Attitudes and barriers to mobile mental health interventions among first-year college students: a mixed-methods study

Abstract

Objective: This mixed-methods study examined attitudes, barriers, and preferences for mobile mental health interventions among first-year college students. Participants: 351 students (64% women; 51% non-Hispanic White; 66% Heterosexual) from two campuses completed self-report assessments and 10 completed individual semi-structured interviews. Methods: Paired t-tests compared attitudes for various mHealth applications and logistic regressions examined sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of mental health app users. Themes, topics, and quotes from interviews were derived through rapid qualitative analysis. Results: Mental health applications were less used and perceived to be less helpful than other mHealth applications. Past mental health app use was best predicted by past use of formal mental health care. Conclusions: Mobile health interventions have significant potential to diversify mental health services for students. Despite limited engagement with these resources, openness to digital interventions among students is quite high. Improving intervention features and increasing problem-recognition to facilitate help-seeking may result in greater uptake.