A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Brief Online Self-Guided Interventions for LonelinessShow others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, ISSN 0022-006X, E-ISSN 1939-2117, Vol. 93, no 1, p. 54-63Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
<bold>Objective:</bold> Loneliness is a global health issue, but current loneliness interventions are not scalable enough to reach many who might benefit from them. Brief online interventions could greatly expand access to evidence-based loneliness interventions. <bold>Method:</bold> We conducted a preregistered three-armed trial (N = 908, ages 16-78) to compare three self-guided online interventions: a single-session intervention (SSI) for loneliness, a 3-week, three-session intervention for loneliness, and an active control supportive therapy SSI (https://ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT05687162). <bold>Results:</bold> Loneliness decreased between baseline and Week 8 across all conditions (b = -5.80; d = -0.55; 95% CI [-0.62, -0.47]; p < .01), but did not decrease significantly more in those assigned to either the loneliness SSI (b = -1.27; d = -0.12; 95% CI [-0.30, 0.06]; p = .20) or the 3-week intervention (b = -0.93; d = -0.09; 95% CI [-0.27, 0.09]; p = .34) than those assigned to the control SSI. Participants found all three interventions acceptable but rated both loneliness interventions as more acceptable than the control (p < .01). Far more participants completed the 10-min control SSI (86.6%) and 20-min loneliness SSI (69.4%) than the 60-min 3-week intervention (14.9%). <bold>Conclusions:</bold> An SSI for loneliness was not significantly less effective than a longer loneliness intervention and had a much higher completion rate. Yet, against our hypotheses, neither loneliness intervention reduced loneliness more than an active control SSI did. Future work should aim to design more effective SSIs for loneliness and identify populations for which SSIs might be most helpful.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC , 2025. Vol. 93, no 1, p. 54-63
Keywords [en]
loneliness; single-session intervention; digital mental health intervention; randomized controlled trial; online sample
National Category
Psychiatry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-210480DOI: 10.1037/ccp0000908ISI: 001371038600001PubMedID: 39325409Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85206128944OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-210480DiVA, id: diva2:1921972
Note
Funding Agencies|Jacobs Connecting the EdTech Research EcoSystem Center; National Institute of Mental Health [T32 MH115882]; Jacobs Foundation. Katherine A; National Institute of Health Office of the Director [DP5OD028123]; National Institute of Mental Health [R43MH128075]; Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health; National Science Foundation [2141710]; Health Research and Services Association [U3NHP45406-01-00]; Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology; HopeLab; Child Mind Institute; Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation
2024-12-172024-12-172025-04-24