Flourish and Student Loneliness: A Digital Positive Psychology Intervention

Objective: The Flourish app is an AI-powered proactive approach to mental health, using positive psychology interventions. This study investigates the role of Flourish in impacting loneliness in college students. We hypothesize that there will be a significant difference in loneliness between conditions, where those who use Flourish will report greater decreases in loneliness than those who are in the control condition. Furthermore, we hypothesize that gender will moderate this difference, where women experience a greater decrease in loneliness in comparison to other genders. Methods: We conducted a randomized control trial (RCT) with 486 college students. In this 6-week longitudinal study, participants were randomly assigned to either use the Flourish app twice weekly or receive no additional resources beyond existing institutional offerings. Participants (79% female; mean age = 20.34) completed assessments at four time points (weeks 0, 2, 4, and 6) using validated measures including the UCLA 3-item Loneliness Scale (Russell et al., 1980). A linear mixed-effects regression model was used to analyze the data. Results: Participants who were assigned to the Flourish condition reported greater reductions in loneliness (B = -0.05, p = .038) in comparison to participants in the control condition, which supports the hypothesis that the Flourish app reduces loneliness when compared to the control condition. Gender was also explored as a moderator, but did not significantly moderate this relationship. Conclusion: These findings suggest the possibility of virtual positive psychology interventions being beneficial for students who are experiencing loneliness, and potentially serving as an evidence-based mental health resource for university mental health initiatives. Future research is needed to test the long-term effectiveness of the digital positive psychology intervention.