Relationships between social interactions, basic psychological needs, and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: Social lockdowns associated with COVID-19 have led individuals to increasingly rely on video conferencing and other technology-based interactions to fulfil social needs. The extent to which these interactions, as well as traditional face-to-face interactions, satisfied psychological needs and supported wellbeing during different periods of the COVID-19 pandemic is yet to be elucidated. In this study, university students’ social interactions (both technology-based and face-to-face), psychological needs, and wellbeing were assessed at six time points across four months of government-enforced restrictions in Australia. Design: Repeated survey assessment. Main outcome measures: Basic psychological need satisfaction; general wellbeing. Results: Results demonstrated that, at the within-subjects level, relatedness satisfaction (feeling understood by, cared for, and connected to others) significantly mediated the relationship between technology-based interaction and wellbeing. Autonomy satisfaction (self-initiation and feeling ownership over decisions and behaviours) mediated the relationship between face-to-face interactions and wellbeing at the within-person level. Conclusion: Discussion is centred on the importance of technology-based interactions for needs satisfaction and wellbeing during periods of social isolation

Music listening predicted improved life satisfaction in university students during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

Music Listening Predicted Improved Life Satisfaction in University Students. Quarantine and spatial distancing measures associated with COVID-19 resulted in substantial changes to individuals’ everyday lives. Prominent among these lifestyle changes was the way in which people interacted with media—including music listening. In this repeated assessment study, we assessed Australian university students’ media use (i.e., listening to music, playing video/computer games, watching TV/movies/streaming videos, and using social media) throughout early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, and determined whether media use was related to changes in life satisfaction. Participants (N = 127) were asked to complete six online questionnaires, capturing pre- and during-pandemic experiences. The results indicated that media use varied substantially throughout the study period, and at the within-person level, life satisfaction was positively associated with music listening and negatively associated with watching TV/videos/movies. The findings highlight the potential benefits of music listening during COVID-19 and other periods of social isolation. © Copyright © 2021 Krause, Dimmock, Rebar and Jackso

Factors influencing the health behaviour of Indigenous Australians from the perspective of people who support Indigenous groups.

<p>Factors influencing the health behaviour of Indigenous Australians from the perspective of people who support Indigenous groups.</p

Additional file 1: of A comparison of beliefs about exercise during pregnancy between Chinese and Australian pregnant women

Questionnaire. (DOCX 47 kb

Flex: An App that enhances automatic evaluations

Emotion dysregulation is a known risk factor for a variety of maladaptive eating behaviors, including emotional eating. New passive sensing technologies offer the prospect of detecting emotion dysregulation in real-time through measurement of heart rate variability (HRV), a transdiagnostic bio-signal of emotion regulation, which may in turn signal risk of engaging in a maladaptive eating behavior. In the current study, our primary aim was to test whether momentary changes in HRV can be used to detect risk of experiencing an emotional eating episode in an ecologically valid setting using a wrist worn sensor