JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

University students are reporting concerning levels of mental health distress and challenges. University mental health service provider (MHSP) initiatives have been shown to be effective in supporting students’ mental health; but these services are often resource-intensive. Consequently, new approaches to service delivery such as online and peer support initiatives have emerged as cost-effective and efficient approaches to support university students. However, these approaches have not been sufficiently evaluated for effectiveness or acceptability in university student populations.

Objective:

Thus, the overarching goal of the present study was to evaluate a MHSP-presented versus peer-presented online mental health resilience-building video outreach program against a wait-list comparison group.

Methods:

Participants were 217 undergraduate students (Mage = 20.40 years, SD = 1.96, 79.7 % women) who were randomly assigned to one of the intervention groups (MHSP-presented (n = 69) or peer-presented (n = 73)) or the wait-list comparison group (n=75). Participants in the intervention groups were asked to watch three brief skills-building videos addressing strategies for building mental health resilience, while the comparison group was wait-listed. The MHSP-presented and peer-presented video series were identical in content, with presenters using a script to ensure consistency across delivery methods, but videos differed in which they were either presented by MHSPs or university students (peer). All participants were asked to complete online self-report measures of stress, coping self-efficacy, social support, social connectedness, mindfulness, and quality of life at baseline (Time 1), six weeks later (Time 2; post), and at a 1-month follow up (Time 3).

Results:

Results from a series of two-way ANOVAs found no significant differences in outcomes between any of the three groups. Surprisingly, a main effect of time revealed that all students improved on several well-being outcomes. Additionally, results for program satisfaction revealed that both the MHSP-presented and peer-presented programs were rated very highly and at comparable levels.

Conclusions:

Thus, findings suggest that an online mental health resilience-building video outreach may be acceptable for university students regardless of if it is MHSP-presented or peer-presented. Furthermore, the overall increases in well-being across groups which coincided with the onset and early weeks of COVID-19 suggest an unexpected pattern of response amongst university students to the early period of the pandemic. Limitations and barriers as well as research implications are discussed.