Dr. Thrul's research interests focus on using technology to improve our understanding of health behavior change and to develop mobile health (mHealth) interventions that help people change their harmful substance use and other behaviors that increase health risk. He has conducted studies to investigate tobacco use among young adults using smartphone-based data collection methods. In addition, he has worked on trials examining the efficacy of behavioral smoking cessation interventions delivered on Facebook, smartphones, text messages leveraging peer-mentors, and virtual reality.

The aim of this study is to test smartphone-based smoking cessation messages for young adults. While there is evidence for the efficacy of both Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness/ Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) smoking cessation interventions, it is unclear if these approaches are efficacious when implemented in real-time and with young adults. The overall goal of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of CBT and ACT-based messages for young adults, targeting specific high-risk situations for smoking.