Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) of Managing Emotion in First Year University Students: An Online Emotion Regulation Skills Program for University Students

INTERVENTION: Managing Emotion is a brief online psychoeducation program designed to support the psychological and emotional well‐being of university students. The psychoeducation content of Managing Emotion draws from the seminal Process Model of Emotion Regulation (Gross, 1998; 2015), which provides an overarching framework for understanding the experience of emotion, and how we can change our emotional states via a number of cognitive and behavioural strategies. Intervention content has been developed by the investigators who are researchers within the School of Psychology, Curtin University, with a demonstrated track record in emotion regulation and related fields. Peer consultation was further sought with clinical psychologists within Western Australia. Managing Emotion consists of five online modules which progressively introduce and discuss strategies for regulating emotion. Psychoeducation content is delivered via a series of short engaging videos, with an accompanying written summary of the video content. At the end of each module, participants are also provided with a module worksheet, which includes some simple take‐home activities designed to facilitate processing of the intervention content. These worksheets have been designed to help personalise the intervention content for each participant’s individual life circumstances and concerns. Participants complete the online intervention modules individually, at their own pace, with each module typically requiring between 20 to 30 minutes to complete. The intervention has been designed to be delivered sequentially, as each module builds upon the content of previous modules. Participants are advised of this and encouraged to complete the entire Managing Emotion program (including take‐home worksheets) spread over CONDITION: Emotion dysregulation; ; Emotion dysregulation Mental Health ‐ Other mental health disorders PRIMARY OUTCOME: Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) – A widely used 21‐item self‐report assessment of depression, anxiety, and stress.[i. Baseline: Immediately prior to commencing Module 1; ii. Post‐intervention: Immediately following completion of the final module (one week following baseline); iii. Follow‐up: 1 month following post‐intervention assessment (primary timepoint). ] Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003) – A 10‐item self‐report measure of how an individual regulates their emotional experience and expression. Two regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, are assessed.; ; Questionnaire‐based assessment measures will be completed immediately before and after intervention, as well as following the end of each module, and at one month follow‐up. This study will be conducted entirely online.[i. Baseline: Immediately prior to commencing Module 1; ii. Post‐intervention: Immediately following completion of the final module (one week following baseline); iii. Follow‐up: 1 month following post‐intervention assessment (primary timepoint). ] Regulatory Emotional Self‐Efficacy Scale (RESE; Capara et al, 2008) – a 12‐item self‐report assessment of perceived self‐efficacy in managing negative affect and expressing positive affect.[i. Baseline: Immediately prior to commencing Module 1; ii. Post‐intervention: Immediately following completion of the final module (one week following baseline); iii. Follow‐up: 1 month following post‐intervention assessment (primary timepoint). ] ; ; ii. Post‐intervention: Immediately following completion of the final module (one week following baseline) ; ii. Post‐intervention: Immediately following completion of the final module (one week following baseline) ; ii. Post‐intervention: Immediately following completion of the final module (one week following baseline) SECONDARY OUTCOME: Academic outcomes: Participants’ university administrative records and grades (i.e. course weighted average, course, unit retention information, and demographic data) will be linked to the questionnaire data collected as part of the present study. ; Note: Consent to access these university records will be completely voluntary and provided separately to the consent to participate in the present study. In other words, students will still be able to participate in this study, if they do not consent to us accessing their university records.[i. 6 to 12 months following post‐intervention assessment (i.e. at end of the academic semester or year) ] Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al, 2008) – A 6‐item self‐report measure of the ability to recover from stress.[i. Baseline: Immediately prior to commencing Module 1 ; iii. Follow‐up: 1 month following post‐intervention assessment. ] Credibility and Expectancy Questionnaire (Devilly & Borkovec, 2000) – a 6‐item self‐report scale for measuring participant views on treatment expectancy and rationale credibility for clinical outcome studies.[ i. Immediately following completion of each module] Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale – Short Form (DERS‐SF; Victor & Klonsky, 2016) – an 18‐item self‐report measure of emotion regulation ability[i. Baseline: Immediately prior to commencing Module 1 ; iii. Follow‐up: 1 month following post‐intervention assessment. ] Inventory of Statements About Self‐Injury (ISAS; Klonsky & Olino, 2008) – a comprehensive self‐report assessment of non‐suicidal self‐injury[i. Baseline: Immediately prior to commencing Module 1 ; iii. Follow‐up: 1 month following post‐intervention assessment. ; Note: only participants who report past or present self‐injuring (item 1) are required to complete the ISAS] Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985) which provides a brief 5‐item assessment of overall quality of life. [i. Baseline: Immediately prior to commencing Module 1 ; ii. Post‐intervention: Immediately following completion of the final module (one week following baseline) ; iii. Follow‐up: 1 month following post‐intervention assessment.] Self‐Compassion Scale (Raes et al, 2011) – A 12‐item measure of self‐compassion via attitudes and behaviours directed towards oneself during emotionally difficult times.[i. Baseline: Immediately prior to commencing Module 1 ; ii. Post‐intervention: Immediately following completion of the final module (one week following baseline) ; iii. Follow‐up: 1 month following post‐intervention assessment. ] INCLUSION CRITERIA: First year university students