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Momentary Coping Prompts and Hair Steroids in College Students
Sponsor: University of Florida
Summary
This study looks at the moments when college students feel a strong emotional swing, and how those moments relate to reacting online when upset, drinking alcohol, and eating in response to emotions. Participants wear a wrist device and answer brief check-ins on their phone several times a day for about five weeks. During part of that time, a study app sometimes sends a short coping message at moments when the wrist device and check-ins suggest emotions are shifting quickly. Whether a message is sent at any given moment is decided at random, and the study compares what participants do in the short window afterward. An optional part of the study collects one small hair sample, which is tested for two hormones related to stress and to status-linked behavior, so the researchers can see whether longer-term hormone levels relate to how people respond in the moment. The study is a pilot designed to test whether the approach works and to estimate how large its effects are.
Official title: REACT Biomarker and Extended-Measures Study: Hair Steroids, Psychosocial Moderators, and Momentary Reactive Behavior in College Students
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - 89 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
80
Start Date
2026-09
Completion Date
2027-12
Last Updated
2026-08-24
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Interventions
Momentary coping prompt
A single short message of one to three sentences delivered to the participant's smartphone at a randomized decision point, taking roughly fifteen to thirty seconds to read. Messages apply cognitive-behavioral techniques including thought records, perspective-taking, decatastrophizing, cost-benefit checks, implementation intentions, and behavioral redirection, or acceptance-based techniques including cognitive defusion, acceptance, values anchoring, urge surfing, and present-moment grounding. Delivery is capped at four messages per day with a minimum sixty-minute interval and is confined to participant-set waking hours. Messages may be dismissed without responding.
Active control message
A brief neutral acknowledgment message matched to the coping messages on delivery mechanism and approximate length, containing no coping technique or behavioral suggestion.
Locations (1)
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida, United States