EVALUATING AN ONLINE, SELF-ADMINISTERED STUDENT WELL-BEING AND RESILIENCE PROGRAM

Abstract

Intro: Post-secondary students need accessible, high-quality e-mental health services now more than ever. Q-Life is an evidence-informed, online, self-directed well-being and resilience program that is highly accessible. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the online well-being and resilience program for post-secondary students called Q-Life to make data-driven recommendations for program development. Methods: 424 post-secondary students with pre to post Q-Life assessment data were grouped across engagement levels, program versions, and COVID-19 impact. Subgroup comparisons of effectiveness and reach were made. The relationship between engagement, logged lifestyle behaviours, and mentalities and self-reported well-being scores were investigated. Engagement was compared across demographic groups and program versions. Results: A sign test and two-way mixed factorial ANOVAs showed that Q-Life was effective with improvements of 8-10% in well-being and resilience scores (i.e., Q-Life Experience Score) across time for all subgroups of program version and COVID-19 impact. Engagement was weakly associated with well-being scores from Time One (T1) to Time Two (T2), but there was no discernible dose effect. Logged lifestyle behaviours and mentalities were not predictive of T2 well-being scores. Participants were mostly Caucasian and female. Discussion: There are many practical implications to be gleaned from the evaluation of Q-Life for Q-Life specifically, and for e-mental health program development and research in general. This evaluation served as a reminder of the importance of conscientiousness in collection of demographic data, engagement data, and self-monitoring data. Baseline well-being and resilience was most predictive of T2 scores which underscores the importance of meeting participants where they are and targeting systemic influencers of well-being and resilience. Conclusion: E-mental health programs such as Q-Life show potential for easing the strain on the mental healthcare system, but there is still room for improvement in reaching marginalized populations and monitoring effectiveness if we are to meet the CSA Group’s ‘National Standard’ of Post-Secondary Student Mental Health.