Applied psychology. Health and well-being最新文献

Research shows that skills for improving Psychological Well-Being (PWB) may be learned through PWB interventions; however, the dynamic mechanisms underlying this learning process are not well understood. Using an Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI) design, we conducted an 8-week Randomized Controlled Trial (N = 160; aged 18–22 years), implemented in a mobile Health (mHealth) platform to characterize these dynamical mechanisms. College-attending early adults were randomized to three groups: an active control group (N = 55); an intervention group (N = 51) with positive practices intervention; and a second intervention group (N = 54) with positive practices and meditation intervention. The mHealth implementation allowed us to introduce the interventions in participants' daily lives while also assessing their PWB (in terms of positive emotions and relationship quality) several times a day. We used a Bayesian process model to analyze changes in PWB in terms of the underlying dynamical characteristics of change. Findings suggested that the mobile assessment tool itself may have longitudinally improved college-attending early adults' PWB, as evidenced by instances of directional changes in dynamic characteristics (increased within-person mean levels, decreased intra-individual variability, and increased regulation) of PWB measures. Moderation analysis also revealed that people who were low on negative affect improved the most in terms of their mean levels of positive emotions and relationship quality.

While there is consistent evidence that the symptoms reported by people who experience Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance attributed to Electromagnetic Fields (IEI-EMF) are closely associated with a nocebo effect, and that alarmist media reports may contribute to this nocebo effect, some methodological criticisms remain to be resolved. This study aimed to replicate previous findings and determine whether viewing an alarmist media report and being openly exposed to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) could induce a salivary cortisol response. A total of 144 participants were randomly assigned to watch either an alarmist or control video before completing an open-label provocation trial where they were either exposed or not exposed to RF-EMF. Personality factors, RF-EMF risk perception (pre- and post-video), symptoms and salivary cortisol were assessed. Consistent with previous studies, participants who were aware that they were being exposed had increased symptoms compared to participants who were aware they were not being exposed. However, the current study failed to replicate an effect of viewing an alarmist media report and being openly exposed to RF-EMF on symptoms and failed to identify an effect on salivary cortisol. This suggests that awareness and belief of exposure play a more important role in symptom perception than underlying physiological processes.

Previous research has shown that music robots may reshape people's perceptions of music and health-related behaviors. We investigated how the perceived identity of the music performers (humans or robots) influenced people's music-induced mental imagery and modulated the effect of music on food choices. Across three experiments, participants were led to believe that the music they heard was performed either by humans or robots. In Experiment 1, we assessed the content of music-induced mental imagery. In Experiment 2, we examined participants' food choices while they were listening to nature- or urban-related music. In Experiment 3, we directly manipulated music-induced mental imagery by guiding participants toward nature- or urban-related imagery during the food choice task. The results revealed that participants who believed the music was performed by humans chose vegetable-forward meals more frequently when their music-induced imagery was nature-related rather than urban-related. However, this effect was less pronounced when they believed the music was performed by robots, presumably due to the reduced accuracy of their mental imagery. Collectively, these findings suggest that beliefs about the music performers influence both aesthetic perceptions and food-related behaviors during music listening, which provide insights into using human-robot musical interactions to promote healthier behaviors.

This study assessed the impact of prenatal High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and educational (EDU) interventions on depression symptoms, psychological well-being, and health among postpartum women. Fifty-three Caucasian women in uncomplicated singleton pregnancies were divided into HIIT (n = 34) and EDU (n = 19) groups. Depression symptoms were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Psychological well-being and mental and physical health were assessed using the Flourishing Scale and SF-12 at three time points: before and after an 8-week intervention during pregnancy, and five months postpartum. There were no between-group differences in all three assessments, both in the severity of depression symptoms, psychological well-being, as well as physical and mental health. Both groups showed an increase in postpartum scores for depressive symptoms, although mean scores were still relatively low. A postpartum decline in well-being and mental health indicators was significant only in the EDU group. Both interventions had similar effects on depressive symptoms and well-being. Prenatal HIIT may have the potential to maintain postpartum mental health, but this requires further exploration.

Study Objectives: The coding of semistructured interview transcripts is a critical step for thematic analysis of qualitative data. However, the coding process is often labor-intensive and time-consuming. The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) presents new opportunities to enhance the efficiency of qualitative coding. This study proposed a computational pipeline using GenAI to automatically extract themes from interview transcripts. Methods: Using transcripts from interviews conducted with maternity care providers in South Carolina, we leveraged ChatGPT for inductive coding to generate codes from interview transcripts without a predetermined coding scheme. Structured prompts were designed to instruct ChatGPT to generate and summarize codes. The performance of GenAI was evaluated by comparing the AI-generated codes with those generated manually. Results: GenAI demonstrated promise in detecting and summarizing codes from interview transcripts. ChatGPT exhibited an overall accuracy exceeding 80% in inductive coding. More impressively, GenAI reduced the time required for coding by 81%. Discussion: GenAI models are capable of efficiently processing language datasets and performing multi-level semantic identification. However, challenges such as inaccuracy, systematic biases, and privacy concerns must be acknowledged and addressed. Future research should focus on refining these models to enhance reliability and address inherent limitations associated with their application in qualitative research.

Inadequate physical activity poses significant health threats to young people. Adolescents are at a developmental stage characterized by heightened impulsivity, which may limit the explanatory power of rational behavior theories in this population. This study developed an integrated model to explain adolescents' physical activity while examining the mechanism of peer influence from a dual-process perspective. The hypothetical model integrated the Theory of Planned Behavior with constructs from social, reactive, and habit theories and was tested using a two-wave prospective correlational survey design. Participants (n = 638) completed a baseline questionnaire assessing all psychological constructs. One week later, participants reported their time spent in physical activity over the past week in a follow-up questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate model fit and predictive utility. The model explained 14.6%, 7.1%, and 18.4% of the variances in averaged overall, weekday, and weekend physical activity levels, respectively. The latent variable of automaticity, representing impulsive processing, significantly explained adolescents' physical activity, while the reflective pathway through intention was not statistically significant. In addition, physical activity was statistically significantly explained by prototype favorability and prototype similarity via the impulsive pathway. Combining strategies to modify peer influence and impulsive processing is suggested for promoting adolescents' physical activity.

This study aimed to investigate the associations among life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and common comorbid disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. This combined cross-sectional and longitudinal study pooled national-level data from the 2021 Health and Retirement Study Perspectives on the Pandemic in the United States and the Big Data Drove Mental Health study in China. A total of 2,036 participants were included in this cross-sectional study conducted from July 2020 to August 2022. In this longitudinal prospective study, 4,503 participants were eligible for participation from January 2018 to June 2022. Life satisfaction was measured using five items from the Satisfaction with Life Scale. In a cross-sectional study, life satisfaction was found to be negatively associated with depressive symptoms, and depressive symptoms were comorbid with loneliness, anxiety, and dependency. The causal association between life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and depressive symptoms comorbid with disorders was confirmed in a longitudinal prospective study. Low levels of life satisfaction increased the prevalence of comorbid disorders by 42.9% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Life satisfaction has played an important role during the COVID-19 pandemic and can be an effective strategy for depressive symptoms and depressive symptoms comorbid with disorder interventions among older adults.

Studies show that foods perceived as healthier are often also seen as more sustainable, suggesting a ‘healthy = sustainable’ heuristic. However, the direction of this effect remains unclear. This study aims to investigate (1) whether perceived healthiness influences perceived sustainability or whether the reverse effect occurs and (2) whether inter-individual differences, such as health interest, moderate these effects.

In an online study, participants (n = 712) were shown pictures of foods with high or low healthiness indices and asked to rate their sustainability. Conversely, they were also shown pictures of foods with high or low sustainability indices and asked to rate their healthiness. Additionally, participants' interest in health and sustainability and their belief in a relationship between the healthiness and sustainability of foods were measured. Exploratory analyses included label credibility as a control variable.

Foods with a higher healthiness index were perceived as more sustainable (effect size: δ = 0.39; [CI: 0.36; 0.41]). Similarly, higher sustainability indices led to higher healthiness ratings (effect size: δ = 0.22; [CI: 0.20; 0.24]). Moderating effects of interests were small and dependent on whether label credibility was accounted for.

The results support the assumption of a ‘healthy = sustainable’ heuristic, indicating that the effect is bidirectional. The implications for food labelling are discussed.

Despite growing evidence linking urban landscapes to human affect, there remains limited understanding of which environmental aspects of landscapes contribute to positive affect and how they exert their influence. Moreover, the role and significance of urban nightscapes have been largely underexplored. To investigate the affective connections between nighttime environments and individuals, a psychometric tool—the Nightscape Affect Index (NAI)—was designed, developed, and validated. The NAI was systematically assessed for its psychometric properties, including reliability, factor structure, and subsequent retest validation. Comprising three subscales—nightscape attraction, adaptation, and attachment—the NAI demonstrated strong internal consistency and excellent reliability. The scale also provided robust evidence for convergent, discriminant, and structural validity. We discuss how the NAI can be applied in both research and practice to enhance our understanding of the relationship between urban nightscapes and public affective responses, as well as its potential in evaluating the effectiveness of interventions and strategies to reduce light pollution.