A Daily Diary Investigation of the Fear of Missing Out and Diminishing Daily Emotional Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Reappraisal

With modern societies becoming ever-increasingly interconnected due to technology and media, we have gained unprecedented access and exposure to other people's lives. This has resulted in a greater desire to constantly be socially connected with the activities of others, or the fear of missing out (FoMO). While much of the present available research has established the association between FoMO and diminished emotional well-being, little has been done to identify protective factors that can help one cope with the negative psychological consequences of FoMO. Utilizing data from a 7-day diary study of a large sample of young adults (N = 261), the current study aimed to examine the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal in attenuating diminished emotional well-being associated with FoMO. Multilevel modeling showed that cognitive reappraisal attenuated the day-to-day within-person associations between daily FoMO and indicators of daily emotional well-being such as negative affectivity, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.

The Role of Perceived Negative Partner Behavior in Daily Snacking Behavior: A Dynamical Systems Approach

Past work suggested that psychological stress, especially in the context of relationship stress, is associated with increased consumption of energy-dense food and when maintained for long periods of time, leads to adverse health consequences. Furthermore, this association is moderated by a variety of factors, including emotional over-eating style. That being said, few work utilized a dynamical system approach to understand the intraindividual and interindividual fluctuations within this process. The current study utilized a 14-day daily diary study, collected between January-March 2020, where participants reported their partner's negative relationship behavior and their own snacking behavior. A differential equation model was applied to the daily dairy data collected. Results showed that snacking behavior followed an undamped oscillator model while negative relationship behavior followed a damped coupled oscillator model. In other words, snacking behavior fluctuated around an equilibrium but was not coupled within dyadic partners. Negative relationship behavior fluctuated around an equilibrium and was amplified over time, coupled within dyadic partners. Furthermore, we found a two-fold association between negative relationship behavior and snacking: while the association between the displacement of negative relationship behavior and snacking was negative, change in negative relationship behavior and snacking were aligned. Thus, at any given time, one's snacking depends both on the amount of negative relationship behaviors one perceives and the dynamical state a dyad is engaging in (i.e., whether the negative relationship behavior is "exacerbating" or "resolving"). This former association was moderated by emotional over-eating style and the latter association was not. The current findings highlight the importance of examining dynamics within dyadic system and offers empirical and methodological insights for research in adult relationships.

Social Media Use and Daily Well-Being: The Role of Quantity and Quality of Social Support

There have been mixed findings on whether social media use is positively or negatively related to well-being. Using the Midlife in the United States Refresher study (N = 782, age 25-75), multilevel structural equation modeling examined social support quantity (time giving and receiving) and quality of as mediators at both the within- (intraindividual) and between-person (interindividual) levels. Giving support significantly mediated at within- and between-person levels: more social media use was associated with more time giving support and worse well-being. Receiving support significantly mediated at the between-person level: more social media use was associated with more time receiving support and worse well-being. When examining social support quality as a mediator, findings showed that more social media use to contact family/friends was related to better social support quality and better well-being. Results added to our understanding of the relationship between social media use and well-being by considering the role of social support quantity/quality.

A daily diary exploration of contexts and experiences associated with planned drinking decisions in young adults

OBJECTIVE

Despite the potential for negative consequences, young adults continually engage in heavy alcohol use. Unplanned (vs. planned) drinking has been of particular interest in several studies, as it is theoretically suggested to be related to poor behavioral regulation and negative consequences. Ecological momentary assessment and daily diary (DD) studies have been used to examine the contexts and consequences of planned and unplanned drinking specifically, resulting in somewhat mixed findings surrounding the factors contributing to and consequences of planned drinking. The present DD study adds to this literature by studying rewarding incentives and physical contexts of planned versus unplanned alcohol use, as well as the experiences, or consequences, of planned drinking events.

METHOD

Ninety-nine young adults took part in a mobile study investigating drinking decisions for the current day and day prior, reporting the rewarding incentives contributing to their decision, the context of drinking events, and the experience of each event.

RESULTS

Planned drinking was associated with being influenced by social/party and alcohol incentives, as well as being at a bar and pregaming. There was a positive relationship between planned drinking and subjective level of intoxication, but not negative or positive experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Planned drinking is likely associated with rewarding incentives and social contexts and may contribute to higher levels of subjective intoxication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Is it a vicious circle and for whom? The reciprocal association between rumination and somatic symptoms and moderation by stress: A daily diary study among Chinese college students

College students who experienced somatic symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic may engage in rumination, but their bidirectional nature remains underexplored. Symptom perception theory suggests a reciprocal relationship between rumination and somatic symptoms, and the multiple-stressor perspective and the perseverative cognition hypothesis assume that the reciprocal association might be exacerbated by high stress. In this study, we examined temporal associations between rumination and somatic symptoms and variations by patterns of stress related to COVID-19 and daily hassles. A total of 582 Chinese college students provided daily reports on rumination, somatic symptoms, COVID-related stress, and daily hassles for seven consecutive days in November 2020. A cross-lagged panel model showed a positive reciprocal association between rumination and somatic symptoms. Greater rumination predicted more next-day somatic symptoms, and more somatic symptoms increased next-day rumination. Dual trajectory analysis identified four stress patterns of COVID-related stress and daily hassles (i.e. low-low, low-high, high-low, and high-high), and multi-group analysis found the reciprocal association only presented in the high-high group. Our findings indicate a vicious circle between rumination and somatic symptoms that is dependent on heterogeneous stress patterns. Attention should be paid to the high-risk group with both high levels of COVID-related stress and daily hassles.

Let's Enjoy an Evening on the Couch? A Daily Life Investigation of Shared Problematic Behaviors in Three Couple Studies

Symptom-system fit theory proposes that problematic behaviors are maintained by the social system (e.g., the couple relationship) in which they occur because they help promote positive relationship functioning in the short-term. Across three daily life studies, we examined whether mixed-gender couples reported more positive relationship functioning on days in which they engaged in more shared problematic behaviors. In two studies (Study 1: 82 couples who smoke; Study 2: 117 couples who are inactive), days of more shared problematic behavior were accompanied by higher daily closeness and relationship satisfaction. A third study with 79 couples post-stroke investigating unhealthy eating failed to provide evidence for symptom-system fit. In exploratory lagged analyses, we found more support for prior-day problematic behavior being associated with next-day daily relationship functioning than vice-versa. Together, findings point to the importance of a systems perspective when studying interpersonal dynamics that might be involved in the maintenance of problematic behaviors.

Feeling loved in mixed-gender adolescent romantic relationships in the face of daily stress and support: A dyadic diary study

A profound developmental experience is the emergence of adolescent romantic relationships and first feelings of love. However, the daily nature of feeling loved in adolescents' everyday lives is poorly understood. We investigated how daily stress severity was associated with adolescents' levels of feeling loved and whether romantic partner support moderated these associations. Furthermore, we investigated this for non-interpersonal and interpersonal stressors. N = 97 mixed-gender adolescent romantic couples (age M = 16.38, SD = 1.02) from an ethnically diverse sample (42.2% Hispanic/Latino/a/x, 44.7% White) participated in dyadic diary assessments twice a week for 12 consecutive weeks. Both partners independently completed open-ended questions about a daily stressor, indicating stress severity, perceived partner support, and feeling loved. Daily stressors were coded for non-interpersonal and various types of interpersonal stressors. Results from the dyadic multilevel model showed that days with lower than average support from a romantic partner amplify the adverse effects of stress severity on feeling loved, especially when the partner is involved in the stressor. We discuss the spillover of stress in romantic relationships and the stress-buffering functions of adolescent romantic partner support. Adolescent romantic partners are potentially essential regulators of stress, increasing adolescents' feelings of love. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Romantic love is central in adolescents' lives; we showed that adolescents generally feel loved by romantic partners. Feeling loved fluctuates daily as adolescents feel less loved on stressful days. However, when adolescents perceive their partner as supportive, there is no association between stress and feeling loved. Partner support is protective for feeling loved. The current study provides essential insights into when adolescents and why adolescents feel loved.

Association of Daily Activities With Maternal-Child Bonding, Parenting Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Parenting Behaviors Among Survivors Living in an Intimate Partner Violence Shelter: A Daily Diary Study

Following a traumatic event such as intimate partner violence (IPV), survivors often experience stress related to the violence. These high levels of stress related to IPV can be associated with the daily activities of survivors and their relationships with their children, such as maternal-child bonding. The purpose of the current study is to explore the relationship between daily activities, daily stress levels, parenting self-efficacy and behaviors, and maternal-child bonding among survivors living in an IPV shelter using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology. Twenty-five mothers living in an IPV shelter in two states in the Southern United States completed a baseline survey and completed electronic daily diaries for 14 days. Higher daily stress was associated with the number of times the mothers met with the case manager. Higher daily stress was also related to lower parenting self-efficacy. The number of case management appointments and legal appointments were positively correlated with a higher bonding score. More social support was associated with more positive parenting. IPV and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were not significantly associated with maternal-child bonding, parenting behaviors, or parenting self-efficacy. Findings suggest that screening for maternal support may be particularly important for positive bonding and positive parenting. Findings also lend preliminary insight into practical places where service providers could act to protect the bonding process or mitigate risks to impede it. Future research should include objective data about the mother's emotions and her interactive behavior with her child. There is also a need to consider how federal programs fund and incentivize service providers to focus on mother-child dyads and how they can tailor services that promote bonding.

Family-level moderators of daily associations between discrimination and distress among Mexican-origin youth

The current study evaluated cultural values and family processes that may moderate associations between daily racial-ethnic discrimination and distress among Mexican-origin youth. Integrating micro-time (daily diary) and macro-time (longitudinal survey) research design features, we examined familism, family cohesion, and ethnic-racial socialization from youth-, mother-, and father- reports as potential buffers of daily associations between youth racial-ethnic discrimination and youth distress (negative affect and anger). The analytic sample, drawn from the Seguimos Avanzando study, included 317 Mexican-origin adolescents (Mage = 13.5 years) and their parents, recruited from the Midwestern United States. Results indicated that youth-reported familism and family cohesion significantly buffered daily associations between youth racial-ethnic discrimination and youth distress. In contrast, parent-reported familism and family cohesion and some aspects of ethnic-racial socialization exacerbated the discrimination to distress link. The implications of these results are discussed to inform efforts supporting the healthy development of Mexican-origin youth and their families.

How Transformational Leadership Affects the Off-work Recovery of Daily Personal Energy Resources via Work Engagement: Resource and Demand-based Pathways

This study focuses on the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship by investigating resource and demand pathways for daily off-work recovery and employee wellbeing (EWB). While previous research highlighted how transformational leadership energizes employees to engage at work, energy is a finite resource requiring daily restoration for EWB. Yet, how the leader's energizing effect relates to daily employees' recovery remains unknown. Following job demands-resource-recovery theory, we test two pathways that relate the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship to daily employee recovery: (a) Resource-based via resource-building, (b) demand-based via increased demands. Utilizing a 10-day, two daily measurement (N = 88) study, multilevel path analyses revealed: transformational leadership predicted via work engagement (b = .17, p < .05) role clarity (b = .56, p < .01), then positive (b = .39, p < .01), and negative work-nonwork spillover (b = -.38, p < .01). Positive work-nonwork spillover predicted recovery positively (b = .25, p < .01), negative work-nonwork spillover negatively (b = -.40, p < .01). Recovery predicted EWB for positive (b = .38, p < .01) and for negative (b = -.43, p < .01) affect. Work engagement predicted workload (b = .35, p < .01), further negative (b = .33, p < .01) and positive work-nonwork spillover (b = -.16, p < .01), hampering EWB. As one pathway effect might cancel the other, the main effect of transformational leadership on EWB was not significant in the integrative model (p > .05). Results highlight dark and bright sides of the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship regarding daily recovery.

Purpose in Daily Life: Considering Within-Person Sense of Purpose Variability

Sense of purpose refers to the extent to which one feels that they have personally meaningful goals and directions guiding them through life. Though this construct predicts a host of benefits, little is known regarding the extent to which sense of purpose fluctuates within an individual and the affective changes tied to those fluctuations. The current study uses daily diary data to addresses this gap by exploring (1) how much sense of purpose and different components of purpose fluctuate from one day to the next, (2) the extent to which these fluctuations correlate with positive and negative affect, and (3) whether dispositional sense of purpose and age correlate with greater variability. Participants (N = 354) reported on their sense of purpose and positive and negative affect every day for 10 days. Results suggest that approximately 45-61% of the variability in sense of purpose scores occurs between-person depending on how it is assessed. Furthermore, the within-person variability in sense of purpose is more strongly correlated with changes in positive affect relative to negative affect. Finally, higher levels of dispositional sense of purpose and age do not appear to be associated with how much variability an individual experiences in their purposefulness from one day to next. The discussion focuses on what these findings mean for the trait-like nature of sense of purpose, short-term sense of purpose measurement, lifespan development, and intervention efforts.

Associations between emotion reactivity to daily interpersonal stress and acute social-evaluative stress during late adolescence

Emotion reactivity refers to the intensity of changes in positive and negative emotion following a stimulus, typically studied with respect to daily stressors (e.g., arguments, demands) or laboratory stressors, including the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Yet, it is unclear whether emotion reactivity to daily and to laboratory stressors are related. The present study examined whether greater emotion reactivity to daily stressors (i.e., arguments, demands) is associated with greater reactivity to the TSST. Late adolescents (N = 82; Mage = 18.35, SD = 0.51, range 17-19; 56.1% female; 65.9% Latine, 34.2% European American) reported whether they experienced arguments and demands with friends, family, and individuals at school and their negative and positive emotion nightly for 15 days. They also completed the TSST, a validated paradigm for eliciting social-evaluative threat, and reported their emotion at baseline and immediately post-TSST. Multilevel models examined whether daily and laboratory emotion reactivity were related by testing whether the daily associations between arguments and demands with emotion differed by emotion reactivity to the TSST. Individuals with greater positive emotion reactivity (i.e., greater reductions in positive emotion) and greater negative emotion reactivity to the TSST showed greater positive emotion reactivity to daily demands. Emotion reactivity to the TSST was not significantly related to emotion reactivity to arguments. Findings provide preliminary evidence that emotion reactivity to the TSST relates to some aspects of daily emotion reactivity, with relations differing depending on type of daily stressor and valence of emotion. Results contextualise the implications of emotion reactivity to the TSST for daily stress processes.

Daily use of digital technologies to feel better: Adolescents' digital emotion regulation, emotions, loneliness, and recovery, considering prior emotional problems

INTRODUCTION

Adolescents report using digital technologies for emotion regulation (digital ER), with the aim of feeling better (i.e., improving emotions and reducing loneliness). In this 7-day diary study, we investigated associations of digital ER, emotions, and loneliness, and tested whether prior emotional problems moderated these associations.

METHOD

Participants were 312 Australian adolescents (Mage = 13.91, SD = 1.52; 44% boys). Daily surveys measured digital ER; end-of-day happiness, sadness, worry, anger, and loneliness; and peak sadness, worry, and anger. End-of day emotions were subtracted from peak emotions to calculate emotion recovery for sadness, worry, and anger. Participants were randomly selected from two symptom strata (high/low) defined by depression and social anxiety measures collected before the diary. Data were analyzed using multilevel path modeling. Cross-level interactions tested whether symptom strata moderated associations.

RESULTS

Digital ER was associated with more recovery from peak to end-of-day sadness and worry, but also with increased sadness, worry, anger, and loneliness by the next end-of-day. Higher end-of-day loneliness was associated with increased next-day digital ER. Prior emotional symptoms were not a significant moderator of daily digital ER and emotion associations.

CONCLUSION

Adolescents who report more digital ER in a day show more recovery from the peak of negative emotion that day, but this recovery dissipates, with digital ER also associated with increased negative emotion and loneliness by the next day for all adolescents, regardless of prior symptom status. Lonelier adolescents use more digital ER by the next day, suggesting they need support to make social connections-online or offline.

A socioemotional network perspective on momentary experiences of family conflict in young adults

Family conflict is an established predictor of psychopathology in youth. Traditional approaches focus on between-family differences in conflict. Daily fluctuations in conflict within families might also impact psychopathology, but more research is needed to understand how and why. Using 21 days of daily diary data and 6-times a day experience-sampling data (N = 77 participants; mean age = 21.18, SD = 1.75; 63 women, 14 men), we captured day-to-day and within-day fluctuations in family conflict, anger, anxiety, and sadness. Using multilevel models, we find that days of higher-than-usual anger are also days of higher-than-usual family conflict. Examining associations between family conflict and emotions within days, we find that moments of higher-than-usual anger predict higher-than-usual family conflict later in the day. We observe substantial between-family differences in these patterns with implications for psychopathology; youth showing the substantial interplay between family conflict and emotions across time had a more perseverative family conflict and greater trait anxiety. Overall, findings indicate the importance of increases in youth anger for experiences of family conflict during young adulthood and demonstrate how intensive repeated measures coupled with network analytic approaches can capture long-theorized notions of reciprocal processes in daily family life.

Within- and between-person associations between social interactions and loneliness: students' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many restrictions to in-person interactions, and remote social interactions may be especially important for managing loneliness when such restrictions are in place. However, it is unclear how social interactions are related to loneliness when in-person interactions are limited. Data were collected between February 2021 and March 2022 from a sample of 581 university students. Participants reported their loneliness and participation in positive in-person or remote social interactions each day for 14 days. Results from dynamic structural equation models showed that participants felt less lonely than they usually felt on the days they engaged in positive remote interactions at the within-person level. Moreover, participants generally felt less lonely when engaging more frequently in remote interactions, but only when in-person interactions were restricted (between-person level). Some of these results varied by changing COVID-19 restrictions. Finally, for participants who felt lonelier in general, the effect of positive in-person and remote interactions on loneliness was less strong. These findings suggest that social interactions may buffer loneliness but are not as impactful for those who experience greater loneliness.

Assessing Between- and Within-Person Reliabilities of Items and Scale for Daily Procrastination: A Multilevel and Dynamic Approach

Intensive longitudinal data (ILD) has been collected to capture the dynamic fluctuations of procrastination; however, researchers have typically measured daily procrastination by modifying trait measures (e.g., adding a time reference "today") without adequately testing their reliabilities. The main purpose of this study was to use an advanced approach, dynamic structural equation modeling, to assess the between- and within-person reliabilities of a widely used six-item measure of daily procrastination. A total of 252 participants completed retrospective measures of various types of trait procrastination and daily measures of procrastination over 34 consecutive days. The results showed that the entire scale for daily procrastination and five of its six items had high between- and within-person reliabilities, but one item had much lower reliabilities, suggesting that this item may be inappropriate in everyday contexts. Furthermore, we found moderate to strong associations between the latent trait factor of procrastination and trait measures of procrastination. In addition, we identified substantial between-person variation in person-specific reliabilities and explored its relevant factors. Overall, this study assessed the reliabilities of a daily measure of procrastination, which facilitated future studies to obtain more reliable and consistent results and to better estimate the reliability of ILD.

Social anxiety and emotion regulation flexibility: a daily diary approach

Previous research suggests that social anxiety symptoms are maintained and intensified by inflexible emotion regulation (ER). Therefore, we examined whether trait-level social anxiety moderates ER flexibility operationalised at both between-person (covariation between variability in emotional intensity and variability in strategy use across occasions) and within-person (associations between emotional intensity and strategy use on a given day) levels. In a sample of healthy college-aged adults (N = 185, Mage = 21.89), we examined overall and emotion-specific intensities (shame, guilt, anxiety, anger, sadness) and regulatory strategies (i.e. experiential avoidance, expressive suppression, and rumination) in response to each day's most emotionally intense event over 6 days. During the study period, we found a positive association between variability in emotional intensity and variability of experiential avoidance in individuals with lower, rather than higher, levels of trait social anxiety after controlling for key covariates (i.e. gender, personality traits, and stress exposure). However, we did not find evidence for the moderating role of trait social anxiety in ER flexibility assessed at within-person levels. Our findings highlight the need to delineate dynamic ER flexibility across everyday events.

Daily implementation of health-protective behaviors and family life during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated the use of health-protective behaviors (HPB), such as social distancing, staying at home, frequent handwashing, and wearing facemasks to mitigate the transmission of disease. An investigation of interpersonal costs associated with the use of HPB can help inform strategies to promote their sustained implementation. This study examined the daily associations between the implementation of HPB and family functioning and assessed moderation by coparenting quality, economic strain, and the number of days that state-level stay-at-home policies had been in effect, during the early days of the pandemic. Mothers and fathers from 155 families with children who were 9 years old, on average, completed daily reports of HPB, parental stress, and family relationship quality over eight consecutive days in April or May of 2020. Hierarchal linear models showed that HPB was associated with increased levels of parental stress and interparental conflict. Negative coparenting relations exacerbated the next-day association between HPB and interparental conflict. HPB was also associated with increased levels of parent-child and interparental closeness, but these linkages dissipated for families who had spent more days under state-level stay-at-home policies. Although crucial for public health, the implementation of HPB may have detrimental short-term effects on daily family life. Family support and interventions are necessary to minimize the psychosocial burden of these important public health measures and increase their sustained adherence.

The day-to-day relationship between posttraumatic stress symptoms and social support after sexual assault

Background: Experiencing sexual assault is associated with a significant increase in risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder and related concerns (e.g. alcohol misuse). Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence suggests that social support may be both broadly protective against and eroded by posttraumatic stress symptoms. However, little is known about how different aspects of social support and posttraumatic stress symptoms influence each other in the weeks and months immediately following sexual assault, when posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms first emerge.Objective: The present study assessed the day-to-day relationship between social support and PTS in a sample of distressed, alcohol-using, recently-assaulted female survivors participating in a clinical trial of an app-based intervention (N = 41).Method: Participants completed 3 weeks of daily diaries starting within 10 weeks of sexual assault. Mixed-effects models were used to examine prior-day and same-day relationships between PTS and four social support constructs (social contact, emotional support, pleasantness of social interactions, and talking about sexual assault).Results: Results indicate that higher quantity and pleasantness of social interactions over the full sampling period was associated with lower PTS symptoms on any given day. Experiencing better-than-typical social interactions on one day was associated with lower than typical PTS symptoms on that day and the next day. On days when participants discussed their sexual assault with others, they tended to be having higher than usual PTS symptoms.Conclusions: Findings suggest that increasing the quantity and pleasantness of social interactions soon after sexual assault might protect against worsening posttraumatic stress symptoms.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03703258.

Mapping the duration and severity of preschool-aged children's depressive moods and behaviors

BACKGROUND

Depressive moods and behaviors are developmentally normative, yet potentially impairing, in preschool-aged children. In addition to frequency, duration of behavior is an important parameter to consider when characterizing risk for worsening mood dysregulation. The goal of this study was to identify the duration and severity of depressive moods and behaviors and associations with impairment in a large community sample of preschool-aged children using an online parent-report daily diary.

METHODS

Primary caregivers (N = 900) of 3-5-year-old children reported the daily duration of each instance of seven depressive moods and behaviors for 14 days. We used item response theory analyses to examine duration item characteristics.

RESULTS

Moods and behaviors occurred at specific durations to be considered psychometrically severe/rare; for example, instances of sadness had to last an average total of 32 min per day or more, irritability at least 38 min, tantrums at least 30 min, and tearfulness/sensitivity at least 35 min. Longer durations of mood and behavior were associated with daily impairment, as well as older child age and less parental education.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this is the first study to delineate specific duration ranges for depressive moods and behaviors in preschool-aged children. These data, coupled with information about the frequency of mood-related behaviors, can assist child practitioners in differentiating normative patterns from less normative mood problems to evaluate which children may be at risk. Future work should identify the duration of depressive moods and behaviors in early childhood that predict clinically significant psychopathology over time.

Changes in affect longitudinally mediate associations between emotion regulation strategy use and disordered eating

BACKGROUND

Trait-level emotion regulation (ER) difficulties are associated with eating disorders (EDs) transdiagnostically. However, little research has examined whether within-person fluctuations in ER longitudinally predict ED behaviors in daily life or the mechanisms of ER effects. Investigating daily ER could help us better understand why people experience ED behaviors at a given time. We examined whether day-to-day changes in adaptive (e.g., cognitive reappraisal) and maladaptive (e.g., rumination) ER longitudinally predicted core ED behaviors (binge eating, purging, dieting) and whether changes in affect mediated effects.

METHOD

Female participants (N = 688) ages 15-30 from the Michigan State University Twin Registry reported their adaptive and maladaptive ER use, negative affect (NA), positive affect (PA), binge eating, purging, and dieting on 49 consecutive days. Using structural equation modeling, we examined whether within-person fluctuations in ER predicted same- and next-day ED behaviors and whether changes in affect mediated longitudinal ER effects.

RESULTS

Greater maladaptive ER predicted increased likelihood of same-day binge eating and next-day binge eating and purging. The association between maladaptive ER and next-day binge eating and purging was mediated by increased next-day NA. In contrast, dieting was more closely related to changes in PA. Adaptive ER did not predict reduced likelihood of any ED behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Maladaptive ER may longitudinally increase risk for binge eating and purging by amplifying NA. Interventions focused on decreasing maladaptive ER and subsequent NA might help disrupt binge eating-purging cycles. Conversely, results add to evidence that PA fluctuations may play a unique role in maintaining restrictive behaviors.

PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE

Little is known about how daily changes in emotion regulation may impact disordered eating. We found that maladaptive emotion regulation (e.g., rumination) was associated with a higher likelihood of binge eating and purging on the next day because it predicted increased next-day negative affect. In contrast, dieting was more closely tied to fluctuations in positive affect. Targeting daily emotion regulation and affective processes may help disrupt cycles of disordered eating.

How does benign/malicious envy impact young women's subjective well-being in daily life? An investigation of intrapersonal and interpersonal pathway

Although previous cross-sectional studies have investigated the between-person correlation between dispositional envy and subjective well-being, few longitudinal studies have explored the within-person relationships between state benign/malicious envy and subjective well-being, as well as the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms involved. This study adopted a diary approach for 14 consecutive days from a sample of 167 young women to investigate the within-person associations among benign/malicious envy, self-esteem, perceived social support, and subjective well-being. The results revealed that benign and malicious envy had opposite effects on subjective well-being within individuals. Besides, the results indicated that self-esteem and perceived social support mediated the relationships between benign envy and two dimensions of subjective well-being (positive affect and life satisfaction) within individuals. Furthermore, self-esteem played a within-person mediating role in the relationships between malicious envy and three dimensions of subjective well-being, whereas perceived social support only served as a within-person mediator between malicious envy and positive affect. These findings shed light on the distinction between benign envy and malicious envy and help in comprehending the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms through which the two types of envy impact subjective well-being in daily life.

The moderating role of trait and state mindfulness between daily sleep and physical pain symptoms: an ecological momentary assessment and actigraphy study

Objective: Poorer sleep quality and insufficient sleep increase the risk of physical pain. The current study examined the daily associations between sleep and physical pain symptoms and tested the moderating role of trait and state mindfulness in this relationship. Methods: Sixty hospital nurses (Mage=35.4 ± 11.8 years) completed 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and sleep actigraphy. EMA measured physical pain frequency and interference (1×/day) and state mindfulness (3×/day). Multilevel modelling was used to examine the associations at the between-person and within-person levels. Results: After nights with poorer sleep quality, lower sleep sufficiency, and more insomnia symptoms, the frequency of physical pain symptoms and pain interference were greater than usual. Overall, those with poorer sleep quality, lower sleep sufficiency, and more insomnia symptoms reported more physical pain symptoms and greater pain interference. Higher state mindfulness buffered the negative within-person association between sleep efficiency and physical pain frequency. There was evidence that the joint moderating effects of trait and state mindfulness yielded more protective benefits in the relationship between sleep quality and physical pain than trait or state mindfulness alone. Conclusion: Even without mindfulness training, one's mindfulness may be protective against the adverse effects of poor sleep quality on physical pain.

Daily aggression domains differentially relate to daily affect and self-esteem

How do daily fluctuations in aggression relate to daily variability in affect and self-esteem? Although research has examined how trait aggression relates to affect and self-esteem, state aggression has received little attention. To this end, we had 120 US undergraduates participate in a 14-day daily diary study where they responded to state-level measures of aggression, affect, and self-esteem. Crucially, we used multifaceted state measures of both aggression (anger, hostility, verbal aggression, physical aggression) and affect (positive vs. negative, activated vs. deactivated). Multilevel models revealed that daily anger and hostility related positively to daily negative affect and negatively to daily positive affect. Similarly, daily anger and hostility related negatively to daily self-esteem. In contrast, daily verbal and physical aggression were largely unrelated to daily affect and self-esteem; however, unexpectedly, daily physical aggression related positively to daily positive activated affect, but only when controlling for the other daily aggression domains. Overall, daily attitudinal aggression measures-anger and hostility-related to daily affect and self-esteem in theoretically consistent ways, whereas daily behavioral aggression measures-verbal and physical aggression-did not. Our findings support expanding the General Aggression Model to incorporate state-level processes.

Bystander opportunity in situations of alcohol and violence risk: Exploring the feasibility of collecting daily diary data

Objective: One strategy to address the health issues among college students is through bystander intervention. However, much is still unknown about bystander behavior. The purpose of the current study was to assess the feasibility of daily diary methodology as applied to bystander opportunity. Method: Using a convenience sample, we examined (1) the frequency at which students encounter alcohol use risk and SDV risk bystander opportunities, and (2) the association between participants' daily alcohol use and daily bystander opportunity. Participants were a small group of 32 college students (75% women; 100% heterosexual; 93.7% White; 6.3% multiracial; 3.1% Hispanic) who took up to nine daily diary surveys for a total of 207 days. Results: Over 80% of participants completed the required days. Participants experienced at least one bystander opportunity on 24% of days. Participants were significantly more likely to report an alcohol risk bystander opportunity on days when they drank alcohol, compared to non-drinking days.

Impact of fly-in fly-out work on health behaviours and affective states: A daily diary study

Our knowledge about the role of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) work-related factors on the well-being of workers across the FIFO work cycle is limited. This study examined the within-person effects of job demand and control on psychological states and health behaviours. The study employed a daily diary design, with 23 FIFO workers in the Australian mining industry completing a daily diary survey for 28 consecutive days across on-shift and off-shift periods. Multilevel analyses showed FIFO workers experienced higher positive affect and enjoyed better sleep quality, but consumed more alcohol, during off-shift days as compared to on-shift days. Within-person variability in daily demand (workload) was associated with higher anxious affect, whereas job control predicted lower anxious and depressed affects, higher positive affect, more alcohol consumption, and more physical activity. The within-person effect of demand on anxious affect was moderated by job control such that those who generally had more control over their jobs had a smaller effect of demand on anxiety than those with less control. Results suggest potentially modifiable aspects of FIFO work-particularly job control-may help alleviate the impact of workload on poorer health behaviours and mood.

Everyday Pain in Middle and Later Life: Associations with Daily and Momentary Present-Moment Awareness as One Key Facet of Mindfulness

This study investigated everyday associations between one key facet of mindfulness (allocating attention to the present moment) and pain. In Study 1, 89 community-dwelling adults (33-88 years; Mage = 68.6) who had experienced a stroke provided 14 daily end-of-day present-moment awareness and pain ratings. In Study 2, 100 adults (50-85 years; Mage = 67.0 years) provided momentary present-moment awareness and pain ratings three times daily for 10 days. Multi-level models showed that higher trait present-moment awareness was linked with lower overall pain (both studies). In Study 1, participants reported less pain on days on which they indicated higher present-moment awareness. In Study 2, only individuals with no post-secondary education reported less pain in moments when they indicated higher present-moment awareness. Findings add to previous research using global retrospective pain measures by showing that present-moment awareness might correlate with reduced pain experiences, assessed close in time to when they occur.

Social anxiety and interpersonal risk for suicidal ideation: A longitudinal daily diary analysis

INTRODUCTION

Social anxiety is associated with elevated suicidal ideation (SI). One potential explanation is that socially anxious persons experience frequent interpersonal stressors that elicit SI. Longitudinal designs with temporal ordering are needed to adequately test this hypothesis. Therefore, this study leveraged a longitudinal design combining trait and daily reports.

METHODS

Two hundred eleven community adult participants with elevated levels of depression and/or social anxiety completed social anxiety and SI measures at baseline and again at a 1.5-month follow-up. Between these assessments, participants completed a 14-day diary study that assessed three forms of interpersonal distress: unfavorable social comparisons, perceived barriers to seeking social support, and loneliness.

RESULTS

As predicted, simple mediation models revealed that baseline social anxiety had a significant indirect effect on SI severity at 1.5 months postbaseline via unfavorable social comparisons (indirect effect: β = 0.07, p < 0.05) and barriers to seeking support (indirect effect: β = 0.08, p < 0.05); however, social anxiety did not have a significant indirect effect on SI severity through loneliness.

CONCLUSION

Study results are consistent with the proposition that increases in interpersonal distress may explain socially anxious persons' vulnerability to SI. Implications of these findings for the research, assessment, and treatment of suicidality in social anxiety are discussed.

What is in the news today? How media-related affect shapes adolescents' stance towards the EU

INTRODUCTION

Adolescence is regarded as a formative period for political development. One important developmental context is media. Negatively perceived political media content can foster populistic attitudes, which in turn decreases support of political institutions, such as the European Union (EU). As media valence effects are short-lived, this study examined intra-individual associations of media valence with European identity commitment and affect towards the EU, as well as indirect effects via populistic attitudes across 10 days.

METHODS

We implemented a 10-day daily diary study with 371 adolescents from Germany (January to February 2022). Adolescents were on average 14.24 years old (SD = 0.55) and 60.4% were female. We estimated the hypothesized associations using multilevel structural equation models and dynamic structural equation models.

RESULTS

We found significant associations between populistic attitudes and negative affect towards the EU on the same day and the next day. The lagged effect became nonsignificant, when including both same day and lagged effects into one model. Populistic attitudes were not significantly associated with European identity commitment within days or across days. Negative media content was associated with higher populistic attitudes on the same day and indirectly associated with negative affect towards the EU (b = -.01, 95% credible interval [-0.010, -0.004]).

CONCLUSION

Negatively perceived political media content was associated with higher populistic attitudes and more negative affect towards the EU concurrently. Our results imply that media plays an important role for adolescents' development.

Adolescents' and parents' affect in relation to discrepant perceptions of parental warmth in daily life

The current study aimed to evaluate how adolescents' and parents' perceptions of daily parenting-and their discrepancies-relate to daily parent and adolescent affect. Daily parental warmth and affect were assessed using electronic diaries in 150 American adolescent-parent dyads (61.3% females, Mage  = 14.6, 83.3% White; 95.3% mothers, Mage  = 43.4; 89.3% White) and in 80 Dutch adolescents with 79 mothers and 72 fathers (63.8% females, Mage  = 15.9, 91.3% White; Mage  = 49.0, 97.4% White). Results of preregistered models indicated that individuals' affect may be more important for perceptions of parenting than discrepancies between parent-adolescent reports of parenting for affect, stressing the need to be aware of this influence of affect on parenting reports in clinical and research settings.

Religious Coping Is Differentially Associated with Physiological and Subjective Distress Indicators: Comparing Cortisol and Self-Report Patterns

Use of religious coping in response to life stress is associated with improved mental and physical health outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of religious coping on conscious self-reported and non-conscious physiological stress responses to an acute, real-world stressor to better understand how this benefit may be conferred. This study examined the trajectory of subjective distress and cortisol patterns leading up to and following a stressful college exam using daily diary and ambulatory saliva samples, respectively (N students = 246). Religious coping was not significantly associated with subjective reports of distress. However, prior to the exam, greater use of religious coping was associated with an ostensibly more adaptive accelerated return to a cortisol baseline. This protective effect was no longer significant when the exam was over, suggesting that religious coping acts as a protective buffer against physiological stress responses rather than aiding in subjective recovery from stress.

External Minority Stress, Gender Dysphoria, and Capability for Suicide Among Transgender Adults: A Daily Diary Study

This study analyzed whether external gender-related minority stress (i.e., discrimination, rejection, and violence) and gender dysphoria contribute to same-day and next-day acquired capability for suicide (ACS) in a sample of transgender adults residing in the southeastern United States. A sample of transgender participants (n = 38, 84.2% White, average age = 28.6 years) residing in the southeastern United States completed daily surveys on discrimination, rejection, violence, gender dysphoria, and ACS over 30 days (n = 836 of the 1,140 surveys sent out were completed). External minority stress (i.e., rejection, discrimination, and violence) was very common in this sample. External minority stress experiences were reported on 16% of the completed daily surveys, and 68% of the sample reported experiencing such stress at least once over the 30-day study period. Similarly, gender dysphoria occurred on 37.2% of the completed days and was experienced on at least 1 day by 78.9% of the participants over the 30-day survey period. Multilevel modeling showed daily experiences of discrimination and rejection, but not gender dysphoria, were positively associated with same-day ACS. Violence trended toward significance in correlating with same-day capability for suicide. Neither external minority stress nor gender dysphoria were associated with next-day ACS while controlling for acquired capability reported on the previous day. These preliminary data support proximal associations of external gender minority stress with same-day, but not next-day, ACS. Findings from this study advance understanding of how anti-transgender discrimination and violence contribute to increased capability for suicide in a population at increased risk for suicide.

Age Differences Among Different Sources of Stressor Related Negative Affect

We examine age differences in the relationship between negative affect (NA) and different indicators of daily stress (interpersonal, health, and financial stressors and perceived stress). Participants completed 56 days of daily diary surveys from Wave 1 of the Notre Dame Study of Health & Well-being. Multi-level modeling allowed us to assess the within-person relationships between daily stress and NA and the cross-level interactions between these daily relationships and cross-sectional age. Each type of stress additively related to daily NA. Older age related to an exacerbated relationship between daily interpersonal stressors and NA, but a weaker relationship between daily perceived stress and NA. Interventions focused on enhancing daily well-being can encourage older adults to ensure they do not have overpacked schedules in regards to social relationships, and encourage midlife and younger adults to engage in activities that disrupt the link between perceived stress and NA.

Intensive Longitudinal Assessment of Adolescents to Predict Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

OBJECTIVE

Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents. However, there are no clinical tools to detect proximal risk for suicide.

METHOD

Participants included 13- to 18-year-old adolescents (N = 103) reporting a current depressive, anxiety, and/or substance use disorder who owned a smartphone; 62% reported current suicidal ideation, with 25% indicating a past-year attempt. At baseline, participants were administered clinical interviews to assess lifetime disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). Self-reports assessing symptoms and suicide risk factors also were obtained. In addition, the Effortless Assessment of Risk States (EARS) app was installed on adolescent smartphones to acquire daily mood and weekly suicidal ideation severity during the 6-month follow-up period. Adolescents completed STB and psychiatric service use interviews at the 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up assessments.

RESULTS

K-means clustering based on aggregates of weekly suicidal ideation scores resulted in a 3-group solution reflecting high-risk (n = 26), medium-risk (n = 47), and low-risk (n = 30) groups. Of the high-risk group, 58% reported suicidal events (ie, suicide attempts, psychiatric hospitalizations, emergency department visits, ideation severity requiring an intervention) during the 6-month follow-up period. For participants in the high-risk and medium-risk groups (n = 73), mood disturbances in the preceding 7 days predicted clinically significant ideation, with a 1-SD decrease in mood doubling participants' likelihood of reporting clinically significant ideation on a given week.

CONCLUSION

Intensive longitudinal assessment through use of personal smartphones offers a feasible method to assess variability in adolescents' emotional experiences and suicide risk. Translating these tools into clinical practice may help to reduce the needless loss of life among adolescents.

Why so slangry (sleepy and angry)? Shorter sleep duration and lower sleep efficiency predict worse next-day mood in adolescents

PURPOSE

The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationships of actigraphic nighttime sleep duration and quality with next-day mood among urban adolescents using a micro-longitudinal design.

METHODS

A subsample (N = 525) of participants from the Fragile Families & Child Wellbeing Study (mean age: 15.4 years; 53% female; 42% Black non-Hispanic, 24% Hispanic/Latino, 19% White non-Hispanic) in the United States between 2014 and 2016 concurrently wore a wrist actigraphic sleep monitor and rated their daily mood in electronic diaries for about 1 week. Multilevel models tested the within-person temporal associations of nightly sleep duration and sleep maintenance efficiency with next-day reports of happiness, anger, and loneliness. The models also tested the between-person associations of sleep variables and mood. Models adjusted for sociodemographic and household characteristics, weekend, and school year.

RESULTS

After nights when adolescents obtained longer sleep duration than their usual, they reported lower ratings of anger (B = -.03, p < .01) the next day. After nights when adolescents had higher sleep maintenance efficiency than their usual, they reported higher ratings of happiness (B = .02, p < .01) the next day. Adolescents who had longer average sleep duration reported lower ratings of anger (B = -.08, p < .01) and loneliness (B = -.08, p < .01) compared to others. There was no within-person association of sleep duration or efficiency with loneliness. Sleep duration was not associated with happiness between adolescents, and sleep maintenance efficiency was not associated with any mood measure between adolescents.

CONCLUSIONS

Improvements to nightly sleep may help increase happiness and decrease anger the following day in adolescents. Promoting sleep health is recommended to improve mood.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia, negative social interactions, and fluctuations in unmet interpersonal needs: A daily diary study

INTRODUCTION

This study examined daily fluctuations in the unmet interpersonal needs of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness in response to daily negative social interactions, as well as the moderating role of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) across adolescents at lower and higher risk for suicidal ideation.

METHODS

Fifty five adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD, i.e., higher-risk group) and without MDD (i.e., lower-risk group) completed measures of resting RSA, and daily measures of negative social interactions, perceived burdensomeness, and loneliness, as a proxy for thwarted belongingness, for 10 consecutive days. Within-person analyses examined the association between daily negative social interactions and unmet interpersonal needs, and the moderating roles of RSA and higher-risk group status. Between-person analyses also examined the association between RSA and unmet interpersonal needs across groups.

RESULTS

At the within-person level, participants reported more unmet interpersonal needs on days when they reported more negative social interactions. At the between-person level, higher RSA was associated with decreased loneliness in both groups, and decreased burdensomeness among the higher-risk group.

CONCLUSIONS

Negative social interactions are associated with daily unmet interpersonal needs. Higher RSA may serve as a protective factor mitigating risk for unmet interpersonal needs, particularly burdensomeness, among adolescents at higher risk for suicidal ideation.

Daily association between parent-adolescent relationship and life satisfaction: The moderating role of emotion dysregulation

INTRODUCTION

In adolescence, life satisfaction is an early indicator of later psychological well-being. However, researchers know little about how daily family relationships shape adolescent life satisfaction. The current study examined the day-to-day associations between parent-adolescent relationships and life satisfaction, and whether adolescent emotion dysregulation moderated these associations.

METHODS

A total of 191 adolescents (Mage  = 12.93, SDage  = 0.75, 53% female) recruited from junior high schools in Taiwan participated in a 10-day daily diary protocol. We conducted multilevel analyses to examine within-family and between-family processes.

RESULTS

At the within-family level, adolescents reported higher life satisfaction on days when parent-adolescent closeness was higher, but lower life satisfaction on days when parent-adolescent conflict was higher. At the between-family level, higher parent-adolescent closeness was associated with greater life satisfaction on average, while parent-adolescent conflict was not related to adolescent life satisfaction. Cross-level interactions indicated that within-family changes in parent-adolescent closeness and conflict were only associated with life satisfaction for adolescents with higher levels of emotion dysregulation, indicating emotion dysregulation may intensify the role of daily parent-adolescent relationships in shaping adolescent life satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

This study expands current literature and provides novel evidence that changes in day-to-day parent-adolescent relationships have important implications for adolescent life satisfaction, especially for youth higher in emotion dysregulation. The findings underscore the importance of evaluating family and individual characteristics to better support adolescent well-being.

Between- and within-person effects of stress on emotional eating in women: a longitudinal study over 49 days

BACKGROUND

Stress is associated with binge eating and emotional eating (EE) cross-sectionally. However, few studies have examined stress longitudinally, limiting understanding of how within-person fluctuations in stress influence EE over time and whether stress is a risk factor or consequence of EE. Additionally, little is known regarding how the biological stress response relates to EE.

METHODS

We used an intensive, longitudinal design to examine between-person and within-person effects of major life stress, daily stress, and cortisol on EE in a population-based sample of women (N = 477; ages 15-30; M = 21.8; s.d. = 3.0) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Participants reported past year major life stress, then provided daily ratings of EE and stress for 49 consecutive days. Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) was collected as a longitudinal biological stress measure.

RESULTS

Women reported greater EE when they experienced greater mean stress across days (between-person effects) or greater stress relative to their own average on a given day (within-person effects). Daily stress was more strongly associated with EE than major life stress. However, the impact of daily stress on EE was amplified in women with greater past year major life stress. Finally, participants with lower HCC had increased EE.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings confirm longitudinal associations between stress and EE in women, and highlight the importance of within-person shifts in stress in EE risk. Results also highlight HCC as a novel biological stress measure that is significantly associated with EE and may overcome limitations of prior physiological stress response indicators.

Leisure Participation of Autistic Adults: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Feasibility Study

Autistic adults participate less and express lower satisfaction in leisure activities than nonautistic adults, although literature is limited. The multifaceted nature of leisure participation makes it challenging to measure, with most measures being retrospective. Ecological momentary assessments (EMA) can reduce recall bias. This pilot study assessed the feasibility and acceptability of EMA among autistic adults. Participants (N = 40) were recruited via email and online. After completing a baseline interview, participants were asked to complete a once-daily survey for 30 days, in which they received survey links through a text messaging smartphone app. Surveys asked participants to report whether they participated in any leisure activities during the day, their level of enjoyment, with whom they interacted, and where they participated. The EMA appeared feasible in this sample, as participants completed the daily survey on average 27.05 (SD = 3.92) days. Regarding acceptability, most agreed that survey timing was convenient, that it was easy to enter responses and answer questions daily, and that they had enough response time. Overall, this study supports the use of EMA methodology among autistic adults. Future research should follow and improve upon these EMA data collection practices to examine daily behavior and well-being among autistic adults.

Information theory and headache triggers

OBJECTIVES

This secondary analysis evaluated the information content exhibited by various measurement strategies of commonly perceived causes, or "triggers," of headache attacks.

BACKGROUND

When evaluating triggers of primary headache attacks, the variation observed in trigger candidates must be measured to compare against the covariation in headache activity. Given the numerous strategies that could be used to measure and record headache trigger variables, it is useful to consider the information contained in these measurements.

METHODS

Using previously collected data from cohort and cross-sectional studies, online data sources, and simulations, the Shannon information entropy exhibited by many common triggers was evaluated by analyzing available time-series or theoretical distributions of headache triggers. The degree of information, reported in bits, was compared across trigger variables, measurement strategies, and settings.

RESULTS

A wide range of information content was observed across headache triggers. Due to lack of variation, there was little information, near 0.00 bits, in triggers like red wine and air conditioning. Most headache triggers exhibited more information when measured using an ordinal scale of presence/degree (e.g., absent, mild, moderate, severe) versus a present/absent binary coding. For example, the trigger "joy" exhibited 0.03 bits when assessed using binary coding but 1.81 bits when coded using an ordinal scale. More information was observed with the use of count data (0.86 to 1.75 bits), Likert rating scales (1.50 to 2.76 bits), validated questionnaires (3.57 to 6.04 bits), weather variables (0.10 to 8.00 bits), and ambulatory monitoring devices (9.19 to 12.61 bits).

CONCLUSIONS

Although commonly used, all binary-coded measurements contain ≤1.00 bit of information. Low levels of information in trigger variables make associations with headache activity more difficult to detect. Assessments that balance information-rich measurements with reasonable participant burden using efficient formats (e.g., Likert scales) are recommended to enhance the evaluation of the association with headache activity.

A Smartphone-Based Implicit Theories Intervention for Health Behavior Change: Randomized Trial

BACKGROUND

Implicit theories of health describe individuals' beliefs about the malleability of health. Individuals with an incremental theory of health believe that health, in general, is malleable, whereas individuals with an entity theory of health endorse the idea that health is largely fixed and predetermined. Previous research has shown that an incremental theory of health is associated with beneficial health outcomes and behaviors. A mobile health implicit theories intervention could be an effective way to increase health-promoting behaviors in the general population.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of a smartphone-based intervention designed to promote an incremental theory of health on the frequency of health-promoting behaviors in everyday life. The study used ecological momentary assessment to measure health behavior change.

METHODS

This 2-arm, single-blind, delayed intervention design included 149 German participants (mean age 30.58, SD 9.71 years; n=79 female). Participants were asked to report their engagement in 10 health-promoting behaviors throughout the day for 3 weeks. Participants were randomly assigned to either an early intervention group (n=72) or a delayed intervention group (n=77). The intervention materials, designed to promote an incremental theory of health, were provided to participants after 1 week (early intervention group) or 2 weeks (delayed intervention group) of baseline behavior measurement. Data for this study were collected between September 2019 and October 2019.

RESULTS

A paired-samples 2-tailed t test revealed that participants reported a stronger incremental theory after responding to the intervention materials (mean 5.58, SE 0.07) compared with incremental theory measured in an entry questionnaire (mean 5.29, SE 0.08; t148=4.07, SE 0.07; P<.001; 95% CI 0.15-0.43; d=0.33). Multilevel analyses showed that participants reported engaging in health-promoting behaviors more often after being presented with the intervention materials compared with baseline across conditions (b=0.14; t146.65=2.06, SE 0.07; P=.04; 95% CI 0.01-0.28). However, when the analysis was conducted separately for the early and delayed intervention groups, the intervention effect was only significant for the delayed intervention group (b=0.27; t1492.37=3.50, SE 0.08; P<.001; 95% CI 0.12-0.42). There was no significant increase in health-promoting behaviors for the early intervention group (b=0.02; t69.23=0.14, SE 0.11;P=.89; 95% CI -0.2 to 0.23).

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that a smartphone-based intervention designed to promote an incremental theory of health is a cost- and time-effective approach to increase the frequency of engaging in health-promoting behaviors. However, research is needed to understand the reasons for the difference in intervention effects between the early and delayed intervention groups. The results of this study can guide the development of future digital health interventions that focus on implicit theories to promote health behavior change.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

DRKS - German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00017379; https://drks.de/search/de/trial/DRKS00017379.

Predicting short-term suicidal thoughts in adolescents using machine learning: developing decision tools to identify daily level risk after hospitalization

BACKGROUND

Mobile technology offers unique opportunities for monitoring short-term suicide risk in daily life. In this study of suicidal adolescent inpatients, theoretically informed risk factors were assessed daily following discharge to predict near-term suicidal ideation and inform decision algorithms for identifying elevations in daily level risk, with implications for real-time suicide-focused interventions.

METHODS

Adolescents (N = 78; 67.9% female) completed brief surveys texted daily for 4 weeks after discharge (n = 1621 observations). Using multi-level classification and regression trees (CARTSs) with repeated 5-fold cross-validation, we tested (a) a simple prediction model incorporating previous-day scores for each of 10 risk factors, and (b) a more complex model incorporating, for each of these factors, a time-varying person-specific mean over prior days together with deviation from that mean. Models also incorporated missingness and contextual (study week, day of the week) indicators. The outcome was the presence/absence of next-day suicidal ideation.

RESULTS

The best-performing model (cross-validated AUC = 0.86) was a complex model that included ideation duration, hopelessness, burdensomeness, and self-efficacy to refrain from suicidal action. An equivalent model that excluded ideation duration had acceptable overall performance (cross-validated AUC = 0.78). Models incorporating only previous-day scores, with and without ideation duration (cross-validated AUC of 0.82 and 0.75, respectively), showed relatively weaker performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that specific combinations of dynamic risk factors assessed in adolescents' daily life have promising utility in predicting next-day suicidal thoughts. Findings represent an important step in the development of decision tools identifying short-term risk as well as guiding timely interventions sensitive to proximal elevations in suicide risk in daily life.

Do positive memory characteristics influence daily-level trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms? an exploratory daily diary study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Evidence links posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with positive memory characteristics. To extend this research, we utilized daily diary data to examine (1) concurrent/lagged associations between daily PTSD symptom severity and positive memory vividness/accessibility; and (2) associations between baseline-assessed positive memory characteristics and changes in PTSD symptom severity over time.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A sample of 238 trauma-exposed participants (Mage = 21.19 years; 86% women) completed baseline and 10 daily measures of PTSD symptoms and positive memory characteristics. Multilevel models covaried for gender, number of trauma types, and number of completed surveys.

RESULTS

Days with greater PTSD symptom severity than an individual's average associated with less vividness (b = -0.02, p < .001) and accessibility (b = -0.02, p < .001) of the positive memory on the same day. Days with greater positive memory vividness (b = -1.06, p < .001) and accessibility (b = -0.93, p < .001) than an individual's average associated with less PTSD symptom severity on the same day. There were no significant lagged associations between these constructs. There were significant interactions between baseline-assessed psychological distance and time (b = -0.04, p  = .042) and between baseline-assessed visual perspective and time (b = 0.05, p = .023) on PTSD symptom severity across days.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings inform positive memory intervention targets for PTSD and provide impetus for longitudinal investigations on their inter-relations.

The feasibility of daily monitoring in adolescents and young adults with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning

BACKGROUND

It is unclear whether the limitations of young persons with a mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning preclude feasibility of the daily diary method.

METHOD

For 60 consecutive days, 50 participants (M_age  = 21.4, 56% male) who receive care in an ambulatory, residential, or juvenile detention setting, self-rated both standardised and personalised diary questions through an app. Diary entries were used for feedback in treatment. Interviews were used to explore acceptability.

RESULTS

Average compliance was 70.4%, while 26% of participants dropped out. Compliance was good in ambulatory (88.9%) and residential care (75.6%), but not in the juvenile detention setting (19.4%). The content of self-selected diary items varied widely. Participants deemed the method acceptable.

CONCLUSIONS

Daily monitoring is feasible for individuals with a mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning receiving ambulatory or residential care, and can provide scientists and practitioners with important insights into day-to-day behavioural patterns.

The Days Add Up: Daily Marital Discord and Depressive Reactivity Linked to Past-Month Depressed Mood and Marital Risk across 10 Years

Marital discord fuels depression, according to decades of research. Most prior studies in this area have focused on macro-longitudinal change in depression over the course of years, and on global ratings of marital satisfaction. Less work has examined fluctuations in depressed mood and marital discord in daily life, and none has investigated associations of short-term patterns with longer-term depressed mood and marital outcomes. Using data from participants in the Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS) project, the current study examined daily associations between marital discord and depressed mood, as well as their links to concurrent and prospective patterns of past-month depressed mood and marital risk. Results showed that, on average, depressed mood rose on days when individuals had an argument or tension with their spouse (i.e., marital discord). More frequent daily marital discord was also associated with greater past-month depressed mood and marital risk, above and beyond prior levels. Those with larger depressive mood responses to discord in daily life (i.e., greater reactivity) exhibited higher concurrent past-month depressed mood and greater 10-year increases in depressed mood. As the first study to link daily marital patterns to concurrent and prospective changes in depressed mood and marital outcomes, this investigation uncovered two novel processes-daily marital discord and depressive reactivity-as important for understanding long-term patterns of marital risk and depression.

The influence of autoregressive relation strength and search strategy on directionality recovery in group iterative multiple model estimation

Unified structural equation modeling (uSEM) implemented in the group iterative multiple model estimation (GIMME) framework has recently been widely used for characterizing within-person network dynamics of behavioral and functional neuroimaging variables. Previous studies have established that GIMME accurately recovers the presence of relations between variables. However, recovery of relation directionality is less consistent, which is concerning given the importance of directionality estimates for many research questions. There is evidence that strong autoregressive relations may aid directionality recovery and indirect evidence that a novel version of GIMME allowing for multiple solutions could improve recovery when such relations are weak, but it remains unclear how these strategies perform under a range of study conditions. Using comprehensive simulations that varied the strength of autoregressive relations among other factors, this study evaluated the directionality recovery of two GIMME search strategies: (a) estimating autoregressive relations by default in the null model (GIMME-AR) and (b) generating multiple solution paths (GIMME-MS). Both strategies recovered directionality best-and were roughly equivalent in performance-when autoregressive relations were strong (e.g., β = .60). When they were weak (β ≤ .10), GIMME-MS displayed an advantage, although overall directionality recovery was modest. Analyses of empirical data in which autoregressive relations were characteristically strong (resting state functional MRI) versus weak (daily diary) mirrored simulation results and confirmed that these strategies can disagree on directionality when autoregressive relations are weak. Findings have important implications for psychological and neuroimaging applications of uSEM/GIMME and suggest specific scenarios in which researchers might or might not be confident in directionality results. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The event-based influence of incentivizing and physical contexts on daily alcohol initiation and consumption

BACKGROUND

Young adults often decide to engage in heavy drinking. Learning more about the real-time factors that predict decisions to initiate a drinking episode and how much is consumed in any single drinking episode is necessary in developing our understanding of momentary alcohol use and discrete decisions surrounding alcohol use.

METHODS

The current study examined the association between contextual factors and decisions to initiate and consume alcohol in 104 young adult individuals over 2 weeks via mobile daily diary. Participants responded to daily notifications about decisions to drink or not and the contextual factors surrounding each event. The contextual factors included the situation (e.g., bar setting and pregaming) and incentives (e.g., alcohol, social, and mood enhancement).

RESULTS

Multilevel analyses revealed that incentives predicted both the initiation of drinking and the amount consumed. Event-based alcohol and mood incentives predicted the initiation of drinking, while alcohol, mood, and social/party incentives predicted how much was consumed at a specific event. However, context had a more complex association with drinking outcomes. Being in a bar, alone, or at a residence predicted decisions to initiate drinking, while being in a bar, pregaming situation, or other party situation with others who are drinking predicted how much a person drank.

CONCLUSIONS

The results highlight the importance of studying event-specific predictors of drinking decisions and the complex association between context/location and the type of drinking decision or outcome.

A Precautionary Tale: Individual Decision Making in the Time of COVID-19

Precaution taking is an important part of managing COVID-19 and has been since the start of the pandemic. Guided by the Health Belief Model, two studies conducted during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic aimed to identify possible individual difference predictors of precautionary actions. Study 1 was an online, cross-sectional study using 763 adults aged 20-79 years old. Study 2, a 30-day daily diary study, examined daily precautions in 261 persons over the age of 55 years old. Study 1 and Study 2 indicated that COVID-19 knowledge predicted precautionary behaviors. Multilevel models from Study 2 indicated that daily increases in in-person interactions and leaving home were associated with decreases in precautions, but increases in disruption to routine were associated with increases in precautions. In both studies, including concurrent and lagged models in Study 2, significant interactions between information seeking and perceived risk suggested higher information seeking was related to higher precautions for those who consider themselves low risk. Findings highlight the burden of daily precautions and potentially modifiable factors of engagement in precautions.

Daily weight stigma experiences, and disordered and intuitive eating behaviors among young adults with body dissatisfaction

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to extend naturalistic weight stigma research by examining the following aims among young adults with body dissatisfaction and varied body mass indices (BMIs): (1) characterize the frequency of individuals' daily weight stigma experiences, and contextual variations, over a 14-day period; (2) examine whether BMI moderated daily associations between weight stigma experiences relative to eating disorder symptoms and intuitive eating behaviors.

METHOD

Women (n = 174) and men (n = 24) completed a 14-day daily diary protocol. Concurrent and time-lagged multilevel models examined associations between daily weight stigma, and eating disorder and intuitive eating behaviors among women only due to the small subsample of men.

RESULTS

Over the 14-day assessment, 43.94% (n = 87) of participants experienced weight stigma. Weight stigma rates varied based on how, where, and by whom weight stigma was expressed, and via BMI. Further, among women, multiple concurrent within-person associations were identified between women's daily weight stigma experiences and daily eating disorder symptoms (skipping meals, binge eating, and body dissatisfaction). Time-lagged associations also showed that women's weight stigma experiences on a given day were associated with a greater likelihood that they would limit the amount of food they consumed the next day. These associations did not differ via women's BMIs.

DISCUSSION

Collectively, these findings provide important information on how weight stigma experiences unfold in daily life among individuals with body dissatisfaction and varied BMIs, and the proximal and more enduring impact of women's daily weight stigma experiences on their use of multiple adverse eating behaviors that can promote poor health.

PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE

The present findings provide important information on how, where, and by whom weight stigma experiences unfold in daily life among young adults with body dissatisfaction and varied body weights, as well as the proximal and more enduring impact of women's daily weight stigma experiences on their use of a variety of adverse eating behaviors that can promote poor health.

Longitudinal change in daily stress across 20 years of adulthood: Results from the national study of daily experiences

This study examined age-related patterns in exposure and affective reactivity to daily stressors across a 20-year time span among adults who were between 22 and 77 years old at their baseline interview. Longitudinal data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE) consisted of three bursts of eight consecutive nightly interviews of stress and affect. Analyses made use of all available data from a U.S. National sample of respondents who participated in any of the three NSDE bursts (N = 2,845; number of daily assessments = 33,688). Findings revealed increasing age-related benefits. Younger adults (< 30 years) reported the highest levels of stressor exposure and reactivity, but their stress profile improved with age. Over time, adults averaged an 11% reduction in the occurrence of stressor days, and the younger adults exhibited an even steeper decline (a 47% reduction) in their levels of stressor reactivity. For people in midlife and old age, stressor occurrence continued to decrease over time, yet among adults aged 54 years or older at baseline, stress reactivity remained stable across time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).