Promoting mental health and wellbeing among post-secondary students with the JoyPop™ app: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background Technology use may be one strategy to promote mental health and wellbeing among young adults in post-secondary education settings experiencing increasing distress and mental health difficulties. The JoyPop (TM) app is mobile mental health tool with a growing evidence base. The objectives of this research are to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of the JoyPop (TM) app in improving emotion regulation skills (primary outcome), as well as mental health, wellbeing, and resilience (secondary outcomes); (2) evaluate sustained app use once users are no longer reminded and determine whether sustained use is associated with maintained improvements in primary and secondary outcomes; (3) determine whether those in the intervention condition have lower mental health service usage and associated costs compared to those in the control condition; and (4) assess users' perspectives on the quality of the JoyPop (TM) app. Methods A pragmatic, parallel arm randomized controlled trial will be used. Participants will be randomly allocated using stratified block randomization in a 1:1 ratio to the intervention (JoyPop (TM)) or control (no intervention) condition. Participants allocated to the intervention condition will be asked to use the JoyPop (TM) app at least twice daily for 4 weeks. Participants will complete outcome measures at four assessment time-points (first [baseline], second [after 2 weeks], third [after 4 weeks], fourth [after 8 weeks; follow-up]). Participants in the control condition will be offered access to the app after the fourth assessment time-point. Discussion Results will determine the effectiveness of the JoyPop (TM) app for promoting mental health and wellbeing among post-secondary students. If effective, this may encourage more widespread adoption of the JoyPop (TM) app by post-secondary institutions as part of their response to student mental health needs.