Expanding College Student Mental Health with Stress Management Mobile Technologies

The college years present a period of increased psychological distress for many Americans and college students report significant barriers to mental health treatment.

The PI's goal is to become an independent investigator with expertise in the creation and evaluation of behavioral intervention technologies (BITs) in order to broaden the scope of mental healthcare service availability within existing systems. This plan proposal.

Northwestern Technologies, proposal outlines a to achieve this goal, through the culmination of training and research plans into a successful R01 The training plan takes full advantage of the strong institutional support and environment at University's Feinberg School of Medicine and the Center for Behavioral Intervention which is led by the primary mentor for this proposal.Training goals necessary to the PI's career goal include growth in (1) user-centered design for the development of BITs, (2) implementation science, (3) clinical science including qualitative research and new clinical research methodologies, and (4) advanced professional skills.

This mental will centers) research of plan builds on the PI's background in clinical psychology, which has focused on tele- health, stress management interventions, and cognitive behavioral therapy CBT).

In this K08, the PI extend her work to include new populations (e.g. college students) and settings (college counseling to increase the impact of her research through earlier intervention.

The long-terms goal of the is to integrate BITs into existing university healthcare settings, thus broadening the scope and reach mental healthcare services.

The research plan ( will develop and test a Student Stress Management (SSM) mobile program based within the framework of an evidence-based treatment for depression and anxiety.

This program will increase engagement with mental health treatment, and supplement existing care by serving as an access point to more extensive mental health treatment options and as an independent treatment form.

This will refine on university communities; hypothesized the design increasing be achieved through the following specific aims: 1) to conduct user-centered design and usability testing to features and tools of the SSM program and determine feasibility and acceptability of the program for use campus; 2) to conduct and 3) to btain preliminary data assessing efficacy the SSM program, changes in mechanisms related to efficacy, and university system-level factors that would facilitate or retard adoption, i mplementation, and sustainability of the program.

These studies are expected to advance the of BITs for young adults, and improve and increase the use of BITs in university settings, ultimately the reach and impact of evidence-based practices. a pilot hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial of the SSM program within two o Skills acquired by carrying out the projects proposed in this application will allow the PI to successfully compete for R01 funding in order to conduct a larger effectiveness-implementation trial.