Strength, limitations and implications for policymakers
depression, anxiety
To our best knowledge, this study is the first randomized controlled trial to investigate the efficacies of an app, the Coping Camp, which was developed for Chinese high school students and reflects the real-world effect of mobile intervention. This study showed that the use of the Coping Camp significantly reduced the stress levels, anxiety and depression among Chinese high school students and was feasible and acceptable among Chinese high school students. This has important implications for policymakers and educators. They can make use of internet resources (e.g., webpages and apps) as a mode to deliver psychoeducation and training about stress and coping where there is a lack of human resources in mental health professions. Several limitations should be noted. First, the sample was recruited from a moderate city in China, the results should be generated to big cities and remote/rural areas with caution. Second, as this is the first app that was developed for Chinese high school students, improvements should be made before it can be used for larger population. Third, participants were allocated randomly to two groups within the same school, which allowed for information sharing and cell phone exchanges. This might introduce contamination bias.