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OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT04771195

Social Factors in the Mental Health of Young Adults: Bridging Psychological and Network Analysis

The central goal of this project is to produce a novel, precise, and comprehensive account of social factors in young adult mental health - using a novel combination of network nominations, ecological momentary assessment, and neuroimaging methods. To that end, the investigators will collect data from two successive classes of college undergraduates (i.e., classes of 2023 and 2024) over the course of their collegiate tenure.

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Key information

Conditions

Anxiety Anxiety Disorders Behavior Behavioral Symptoms Depression Loneliness Mental Disorders Stress

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Stanford University

Stanford, California, 94305, United States

About this study

The proposed work will consist of four key components. The investigators will collect data from the class of 2023 in each of their remaining years at college, producing (i) longitudinal data that will allow them to probe the long-term mental health effects of connections made during the transition to college, as well as mental health issues and resilience in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as a function of social connectedness. The investigators will leverage this rich dataset to build (ii) prospective quantitative models to predict mental health outcomes later in college based on a range of social factors measured early in college. They will further collect (iii) a longitudinal replication cohort, the class of 2024, allowing to establish the robustness of their initial findings across samples. Finally, the investigators will add (iv) a neuroimaging component to this dataset in a subset of the class of 2024. This will allow them to examine brain "markers" of connectedness, and add them to a prospective model, providing a novel integration across brain, behavior, and community levels of analysis, and a synthetic assessment of social factors in long-term mental health.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

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

Inclusion criteria

Stanford undergraduate students in the classes of 2023 and 2024, as well as all students who reside in their dorms.

-

Exclusion criteria

People under the age of 18

-

Treatment and study plan

Examination of students' naturally occurring social ties

Behavioral

In this observational study, features of students' social lives, such as the number of quality of relationships they form, and their subjective loneliness, will be used to predict their mental health and well being at later time points.

Primary outcomes

  1. Depression

    Time frame: September 2021 - May 2024

    Score on self-reported depression measure: Center for Epidemiological Studies Scale - 10 item version. Range = 0 to 30. Higher scores indicate more depressive symptoms

  2. Anxiety

    Time frame: September 2021 - May 2024

    Score on self-reported anxiety measure: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory - 20 item version. Range = 20 to 80. Higher scores indicate more symptoms of anxiety.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Loneliness

    Time frame: September 2021 - May 2024

    Score on self-reported loneliness measure: University of California Loneliness Scale - 8 item version. Range = 1 to 5. Higher score indicate greater feeling of loneliness.

  2. Stress

    Time frame: September 2021 - May 2024

    Score on self-reported stress measure: Perceived Stress Scale. Range = 1 to 3. Higher scores indicate greater feeling of stress.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Stanford University

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2021
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Feb 25, 2021
Registry last updated
Jun 1, 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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