Effects of the Digital Intervention StudentPOWR on the Subjective Wellbeing of Students Studying from Home: a Randomized Wait-List Control Trial

While recent research has provided evidence for the negative influence of remote studying on the mental and physical health of students, less is known about digital well-being interventions to mitigate these effects. This study had two objectives: 1) to assess the effects of the online well-being intervention, StudentPOWR, on the subjective well-being of students studying from home, and 2) to investigate the influence of engagement with the intervention on subjective well-being.

This was a non-blind, 3-arm (full access, limited access, and waitlist control) randomized controlled trial (RCT) and took place in March 2021. University students (N = 99) studying remotely in Ireland and the Netherlands were randomly assigned to the full access (N = 36), partial access (N = 30), or waitlist control (N = 33) group for the four-week intervention period. Measures included the SPANE questionnaire for subjective well-being and the DBCI-ES-Ex for engagement with the intervention.