Outcomes of mental effectiveness training for undergraduate students

Researchers: Prof Martin Webber

Funder: St Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Duration: October 2015 to August 2016

Background

Students entering higher education are facing increasing financial, workload and social pressures which impact negatively on their mental health, wellbeing and ability to study. International studies repeatedly find high levels of depression and anxiety among students.

Interventions which promote mental effectiveness or resilience among students in UK Higher Education Institutions are under-evaluated. However, an evaluation of a pilot of Mindapples ‘Your Mind: A User’s Guide’ training among undergraduate nursing students found that it improved their ability to self-manage stress and increased their knowledge about their own minds. These differences were evident three months after the training in contrast to a similar group of students who did not undertake the training.

Aims and objectives

This study aims to evaluate the delivery of the Mindapples training programme ‘Your Mind: A User’s Guide’ to a cohort of undergraduate psychology and business studies students in London South Bank University (LSBU). The evaluation will aim to establish:

The effectiveness of the programme in improving students’ wellbeing, self-efficacy and ability to cope with stress
The effect of the programme on the retention and module completion rates of students in the first year of their degree course
The impact of the programme on students’ perceived ability to study

Methods

First year undergraduate students in the Departments of Psychology and Business Studies at London South Bank University will be invited to participate in October 2015. There will be approximately 200 in total.

All students will receive the 86-session Mindapples training programme ‘Your Mind: A User’s Guide’ in weekly 90-minute sessions in the autumn of 2015. The sessions will be voluntary but will be timetabled for the students to ensure they know when and where they are to be held (and to encourage them to attend). Those who do not attend, or attend fewer than three sessions, will be utilised as a control group within the analysis.

At the beginning of the training participants will fill in questionnaires using well known scales of wellbeing, self-efficacy and ability to cope with stress. They will then complete the same questionnaire at the end of the training and then six months after the study. Additional open-ended questions will be included in the follow-up questionnaire to obtain feedback on the training, and in the 6-month follow-up questionnaire to obtain feedback on the impact of the training on their ability to study.

Additional data on module completion rates will be obtained for all participants from LSBU’s routine data collection to evaluate the effectiveness of the Mindapples training programme on engagement with a programme of study.