JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Increasing rates of mental health diagnoses in college students signal the need for new opportunities to support the mental health of this population. With many mental health apps being efficacious, they may be a promising resource for college campuses to provide to their students. However, it is important to understand why (or why not) students might want to use apps and their desired features.

Objective:

Information about student’s interest in mental health apps may inform which apps to provide and how campuses can support their use. This study aimed to understand interest and hesitation in app use and the relationship between mental health needs, as defined by depression, anxiety, positive mental health, and app use.

Methods:

The web-based Healthy Minds Study collects information among mental health needs, perceptions, and service use across colleges and universities. We used a sample of 989 participants who completed the survey between 2018 and 2020 and completed an elective module on digital mental health. We analyzed the elective module responses using a mixed-methods approach, including both descriptive and inferential statistics along with thematic coding for open text responses.

Results:

Results from this study revealed that anxiety was a significant predictor for app adoption (b = -.07, p < .001), but not depression (b =.03, p =.12) nor positive mental health (b = -.02 , p = .17). Prominent qualitative findings indicated that the most desired app features included tips and advice, access to resources and information, and on demand support that involves interaction throughout the day. Participants also suggested an overall desire for human interaction integrated into an app. As predicted, hesitancy was encountered and qualitative results suggested that there was a lack of interest and preference for face-to-face counseling or in person interaction.

Conclusions:

Findings from this study underscore that simply providing digital mental health apps as tools may be insufficient in supporting their use in college campuses. Though many students were open to using a mental health app, hesitation and uncertainty were common in participant responses. Working with colleges and universities to increase digital literacy and provide resources that allow students to gauge when app use is appropriate may be helpful when implementing mental health apps as resources in college campuses.