JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 aggravated already existing difficulties and added new challenges for students to face. Due to the gap between needed and available psychological services, group interventions may offer a helpful strategy for students' mental health promotion.

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate the acceptability and feasibility of a four-week online support group program designed for mental health promotion tailored to graduate students at a Brazilian public university within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (May-June 2022).

Methods:

Participants of the program took part in online support groups based on a pilot group facilitated by a trained clinical psychologist. Self-administered standardized online questionnaires were assessed at baseline (T0, pre-intervention), post-intervention (T2), and at follow-up (T3, after 4-6 weeks). We measured sociodemographic variables, treatment credibility/expectancy (Credibility/Expectancy Questionnaire), satisfaction (Client Satisfaction Questionnaire), negative effects of the intervention (Negative Effects Questionnaire), depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and participant’s quality of life (abbreviated World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment). A nine-answer options questionnaire and open-ended questions also assessed the group's perceived positive and negative outcomes.

Results:

The total sample comprises N = 32 participants. Most were doctoral students (n = 23, 71.9%). Credibility and expectancy scores were high. Participants’ satisfaction (CSQ-8) with the program was high at post-intervention (T2) and follow-up (T3) (T2: M = 28.66, SD = 3.02; T3: M =27.91, SD = 3.02). Most of the participants reported they could learn from other participants’ experiences (T2: n = 29, 90.6%; T3: n = 27, 84.4%) and felt encouraged to take better care of themselves (T2: n = 22, 68.8%; T3: n = 24, 75.0%). None of the participants reported they had no benefit from the program. The PHQ-9 scores showed mild to moderate depressive symptoms (M = 9.59, SD = 6.34), whereas n = 3 (9.4%) participants’ answers to the PHQ-9 item 9 indicated suicidality at baseline (T0). Finally, the four domains of quality of life (physical, psychological, social, and environmental) showed a slight and statistically significant improvement at post-intervention (T0: M = 57.03-59.64; T2: M = 64.32-68.75).

Conclusions:

Online support groups for mental health promotion of graduate students are feasible and can be especially useful for universities with students allocated in different cities. They are also satisfactory and may positively influence participants’ quality of life. Therefore, they can be considered a helpful mental health promotion strategy in the educational context. Further studies could evaluate these (or similar) programs under non-pandemic circumstances.