Journal Article

Effects of a digital self-efficacy training in stressed university students: A randomized controlled trial

Marciniak, Marta A., Henninger, Mirka, Brown, Adam D., Friedman, Olivia, Kleim, Birgit, Rohde, Judith, Homan, Stephanie, Paersch, Christina, Ries, Anja

2024

Overview

Self-efficacy is associated with positive mental health outcomes. We developed and tested a digital self-efficacy training for daily recall of autobiographical self-efficacy memories (e.g., memories of successfully overcoming a personal challenge). In this randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effects of the week-long digital self-efficacy training on key mental health outcomes, including anxiety, stress, and hopelessness, and on self-efficacy in 93 university students (mean age 23.3 years, SD: 3.49) with elevated self-reported stress levels. Participants completed either the self-efficacy training combined with ecological momentary assessment (EMA) (training group) or EMA only (control group). We found significantly reduced hopelessness and trait anxiety in the training group compared to the control group at post-assessment (one day post intervention). Effects on ratings of self-efficacy at post-assessment were also significant when controlling for baseline self-efficacy. This stand-alone digital self-efficacy training was significantly associated with a number of positive effects on outcomes compared to a control condition, including reduced hopelessness, trait anxiety, and increased self-efficacy. Future work is needed to replicate and investigate the long-term effects of the training and explore its implementation in clinical populations. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05617248.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adaptation / Adult / Analysis / Anxiety / Anxiety - psychology / Biology and Life Sciences / Cellular telephones / Clinical trials / College students / Computer and Information Sciences / COVID-19 / Decision making / Diagnosis / Digitization / Effectiveness / Engineering and Technology / Evaluation / Feedback / Female / Health aspects / Humans / Intervention / Long-term effects / Male / Medicine and Health Sciences / Memory / Mental disorders / Mental Health / Open source software / Pandemics / Psychological aspects / Psychotherapy / Questionnaires / Risk factors / Self Efficacy / Self-efficacy (Psychology) / Smartphones / Social Sciences / Stress / Stress (Psychology) / Stress, Psychological - psychology / Students / Students - psychology / Training / Universities / University students / Young Adult