Background and Aims: University counselling services and their effectiveness is a growing field of interest, given their key role in students' well-being and mental health improvement. The poor homogeneity in defining outcome variables and predictors of treatment efficacy has resulted in considerable variability across studies, with some important aspects having received limited attention or being underexplored. The present study aimed to contribute to this field by analysing the effectiveness of a psychological counselling service in reducing students' psychological difficulties. The main aim of the study was to identify the main predictors of reliable change (RC) in psychological distress and dropout intentions, with a particular focus on the role played by emotion regulation and loneliness. Methods: A one-group pre-post-test design was adopted. A total of 263 students (183 female, Mage 23.85 ± 3.98) from a university in Southern Italy were asked to complete CORE-OM, Dropout Intentions Questionnaire, DERS and UCLA-LS3. Data were collected between March 2021 and October 2023, at the beginning (T0) and at the end (T1) of the intervention. Results: Of the 263 participants, 154 (111 female, Mage 24.86 ± 4.15) completed the pre-post assessment. Repeated-measures ANOVA showed a significant decrease at T1 in all dimensions of psychological distress, emotion regulation difficulties, loneliness and dropout intention (all p < 0.0001). A total of 107 (69.5%) students showed RC in distress levels. A multiple group structural equation model (SEM) indicated that RC for emotion regulation difficulties significantly and positively affected the RC for the psychological distress and dropout intention scores. Conclusions: These findings emphasise the effectiveness of psychological counselling intervention in reducing psychological difficulties among university students. Furthermore, they underscore the role of emotion regulation as a potential predictor of psychological distress and dropout intention, contributing to a more precise definition of the key variables that may play a role in making psychological counselling interventions effective in supporting psychological well-being and mental health. Trial Registration: The study has been registered with ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06333444.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Psychological Counselling Service for Italian University Students: A Focus on Emotion Regulation and Loneliness
Caldarelli G.;Affuso G.;Cosenza M.;Troncone A.
2025
Abstract
Background and Aims: University counselling services and their effectiveness is a growing field of interest, given their key role in students' well-being and mental health improvement. The poor homogeneity in defining outcome variables and predictors of treatment efficacy has resulted in considerable variability across studies, with some important aspects having received limited attention or being underexplored. The present study aimed to contribute to this field by analysing the effectiveness of a psychological counselling service in reducing students' psychological difficulties. The main aim of the study was to identify the main predictors of reliable change (RC) in psychological distress and dropout intentions, with a particular focus on the role played by emotion regulation and loneliness. Methods: A one-group pre-post-test design was adopted. A total of 263 students (183 female, Mage 23.85 ± 3.98) from a university in Southern Italy were asked to complete CORE-OM, Dropout Intentions Questionnaire, DERS and UCLA-LS3. Data were collected between March 2021 and October 2023, at the beginning (T0) and at the end (T1) of the intervention. Results: Of the 263 participants, 154 (111 female, Mage 24.86 ± 4.15) completed the pre-post assessment. Repeated-measures ANOVA showed a significant decrease at T1 in all dimensions of psychological distress, emotion regulation difficulties, loneliness and dropout intention (all p < 0.0001). A total of 107 (69.5%) students showed RC in distress levels. A multiple group structural equation model (SEM) indicated that RC for emotion regulation difficulties significantly and positively affected the RC for the psychological distress and dropout intention scores. Conclusions: These findings emphasise the effectiveness of psychological counselling intervention in reducing psychological difficulties among university students. Furthermore, they underscore the role of emotion regulation as a potential predictor of psychological distress and dropout intention, contributing to a more precise definition of the key variables that may play a role in making psychological counselling interventions effective in supporting psychological well-being and mental health. Trial Registration: The study has been registered with ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06333444.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
