Effectiveness of Mobile App-Based Psychological Interventions for College Students: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Serious mental health disorders are increasing among college students and university counseling services are often overburdened. Mobile applications for mental health have been growing exponentially in the last decade and they are emerging in university settings as a promising tool to promote and intervene in college students' mental health. Additionally, considering the recent covid-19 pandemic, mHealth interventions, due to its nature and possibilities, may play an important role in these institutions. Our main objectives are to explore mhealth interventions in universities, regarding its conceptual framework, acceptability and efficacy outcomes and understand its impact and contributions to address treatment delivery and psychological difficulties resulting from covid-19 pandemic. The literature search was conducted in scientific databases, namely, Web of Science, Pubmed, and Scopus. A search in app stores was not conducted, thus regarding commercially available apps, only those found in our database search were included in our review. We selected studies with mobile applications addressing psychological interventions for college students. A total of 2,158 participants were included in the 8 selected studies and most interventions were delivered through mobile apps only and based in cognitive behavioral therapy. Results suggested that college students accept and adhere to these interventions and preliminary evidence of efficacy was demonstrated in different disorders, such as stress, anxiety, depression and risky behaviors such as alcohol and tobacco abuse and sexual knowledge. We conclude that universities, particularly college counseling services, may benefit from mhealth interventions, not only to address college students' mental health but to decrease some of its difficulties related to lack of human resources. Specifically in covid-19 pandemic context, these interventions may contribute significantly by promoting and delivering psychological interventions at a safe distance.

The need for accessible mental health interventions for young adults in the COVID-19 pandemic: A student psychologists’ perspective and rapid systematic review

“…Interestingly, however, all studies reported an improvement of mental health symptoms, independent of the length of the intervention (ranging from one session to up to 10 sessions), or type of intervention (online, app, selfadministered, group-based). These findings confirm the ameliorating effects of online/app-based mental health interventions reported in the literature (e.g., [59][60][61][62] ). Given that the pandemic is still ongoing and the overall follow-up period in the included studies is very short, longitudinal results are needed to investigate whether these positive effects can be sustained over time.…”

“…Most of the tools for achieving these goals are already present: online interventions can be an effective and inexpensive alternative or supplement to therapy that is delivered using more traditional modes, overcoming barriers that may prevent people from accessing treatment 79 . The outcome of internet-delivered treatments is generally, but especially in younger people, very promising [59][60][61] . Therefore, available interventions need to be synthesized and structured in an easy and user-friendly manner.…”

Relationship between social support, coping strategy against COVID-19, and anxiety among home-quarantined Chinese university students: A path analysis modeling approach

“…Regarding H3, H3a, H3b, and H3c, counselor support significantly negatively predicted anxiety, with an indirect effect through cognitive coping. A systematic review of mobile app-based college counseling services found preliminary evidence of efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy on anxiety (Oliveira et al, 2021 ). Similarly, an Italian study of 53 subjects verified the versatility and usefulness of a single online counseling session in reducing state anxiety during the lockdown (Carbone et al, 2021 ).…”

Labor market participation and depression during the COVID-19 epidemic among young adults (18 to 30 years): a nationally representative study in France

“…In addition, there is evidence that psychological counselling provided in the university context can effectively alleviate symptoms of depression among students (31). Moreover, mobile apps addressing signs of stress and psychological distress, which are effective and cheap, seem particularly well-suited to young adults who widely use screen-based media (32, 33). Mobile-based interventions and telemedicine may also be effective to address the mental health needs of young adults who are unemployed, although it may be more difficult to identify and target them.…”