Study Status
Project Team
Alignment with Crown Institute Vision
Mindful Mood Balance (MMB) for college students is a research project grounded in participatory design that focuses on adapting and testing MMB, a digital, evidence-based intervention, for college students. This project reflects the Crown Institute’s commitment to advancing the well-being and flourishing of young people and use of participatory design methods. Undergraduate students are engaged as collaborators throughout all phases of the project.
Background & Context
College students experience high rates of depression and other mental health concerns, but report a multitude of barriers to seeking traditional mental health services. Just 60% of students with depression or anxiety symptoms report receiving clinical treatment (Healthy Minds Survey, 2025). Scalable, tailored and innovative approaches to college student mental health are sorely needed (Kodish et al., 2022). Digital mental health represents a key avenue to reducing gaps in unmet need for care among college students, but engagement in these interventions is a major concern. Participatory codesign approaches that involve college students as collaborators in adapting and testing evidence-based digital approaches to treatment of depression are a potential solution to improving engagement and increasing access and quality of care for students (Kodish et al., 2023). MMB represents a promising, scalable approach due to its established effectiveness in preventing depression relapse and reducing depression symptoms in adult populations (Segal et al.,2020), but it has not yet been adapted and tested with college students.
Primary Aims
The objectives of this study are to adapt and test Mindful Mood Balance (MMB), an existing evidence-based digital intervention for treatment of depression, for a college student population.
Aim 1: Adapt Mindful Mood Balance (MMB) for college students using a participatory codesign approach that synthesizes student feedback, clinical expertise, research evidence, and best practices in digital mental health.
Aim 2: Test MMB for college students in a research trial examining feasibility, acceptability, engagement, preliminary effectiveness on clinical outcomes and mechanisms of change.
Research Methods
This project uses a mixed-method, participatory design and clinical research trial approach spanning two core phases. Across both phases, undergraduate students are engaged as co-designers and collaborators.
Phase 1: Co-Adapt
Phase 1 focuses on adapting MMB for college students through a structured participatory design process. Data sources include qualitative and quantitative feedback from undergraduate students (including Crown Institute Undergraduate Research Fellows), user experience walkthroughs, surveys, focus groups, and reflective field notes. These data are synthesized with clinical expertise in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, existing MMB research, and best practices in digital mental health and user experience design. This phase emphasizes identifying core versus adaptable intervention elements, determining the minimum effective dose, and refining content, delivery format, and engagement features to align with college students’ lived experiences.
Phase 2: Test and Evaluate
Phase 2 involves testing the adapted MMB program with college students to evaluate feasibility, acceptability, engagement, clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
Key Findings & Publications / Presentations
Data collection is ongoing.
Contact to Learn More
References
Kodish, T., Schueller, S. M., & Lau,A. S. (2023). Barriers and strategies to improve digital mental health intervention uptake among college students of color: A modified Delphi study. Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, 33(1), 10-23.
Kodish, T., Lau, A. S., Gong-Guy, E.,Congdon, E., Arnaudova, I., Schmidt, M., ... & Craske, M. G. (2022). Enhancing racial/ethnic equity in college student mental health through innovative screening and treatment. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 49(2), 267-282.
Segal, Z. V., Dimidjian, S., Beck, A.,Boggs, J. M., Vanderkruik, R., Metcalf, C. A., Gallop, R., Felder, J. N., &Levy, J. (2020). Outcomes of Online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy forPatients With Residual Depressive Symptoms: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.4693
HealthyMinds Network. (2025). Healthy Minds Study: Data report 2024–2025.
Universityof Michigan. https://healthymindsnetwork.org
Lipson, S. K., Zhou, S., Wagner, B., Beck, K.,& Eisenberg, D. (2025). The Healthy Minds Study 2024–2025: Data report. Healthy Minds Network, University of Michigan. https://healthymindsnetwork.org