Randomized controlled trial of the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with undergraduate university students |
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| Authors: | J. Brian Houston Jennifer First Matthew L. Spialek Mary E. Sorenson Toby Mills-Sandoval McKenzie Lockett |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Disaster and Community Crisis Center, Department of Communication, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;2. Department of Communication, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA |
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| Abstract: | Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with college students. Participants: College students (aged 18–23) from a large Midwest US university who volunteered for a randomized controlled trial during the 2015 spring semester. Methods: College students were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 64) or a control (n = 65) group. Intervention participants received three 45-minute RCI sessions over subsequent weeks. All participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments at the beginning of Week 1 and end of Week 3. Student resilience, coping, hope, stress, depression, and anxiety were assessed. Results. RCI participants reported significantly more hope and less stress and depression from Week 1 to Week 3 compared with control participants. Results for resilience also approached statistical significance. Effect sizes were small to moderate. Conclusions: This study found preliminary evidence that RCI is an effective resilience intervention for use with college students. |
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| Keywords: | Anxiety coping depression group hope intervention resilience stress |
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