Mindful Positive Reappraisal: a Daily Diary Randomized Controlled Trial

Sponsor

Ekaterina Pogrebtsova (Other)

Overall Status

Completed

CT.gov ID

NCT02680444

Collaborator

(none)

129

Enrollment

Arms

Duration (Months)

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

Brief and cost-effective interventions teaching emotion regulation techniques can be feasibly applied to promote mental health in University students. The tools of mindfulness (i.e., objective awareness and acceptance) and positive reappraisal (i.e., positive re-evaluation of negative events) can mutually benefit one another to promote well-being. The current study explored the effects of a randomly-assigned Mindful-Reappraisal intervention (n=36) compared to Reappraisal-Only (n=34) and an active control (n=36) on university students' daily affect over five days. Time by condition interactions were analyzed with planned contrasts and multilevel growth modelling.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Mental Health Wellness 1	Behavioral: Self-Administered Mindful-Reappraisal Exercise Behavioral: Self-Administered Reappraisal-Only Exercise Behavioral: Self-Administered Event Recall Exercise	N/A

Detailed Description

The University student lifestyle can lead to heightened stress, anxiety, and burnout. To promote mental health, brief and cost-effective interventions teaching beneficial emotion regulation techniques can not only counteract the negative but also foster positive functioning. The tools of mindfulness (i.e., objective awareness and acceptance) and positive reappraisal (i.e., positive re-evaluation of negative events) can mutually benefit one another to promote well-being. However, there is currently little research testing the viability of brief, self-administered interventions combining training of mindfulness and positive reappraisal. The current study explored the effects of a randomly-assigned Mindful-Reappraisal intervention (n=36) compared to Reappraisal-Only (n=34) and an active control (n=36) on university students' daily affect over five days. Time by condition interactions were analyzed with planned contrasts and multilevel growth modelling.

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Actual Enrollment :

129 participants

Allocation:

Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Masking:

Single (Participant)

Official Title:

Exploring Daily Affective Changes in University Students With a Mindful Positive Reappraisal Intervention: a Daily Diary Randomized Controlled Trial

Study Start Date :

Feb 1, 2012

Actual Primary Completion Date :

Oct 1, 2013

Actual Study Completion Date :

Oct 1, 2013

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Reappraisal-Only Intervention Participants were instructed to independently practice the Self-Administered Reappraisal-Only Exercise in the evening for five days. First, participants recalled a negative event from that day and then followed the positive reappraisal instructions available online. This involved thinking about how one could grow, learn or benefit from the negative event in any way possible.	Behavioral: Self-Administered Reappraisal-Only Exercise A reappraisal of daily negative events by examining the positive aspects.
Experimental: Mindful-Reappraisal Intervention Participants were instructed to independently practice the Self-Administered Mindful-Reappraisal Exercise in the evening for five days. First, participants recalled a negative event from that day and then followed the Mindful-Reappraisal instructions available online. This involved thinking about the negative event in an objective, non-judgmental way, then following the Reappraisal-Only instructions, and closing off with a brief mindfulness breathing technique.	Behavioral: Self-Administered Mindful-Reappraisal Exercise Combining the practice of mindful acceptance of negative events combined with a reappraisal of the event by examining its positive aspects.
Active Comparator: Event Recall Active Control Participants were instructed to independently practice the Self-Administered Event Recall Exercise in the evening for five days. In this condition, participants were only instructed to recall a negative event from that day with no reappraisal exercise.	Behavioral: Self-Administered Event Recall Exercise Recall a negative event that took place that day.

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: Reappraisal-Only Intervention

Participants were instructed to independently practice the Self-Administered Reappraisal-Only Exercise in the evening for five days. First, participants recalled a negative event from that day and then followed the positive reappraisal instructions available online. This involved thinking about how one could grow, learn or benefit from the negative event in any way possible.

Behavioral: Self-Administered Reappraisal-Only Exercise

A reappraisal of daily negative events by examining the positive aspects.

Experimental: Mindful-Reappraisal Intervention

Participants were instructed to independently practice the Self-Administered Mindful-Reappraisal Exercise in the evening for five days. First, participants recalled a negative event from that day and then followed the Mindful-Reappraisal instructions available online. This involved thinking about the negative event in an objective, non-judgmental way, then following the Reappraisal-Only instructions, and closing off with a brief mindfulness breathing technique.

Behavioral: Self-Administered Mindful-Reappraisal Exercise

Combining the practice of mindful acceptance of negative events combined with a reappraisal of the event by examining its positive aspects.

Active Comparator: Event Recall Active Control

Participants were instructed to independently practice the Self-Administered Event Recall Exercise in the evening for five days. In this condition, participants were only instructed to recall a negative event from that day with no reappraisal exercise.

Behavioral: Self-Administered Event Recall Exercise

Recall a negative event that took place that day.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Change in Daily Affect [Day 1 - Day 5 of the intervention practice days]
Daily affect was measured with two scales (i.e., positive affect and negative affect) and assessed participants' general affect over the past 24 hours.

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

N/A and Older

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

Undergraduate students

Exclusion Criteria:

Not undergraduate students

Contacts and Locations

Locations

No locations specified.

Sponsors and Collaborators

Ekaterina Pogrebtsova

Investigators

Principal Investigator: M. Gloria Gonzalez-Morales, University of Guelph

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

Responsible Party:

Ekaterina Pogrebtsova, Graduate Researcher, University of Guelph

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:

NCT02680444

Other Study ID Numbers:

11NV038

First Posted:

Feb 11, 2016

Last Update Posted:

Feb 11, 2016

Last Verified:

Feb 1, 2016

Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:

Plan to Share IPD:

Keywords provided by Ekaterina Pogrebtsova, Graduate Researcher, University of Guelph

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Feb 11, 2016