Utilizing ACT daily as a self-guided app for clients waiting for services at a college counseling center: A pilot study

Abstract

Objective: Considering increasing demands for mental health services at college counseling centers (CCCs), there is a need for cost-effective solutions that avoid depleting stressed CCC resources. This study examined if ACT Daily, a mobile application based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), could serve as an effective self-guided intervention. Participants: 11 individuals on a CCC waitlist suffering from anxiety/depression participated in the study over 2 weeks. Methods: This study implemented a pre-post, open trial design of ACT Daily. Assessments were completed at baseline and 2-week post assessment. Results: Results indicated that ACT Daily was acceptable and that participants improved on depression and anxiety symptoms as well as psychological inflexibility processes over the 2 weeks. App data further indicated significant in-the-moment improvements on depression, anxiety and psychological inflexibility immediately following skill coaching, with these effects becoming larger over time. Conclusions: Mobile apps like ACT Daily could serve as an effective, pre-therapy tool for depressed/anxious students.

Effectiveness of Mobile App-Based Psychological Interventions for College Students: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Eleven studies are randomized controlled trials (RCT) (Witkiewitz et al, 2014 ; Gajecki et al, 2017 ; Harrer et al, 2018 ; Lee and Jung, 2018 ; Fish and Saul, 2019 ; Huberty et al, 2019 ; Bruehlman-Senecal et al, 2020 ; Flett et al, 2020 ; McCloud et al, 2020 ; Newman et al, 2020 ; Ponzo et al, 2020 ) and two studies are considered quasi-experimental trials (Benton et al, 2016 ; Borjalilu et al, 2019 ). Four studies considered a single-arm pre-test-post-test study design (Jackson et al, 2016 ; Leonard et al, 2017 ; Haeger et al, 2020 ; Lattie et al, 2020 ; Reyes et al, 2020 ) and one study included two groups through an iterative process (Kazemi et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Appropriate trial design, and any deviates from the standard RCT accounted for in the conduct and analysis of the trial 11/11 2016; Borjalilu et al, 2019). Four studies considered a singlearm pre-test-post-test study design (Jackson et al, 2016;Leonard et al, 2017;Haeger et al, 2020;Lattie et al, 2020;Reyes et al, 2020) and one study included two groups through an iterative process (Kazemi et al, 2018). Eleven of the included studies are RCTs and the total sample size ranges from 72 to 330 college student participants; the overall duration of the intervention range from 14 days to 3 months and when we consider follow-ups, the longest trial lasted for 9 months.…”

Mobile Apps That Promote Emotion Regulation, Positive Mental Health, and Well-being in the General Population: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…A nonrandomized study design was used to examine the effectiveness, acceptability, or feasibility of nine MHapps across nine articles [18,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. Researchers generally adopted a quasi-experimental design obtaining pre and post-test data.…”

“…Researchers generally adopted a quasi-experimental design obtaining pre and post-test data. Five studies reported preliminary findings from pilot or feasibility research [34,45,[48][49][50]. Participants were generally recruited online (k = 5).…”

“…The methodological quality of these studies ranged from 2 to 5. Studies reported varying recruitment periods and intervention use periods from 2 weeks [48] to 5 weeks [44]. A significant increase in well-being, mental health and ER outcomes was generally reported after app use, compared to controls or to other interventions [18,43,50].…”