Project Relate: A randomized clinical trial of a digital single-session romantic competence intervention

Youth begin to make difficult decisions about romantic relationships in emerging adulthood; yet, most relationship education programs only target adults in existing relationships and are delivered in-person, creating dissemination barriers. Online single-session interventions (SSIs) can expand intervention access, teaching youth evidence-based relational skills early on. In the present study, we adapted an evidence-based romantic competence workshop into a digital SSI for emerging adults. A large, diverse sample of emerging adults (N = 802) experiencing depressive symptoms was recruited via social media and randomly assigned to one of two conditions: the intervention condition, called “Project Relate,” focused on teaching youth relationship skills (e.g., insight, communication, or decision-making), and the information-only control group provided psychoeducation without skill-building. Youth were assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 3 months later. Results indicated high intervention acceptability but no statistically significant differences between conditions. Across both conditions, youth reported improvements in depression, anxiety, relationship knowledge, relationship decision-making, hopelessness, and loneliness (ds ranging from .19 to -1.68); youth also noted qualitative improvements in relationship skills across both conditions. Findings suggest that both information-only and skills-based digital SSIs may improve relational and psychological functioning for emerging adults. NCT05722574 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05722574);