Current Research

Cope Notes

The STAR Lab has partnered with Mr. Johnny Crowder, Founder and CEO of Cope Notes, a mental health text messaging intervention, on program evaluation.

The STAR Lab team, in collaboration with USF's College of Engineering (Dr. Tempestt Neal, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering; Ms. Sayde King, CES Doctoral Student) and USF Morasani College of Medicine (Amy Phillips, Director of Wellness) conducted a mixed methods study to understand user experiences with Cope Notes. This work was led by Ms. King and Ms. Jana LeBert, a member of the Summer 2019 USF Summer Research Institute funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 

King, S., Lebert, J., Tucker, L., Neal, T. Phillips, A., & Kosyluk, K. (2022). Characterizing User Experiences With an SMS Text Messaging–Based mHealth Intervention: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Formative Research, 6 (5).

The STAR Lab also conducted a preliminary effectiveness trial of the Cope Notes program, documenting the impact of Cope Notes on symptoms, perceived stress,emotional intelligence, and coping.  

Kosyluk, K., Tran, J.T., King, S., Torres, K., & Neal, T. (2023). Preliminary Effectiveness Study of the Cope Notes Digital Mental Health Program. Journal of Mental Health. 

An accessible, one-page summary of this research can be found here.

- You can view a Now This Daily segment featuring Mr. Crowder and Cope Notes with a piece by Dr. Kosyluk here.

- You can view a piece talking about the intersection of engineering and behavioral health research featuring Dr. Neal (pages 48-49) here.

Ms. Jana LeBert and Dr. Kristin Kosyluk celebrating the culmination of the SRI experience with Ms. LeBert's presentation of the preliminary findings of a mixed methods study of user experiences with Cope Notes.