A Counseling Application as an Alternative Tool in Increasing Coping Self-Efficacy Among University Students With Academic Distress During Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in Indonesia: A Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Non-Inferiority Trial

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic increased education-related distress among University students globally, including in Indonesia. Psychological factors, such as academic demands, limited opportunity to meet their peers, problematic use of technology, and domestic problems, influenced the well-being of the students, leading to poor academic performance. A mobile-based counseling application was developed to address the distress among University students. The application was meant to reach students living remotely to enable them to access psychological assistance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe a protocol aimed to evaluate the equivalence of the application when compared to the Treatment-As-Usual (TAU) in increasing the coping self-efficacy (CSE) and resilience of students as well as in decreasing their level of depression. A two-armed parallel randomized control non-inferiority trial will be conducted among approximately 430 students with selected academic problems. The participants will be randomly allocated into the TAU and the intervention groups. The primary and secondary outcomes will be measured by the Indonesian versions of the Coping Self-Efficacy (CSE) Scale, the Resilience Scale (RS-14), and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The data will be collected at baseline, at the end of each session, and after 3 months. The outcomes will be analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVAs, intention-to-treat, and per-protocol analysis. If proven, the application will be used as an alternative media in helping the students.Clinical Trial Registration: Thailand Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR20200530001); Date of registration: May 28, 2020.

Evaluation of Expressive Arts Therapy on the Resilience of University Students in COVID-19: A Network Analysis Approach

“…A total of 31 items in the RSUS were rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree"). There were six dimensions in the RSUS, which were as follows: self-efficacy (SE; item 1-5), self-acceptance (SA; item 6-8), emotional stability (ES; item 9-15), problemsolving (PS; item [16][17][18], support from friends (SFRI; item [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] and support from family (SFAM; item [27][28][29][30][31]. The scale SE evaluated the degree to which individuals affirmed their self-competence, and the items were listed such as "I am confident in my abilities" and "if I try, I can do things as well or better than anyone else".…”

“…Remote psychological counseling is the most used means of psychological intervention in the school context. In a sample of 160 Chinese adolescents, an intervention of psychological counseling combined with outdoor exercise proved to have an effect on resilience during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic [18]. Combined with a semi structured interview and questionnaire, an Italian study concluded that online counseling intervention inclusive of telephone listening services, paired with psychoeducational workshops in quarantine, could improve the resilience of university students [19].…”

“…Combined with a semi structured interview and questionnaire, an Italian study concluded that online counseling intervention inclusive of telephone listening services, paired with psychoeducational workshops in quarantine, could improve the resilience of university students [19]. Researchers in Indonesia developed a mobile-based counseling application and confirmed its facilitating efficacy, compared to the treatment-as-usual, in the promotion of resilience among students with academic problems during the pandemic [18].…”