Momentary Coping Prompts and Hair Steroids in College Students

Conditions

• Aggression
• Alcohol Drinking in College
• Emotional Eating
• Emotional Regulation

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - 89 Years

Healthy Volunteers

Accepted

Interventions

• Momentary coping prompt — BEHAVIORAL
  A single short message of one to three sentences delivered to the participant's smartphone at a randomized decision point, taking roughly fifteen to thirty seconds to read. Messages apply cognitive-behavioral techniques including thought records, perspective-taking, decatastrophizing, cost-benefit checks, implementation intentions, and behavioral redirection, or acceptance-based techniques including cognitive defusion, acceptance, values anchoring, urge surfing, and present-moment grounding. Delivery is capped at four messages per day with a minimum sixty-minute interval and is confined to participant-set waking hours. Messages may be dismissed without responding.
• Active control message — BEHAVIORAL
  A brief neutral acknowledgment message matched to the coping messages on delivery mechanism and approximate length, containing no coping technique or behavioral suggestion.

Study Details

This study looks at the moments when college students feel a strong emotional swing, and how those moments relate to reacting online when upset, drinking alcohol, and eating in response to emotions. Participants wear a wrist device and answer brief check-ins on their phone several times a day for about five weeks. During part of that time, a study app sometimes sends a short coping message at moments when the wrist device and check-ins suggest emotions are shifting quickly. Whether a message is sent at any given moment is decided at random, and the study compares what participants do in the short window afterward. An optional part of the study collects one small hair sample, which is tested for two hormones related to stress and to status-linked behavior, so the researchers can see whether longer-term hormone levels relate to how people respond in the moment. The study is a pilot designed to test whether the approach works and to estimate how large its effects are.

Key Dates

First listed

Aug 24, 2026

Start date

Sep 30, 2026

Status verified

Aug 2026

Primary completion

May 31, 2027

Completion

Dec 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment

80 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

CROSSOVER

Primary purpose

PREVENTION

Arms

• Experimental: Coping prompt delivered
  Decision points at which the randomization outcome is to deliver a brief cognitive-behavioral or acceptance-based coping message. Message type is selected at random from those eligible in the participant's current context. Every participant contributes decision points to this condition.
• Active Comparator: No coping prompt or active control message
  Decision points at which the randomization outcome is not to deliver a coping message. A brief neutral, non-directive acknowledgment message may be delivered as an active control so that receiving any message can be separated from receiving a coping message. Every participant contributes decision points to this condition.

Primary Outcome Measure

Momentary urge to post or reply reactively, score on a 7-point scale. [ Time Frame: Within 2 hours after each randomized decision point, across weeks 2 to 5. ]

Central Contacts

• Yonghwan Chang, PhD
  352-294-1664
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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