Inside ROOM: Unlocking the design, effects, and user experience with a mental health app for university students

This dissertation presents the development and evaluation of ROOM to grow, a mobile application designed to support university students’ mental health and wellbeing. Students face high levels of stress, anxiety, perfectionism, and loneliness during emerging adulthood, while stigma, low mental health literacy, and limited service capacity restrict access to support. Digital tools offer a promising means of providing accessible, low-threshold interventions.

Guided by the CeHRes roadmap, ROOM to grow was co-created with students and designed as a transdiagnostic intervention targeting emotion regulation. It integrates micro-interventions using multiple therapeutic approaches (mindfulness, positive psychology, CBT, ACT, self-compassion), self assessment module including mood tracking and questionnaires about users' traits and states with normative feedback, and a recommender system powered by federated machine learning, all developed according to privacy-by-design principles.

This dissertation includes two empirical studies tested its impact. A micro-randomized trial showed immediate benefits, with improved emotional states measured in real time and positive user experiences, particularly for breathing and positive psychology exercises. A subsequent randomized controlled trial found no overall effects on stress, anxiety, or resilience on a population, although exploratory analyses suggested that highly engaged users benefited most.

Findings highlight the feasibility of digital interventions for student wellbeing, while also revealing some of their limitations. They point to the need for personalization, a deeper understanding of how the quality, frequency, and duration of engagement influence outcomes, and mechanisms that foster long-term behaviour change—such as reflection, rehearsal, and progress tracking—or blended approaches that combine digital and human support.