Eveningness is associated with lower daily positive affect (PA). The relationship between negative affect (NA) and chronotype, however, is less consistent in the literature. Eveningness may be... Show moreEveningness is associated with lower daily positive affect (PA). The relationship between negative affect (NA) and chronotype, however, is less consistent in the literature. Eveningness may be further characterized by increased social isolation, which could explain the associations between chronotype and PA/NA. In the present longitudinal study, we used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to investigate the associations of chronotype with daily PA, NA, and social contact in individuals with current and remitted major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls. As part of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), 279 participants (n = 49 depressed, n = 172 remitted, n = 58 controls) monitored daily PA, NA, and social contact (i.e., being alone vs. with others) for two weeks, five times per day. Overall, eveningness was associated with less social contact. This effect became nonsignificant, however, after accounting for sociodemographics (gender, age, education, living situation). Chronotype was not related to PA or NA. Less social contact was associated with lower PA and higher NA independent of chronotype. In conclusion, we could not replicate the finding of lower PA among evening types, but found social contact to associate with both daily PA and NA. Show less
Adolescents can perceive parenting quite differently than parents themselves and these discrepancies may relate to adolescent well-being. The current study aimed to explore how adolescents and... Show moreAdolescents can perceive parenting quite differently than parents themselves and these discrepancies may relate to adolescent well-being. The current study aimed to explore how adolescents and parents perceive daily parental warmth and criticism and whether these perceptions and discrepancies relate to adolescents' daily positive and negative affect. The sample consisted of 80 adolescents (M-age = 15.9; 63.8% girls) and 151 parents (M-age = 49.4; 52.3% women) who completed four ecological momentary assessments per day for 14 consecutive days. In addition to adolescents' perception, not parents' perception by itself, but the extent to which this perception differed or overlapped with adolescents' perception was related to adolescent affect. These findings highlight the importance of including combined adolescents' and parents' perspectives when studying dynamic parenting processes. Show less
The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) is a well-validated performance measure of trait emotional awareness (EA), which is associated with psychological and physical problems. EA is,... Show moreThe Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) is a well-validated performance measure of trait emotional awareness (EA), which is associated with psychological and physical problems. EA is, however, expected to vary over time and we aimed to adapt the LEAS to permit the measurement of EA in daily life as a function of momentary state. Twenty-five students completed 12 ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) of EA across 2 days. The correlation between the mean EMAs of EA and trait EA, and the change over time in EA, was also examined. Findings revealed a significant positive correlation between state and trait EA. The within-person reliability was substantial, suggesting that EMAs can reliably assess EA over time across individuals. Importantly, latent state-trait analysis showed that about 50% of EA variability was due to state variance whereas only 2% of EA variability was due to trait variance. Preliminary psychometric properties suggest that the developed method allows for the measurement of EA in daily life and supports the claim that EA can be measured using both hypothetical (as in the LEAS) and real-life (using EMAs) scenarios. Show less
Frequent or chronic reduction in heart rate variability (HRV) is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular disease, and psychological stress has been suggested to be a co-determinant of this reduction... Show moreFrequent or chronic reduction in heart rate variability (HRV) is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular disease, and psychological stress has been suggested to be a co-determinant of this reduction. Recently, we evaluated various methods to measure additional HRV reduction in everyday life and to relate these reductions to psychological stress. In the current paper, we thoroughly evaluate these methods and add two new methods in both newly acquired and reanalyzed datasets. All of these methods use a subset of 24 h worth of HRV and movement data to do so: either the first 10 min of every hour, the full 24 h, a combination of 10 min from three consecutive hours, a classification of level of movement, the data from day n to detect episodes in day n + 1, or a range of activities during lab calibration. The method that used the full 24 h worth of data detected the largest percentage of episodes of reduced additional HRV that matched with self-reported stress levels, making this method the most promising, while using the first 10 min from three consecutive hours was a good runner-up. Show less
Stress-related stimuli may be presented outside of awareness and may ultimately influence health by causing repetitive increases in physiological parameters, such as blood pressure (BP). In this... Show moreStress-related stimuli may be presented outside of awareness and may ultimately influence health by causing repetitive increases in physiological parameters, such as blood pressure (BP). In this study, we aimed to corroborate previous studies that demonstrated BP effects of subliminally presented stress-related stimuli. This would add evidence to the hypothesis that unconscious manifestations of stress can affect somatic health. Additionally, we suggest that these findings may be extended by measuring affective changes relating to these physiological changes, using measures for self-reported and implicit positive and negative affectivity. Using a repeated measures between-subject design, we presented either the prime word “angry” (n = 26) or “relax” (n = 28) subliminally (17 ms) for 100 trials to a student sample and measured systolic and diastolic BP, heart rate (HR), and affect. The “angry” prime, compared to the “relax” prime, did not affect any of the outcome variables. During the priming task, a higher level of implicit negative affect (INA) was associated with a lower systolic BP and diastolic BP. No association was found with HR. Self-reported affect and implicit positive affect were not related to the cardiovascular (CV) activity. In sum, anger and relax primes elicited similar CV activity patterns, but implicit measures of affect may provide a new method to examine the relationship between (unconscious) stress and health. Show less
Worry is an important mediator in the relation between stressors and health. This pilot study examined whether a smartphone-based in time worry-reduction training was feasible and improved... Show moreWorry is an important mediator in the relation between stressors and health. This pilot study examined whether a smartphone-based in time worry-reduction training was feasible and improved physiological health (i.e. increased heart rate variability [HRV]). A total of 26 high-worriers were randomised to an experimental or active-control condition (EC and CC respectively). Participants in both conditions registered emotions 5 times daily for a month. The EC additionally received worry-reduction training with mindfulness exercises. Primary outcomes were feasibility and HRV measured at baseline, after 2 weeks (halfway), and at 4 weeks (post-intervention). Both training conditions were feasible and well received. HRV increased in the EC and CC, but this increase did not differ between conditions. Preliminary findings suggest that both training conditions are feasible and might improve HRV, which is an important predictor of cardiovascular disease. This pilot study only provided preliminary evidence, but it laid the groundwork for future randomised controlled trials that ought to include more participants and a waitlist control group in order to get more definitive evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Show less
