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NCT Number: NCT07836907

The Interactive Media and Gender-related Stressors and Strengths Study

Emerging adulthood is a key developmental period with unique challenges, including elevated risk of substance use (including risky drinking, cigarette use, and illicit drug use), eating disorder symptoms, and severe psychological distress and suicidal ideation. This critical developmental period also offers an important opportunity for interventions to prevent adverse mental health outcomes in adulthood, particularly those related to substance use and disordered eating behaviors.

Research suggests several relevant potential targets for preventive interventions in this age group. Online media, especially social media (e.g., Instagram), are used by 90% of U.S. young adults, offering unprecedented access to informational and social support for young adults. Yet online media also provide new channels for harmful exposure to stigma (e.g., online harassment) and sociocultural appearance ideals for young adults. Such exposures may cause or exacerbate substance use and adverse mental health outcomes.

Existing brief interventions that improve media literacy (i.e., the ability to critically analyze and interpret media) and increase resistance to harmful sociocultural appearance ideals offer promise in supporting young adults to reduce body dissatisfaction and stress and coping behaviors (like substance use and disordered eating behaviors). However, these interventions have not previously accounted for the core role of body dissatisfaction or unique dimensions of social media literacy in young adults' health. Further, existing preventive interventions in this area have primarily been developed and tested with a focus on cisgender young people. To date, there are no gender-inclusive evidence-based interventions to address both social media-based stressors (e.g., harassment, appearance ideals) and resilience factors (e.g., social support) for young adults.

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Key information

Age range

18 year–25 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Boston University School of Public Health and online website

Boston, Massachusetts, 02118, United States

About this study

To address this gap, the investigators have been developing an interactive psychoeducational website as a brief preventive intervention (called the IMAGES Project Digital toolkit). The toolkit can be found at www.imagesproject.com. In the final phase of this study, an exploratory, single-arm feasibility study of the digital toolkit with a sample of young adults (n=120) ages 18-25 years will be conducted. The study design will entail baseline, immediate-post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up assessments. Primary outcomes are: intervention feasibility, acceptability, and participant satisfaction. In addition we will collect preliminary data on selected exploratory outcomes: social media-related risk factors for disordered eating and substance use (e.g., social media literacy skills, appearance ideal internalization) and selected behaviors (disordered eating and substance use).

This study will determine the extent to which the digital toolkit (brief intervention) is feasible, acceptable, and suitable for future testing among US young adults.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Reside in United States
  • Have access to computer, tablet, or mobile device with internet access
  • Have used any social media platform in the past week

Exclusion criteria

  • Unable to understand and read English

Treatment and study plan

digital web based toolkit

Other

A brief, web-based psychoeducational intervention with 5 self-guided activities that build social media literacy skills which takes 25-45 minutes to complete.

Primary outcomes

  1. Digital toolkit feasibility

    Time frame: 24-48 hours after web-based intervention

    A validated scale by Weiner et al., 2017 will be used to assess feasibility. It has 4 items assessing dimensions of feasibility (e.g., "The digital toolkit seems like a good match"), with response options ranging from Completely agree (1) to Completely disagree (5). Scores can range from 4 to 20 and lower scores suggest greater feasibility.

  2. Digital toolkit acceptability

    Time frame: 24-48 hours after web-based intervention

    A validated scale by Weiner et al., 2017 will be used to assess acceptability. It has 4 items assessing perceived acceptability of the digital toolkit (e.g., "The digital toolkit was appealing to me"), with response options ranging from Completely agree (1) to Completely disagree (5). Scores can range from 4 to 20 and lower scores suggest greater acceptability.

  3. Digital toolkit appropriateness

    Time frame: 24-48 hours after web-based intervention

    2 relevant items from a Intervention Appropriateness Measure (Weiner et al., 2017) e.g., ("The digital toolkit seems easy to use"). Response options range from Completely agree (1) to Completely disagree (5). Scores can range from 2 to 10 and lower scores suggest greater appropriateness.

  4. Digital toolkit satisfaction

    Time frame: 24-48 hours after web-based intervention, 3-months after web-based intervention

    The Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (Larson, 1979) which is a validated 8-item scale will be used to assess . Response options are tailored to specific items, with higher scores always indicating greater satisfaction, for example:

    i. How would you rate the quality of the digital toolkit? Response options: Poor (1) to Excellent (5) ii. If you were to seek help again, would you come back to the toolkit? Response options: No, definitely not (1) to Yes, definitely (4) iii. To what extent has the toolkit met your needs? Response options: Almost all of my needs have been met (4) to None of my needs have been met (1) iv. How satisfied are you with the amount of information you received in the toolkit? Response options: Quite dissatisfied (1) to Very satisfied (4) v. Has the toolkit helped you to deal more effectively with your problems? Response options: Yes, it helped a great deal (4) to No, it seemed to make things worse (1)

Other outcomes

  1. Social media literacy skills

    Time frame: baseline, 24-48 hours after web-based intervention, 3-months after web-based intervention

    The Perceived Social Media Literacy Scale (Tandoc et al., 2021), a validated 8-item scale will be used to assess social media literacy which incudes technical competence, informational awareness, and privacy and algorithmic awareness. there are 5 response options- from Strongly disagree (1) to Strongly agree (5). Scores can range from 8 yo 40 and higher scores are correlated with greater social media literacy skills.

  2. Social media use intensity

    Time frame: baseline, 3-months after web-based intervention

    3-item measure adapted from Boer (2022). Response options will range from Never or less than once a week (0) to More than 40 times per week (7). Higher scores are correlated with greater intensity of social media use.

  3. Appearance ideal internalization

    Time frame: baseline, 24-48 hours after web-based intervention, 3-months after web-based intervention

    Internalization-General 5-items subscale of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale-3 (SATAQ-3; Thompson et al., 2004); 5-item subscale adapted for social media per Gordon et al. (2020). Response options ranging from Definitely disagree (1) to Definitely agree (5).

  4. Alcohol use

    Time frame: baseline, 3-months after web-based intervention

    Alcohol use will be assessed with the US Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), which is a validated 3-item measure with questions about past year frequency of drinks consumed, number of drinks consumed on an average day of drinking, and how often the respondent had more than five drinks on one occasion. Response options range from Never (0) to Daily (6), 1 drink (1) to 10 or more drinks (7), and Never (0) to Daily (6), respectively. Higher scores are correlated with more alcohol use.

  5. Nicotine/tobacco use

    Time frame: baseline, 3-months after web-based intervention

    Nicotine/tobacco use, collected via two items about nicotine products used and frequency of use, with response options ranging from Multiple times throughout the day (1) to Less than once a month (7). Lower scores are associated with more tobacco use.

  6. Performance enhancing drugs and supplements

    Time frame: baseline, 3-months after web-based intervention

    Performance enhancing drugs and supplements, collected via one question with a list of 6 performance enhancing drugs and supplements; Participants will select those used in the past three months (yes [1]/no [0]).

  7. Past month Cannabis use

    Time frame: baseline, 3-months after web-based intervention

    Past-month cannabis use, collected via 1 question about frequency of use of cannabis products that include tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) over the past 30 days, with response options ranging from Every day (1) to Less than once per week (5), or "have not used" (0).

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Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Boston University

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Registry information

Official study title

The Interactive Media and Gender-related Stressors and Strengths (IMAGES) Study Part 3: Feasibility Study

Acronym: IMAGES

Important dates

Study start
2026
Primary completion
2028
Study completion
2028
First posted
Sep 23, 2026
Registry last updated
Sep 23, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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