Change in Social Media Use and Well-being Among College Students Receiving a One-week Exercise or Mindfulness Intervention

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Social Media Addiction; Depression, Anxiety; Well-Being, Psychological
• Interventions: Behavioral: Mindfulness; Behavioral: Social Media Reduction + Exercise

• Registration Number: NCT06143852
• Lead Sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

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.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2023-11-14
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-11-16
• Study First Posted: 2023-11-22
• Study Start: 2024-02-07
• Status Verified: 2024-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-07-04
• Last Update Posted: 2024-07-08
• Primary Completion: 2025-05-31
• Study Completion: 2025-05-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 150

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.

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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

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Mindfulness	Mindfulness	Approximately 12-minute mindfulness-style meditations will be completed daily for one week through the Calm platform. Participants can listen to the exercise on the web-enabled version of Calm, or through the smartphone app. The course is entitled "7 Days of Gratitude" and centers around noticing and appreciating things in daily life.
Social Media Reduction + Exercise	Social Media Reduction + Exercise	Participants will reduce their social media use by at least 30 minutes daily for one week. Simultaneously, participants will exercise at least 30 minutes daily. Participants are given examples of common exercises (walking, yoga, strength training, etc.), but they are allowed to choose any type, although they are dissuaded from activities with high potential for injury.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Number of Social media use smartphone pick-ups	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Past-week total number of smartphone pick-ups for social media use applications
Change in Smartphone screen time (minutes) for social media use	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Past-week amount of screen time for social media use
Change in Social media use notifications received	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Past-week total number of notifications received for social media use applications
Change in World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQoL-BREF) scale	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 13-65, lower score = worse outcome
Change in Percent of time using social media	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Past-week percent of time using social media compared to other smartphone application categories.
Change in Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 (DASS-21)	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 0-63, higher score = worse outcome

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in The Gratitude Questionnaire, 6-item form (GQ-6) scale	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 6-42, lower score = worse outcome
Change in Hours spent socializing in-person with peers	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 0-20+ hours of in-person socialization, lower scores = worse outcomes
Change in University of California, Los Angeles 3-Item Loneliness Scale	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 3-9, higher score = worse outcome
Change in Motivations for Electronic Interaction Scale (MEIS)	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 10-50, higher score = worse outcome
Change in Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Processes (CompACT-15) scale	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 0-138, lower scores = worse outcome
Change in Fear of Missing Out Scale	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 10-50, higher score = worse outcome
Change in Number of evenings of past-week recreation	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 0-7 evenings of recreation, lower scores = worse outcomes
Change in Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS)	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week	Score range = 6-35, higher score = worse outcome

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Johns Hopkins University; 🇺🇸 Baltimore, Maryland, United States