The Effects of Reflection on Mental Health and Learning Outcomes

Last registered on June 29, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Effects of Reflection on Mental Health and Learning Outcomes
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018991
Initial registration date
June 23, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
June 29, 2026, 8:39 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
India
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Prateek Bhan
Affiliation
University of Konstanz
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Akansh Khandelwal
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-08-03
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Health
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Mental health problems are common among college students worldwide and are associated with poorer academic performance and lower overall well-being. In India, although student mental health issues are gathering policy attention, there is limited evidence on low-cost preventive interventions that could improve student outcomes. This study uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of a brief daily reflection exercise on the mental health, well-being, and academic performance of undergraduate students. Participants are drawn from three cohorts of an undergraduate degree at an Indian Business School. Participants assigned to the treatment group complete a short daily reflection exercise through a mobile/desktop application for four weeks, while participants assigned to the control group complete a comparable, non-reflective activity through the same application. The study measures changes in multiple outcomes related to mental health and self-regulated behaviours using validated instruments at baseline and at multiple follow-up points, together with administrative records on academic performance. The results will provide evidence on whether a simple, scalable reflection intervention can improve student mental health and academic outcomes in an Indian higher-education setting.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bandyopadhyay, Sutirtha, Prateek Bhan and Akansh Khandelwal. 2026. "The Effects of Reflection on Mental Health and Learning Outcomes." AEA RCT Registry. June 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18991-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Treatment Arm
Participants assigned to the treatment group are asked to complete a brief daily reflection exercise through a dedicated mobile application for a period of four weeks. Each day, participants are prompted to reflect and write three small achievements (from the previous day), three items for which they are grateful and set three intention to implement for that day.
Control (placebo) arm
Participants assigned to the control group complete a comparable, simple, non-reflective engagement activity (e.g., a short logical exercise) through the same application, for the same duration. This placebo activity is designed to match the treatment arm in terms of time commitment and use of the application (and relying on system 1/automatic thinking activation), while not involving treatment’s reflective content (system 2/deliberative thinking [Kahneman, 2011]).
Both arms are delivered through the same digital application, accessed by participants on a mobile phone or desktop computer. Use of a common platform for both arms helps to equalize participants' exposure to and familiarity with the technology itself, isolating the effect of the reflective content.
Intervention Start Date
2026-08-10
Intervention End Date
2026-09-21

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
• Depressive symptoms: This variable is measured via the eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8). Each question includes four response options from ’Not at all’ to ’Nearly every day’ (Kroenke et al., 2009).
• Perceived stress: Stress is captured through the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) score, with six response options each (from ’never’ to ’very often’) (Cohen et al., 1994).
• Academic performance: It is assessed through the end-of-term examination scores/grades and attendance records from IPM administrative records
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
• Mindfulness and self-care behaviors: Gauged using the 4-item Mindful Self-Care Scale (MSCS) score. Each question includes six response options ranging from “none of the time” to “all the time. We also use a 4-item Reflection scale, with response options ranging from “none of the time” to “All the time”.
• Resilience: Resilience is measured using the 6-item Resilience scale, with response options varying between “strongly disagree” and “strongly agree”.
• Life satisfaction: We include the question to rate life satisfaction on a scale from 0 (’completely dissatisfied’) to 10 (’completely satisfied’) used in the Socio-Economic Panel (Kantar Public, 2021).
• Class Attendance: It is assessed through the attendance records from IPM administrative records
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our primary research question is whether reflection improves mental health and well-being. To do so, we check if a brief daily reflection exercise, delivered through a mobile/desktop application over four weeks, improves the mental health, well-being, and academic outcomes of undergraduate students. The sampling frame consists of students from three cohorts- Trimester I, Trimester IV, and Trimester VII, totalling around 400 participants from a Business School in Indore, India. Including students from multiple stages of the programme allows the study to examine whether the intervention's effects vary across different points in students' academic careers.
Participants assigned to the treatment group are asked to complete a brief daily reflection exercise through a dedicated mobile application for a period of four weeks. Participants assigned to the control group complete a comparable, simple, non-reflective engagement activity (e.g., a short exercise) through the same application.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
For treatment assignment, randomization is conducted at an individual level using students' enrolment numbers. For this, the participants’ enrolment numbers are randomly assigned to treatment and control for each cohort.
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
none
Sample size: planned number of observations
400 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
400 students split across two arms.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
While we are limited by the cohort size, we conducted some power calculations for our primary outcomes based on the two papers: Bhan et al. (2024) and that deemed a minimum sample of 400 students (for 2 arms) to detect the effects of 0.15-0.2 sd at conventional signficance levels.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Institutional Review Board Indian Institute of Management Indore
IRB Approval Date
2025-10-08
IRB Approval Number
IRB/02/2025-26/ECO
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

PAP.pdf

MD5: 1348e0e5a3908a72e7164f0ff28ea1b6

SHA1: 4380a3f9c6d047ce0b5d98c2e4bc7f4832b31e5f

Uploaded At: June 23, 2026