Promoting Resilience Among College Student Veterans Through an Acceptance-and-Commitment-Therapy App: An Intervention Refinement Study

Military veterans’ stigmatized views on mental disorders and traditional mental health care considerably reduce veterans’ access to mental health services. The present study aimed to refine a previously developed non-stigmatizing smartphone-app intervention based on the principles of acceptance and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Community mental health journal 2020-10, Vol.56 (7), p.1206-1214
Main Authors: Reyes, Andrew Thomas, Muthukumar, Venkatesan, Bhatta, Tirth R., Bombard, Judzia N., Gangozo, William J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceptance
Acceptance and commitment therapy
Access
Armed forces
Brief Report
Collaborative approach
College students
Community and Environmental Psychology
Efficacy
Feasibility
Intervention
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mental disorders
Mental health
Mental health care
Mental health services
Mixed methods research
Post traumatic stress disorder
Psychiatry
Resilience
Rumination
Selfmanagement
Stigma
Veterans
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Summary:Military veterans’ stigmatized views on mental disorders and traditional mental health care considerably reduce veterans’ access to mental health services. The present study aimed to refine a previously developed non-stigmatizing smartphone-app intervention based on the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy for college student veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To this end, we tested the acceptability of the developed prototype using a mixed-method study design. A total of nine student veterans participated in the study by using the app intervention and completing pre-post study measures and a post-intervention qualitative interview. The results showed that the intervention was highly acceptable. The results of the qualitative data analysis highlighted relevant themes related to strategies for improving the content, delivery, and structure of the intervention. The results also showed that, despite a decrease in the participants’ adherence as the intervention progressed, there was a consistent improvement in the participants’ resilience, PTSD, and rumination. Based on the results, the intervention was revised for prospective feasibility and efficacy testing. Our results highlight the need to use a collaborative approach in the early stage of the development of self-management PTSD interventions.
ISSN:0010-3853
1573-2789
DOI:10.1007/s10597-020-00617-4