Building a web based cognitive restructuring program for promoting resilience in a college campus

Abstract

College mental health is an area of significant importance. A number of stressors relating to career, relationships and life events collide during this life phase, when young adults learn to be autonomous. A major developmental task is making appropriate life choices in the face of freedom and contradictory messages from a wide range of sources. Thus identifying individuals in distress and building means to promote resilience would be relevant to any college setting. Resilience building has been a major area of concern to educators across the world. The main reason is that it is impossible to conduct face to face counselling on several occasions in a large college setting. This present study aims to build a web-based multi-step cognitive restructuring program to help young adults identify and deal with maladaptive, negative thoughts, and emotions, thereby effectively attempting to promote resilience, and improve psychological health among college students. Considering the sensitivity of the data present in the system, it has been developed following the multitier architecture with an intention to block access by unauthorized users. The system is meant to be interactive and regular feedback should be taken from the subjects. The counsellor should be given access to the full information of the subjects for evaluation. Additional tools for psychological assessment can be incorporated by the therapist into the system for an individual subject, if further evaluations are required. The system offers a generic platform for the development of other web-based interactive Computer Assisted Cognitive Behavioural Training programs addressing needs of specific populations.