Randomized controlled trial of the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with undergraduate university students

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with college students.

Participants: College students (aged 18-23) from a large Midwest US university who volunteered for a randomized controlled trial during the 2015 spring semester.

Methods: College students were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 64) or a control (n = 65) group. Intervention participants received three 45-minute RCI sessions over subsequent weeks. All participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments at the beginning of Week 1 and end of Week 3. Student resilience, coping, hope, stress, depression, and anxiety were assessed.

Results: RCI participants reported significantly more hope and less stress and depression from Week 1 to Week 3 compared with control participants. Results for resilience also approached statistical significance. Effect sizes were small to moderate.

Conclusions: This study found preliminary evidence that RCI is an effective resilience intervention for use with college students.

Keywords: Anxiety; coping; depression; group; hope; intervention; resilience; stress.