Savoring mediates the effect of nature on positive affect

The more time people spend in nature, the happier they feel. But how consistent is this link, and what mechanisms might account for this beneficial effect of nature on wellbeing? The aim of the present study was to test one potential mechanism linking nature to wellbeing—the ability to savor experiences. Participants (N = 60, 70% female, aged 18 to 34, university students) were randomly assigned to take a daily 20-minute walk in a natural or urban environment for seven consecutive days. Each night, they completed a daily diary report about their experiences that day, including the amount and types of their savoring during the walk (i.e., absorption and intensification of experiences), savoring after the walk (i.e., expression of gratitude and sharing their experiences with others) all adapted from the Ways of Savoring Checklist (Bryant & Veroff, 2007), and their daily feelings of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), adapted from the affective circumplex (Barrett & Russell, 1998). Path analyses using multi-level structural equation modeling (MSEM) found that the composite measure of daily savoring significantly mediated the effect of nature on PA, controlling for NA and physical activity. Daily exposure to nature contributed to greater daily savoring, which predicted higher daily PA. Additional analyses showed that absorption and intensification of experiences in nature and sharing nature experiences with others were the key components of savoring, which may help to explain why people feel happier as a result of spending time in nature

University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis

mHealth researchers can now collect a wealth of data using “life tracking apps” (LTAs), which are smartphone applications that use mobile sensing to capture and summarise a multitude of data channels (e.g., location, movement, keyword use, sleep, exercise, and so on). The combined wealth of information can create digital signatures of individuals, which hold immense promise for mental health research and interventions by allowing new insights into moment-to-moment changes in behaviour and mental states. However, little is known about what a common research demographic (university students) thinks about these apps and what might factor into their decisions to participate in research using a LTA. This qualitative study ran five focus group sessions (21 students in total) to explore students’ experiences, beliefs, and opinions about LTAs to generate insights into what would make them more or less likely to participate in research involving LTAs. Transcripts were coded and examined for categories using qualitative content analysis. Important categories that emerged were privacy (although this varied based on the individual and data being collected), data security, inconvenience, intrusiveness, financial compensation, and the perceived nature of the research team responsible. On the basis of these categories, we derived seven key insights to increase student participation in research using LTAs: strengthen and communicate privacy and data security, design the app to be as convenient as possible to users, maximise passive data collection, think cautiously before tracking data perceived as “creepy” such as messages, offer suitable financial compensation, be transparent about goals and justification for data being collection to build trust, and attract participants by highlighting how the app can help them achieve their goals. With these insights, mHealth researchers can maximise their participant pool and improve this nascent and promising field

Affect Variability and Predictability: Using Recurrence Quantification Analysis to Better Understand How the Dynamics of Affect Relate to Health

Changes in affect over time have been associated with health outcomes. However, previously utilized measurement methods focus on variability of affect (e.g., standard deviation, root mean squared successive difference) and ignore the more complex temporal patterns of affect over time. These patterns may be an important feature in understanding how the dynamics of affect relate to health. Recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) may help alleviate this problem by assessing temporal characteristics unassessed by past methods. RQA metrics, such as determinism and recurrence, can provide a measure of the predictability of affect over time, indexing how often patterns within affective experiences repeat. In Study 1, we first contrasted RQA metrics with commonly used measures of variability to demonstrate that RQA can further differentiate among patterns of affect. In Study 2, we analyzed the associations between these new metrics and health, namely, depressive and somatic symptoms. We found that RQA metrics predicted health above and beyond mean levels and variability of affect over time. The most desirable health outcomes were observed in people who had high mean positive affect, low mean negative affect, low affect variability, and high affect predictability. These studies are the first to demonstrate the utility of RQA for determining how temporal patterns in affective experiences are important for health outcomes

The Role of Personality Traits in Young Adult Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

This project investigated how individual differences in the big-five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) predicted plant-food consumption in young adults. A total of 1073 participants from two samples of young adults aged 17–25 reported their daily servings of fruits, vegetables, and two unhealthy foods for comparison purposes using an Internet daily diary for 21 or 13 days (micro-longitudinal, correlational design). Participants also completed the Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) measure of personality, and demographic covariates including gender, age, ethnicity, and body mass index (BMI). Analyses used hierarchical regression to predict average daily fruit and vegetable consumption as separate dependent variables from the demographic covariates (step 1) and the five personality traits (step 2). Results showed that young adults higher in openness and extraversion, and to some extent conscientiousness, ate more fruits and vegetables than their less open, less extraverted, and less conscientious peers. Neuroticism and agreeableness were unrelated to fruit and vegetable consumption. These associations were unique to eating fruit and vegetables and mostly did not extend to unhealthy foods tested. Young adult women also ate more fruit and vegetables than young adult men. Results suggest that traits associated with greater intellect, curiosity, and social engagement (openness and extraversion), and to a lesser extent, discipline (conscientiousness) are associated with greater plant-food consumption in this population. Findings reinforce the importance of personality in establishing healthy dietary habits in young adulthood that could translate into better health outcomes later in life

An intercept study to measure the extent to which New Zealand university students pre-game

Abstract Objective: We aimed to quantify the degree to which students pre‐gamed in New Zealand, using self‐report and breathalysers. Methods: A total of 569 New Zealand undergraduate students were interviewed (men = 45.2%; first year = 81.4%) entering three university‐run concerts. We asked participants to report how many drinks they had consumed, their self‐reported intoxication and the duration of their pre‐gaming session. We then recorded participants' Breath Alcohol Concentration (BrAC; µg/L) and the time they arrived at the event. Results: The number of participants who reported consuming alcohol before the event was 504 (88.6%) and the number of standard drinks consumed was high (M=6.9; median=6.0). A total of 237 (41.7%) participants could not have their BrAC recorded due to having consumed alcohol ≤10 minutes before the interview. The remaining 332 participants (57.3%) recorded a mean BrAC of 288.8µg/L (median=280.0 µg/L). Gender, off‐campus accommodation, length of pre‐gaming drinking session, and time of arrival at the event were all associated with increased pre‐gaming. Conclusion and implications for public health: Pre‐gaming was the norm for students. Universities must take pre‐gaming into account; policy implications include earlier start times of events and limiting students' access to alcohol prior to events

The Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR) Variant rs53576 Is Not Related to Emotional Traits or States in Young Adults

Background: To understand the genetic underpinnings of emotion, researchers have studied genetic variants in the oxytocin system, a hormone and neurotransmitter important to socio-emotional functioning. The oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) variant rs53576 has been associated with emotional traits such as positive affect and related constructs such as optimism and self-esteem. Individuals carrying the A allele (AG and AA genotypes) of rs53576 have been found to score lower in these traits when compared to GG homozygotes, although not always. Given recent mixed evidence regarding this polymorphism, replication of these associations is critical.Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, the present study tested the association between rs53576 and a wide variety of emotional traits and states in a sample of 611 young adults ages 18 – 25 of various ethnicities (European, Asian, Māori/Pacific Islander, other). Participants completed standard trait measures of positive and negative affect, depressive symptoms, life engagement, psychological well-being, optimism, and self-esteem. They also completed state measures of positive and negative affect and life engagement for 13-days using Internet daily diaries.Results: Controlling for ethnicity and gender, variation at the OXTR variant rs53576 obtained from blood samples was not related to any of the emotional traits or states. This null finding occurred despite measuring emotions in “near to real time” using daily diaries and having sufficient power to detect a medium effect size difference between homozygous genotype groups.Conclusion: These findings suggest that variation at the rs53576 locus may not be as involved in emotional differences as initial studies suggested

Self-Control in daily life : how affect may boost or sabotage efforts at self-control

In this daily diary study, we investigated the flexibility-enhancing effects of positive affect on the self-reported success of self- control strategies followed in daily life; 297 participants completed a 13-day daily diary that included measures of positive affect, desire, and habit strength as well as three self-control strategies (i.e., monitoring, distraction, and stimulus control). We found specific effects of positive affect on self-control strategies: Individuals with higher positive affect were most successful when following a strategy of distraction (e.g., thinking about something else), particularly when faced with strong tempting desires. These results reinforce the idea that positive affect is associated with both cognitive flexibility and distractibility, which may help people distract them from tempting desires

Positive affect and self-control: attention to self-control demands mediates the influence of positive affect on consecutive self-control

Positive affect (PA) can either improve or impair self-control performance, depending on whether two tasks are dissimilar, and thus require flexible releasing and switching, or similar, which requires stable maintenance. The present study suggests that this effect is mediated by attentional shifts. The authors found that participants under PA, who performed on two dissimilar tasks and had to switch to a new response dimension, were less attentive to distracting information compared to neutral affect (NE), leading to better performance. In contrast, participants under PA who did not have to switch, were more attentive to distracting information compared to participants under NE. These findings highlight the opposite effects of PA on consecutive self-control