College Students’ Attitudes Towards Mobile-Based Mental Health Applications

Format

Individual Presentation

Format

Poster Presentation

Presenters

• Juliann Sergi McBrayer, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow
• Steven Tolman, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow
• Pamela Wells, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow
• Juliann Sergi McBrayer, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

First Presenter’s Email Address

jmcbrayer@georgiasouthern.edu

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Juliann Sergi McBrayer, Ed.D. is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Research Center at Georgia Southern University. She also serves as the Program Director for the Educational Leadership master’s and educational specialist programs. She holds a Doctorate and Educational Specialist from Georgia Southern University, a Master’s degree from Ohio University, and a Bachelor's degree from SUNY College at Buffalo. She has served 20 years as an educational leadership associate/assistant professor, educational program coordinator, instructional school leader, professional development and federal programs coordinator, classroom teacher and teacher leader. As a scholarly practitioner, her research interests include the development, implementation, and assessment of educational leadership and teacher preparation programs with a focus on purposeful, collaborative, and sustainable professional learning programming to ensure effectiveness and accountability.

Second Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Second Presenter’s Email Address

stolman@georgiasouthern.edu

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Steven Tolman, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and IHLA Faculty Fellow at Georgia Southern University. His previous roles included serving as a Higher Education Administration graduate program director and 12 years as a student affairs administrator in Residence Life, Student Conduct, and Student Life. He holds a Doctorate from Rutgers University, a Master’s from Texas Tech University, and a Bachelor’s from Central Michigan University. His research is theoretically informed and guided by the tenets of student development theory. This theoretical framework is intertwined with the two streams of his scholarly agenda: 1) The profession of student affairs and 2) The professional preparation of educational leaders.

Third Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Third Presenter’s Email Address

pwells@georgiasouthern.edu

Third Presenter's Brief Biography

Pamela C. Wells, Ph.D., LPC, ACS, NCC, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development at Georgia Southern University. She is a member of the Counselor Education faculty, and she is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She is also an Approved Clinical Supervisor, working with Masters Level Providers to help them hone their clinical skills. She maintains a small client caseload focusing on adults with complex trauma. Her research interest areas include mindfulness and counseling, grief and loss, and creativity. She has experience with several qualitative methodologies, including grounded theory and Photovoice.

Fourth Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Fourth Presenter’s Email Address

mk16401@georgiasouthern.edu

Fourth Presenter's Brief Biography

Monika Krah is a second-year graduate student in the doctoral Clinical Psychology program at Georgia Southern University. Her research interests lie in whole health and the relationships between mental and physical health.

Submitter

I am submitting this proposal as one of the presenter(s)

Location

Harborside Ballroom

Strand #1

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Health: Mental & Physical Health

Relevance

Our proposal aligns very closely with the heart and health strands of the National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. This project assesses college student perceptions of mental health mobile application-based interventions that utilize techniques such as mindfulness for improving stress management. Having a better understanding of the needs and attitudes of college students towards therapeutic interventions helps practitioners develop targeted interventions and helps educators understand the priorities of college students.

Brief Program Description

Nationwide, over 45 million adults aged 18 and older have a mental illness, yet only 40% seek professional help (Reinert et al., 2019). Technology introduces a delivery option for mental health resources to targeted populations who are more susceptible to stress yet less likely to seek professional help. In this study, we aim to gather information about college students’ experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of stress management mental health applications.

Summary

Once in college, three-fourths of all lifetime mental health disorders have an onset between 18-24 years (Eisenberg et al., 2009). Information regarding college student attitudes on targeted mental health interventions is sparse. Accessibility barriers, such as insufficient or no health insurance coverage and the angst over the healthcare cost (Van Ameringen et al., 2017), inconvenient location or inconvenient business hours (Stebleton et al., 2014), lack of time to engage in traditional mental health services (Czyz et al., 2013; Eisenberg et al., 2012; Pedrelli et al., 2015; Stebleton et al., 2014), and lack of knowledge or awareness about needing help or where to go for help (Czyz et al., 2013), pose challenges in connecting to mental health services. Availability factors, such as inadequate or complete absence of available treatment (Pedrelli et al., 2015) and long waitlists to enter treatment (Czyz et al., 2013), concern attitude and beliefs towards mental health. Both accessibility and availability barriers are critical factors that impede college students from accessing care. In the era of digitalization, technology has been considered as a possible mediator to deconstruct such barriers to care. Furthermore, current college students are among one of the first generations to have grown up alongside the existence of social media and the widespread use of devices such as laptops and smartphones, and may prefer technology-based interventions. In the relatively new mobile health application (MHA) field, research examining college students' attitudes towards mindfulness stress management MHA is limited and further lacking is examining attitudes along socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity, and first-generation college students (FGCS) status. We generated and administered a web-based questionnaire, “Attitudes Towards Stress Management Mobile Apps Questionnaire” to college students that were recruited in a classroom setting.

Evidence

Mental health advancements, including better early identification, more evidence-based treatments, and psychotropic medication improvements, allow higher education to be more attainable for those with mental health problems (Pedrelli et al., 2015).

Technology minimizes accessibility, availability, and acceptability barriers to care. Technology is accessible to the user 24 hours a day, seven days per week (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2017; Pedrelli et al., 2015); reduces wait time to access care due to insufficient or lack of services (Lui et al., 2017); can reach a broader scope of people (Conley et al., 2016; NIMH, 2017); and, is fast and easily used (Payne et al., 2015). Technology is cost-effective, making it more available to a broader population (Conley et al., 2016; NIMH, 2017; Pedrelli et al., 2015). It may be an affordable option for individuals without healthcare (Lui et al., 2017). Lastly, technology is socially acceptable, especially with younger individuals. Users can discretely engage with resources while in public (Payne et al., 2015); offers anonymity (NIMH, 2017; Pedrelli et al., 2015); reduces stigma (Conley et al., 2016); provides an introduction to treatment (NIMH, 2017); improves self-awareness, and offers immediate cues for behavioral change (Payne et al., 2015).

References

Conley, C. S., Durlak, J. A., Shapiro, J. B., Kirsch, A. C., & Zahniser, E. (2016). A meta-analysis of the impact of universal and indicated preventive technology-delivered interventions for higher education students. Prevention Science, 17(6), 659-678. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0662-3

Czyz, E., Horwitz, A., Eisenberg, D., Kramer, A., & King, C. (2013). Self-reported barriers to professional help-seeking among college students at elevated risk for suicide. Journal of American College Health, 61, 398-406. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2013.820731

Eisenberg, D., Golberstein, E., & Hunt, J. B. (2009). Mental health and academic success in college. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 9(1), 1-35. https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.2191

Eisenberg, D., Speer, N., & Hunt, J. (2012). Attitudes and beliefs about treatment among college students with untreated mental health problems. Psychiatric Services, 63(7), 711-713. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201100250 Lui, J. H. L., Marcus, D. K., & Barry, C. T. (2017). Evidence-based apps? A review of mental health mobile applications in a psychotherapy context. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 48(3), 199-210. http://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000122 National Institute of Mental Health. (2017). Technology and the future of mental health treatment. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/technology-and-the-future-of-mental-health-treatment/index.shtml

Payne, H. E., Lister, C., West, J. H., & Bernhardt, J. M. (2015). Behavioral functionality of mobile apps in health interventions: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Medical Internet Research mHealth and uHealth, 3(1), e20. http://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.3335

Pedrelli, P., Nyer, M., Yeung, A., Zulauf, C., & Wilens, T. (2015). College students: Mental health problems and treatment considerations. Academic Psychiatry, 39(5), 503-511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0205-9

Reinhert, M., Nguyen, T., & Fritz, D. (2019). The state of mental health in America 2020. Mental Health of America. https://mhanational.org/get-involved/download-2020-state-mental-health-america-report

Stebleton, M. J., Soria, K. M., & Huesman, R. L. (2014). First-generation students’ sense of belonging, mental health, and use of counseling services at public research universities. Journal of College Counseling, 17, 6-20. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2014.00044.

Van Ameringen, M., Turna, J., Khalesi, Z., Pullia, K., & Patterson, B. (2017). There is an app for that! The current state of mobile applications (apps) for DSM-5 obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and mood disorders. Depression and Anxiety, 34(6), 526–539. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22657

Learning Objective 1

Identify the attitudes of college students’ towards mental health applications and face-to-face counseling.

Learning Objective 2

Identify college student attitudes towards mental health applications and mindfulness stress management mental health applications, specifically, and identify to what degree college students use mental health applications for stress management.

Learning Objective 3

Identify to what degree do college students’ attitudes towards mental health applications differ among low, middle, and high socioeconomic status, ethnic identity, and first-generation college student status.

Keyword Descriptors

Stress management, mobile-based applications (MHA), mindfulness, mental health applications

Presentation Year

2025

Start Date

3-2-2025 4:45 PM

End Date

3-2-2025 6:00 PM

Recommended Citation

Sergi McBrayer, Juliann; Tolman, Steven; Wells, Pamela; and Sergi McBrayer, Juliann, "College Students’ Attitudes Towards Mobile-Based Mental Health Applications" (2025). National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference. 101.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2025/2025/101