Background Anxiety and depression are common among university students, and university counseling centers are under pressure to develop effective, novel, and sustainable interventions that engage and retain students. Group interventions delivered via the internet could be a novel and effective way to promote student mental health. Objective We conducted a pragmatic open trial to investigate the uptake, retention, treatment response, and level of satisfaction with a remote group cognitive behavioral therapy intervention designed to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression delivered on the web to university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Preintervention and postintervention self-reported data on anxiety and depression were collected using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Satisfaction was assessed postintervention using the Client Satisfaction with Treatment Questionnaire. Results A total of 175 students were enrolled, 158 (90.3%) of whom initiated treatment. Among those initiating treatment, 86.1% (135/158) identified as female, and the mean age was 22.4 (SD 4.9) years. The mean number of sessions attended was 6.4 (SD 2.8) out of 10. Among participants with clinically significant symptoms at baseline, mean symptom scores decreased significantly for anxiety (t56=11.6; P<.001), depression (t61=7.8; P<.001), and composite anxiety and depression (t60=10.7; P<.001), with large effect sizes (d=1-1.5). Remission rates among participants with clinically significant baseline symptoms were 67.7%-78.9% and were not associated with baseline symptom severity. High overall levels of satisfaction with treatment were reported. Conclusions The results of this study serve as a proof of concept for the use of web-based group cognitive behavioral therapy to promote the mental health of university students.

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Abstract

This psycho-educational strategy, in the form of a website, was designed to educate adolescents in schools with regard to online safety practices. The study made use of a mixed-method methodology. One hundred and eightythree (183) adolescents completed quantitative questionnaires. Qualitative data was gathered by eight semi-structured adolescent focus groups. After the integration of results, a website that included information on safety education was designed. Six areas of online safety were illustrated and addressed on the website - cyber bullying, pornography, social networking, online gaming, sharing of personal information, as well as plagiarising and stealing content. Adolescents were given the opportunity to explore the website in order to evaluate it as an effective educational tool for promoting online safety. The research reveals that adolescents could benefit from the psycho-educational strategy as it creates awareness and serves an educational purpose in terms of identifying possible harms of the internet. Findings indicate that schools, educators and parents could use the psychoeducational strategy to educate adolescents about internet safety.