeHack will be used and adapted in co-creation with students as follows: participants will be asked which topics they find most important and want to work on. Based on their answers, a personalized selection of modules will be presented, and students can choose which module to start with. Each module is standalone, allowing students to proceed to another module or stop after completing one or more. Each module has a clear structure, beginning with goal formulation and concluding with an action plan. The new adapted version of LifeHack will be personalized and tailored for each student, aiming to improve motivation and reduce dropout rates.

With the current study, we aim to examine the effectiveness of the adapted version of LifeHack in an RCT to enhance mental wellbeing in university students. Secondary objectives include investigating differences between the intervention and control groups on students' self-report questionnaire resilience scores, depression scores, anxiety scores, stress-related scores, and mental health quality of life scores (pretest vs post-test). Additional outcomes include satisfaction with the programme and the eCoach, as well as adherence to the intervention.