Just-in-Time Coping Prompts for Reactive Digital Behavior in College Students

This study looks at the moments when college students feel a strong emotional swing, and how those moments relate to reacting online when upset, drinking alcohol, and eating in response to emotions. Participants wear a wrist device and answer brief check-ins on their phone several times a day for five weeks in total, starting with a 1-week run-in. During the following 4 weeks, a study app sometimes sends a short coping message at moments when the wrist device and check-ins suggest emotions are shifting quickly. Whether a message is sent at any given moment is decided at random, and the study compares what participants do in the short window afterward. The study is a pilot designed to test whether the approach is feasible and to estimate how large its effects are.

Inclusion Criteria: * Currently enrolled University of Florida student * Age 18 years or older * Owns a smartphone used daily * Willing to wear a wrist-worn device and complete brief check-ins several times daily for approximately five weeks Exclusion Criteria: * Varsity student-athlete governed by the university athletic association * Unable to complete study procedures in English