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Momentary Coping Prompts and Hair Steroids in College Students

NCT07782398 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 80

Last updated 2026-08-24

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

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.

Conditions

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

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Momentary coping prompt

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.

BEHAVIORAL

Active control message

A brief neutral acknowledgment message matched to the coping messages on delivery mechanism and approximate length, containing no coping technique or behavioral suggestion.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Yonghwan Chang, PhD · University of Florida

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
89 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-09-30
Primary Completion
2027-05-31
Completion
2027-12-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07782398 on ClinicalTrials.gov