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University StudentsTRESPASSNCT06333444

Counselling Intervention for College Students Experienced Psychological Distress

A study testing four weekly psychological counselling intervention in people with University Students and Psychological Intervention, run by University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli at 1 site in Italy.

Unknown status

Status not confirmed. The sponsor has not verified this record for over two years, so it may be out of date.

Official record
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Trial summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate mental health and academic motivation in university students asking help to university counselling service (UCS) in Southern Italy before anf after four weekly psychological sessions. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 to 30 years
What is being tested?
four weekly psychological counselling intervention
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
100 participants
Where
1 siteItaly
Study dates
1 Jan 2022to 31 Dec 2025
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 to 30 years
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult

Who may be able to join

  • being university students who asked psychological help to university counselling service and completed the intervention

Who cannot join

  • do not speak Italian

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

Italy1 site, 1 recruiting
  • University of Campania

    Caserta, 81100

    ALDA TRONCONE, alda.troncone@unicampania.it

    Recruiting

Other trials in Italy

About this study

Official title: The Role of Mentalization, Emotional Regulation and Loneliness in College Students' Psychological Distress

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate mental health and academic motivation in university students asking help to university counselling service (UCS) in Southern Italy before anf after four weekly psychological sessions.

The main question it aims to answer are:

  • is the psychological counselling intervention useful in improving psychological distress and academic motivation
  • which psychological variables predict the intervention outcome
Read the detailed description

The participants will be university students who completed psychological counselling intervention delivered by UCS (University of Campania, Italy). They will be asked to completed an internet-based survey, administered anonymously through Google Forms. The survey consist of two sections. The first section includes questions about sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., gender and age), enrollment year, type of university course attended, academic standing (i.e., whether all exams within the prescribed period had been passed), and previous or current contact with psychological or psychiatric mental health services (university or non-university). The second section comprises four scales that assessed the variables of interest.

To measure psychological distress and problems, the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) will be used. Feelings of loneliness will be assessed using the University of California-Los Angeles Loneliness Scale version 3 (UCLA-LS3). Emotion regulation will be assessed using the Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Students intentions to continue or to drop out of the academic course will be measured with self-reported questions.

Being tested
four weekly psychological counselling intervention
Keywords
university students, university counselling service, mental health, academic motivation
Medical subject headings
Psychological Well-Being

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • four weekly psychological counselling interventionBehavioural

    four weekly psychological counselling intervention delivered by university students asking help to university counselling service in Southern Italy

Study groups in NCT06333444
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Psychological interventionExperimentalfour weekly psychological counselling intervention
Receives: Behavioral: four weekly psychological counselling intervention

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. psychological distress

    To measure psychological distress and problems, the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) (Barkham et al., 1998; Evans et al., 2000). The CORE-OM is a 34-item self-report measure that evaluates the level of psychological distress will be used. The measure covers four domains: subjective well-being (4 items), problems/symptoms (depression: 4 items, anxiety: 4 items, physical problems: 2 items, trauma: 2 items); life/social functioning (close relationships: 4 items, social relationships: 4 items, general functioning: 4 items), and risk to self and others (6 items). Higher scores indicate higher levels of distress. To distinguish between clinical and non-clinical cut-off values, the four dimensions (scales for both males and females) indicated in the original validation and the Italian version (Evans et al., 2002; Palmieri et al., 2009) will be considered.

    Measured: before and after the treatment, up to 7 weeks

  2. Academic motivation

    The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) is a 20-item self-report questionnaire designed to evaluate the regulation of motivation based on the self-determination theory. Academic motivation is conceptualized according to the degree of autonomy on which the individual behavior is based, expressed through a continuum of increasing self-determination, from not self-determined (amotivation pole) to self-determined (autonomous regulation pole) behavior, from being externally motivated to becoming internally and autonomously driven to perform certain behaviors. The items are rated on a five-point Likert scale (0 = does not correspond at all to 7 = corresponds exactly) and distributed in five subscales--amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation. Scores frange from 0 to 140. High score subscale indicates higher endorsement of that motivation type.

    Measured: before and after the psychological intervention, up to 7 weeks

Secondary outcomes (3)
  1. Emotion regulation ability

    The Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) is a 36-item multi-dimensional self-report measure of emotion dysregulation and emotion self-regulation strategies. The total scores range from 36 to 180, with higher scores indicating more difficulty in the emotion regulation component measured

    Measured: before and after the treatment, up to 7 weeks

  2. perceived loneliness

    The University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale version 3 (LS3) is a 20-item self-report measure of an individual's subjective feelings of loneliness. Higher scores indicate greater loneliness. A total score ≥ 47 will be considered indicative of higher-than-normal levels of loneliness.

    Measured: before and after the intervention, up to 7 weeks

  3. drop-out intention

    Students' intentions to continue or to drop out of the academic course will be measured with self-reported questions. For the present study, the Italian version, which consists of 4 items asking students how often they have thought about not continuing their university degree courses, will be adopted. Scores frange from 4 to 20. Higher scores indicate a greater intention to drop out.

    Measured: before and after the intervention, up to 7 weeks

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted27 Mar 2024
  2. Study start1 Jan 2022
  3. Primary completion31 Dec 2024 (estimated)
  4. Study completion31 Dec 2025 (estimated)

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Model description
Four weekly psychological counselling intervention
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
100 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT06333444
Sponsor's protocol ID
n. 08, 09/03/2021
Acronym
TRESPASS
Status last verified
Mar 2024
First submitted
19 Mar 2024
Last updated
27 Mar 2024
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
Undecided: only, if requested

Publications

  • Beiter R, Nash R, McCrady M, Rhoades D, Linscomb M, Clarahan M, Sammut S. The prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of college students. J Affect Disord. 2015 Mar 1;173:90-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.10.054. Epub 2014 Nov 8.

    PubMed 25462401
  • Batra K, Sharma M, Batra R, Singh TP, Schvaneveldt N. Assessing the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 among College Students: An Evidence of 15 Countries. Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Feb 17;9(2):222. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9020222.

    PubMed 33671363
  • Auerbach RP, Alonso J, Axinn WG, Cuijpers P, Ebert DD, Green JG, Hwang I, Kessler RC, Liu H, Mortier P, Nock MK, Pinder-Amaker S, Sampson NA, Aguilar-Gaxiola S, Al-Hamzawi A, Andrade LH, Benjet C, Caldas-de-Almeida JM, Demyttenaere K, Florescu S, de Girolamo G, Gureje O, Haro JM, Karam EG, Kiejna A, Kovess-Masfety V, Lee S, McGrath JJ, O'Neill S, Pennell BE, Scott K, Ten Have M, Torres Y, Zaslavsky AM, Zarkov Z, Bruffaerts R. Mental disorders among college students in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Psychol Med. 2016 Oct;46(14):2955-2970. doi: 10.1017/S0033291716001665. Epub 2016 Aug 3.

    PubMed 27484622

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing four weekly psychological counselling intervention in people with University Students and Psychological Intervention, run by University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli at 1 site in Italy.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: status not confirmed, as of the sponsor's last update on 27 Mar 2024. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in Italy. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

Results are not available in the source record.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

Contact Alda Troncone, PhD (+39800252420 ext. +39800252420, alda.troncone@unicampania.it), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

psychological distress (time frame: before and after the treatment, up to 7 weeks). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT06333444, which also lists 3 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 27 Mar 2024.

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