Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event

In everyday life, people often combine strategies to regulate their emotions. However, to date, most research has investigated emotion regulation strategies as if they occur independently from one another. The current study aims to better understand the sequential interplay between strategies by investigating how reappraisal and rumination interact to affect anger experience. After participants (N = 156) recalled a recent anger-provoking event, they were instructed to either a) reappraise the event twice, b) reappraise the event, and then ruminate about the event, c) ruminate about the event, and then reappraise the event, or d) ruminate twice about the event. The effects of the first strategy used replicated a large body of research: reappraisal was associated with a decrease in anger, but rumination was associated with no change in anger. There was a small interactive effect of the combination of the two strategies, such that those who ruminated and then reappraised showed a larger decrease in anger than those who reappraised and then ruminated. There were no other differences between groups. This suggests that the second strategy does have an effect over and beyond the first strategy, but this effect is small in size, highlighting the importance of the initial emotion regulation strategy used

The association of healthy lifestyle behaviors with mental health indicators among adolescents of different family affluence in Belgium

Background Healthy lifestyles may contribute to better mental health, which is particularly important in adolescence, an age at which half of all mental health problems first occur. This association may be even more relevant in adolescents of low family affluence, who show more mental health problems, as well as more unhealthy lifestyles. This study investigated healthy lifestyle behaviors, namely sufficient sleep and physical activity, daily breakfast intake, low levels of alcohol use or smoking, in relation to mental health and symptoms of mental health problems (feelings of depression, anxiety, stress and self-esteem) among adolescents from different family affluence. Furthermore, the moderating role of family affluence was examined in those relations. Methods Adolescents aged 12-18y were recruited via a random sample of schools in Flanders, Belgium. A total of 1037 adolescents participated (mean age = 15.2, 49.8% female). Independent samples t-tests, Mann Whitney U-tests and chi(2)-tests determined the differences in healthy lifestyle behaviors and mental health indicators between adolescents of low-medium and high family affluence. Regression analyses assessed the association between healthy lifestyles and mental health outcomes and the moderating role of family affluence. Results All healthy lifestyle behaviors were associated with at least one mental health outcome, with the exception of alcohol consumption. Adolescents from low-medium family affluence had lower levels of physical activity, less often took breakfast, had lower levels of alcohol consumption and reported lower self-esteem than adolescents from high family affluence. The results showed no moderating effect of family affluence for the association between healthy lifestyle and mental health. Conclusion These findings support the value of integrating healthy lifestyle behaviors in interventions for mental health promotion, for both youth of low-medium and high family affluence

A mobile intervention for promoting health behaviors and mental well-being in adolescence : development, effectiveness and engagement

More than half of the Flemish adolescents report mild to serious mental problems. Healthy lifestyle behaviors are protective factors for mental health, and a focus on modifiable health behaviors for the promotion of mental health can be both destigmatizing and empowering. Increasingly, mobile technology is being used to deliver health behavior change interventions, and mobile health (mHealth) interventions have been shown feasible in an adolescent population. The goal of the project within this doctoral thesis was to develop and evaluate a mobile healthy lifestyle intervention for the promotion of mental health in adolescents. Specifically, we aimed to develop a multicomponent mHealth intervention, to evaluate its effectiveness in promoting healthy lifestyles and mental health, to gain insight in the components or mechanisms that led to behavior change, and to investigate determinants and outcomes of different types of engagement with the intervention. In a first phase, the mHealth intervention #LIFEGOALS was created. The requirements for the technology were based on theory and evidence, and on an investigation of the context and the needs and expectations of stakeholders and end-users. The design took place in an interdisciplinary team and in close collaboration with adolescents and stakeholders. An iterative development process resulted in a self-regulation-based app, coupled with an activity tracker, which was complemented with gamification elements, a support chatbot, and narrative videos. The participatory development and final intervention are described. In a second phase, the #LIFEGOALS intervention was evaluated. First, to evaluate the effect of the narrative on automatic attitude change, we aimed to develop an implicit measure to assess automatic sleep-related attitudes. However, the findings from our validation study indicated that the developed implicit measures were not suited to assess automatic sleep-related attitudes. For that reason we did not pursue the use of implicit measures for evaluating the narrative component. The effectiveness of the #LIFEGOALS intervention as a whole, was evaluated in a cluster-controlled trial. Self-reports and accelerometers were used to assess the effect of the intervention on health behavior and mental health. Results were mixed. The mHealth intervention showed beneficial effects on physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep quality, mood, and self-perception. Most of the effects, however, were moderated by pandemic-related measures and only present in a close-to-normal context. For participants who had to follow partially remote education due to the pandemic, negative intervention effects were found on health-related quality of life, mood, and perceived social 1 support. This quantitative trial was complemented with qualitative interviews with participants who had actively used the #LIFEGOALS app. Interviewed users experienced that the reward system and the self-regulation techniques had contributed to their behavior change, and that increased health-related awareness had motivated to change behavior. The findings furthermore pointed to social factors, quality of technology, and autonomy as important elements within mHealth for adolescent health promotion. As a final part of the evaluation, engagement with the intervention was investigated. Analyses of continuously logged usage data and self-reported experience of engagement with the intervention revealed overall low usage of the app. There was a clear drop in usage after the first week. After six weeks, only one third of the participants who had installed the intervention still used the app. Ratings of experience were neutral to positive and dropped only slightly over time. Non-usage attrition was lowest with the activity-tracker, and its usage showed the weakest correlation with other component use. The self-regulation techniques and gamification were the most used app-components, and their use was strongly interrelated. Experiential engagement and usage of the activity-tracker differed as a function of education type. Using cluster analysis, we identified four groups of engagement with the #LIFEGOALS intervention: no usage, initial usage, mainly use of the activity tracker, and mainly use of the narrative. Age, social support, and depressive symptoms predicted engagement group, but the engagement group did not differentially affect the change in health behavior outcomes from pre- to post-intervention. To conclude, despite the extensive participatory development of the #LIFEGOALS intervention, engagement with the app was low. This limited our ability to investigate intervention effects and engagement types. The mixed effects of the intervention on healthy lifestyles and mental health were moreover moderated by the COVID-19 pandemic-related context. The self-regulation and gamification components are likely to have contributed to behavior change. More research is needed to optimize and evaluate a support chatbot and narrative videos within mHealth. Tailoring the intervention to the context, leveraging positive social influence, and integrating implementation science in the development process, are discussed as possible ways to improve effective engagement with mHealth in a general adolescent population

Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event.

In everyday life, people often combine strategies to regulate their emotions. However, to date, most research has investigated emotion regulation strategies as if they occur independently from one another. The current study aims to better understand the sequential interplay between strategies by investigating how reappraisal and rumination interact to affect anger experience. After participants (N = 156) recalled a recent anger-provoking event, they were instructed to either a) reappraise the event twice, b) reappraise the event, and then ruminate about the event, c) ruminate about the event, and then reappraise the event, or d) ruminate twice about the event. The effects of the first strategy used replicated a large body of research: reappraisal was associated with a decrease in anger, but rumination was associated with no change in anger. There was a small interactive effect of the combination of the two strategies, such that those who ruminated and then reappraised showed a larger decrease in anger than those who reappraised and then ruminated. There were no other differences between groups. This suggests that the second strategy does have an effect over and beyond the first strategy, but this effect is small in size, highlighting the importance of the initial emotion regulation strategy used.status: publishe

A qualitative analysis of youth hotline threads to feed into the MOV-E-STAR chatbot database for youth mental health promotion

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The association of healthy lifestyle behaviors with mental health indicators among adolescents of different family affluence

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Adolescents’ perceptions towards using a health promotion app: preferences, context and motivation

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe