Enhancing mental wellbeing by changing mindsets? Results from two randomized controlled trials

Improving mental wellbeing is often targeted with behavioral interventions, while mindset interventions might be more appealing as they require less time and effort. In addition to recent experimental studies demonstrating that attributional beliefs can be changed to improve emotional wellbeing and performance, the current study examines whether a positive change in people’s beliefs about stress and life philosophy enhances emotional, social and psychological wellbeing using brief educational interventions. Two parallel double-blind randomized controlled trials were conducted. Study 1 (N = 106; 62.3% female, mean age 36.0) compared an educational video about the benefits of a stress-is-enhancing mindset versus an active control video. In Study 2 (N = 136; 57.4% female, mean age 35.7), educational texts about the benefits of a stress-is-enhancing mindset and holding a life-is-long-and-easy mindset were compared to an active control text. Results of multilevel growth curve modeling showed that a stress mindset could be significantly changed using an educational video or text, while the change in the philosophies of life mindset did not significantly differ between conditions. Furthermore, none of the manipulations were able to sustain the positive change in mindset which might explain why there was no significant increase in mental wellbeing compared to control. To have a lasting effect on people’s mental wellbeing, a change in mindset might need to be embodied in everyday life. Future research should investigate simple versus intensive interventions with longer follow-up time to examine whether and how a mindset can be sustainably changed to promote flourishing mental health in the general population.</p

Practicing Other-Focused Kindness and Self-Focused Kindness Among Those at Risk for Mental Illness:Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

People with reduced levels of mental well-being might be at risk for developing future mental illness. Although several positive psychology interventions successfully improve mental well-being and psychological distress, less is known about their efficacy in a sample at risk for mental disorders. A Dutch sample of 289 participants with low or moderate levels of well-being were randomly assigned to other-focused kindness with reflection, other-focused kindness without reflection, self-focused kindness, or waitlist control (Trial register: NTR6786). Results of multilevel growth curve analyses revealed that other-focused kindness, but not self-focused kindness, led to improvements in the primary outcome mental well-being relative to waitlist control up to 6-week follow-up. By contrast, only other-focused kindness without reflection led to improvements in psychological distress. The three kindness conditions mainly did not differ from one another, and mainly no differences were found up to 6-months follow-up. An exception was that perceived stress was significantly more reduced up to 6-week and 6-months follow-up when people practiced other-focused kindness without reflection then when participants had practiced self-focused kindness. These findings point to the benefits of practicing kindness for others when people might be at risk for future mental illness. The study also indicates that reflecting about practicing kindness does not seem to have added value.</p

To whom should I be kind? A randomized trial about kindness for strong and weak social ties on mental wellbeing and its specific mechanisms of change

The current study examines the role of social ties in performing kind acts to enhance university students’ wellbeing. Due to facing multifaceted challenges, university students form a group that is particularly vulnerable in terms of their mental health. Interventions harnessing prosocial behaviour have the potential to increase students’ wellbeing, strengthen personal competencies, and broaden social networks. The first aim of the trial (N = 222) was to explore whether a 4-week acts-of-kindness intervention targeting either (1) strong social ties, (2) weak social ties or (3) unspecified receivers (treatment-as-usual) differ in their impact on students’ mental wellbeing, positive relations, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and perceived stress. The second aim was to examine whether kindness for strong versus weak social ties have different underlying working mechanisms (i.e., positive emotions versus self-esteem) and who benefits most from these instructions (i.e., those with high or low levels of self-esteem and positive relations). Results demonstrated that the most significant improvements in mental wellbeing were found in the kindness for strong social ties condition compared to the other conditions. No mediation effects of positive emotions and self-esteem were found. Moderation analyses revealed that participants who performed kind acts for weak social ties reported significantly less positive effects on mental wellbeing, but only when their levels of self-esteem at baseline were medium or high. Independent of group allocation, participants’ mental wellbeing increased throughout the intervention, but so did the experience of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and perceived stress. More research is needed to examine the timing of kindness interventions and investigate how they can improve mental wellbeing and psychological distress in acute phases of academic stress in university students

The efficacy of positive psychological interventions from non-western countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Recently, there has been a sharply incremental number of studies of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) from non-western countries. The aim of this study is to review and evaluate the efficacy of these PPIs. Databases, including PubMed, PsycInfo, and Scopus, were searched up to December 2017. In addition, we performed hand searches and reference checks. After removal of duplicates, 7,516 studies were screened and finally 28 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in the meta-analysis. A random effects model was used to calculate between group effect-sizes at post-test. Results showed that PPIs from non-western countries have a moderate effect on subjective well-being (g = 0.48) and psychological well-being (g = 0.40), and a large effect on depression (g = 0.62) and anxiety (g = 0.95). The overall low study quality of the studies indicates the possibility of biases, which may explain why PPIs from non-western countries report larger effect sizes than PPIs from western countries. However, PPIs could also be more effective in non-western countries due to a better cultural fit

Integrating Top-down and Bottom-up Requirements in eHealth Development:The Case of a Mobile Self-compassion Intervention for People with Newly Diagnosed Cancer

Background: Psychosocial eHealth interventions for people with cancer are promising in reducing distress; however, their results in terms of effects and adherence rates are quite mixed. Developing interventions with a solid evidence base while still ensuring adaptation to user wishes and needs is recommended to overcome this. As most models of eHealth development are based primarily on examining user experiences (so-called bottom-up requirements), it is not clear how theory and evidence (so-called top-down requirements) may best be integrated into the development process. Objective: This study aims to investigate the integration of top-down and bottom-up requirements in the co-design of eHealth applications by building on the development of a mobile self-compassion intervention for people with newly diagnosed cancer. Methods: Four co-design tasks were formulated at the start of the project and adjusted and evaluated throughout: explore bottom-up experiences, reassess top-down content, incorporate bottom-up and top-down input into concrete features and design, and synergize bottom-up and top-down input into the intervention context. These tasks were executed iteratively during a series of co-design sessions over the course of 2 years, in which 15 people with cancer and 7 nurses (recruited from 2 hospitals) participated. On the basis of the sessions, a list of requirements, a final intervention design, and an evaluation of the co-design process and tasks were yielded. Results: The final list of requirements included intervention content (eg, major topics of compassionate mind training such as psychoeducation about 3 emotion systems and main issues that people with cancer encounter after diagnosis such as regulating information consumption), navigation, visual design, implementation strategies, and persuasive elements. The final intervention, Compas-Y, is a mobile self-compassion training comprising 6 training modules and several supportive functionalities such as a mood tracker and persuasive elements such as push notifications. The 4 co-design tasks helped overcome challenges in the development process such as dealing with conflicting top-down and bottom-up requirements and enabled the integration of all main requirements into the design. Conclusions: This study addressed the necessary integration of top-down and bottom-up requirements into eHealth development by examining a preliminary model of 4 co-design tasks. Broader considerations regarding the design of a mobile intervention based on traditional intervention formats and merging the scientific disciplines of psychology and design research are discussed

Hoe meet je floreren?

We spreken van floreren wanneer iemand hoog scoort op hedonisch welbevinden en hoog scoort op eudaimonisch welbevinden. Oftewel, je voelt je gelukkig en je bent betekenisvol voor jezelf en voor je omgeving. We weten vaak wel antwoord te geven op de vraag of we ons gelukkig voelen. Maar hoe weet je nu of je floreert? Hoe kun je dat betrouwbaar meten en wat kun je met die informatie in de (zorg)praktijk? In dit artikel worden drie instrumenten besproken die de mate waarin iemand floreert, in kaart kunnen brengen: de Mental Health Continuum-Short Form, de Flourishing Scale en de PERMA-Profiler