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Een onderzoek naar de samenhang tussen demografische variabelen en het effect op een online zelfhulpcursus : een onderzoek naar Voluit Leven

Franzen, V.S. (2015) Een onderzoek naar de samenhang tussen demografische variabelen en het effect op een online zelfhulpcursus : een onderzoek naar Voluit Leven.

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Abstract:Background: Due to the increased need for psychological treatment and demographic change there has been much research conducted about online interventions over the past few years. It was the demand in how far various forms of feedback, such as automated or human, could influence the effect of an intervention. A preventive intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) is ’Living to the full‘. Investigations showed that Living to the full is effective however little is known whether characteristics of participants affect the online self-help course and whether there is a difference between automated and human support concerning symptom reduction. Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of demographic variables on the effectiveness of online interventions by means of the online self-help course Living to the full. Additionally, the goal was to investigate to what extent automated and human feedback influence the effectiveness. Method: This study used a combined dataset, based on two previously conducted Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT’s) of the University of Twente. 408 participants with mild to moderate mental health problems were randomized to the conditions (1) online self-help course Living to the full and (2) waiting list. Moreover participants were assigned to either automated or human feedback. Afterwards participants completed measures before, after and three months after the course, to assess depressive symptoms (CES-D) and anxiety (HADS-A). By means of repeated measures ANOVA it was investigated to what extent demographic variables and the two types of feedback may influence the effectiveness of Living to the full. Results: In comparison with the waiting list group, the experimental group reported significantly less anxiety symptoms. To the contrary of other studies no effect for depression was found. For demographic variables such as gender, age and educational level no significant interaction effects were found. Feedback had an effect on symptom reduction. Using human feedback indicated stronger and faster reduction of symptoms yet there was scarcely difference during the follow- up. Furthermore women had fewer symptoms during the posttest as they had received human feedback. Conclusion: This study shows that the online course Living to the full is appropriate to a large number of people as demographic variables such as gender, age and educational level did not appear to influence the effectiveness. Personal feedback appears to lead to a faster and greater reduction of symptoms however it did not show more effect during follow-up.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/68153
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