Investigating the Efficacy of a Behavioral Activation Low Intensity Intervention in Online Research Participants

Participants who follow the study link in Prolific will immediately be taken to the Informed Consent Statement (ICS), which will include a description of the study, risks and benefits, payment, eligibility and confidentiality. After reading the ICS, participants will confirm their consent by clicking "I consent to participate in this study." They will then be taken to the welcome page for the study and confirm that they will provide their best answers (see Attachments, "Screener"). Once participants have confirmed their consent, they will be asked screener and demographic questions (i.e., age, sex assigned at birth, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, relationship status, education level, annual income, employment status, if they have ever taken psychiatric medication/engagement in mental health services, how many people they can rely on for social support, physical health, how often they drink alcohol, and how old they were when they first struggled with depression, anxiety, or stress). In order to participate in the study, they must indicate "yes" that they are interested in learning coping skills for their mental health at this time. This is meant to address potential bias for online workers to participate in order to receive compensation without interest in adhering to the intervention if randomized to the treatment arm. Additionally, they will be administered the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item (PHQ-9) and must reach the threshold for elevated depression symptoms (total score > 9). Information about the screener (e.g., types of questions) is provided to participants in the Informed Consent Form. Total time to complete the screener is about 3 minutes.

Participants who are ineligible will be automatically sent to a page that notifies them they do not qualify for the study. At this point their participation will be terminated.

Participants who are eligible for the study will then be prompted to complete the Week 1 Questionnaire (see Attachments, "Week 1") via the Prolific platform. Study team will send out a Bulk Message to eligible participants to complete the weekly modules on a week-by-week basis. The message to participants can be found in the Attachments, "Message". In this questionnaire they will fill out a series of measures including: the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7), WHO-5 Well-being Index (WHO-5), 3 questions from the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale (ACES), Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS), and the Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale Activation Subscale (BADS-AC). After completing these questionnaires participants will be randomized to either the COMET-BA intervention condition or the control condition (which will receive access to the intervention after 8 weeks ). This randomization will be completed via the Qualtrics randomizer function - which randomly and evenly assigns participants to the two conditions.

Participants who are assigned to the COMET-BA condition will then be taken to the first intervention module (see Attachments, "Week 1"). They will then receive the first module, Positive Activity Scheduling, where participants will learn about the theory underlying behavioral activation and impact of scheduling positive activities. They will be asked to brainstorm and plan a positive activity they can do in the next week. In total, the time estimate for week 1 is about 10 minutes. Participants in the control condition will be notified of the condition assignment and reminded about upcoming weekly questionnaires but will not receive the module for week 1 until the study is over. The time to complete Week 1 for the control condition is about 5 minutes.

In the next week, participants will have access to the Week 2 modules through the Prolific platform and sent a message through the Prolific platform (see attachments "Message"). All participants will complete the weekly outcome measures, including the GAD-7, PHQ-9, WHO-5, ERQ, WSAS, and BADS-AC. For those in the COMET-BA condition, they will receive the Avoidance module (see Attachments, "Week 2"). First, participants will complete the weekly outcome measures, including the GAD-7, PHQ-9, WHO-5, ERQ, WSAS, and BADS-AC. Participants in the COMET-BA condition will then be asked about their adherence to last week's plan, receive psychoeducation around the nature of avoidance in depression, and complete an exercise to practice identifying avoidance strategies before they complete the another positive activity scheduling exercise for the upcoming week. In total, the time estimate for week 2 is about 10 minutes. Participants in the control condition will be administered the questionnaires alone and not the COMET-BA module. The time to complete the questionnaires for Week 2 is about 5 minutes.