Clinical trial NCT06143852: Change in Social Media Use and Well-being Among College Students Receiving a One-week Exercise or Mindfulness Intervention
Official title: Comparing Change in Social Media Use and Well-being Among College Students Receiving a One-week Exercise or Mindfulness Intervention
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Social Media Addiction
Depression, Anxiety
Well-Being, Psychological
Lead sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-11-22
Enrollment: 140
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Three groups of 1) no intervention, 2) mindfulness, or 3) social media reduction + exercise replacement intervention arms
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The investigators will be randomizing 150 college student participants with high levels of social media use into either a 1) control condition (no intervention), a 2) mindfulness meditation cognitive intervention, or 3) a social media reduction + exercise replacement intervention. Participants complete intervention activities daily for one week. The investigators will collect self-report and behavioral measures of social media use and related psychological constructs at three time points: baseline, immediately after the intervention period, and one-week after the intervention period.

Detailed description: The objective of this study is to test two cognitive and behavioral interventions designed to reduce social media use and psychological constructs related to social media use in a sample of university students.

The first cognitive intervention is a mindfulness meditation exercise taken from the Calm app centering around gratitude. Each meditation takes approximately 12 minutes to complete and is to be done daily for one week. The second behavioral intervention is asking participants to reduce social media use for 30 minutes daily for one week and replacing that time with physical exercise of the participants' choosing.

Aim 1: Compare psychological constructs related to mental health (well-being, stress, depression, anxiety, loneliness, social comparisons, etc.) before and after conducting two social media use interventions over a period of one week, compared to a control condition (no intervention).

Aim 2: Compare self-reported and behavioral (smartphone screen shots of social media use screen time) measures of social media use before and after two social media use interventions over a period of over one week, compared to a control condition (no intervention).

Aim 3: Examine mental health and social media use one week after the intervention period is complete (follow up), examining or testing whether effects last beyond the intervention period.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* The participant is 18 or older.
* The participant must be a Johns Hopkins University student.
* Owning an iPhone or Android smartphone, with frequent use of social media use daily (\> 1 hour)
* Enabling and sharing screenshots of your smartphone use metrics, including number of last-week pickups, notifications received, and average screen time.
* Providing consent to participate.
* Only exercising 1 hour or less daily, on average.

Exclusion Criteria:

* younger than 18
* Not a Johns Hopkins University Student
* Doesn't own a smart phone
* Uses smartphone less than 1 hour daily
* Exercises more than 1 hour daily

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 (DASS-21)
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQoL-BREF) scale
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Smartphone screen time (minutes) for social media use
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Number of Social media use smartphone pick-ups
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Percent of time using social media
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Social media use notifications received
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in University of California, Los Angeles 3-Item Loneliness Scale
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in The Gratitude Questionnaire, 6-item form (GQ-6) scale
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Motivations for Electronic Interaction Scale (MEIS)
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Processes (CompACT-15) scale
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS)
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Fear of Missing Out Scale
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Hours spent socializing in-person with peers
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
measure: Change in Number of evenings of past-week recreation
timeFrame: baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Baltimore
country: United States
facility: Johns Hopkins University
state: Maryland
Study officials:
affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
name: Johannes Thrul
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
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