TY - JOUR

T1 - Patients' experiences in a guided Internet- and App-based stress intervention for college students

T2 - A qualitative study

AU - Fleischmann, R. J.

AU - Harrer, M.

AU - Zarski, A. C.

AU - Baumeister, H.

AU - Lehr, Dirk

AU - Ebert, David Daniel

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 The Authors

PY - 2018/6/1

Y1 - 2018/6/1

N2 - Introduction: Academic education is often associated with increased stress and adverse effects on mental health. Internet-based interventions have shown to be effective in reducing stress-related symptoms. However, college students as target group so far have not been reached appropriately with psychological interventions and little is known about college students' perception of Internet-based stress management interventions. The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of students participating in an Internet- and App-based stress management intervention originally developed for stressed employees and subsequently adapted and tailored to college students. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten participants selected from a randomized controlled trial that evaluated the effectiveness of an Internet- and App-based stress training. The selection of participants aimed to include students with different levels of treatment success. In order to enable an in-depth examination of intervention elements causing dissatisfaction, the interviews were systematically adapted regarding participants' statements in a precedent questionnaire. The interview material was analyzed based on the grounded theory method and thematic analysis. Results: Results suggest students perceive a necessity to adapt Internet-based interventions to their particular needs. Students' statements indicate that a scientific perspective on the intervention and instable life circumstances could be student-specific factors affecting treatment experience. General themes emerging from the data were attitudes towards individualization and authenticity as well as demands towards different functions of feedback. Discussion: Participants' experiences hint at certain intellectual and lifestyle-related characteristics of this population. Future studies should explore whether adaptions to these characteristics lead to a higher acceptance, adherence and effectiveness in the target population.

AB - Introduction: Academic education is often associated with increased stress and adverse effects on mental health. Internet-based interventions have shown to be effective in reducing stress-related symptoms. However, college students as target group so far have not been reached appropriately with psychological interventions and little is known about college students' perception of Internet-based stress management interventions. The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of students participating in an Internet- and App-based stress management intervention originally developed for stressed employees and subsequently adapted and tailored to college students. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten participants selected from a randomized controlled trial that evaluated the effectiveness of an Internet- and App-based stress training. The selection of participants aimed to include students with different levels of treatment success. In order to enable an in-depth examination of intervention elements causing dissatisfaction, the interviews were systematically adapted regarding participants' statements in a precedent questionnaire. The interview material was analyzed based on the grounded theory method and thematic analysis. Results: Results suggest students perceive a necessity to adapt Internet-based interventions to their particular needs. Students' statements indicate that a scientific perspective on the intervention and instable life circumstances could be student-specific factors affecting treatment experience. General themes emerging from the data were attitudes towards individualization and authenticity as well as demands towards different functions of feedback. Discussion: Participants' experiences hint at certain intellectual and lifestyle-related characteristics of this population. Future studies should explore whether adaptions to these characteristics lead to a higher acceptance, adherence and effectiveness in the target population.

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85040009945&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.invent.2017.12.001

DO - 10.1016/j.invent.2017.12.001

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 30135777

AN - SCOPUS:85040009945

VL - 12

SP - 130

EP - 140

JO - Internet Interventions

JF - Internet Interventions

SN - 2214-7829

ER -