JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Academic procrastination is a widespread problem among college students. Guided online interventions can help reduce procrastination. However, guidance by professional clinicians draws upon valuable and limited societal resources, and a more efficient, scalable form of guidance is needed. Guidance by trained clinical psychology students has not yet been examined.

Objective:

The present open trial aims to examine the feasibility and acceptability of an internet-based procrastination intervention for college students under the guidance of student e-coaches.

Methods:

A guided online intervention targeting procrastination is developed for the Dutch student population. Guidance is delivered by trained clinical psychology students asynchronously in the form of textual feedback on intervention progress with the aim to support and motivate the participant. Participants are recruited in seven Dutch universities. Primary outcomes are intervention satisfaction, usability and adherence, which are assessed by the Client Satisfaction Scale (CSQ-8), System Usability Scale (SUS-10), and number of completed modules respectively. Secondary outcomes are procrastination, depression, stress, quality of life, and e-coach satisfaction.

Results:

The project was funded in 2019, recruitment began in January 2021 and as of November 2022 700 participants were enrolled. The expected date of analysis and publication of the results is 2023.

Conclusions:

The results are expected to contribute to the body of literature regarding e-health targeting procrastination, under the guidance of student e-coaches. We also expect that the findings will be informative for the development of future online psychological interventions in higher education.