The Effectiveness of a Digital Mental Fitness Program (Positive Intelligence) on Perceived Stress, Self-Compassion, and Ruminative Thinking of Occupational Therapy Undergraduate Students: Longitudinal Study

• Published in: Journal of medical Internet research 2024-10, Vol.26 (1), p.e49505
• Main Authors: Puah, Shermain, Pua, Ching Yee, Shi, Jing, Lim, Sok Mui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Care and treatment; Empathy; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical students; Methods; Mobile Applications; Occupational therapy; Original Paper; Physical fitness; Psychological aspects; Psychotherapy; Rumination, Cognitive; Stress (Psychology); Stress management; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Stress, Psychological - therapy; Students; Students - psychology; Study and teaching; Technology application; Testing; Training; Wellness programs; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1438-8871; 1439-4456; 1438-8871
• DOI: 10.2196/49505

Health care students often endure numerous stressors throughout their undergraduate education that can have lasting negative effects on their mental well-being. Positive Intelligence (PQ) is a digital mental fitness program designed to enhance self-mastery and help individuals reach their potential by strengthening various "mental muscles." This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a 6-week app-delivered PQ program in reducing perceived stress, increasing self-compassion, and decreasing rumination tendencies among health care undergraduates. We hypothesized that students would show reductions in perceived stress, increases in self-compassion, and decreases in rumination tendencies by the end of the PQ program, compared with their preprogram scores. We adopted an exploratory approach for the 5-month follow-up due to the limited research consensus on the sustained effects of app-based programs over varying periods. The PQ program includes weekly hour-long videos, weekly group meetings, and daily 15-minute app-guided practices. Participants were first-year students from the occupational therapy program at a university in Singapore. Participants completed surveys measuring self-compassion, perceived stress, and rumination levels before and after the PQ program, and again at a 5-month follow-up. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA to assess differences across the pretest, immediate posttest, and follow-up posttest. Out of 87 students enrolled in the study, the final sample consisted of 64 students (n=47, 73%, female; mean age 23 years, SD 5.06 years) with complete data. At the end of the 6 weeks, students exhibited significant increases in self-compassion (before the intervention: mean 3.07, SD 0.35; after the intervention: mean 3.34, SD 0.35; P