Strengthening Students’ Resilience

Last registered on November 03, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Strengthening Students’ Resilience
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005500
Initial registration date
February 25, 2020

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
March 02, 2020, 3:48 PM EST

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

Last updated
November 03, 2023, 1:08 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Australia
Region
New South Wales
Country
Australia
Region
New South Wales

Primary Investigator

Name
BETA Team Registration
Affiliation
Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Bethany Jones
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Harry Greenwell
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Scott Copley
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Eileen Chu
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Jacqualine Myint
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Loren Willis
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Bethany Jones
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Harry Greenwell
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Scott Copley
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Eileen Chu
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Jacqualine Myint
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Loren Willis
PI Affiliation
BETA
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2020-02-24
End date
2021-03-01
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
University students, wellbeing, academic achievement, tertiary education
JEL code(s)
I21, I23
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Our research question is whether a mobile application that teaches students from disadvantaged backgrounds how to buffer themselves against the stressors of university life through their social group identities can improve students’ completion of tertiary studies and academic performance. A secondary question is whether the app improves re enrolment rates in the subsequent semester.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chu, Eileen et al. 2023. "Strengthening Students’ Resilience." AEA RCT Registry. November 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5500-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The treatment group will receive access to an app called Grok, which involves students maintaining a zen garden that is a visual representation of their social connections, both within and beyond university. The app is designed to shift student’s mindset over the course of around 16 weeks to develop better means for coping, reacting to academic stressors.
Students must complete different social, wellbeing as well as academic exercises each week in order to maintain different elements of the garden. Each element of this garden is directly linked to an outcome designed to minimise negative attributions about one’s performance at university.
Intervention Start Date
2020-02-24
Intervention End Date
2020-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
academic performance, completion of units of study
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The primary outcome measure for academic performance is the average subject marks received for units studied in semester 1, 2020. Subject marks are expressed as a score out of 100.
The primary outcome measure for completion of tertiary studies is the completion rate of study units that students are enrolled in beyond the census date in the 2020 autumn semester (31 March for WSU, 20 March for UON).
For both primary outcomes, the unit of analysis will be study units, clustered at the student level.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary outcome measures for the trial relate to: withdrawal rates (as opposed to non completion rates), student re-enrolments in semester 2, and students’ subjective well-being and identification with university life.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The intervention will be evaluated through a clustered, multisite two-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) in two public universities. Participants will be allocated as they register with a 50% chance of allocation to treatment. Participants will be undergraduates at participating universities. They will be invited to participate through a range of on-campus activities (such as free ice-cream or bbqs), direct email to their registered email address, and promotion in class.
Prizes of up to AUD500 will be offered through a lottery process for participation.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Participants will be randomised at the time of registration in the app. The app will randomise participants with a 50% chance of allocation to treatment.
Randomization Unit
Individual students are the unit of randomisation. Since their study units will be the units of analysis, each student represents a cluster of study units.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
6,000 students
Sample size: planned number of observations
Approximately 18,000 study units
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
There will be approximately 3,000 students per arm.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
For the ‘performance’ outcome measure, our power calculations suggest that we need 1,842 participants to detect an increase of around 2 subject marks (a Cohen’s d of 0.1) at an 80% level of statistical power (treatment proportion = 0.5, alpha = 0.05, one-tailed test). For the ‘completion’ outcome measure, our power calculations suggest that 6,602 participants will detect an increase in the completion rate from approximately 80 per cent to approximately 82 per cent at an 80% level of statistical power (treatment proportion = 0.5, alpha = 0.05, one-tailed).
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2019-11-22
IRB Approval Number
H-2019-0203
IRB Name
University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2019-11-22
IRB Approval Number
H-2019-0203
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-analysis plan

MD5: b74e5dda9329122d064b2a05aaacceb7

SHA1: 0864121d9648e9fa00d5a829dc7ffe3474167864

Uploaded At: February 25, 2020

Pre-analysis plan

MD5: b74e5dda9329122d064b2a05aaacceb7

SHA1: 0864121d9648e9fa00d5a829dc7ffe3474167864

Uploaded At: February 25, 2020

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
August 02, 2020, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 31, 2020, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
4,463 students
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
15,259 study units (7,549 control, 7,710 treatment)
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
2,223 students control, 2,240 students treatment
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials