Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is associated with poorer emotional wellbeing and worse prognosis of chronic physical health and pain conditions (CPHPCs). Our current understanding of IU in CPHPCs is siloed within the literature on specific CPHPCs. However, IU is consistently identified as a risk factor for anxiety and depressive disorders. In this exploratory study, we used a mixed methods design to better understand the role of IU and anxiety in people's (n = 139) lived experiences of their CPHPCs and how they respond to uncertainty across health and everyday contexts. Higher acceptance of illness and perceived social support were related to lower IU and anxiety among people with CPHPCs. Higher IU and anxiety were also related to lower scores on many domains of quality of life. Our reflexive thematic analysis resulted in four primary themes: 1) distressing contexts characterized by uncertainty are not limited to health scenarios and require management in diverse ways; 2) interference of CPHPC affects multiple domains of life beyond physical health; 3) navigating uncertainty for a chronic period changes coping abilities and identity development; and 4) responsivity to uncertainty is a multifaceted cognitive-behavioural and emotional-physiological response that hinders or promotes coping. IU plays an important contextual role in the lives of those with CPHPCs and holds potential as a transdiagnostic target for early prevention and intervention. Therapeutic approaches that acknowledge the role of health-related cues and cultivate comfort with uncertainty may provide a more supportive trajectory for those with CPHPCs.
There is a growing use of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies in psychosis research and intervention. Validated VR simulations of psychotic-like experience have the potential to allow controlled manipulation of stimuli, reproducibility, and to isolate mechanisms of change in an ethical research framework. Although initial developments appear to be safe, qualitative reporting of participants' experiences of VR simulated psychotic-like experiences is lacking. This paper proposes and demonstrates an ethically grounded framework for evaluating the acceptability and validity of an immersive VR experience that simulates auditory hallucinations (VR-sAH) based upon the prototypical content of auditory hallucinations described by people with lived experience. Sixty-eight non-clinical participants undertook an experimental trial involving VR-sAH. Validity of the VR-sAH was assessed by combined assessment of qualitative reports and psychophysiological responses. Non-acceptability was operationalised as drop-outs, indications of distress during the experiment, and self-reported Subjective Units of Distress post-experiment. Following the experiment, a subset of participants (n = 29) undertook semi-structured interviews guided by the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability. Results indicated that the VR-sAH produced a believable and affectively salient analogue of auditory hallucinatory experiences. Statistically significant reductions in heart rate variability validated participants' self-reported embodied immersion in the VR-sAH. Semi-structured interviews and quantitative acceptability criteria indicated that the VR-sAH was an acceptable research tool. However, this sentiment was subject to important caveats to consider: including participants with psychosis and other mental health issues, and the importance of integrity and transparency on the part of the researcher team. Although VR-sAHs do not replicate the full phenomenology of clinical auditory hallucinations, they may provide ethically manageable and experimentally controllable analogues of perceptual and cognitive processes relevant to psychosis research, particularly during early-stage development in non-clinical populations.
The increasing reliance on online platforms for health information establishes the need to understand people's engagement and attitude towards Online Health Information Seeking (OHIS). The current study aims to develop and validate a comprehensive multidimensional Online Health Information Seeking Scale (OHISS). Items were generated using both inductive and deductive approaches, followed by multiple content and face validity screenings that incorporated qualitative and quantitative evaluations. Data were collected in two stages: Study 1 (N=364) for item development and identifying the preliminary factor structure using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Study 2 (N=236) for validating the obtained factor structure using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Following the descriptive analysis, EFA using Promax rotation yielded a 20-item scale comprising three dimensions: Perceived Benefits and Engagement (11 items), Perceived Risks (6 items), and Social Influences on OHIS (3 items), collectively accounting for 51.1% of the total variance. This three-factor structure was subsequently confirmed through CFA with DWLS estimator (χ²(167)=271.55, χ²/df=1.63, CFI=0.986, TLI=0.984, RMSEA=0.052, SRMR=0.071, and GFI=0.978). The scale has good internal consistency as demonstrated by Cronbach's alpha (α=.833), McDonald's omega (⍵=.824), Spearman brown split-half (rxx=.886), Guttman's lambda (λ=.885) and test-retest (ICC2,1=.728) coefficient. Construct validity was supported by significant correlations with the Attitude towards Online Health Information and Information-Seeking subscales, as well as Average Variance explained, Composite Reliability, and the Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio. The scale demonstrated measurement invariance across male and female groups. The results conclude that the OHISS is a psychometrically standardized measure. The OHISS may be used by health practitioners to assess individuals' attitudes toward online health information, identify barriers in accessing digital health content, and support both health-related communication and research.
The prevalence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia is rapidly increasing worldwide, profoundly impacting older adults' quality of life and presenting significant challenges to healthcare systems. The heterogeneity of pathologies, the lack of customizable and available resources, and the scarcity of healthcare professionals are recurrent issues in aged care facilities. This study aimed to validate Exercogs®, a newly integrated portable exergaming platform designed to enhance cognitive function in older adults within elderly care facilities. We conducted two experiments: 1) a feasibility study with 12 healthcare professionals and 30 older adults to assess technology acceptance and usability, and 2) a single-arm pre-post study involving 204 seniors in aged care facilities to explore the potential multidimensional effects of the four Exercogs® (cognitive, affective, social, functional, and quality of life). The intervention was implemented over 12 weeks, with two weekly sessions. The intervention was well-received, with high-acceptance among older adults and healthcare professionals. Adherence was notably high (91.68%) with strong interest in continued use. Significant improvements were observed across multiple domains commonly impacted by aging, including cognition, mood, perceived loneliness, and quality of life, reflecting positive outcomes across all evaluated dimensions. Preliminary results suggest that the Exercogs® is a promising tool to support healthcare professionals in aged care facilities. Future research should include a control group and randomized clinical trials to further validate these findings.
Anecdotal observations suggest that self-diagnoses and desired psychiatric diagnoses may be increasing among emerging adults, yet systematic evidence from clinical practice is scarce. This mixed-methods study surveyed 93 Austrian clinical psychologists (CPs) regarding their experiences with these phenomena in the context of conducting psychological assessments. CPs rated the frequency of both self-diagnoses and desired diagnoses as significantly higher than the neutral scale midpoint ("no change"), with large effect sizes (both p < .001). ADHD and ASD were most frequently identified as self-diagnosed or desired. Patients presenting with such expectations were commonly described as female, highly educated, and strongly engaged in online activities. CPs, many of whom indicated that they actively inquire about patients' motives when suspecting a desired diagnosis, explained such pursuits mainly in terms of relief from guilt, identity affirmation, and social recognition, while treatment access was cited less often. Qualitative analyses highlighted three recurring themes: (1) the impact of self- and desired diagnoses on the course of the assessment itself, including diagnosis-driven responding and limited openness to collaborative exploration; (2) strong reactions to diagnostic discrepancies, such as emotional distress, rejection of outcomes, criticism of clinicians, or "diagnosis shopping"; and (3) increased demands on clinical practice, particularly extended assessment time and the challenges of feedback sessions where unexpected outcomes must be communicated with clarity and empathy. These dynamics are discussed in relation to online mental health cultures and the symbolic appeal of neurodivergence, underscoring how digital environments shape both the spread of self-diagnosis and the pursuit of professional confirmation.
Previous studies show positive results when acceptance and commitment therapy is used in the treatment of cancer patients. To establish the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy in the treatment of common symptoms in cancer patients using trials with an adequate level of control. Sixty-nine patients affected by different types of cancer (breast, gynecologic, lung, colorectal and ovarian) were recruited and randomly assigned to three experimental conditions defined as follows: the ACT group, the ACT+ACT-ON group, and the waitlist group. Data relating to psychological inflexibility, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety and depression, post-traumatic growth as well as quality of life were collected before (T0) and at the end of the intervention (T1). Results showed better outcomes for the two intervention groups, but significant differences were only observed with regard to fatigue (ω2 = .074), where the ACT group obtained lower scores. This group also showed higher scores for post-traumatic growth (ω2 = .066). Similarly, in the quality-of-life subscales, results indicate significantly higher scores for physical role (ω2 = .062) and cognitive function (ω2 = .087), and lower scores for fatigue (ω2 = .118) than in the waitlist group. Preliminary results suggest that acceptance and commitment therapy is effective in improving relevant aspects such as fatigue, post-traumatic growth and key aspects of quality of life in cancer patients. However, the benefits of using the mobile application need to be confirmed.
Sleep health is a significant risk factor for incident depression. Much less is known about the impact of sleep health on the course of depressive symptoms in those who have already developed the disorder. The present study used longitudinal data of individuals with a depression diagnosis from the UK Biobank to analyse sleep health as a potential predictor for the course of depressive symptoms. The hypothesis was that better sleep health would predict a milder course of depressed mood and loss of interest. Self-reported insomnia symptoms, sleep duration, chronotype and daytime sleepiness were assessed as predictors at baseline. Depressive symptoms were self-reported and assessed at baseline and at follow-up, 8.76 ± 3.00 years after the baseline assessment. Linear regression models were calculated for each outcome variable. The study comprised 4817 participants. Frequent insomnia symptoms and daytime sleepiness predicted a worse course of depressed mood (insomnia: β = 0.31 ± 0.10, p = 0.002; daytime sleepiness: β = 0.45 ± 0.11, p < 0.001) and loss of interest (insomnia: β = 0.30 ± 0.11, p = 0.005; daytime sleepiness: β = 0.32 ± 0.11, p = 0.003). On the contrary, early chronotype (β = -0.27 ± 0.10, p = 0.008) predicted a milder course of loss of interest. Our findings suggest that sleep health variables have a significant impact on the course of depressive symptoms in a sample with clinically diagnosed depression. Future research may investigate the add-on effects of sleep health improvements in patients with depression receiving guideline-concordant treatment.
Early signs of autism often emerge through distinct developmental pathways, particularly in communication, social interaction, and play. While naturalistic parent-child interactions during free play are ideal for observing spontaneous social behaviors, few autism studies have adopted this ecological and developmental approach. To address this gap, we used a fine-grained microanalytic method to examine motor, gestural, and vocal behaviors in young children, integrating machine learning to explore how combinations of these traits distinguish early autistic neurodivergence. We analyzed video recordings of 58 autistic and non-autistic children (aged 13-40 months) engaged in naturalistic parent-child play. A frame-by-frame micro-coding scheme was applied to capture actions, gestures, speech, and their multimodal integration. Clear differences emerged between neurotypical (NT) and autistic (ASC) children. NT children displayed more gestures, particularly deictic and conventional-interactive, greater gesture-gaze coordination, more functional object play, and more frequent multi-word utterances. In contrast, ASC children showed fewer deictic and conventional-interactive gestures and greater use of instrumental gestures, reduced gesture-gaze coordination, a higher reliance on vocalizations rather than words, and increased object manipulation compared to functional play. Feature selection using ANOVA F-tests identified a core set of key predictors most frequently and independently selected across folds of cross-validation: Alternate Gaze, Reaching, and Instrumental Gesture. Higher values of Alternate Gaze were associated with NT classification, while elevated frequencies of Reaching and Instrumental Gestures were linked to ASC classification. A logistic regression classifier trained on these features achieved over 85% accuracy in distinguishing the two groups. These findings underscore the value of an ecologically valid, and developmentally informed approach to identifying early behavioral markers of autism, supporting earlier recognition and the design of more personalized, strengths-based interventions.
Adolescents' sleep is intertwined with their well-being and daily life experiences. Sleep health is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct encompassing complementary components, including subjective dimensions (e.g., perceived sleep quality and sleep problems, assessed via self-reports) and quantifiable aspects (e.g., sleep duration and sleep efficiency, assessed via actigraphy). During adolescence, poor sleep health is increasingly recognized as a public health concern. However, there is a lack of evidence on how adolescents' interactions in contemporary societies, characterized by increasing cultural diversity, are intertwined with sleep health. Thus, this study investigated the reciprocal longitudinal associations between sleep health, considering subjective dimensions (i.e., sleep problems) and quantifiable aspects (i.e., sleep efficiency and duration), and the intercultural interactions of adolescents (quantity and quality) in two different life contexts (i.e., school and leisure time). A total sample of 1470 adolescents living in North-Eastern Italy (M age = 15.71, SD = 1.22, 47.58% females, 20.58% with a migrant background) wore an actigraph for one week and completed questionnaires about intercultural interactions and sleep health four times across one year. Results of Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel models showed that negative interactions were consistently associated with lower subjective sleep health, lower sleep efficiency, and shorter sleep duration. Conversely, positive intercultural interactions were positively associated with better sleep efficiency, although these effects were mainly observed at the between-person level. These findings underscore the nuanced interplay between the quality of intercultural interactions and both the subjective and objective indicators of sleep health. These findings allow for a conceptualization of adolescents' sleep as a socially embedded phenomenon shaped by the cultural contexts in which young people live.
While virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used across health-related domains to improve cognitive abilities, mental health, and motor function, the mechanisms underlying the transfer of skills learned in VR to real-world performance (the ultimate objective of health interventions) remain largely unknown. This study investigated the effectiveness of VR training in transferring spatial and visual memory skills to real-world performance using an everyday task consisting on navigating and locating items in a grocery-store aisle, a complex instrumental activity of daily living. Forty-seven healthy adults were randomly assigned to train either in a virtual replica of the aisle or directly in the physical setting. Participants trained in VR subsequently demonstrated significantly improved real-world task performance, exhibiting shorter task completion times and reduced travel distances compared to those performing the task for the first time. However, while skill transfer from VR to real-world tasks was confirmed, performance improvements in task completion time were superior following direct real-world training, consistent with the principle of encoding specificity. Consequently, although the results provide robust evidence supporting VR as a valuable training tool for improving skills relevant to daily activities and indicate the utility of VR as a preparatory training stage, precise context-dependent tasks might necessitate direct physical practice for maximum efficacy.
The experiences of shame and stress are associated with social anxiety disorder (SAD). In the present study, we examined a sample of 111 participants (54 with SAD and 57 without SAD) who completed a daily diary measuring stress and shame over the course of 21 days. We modelled the temporal changes in shame and stress using linear and quadratic models as well as sinusoidal models. We found sinusoidal models to be superior to linear and quadratic ones in capturing the temporal dynamics of stress and shame. Specifically, linear models explained 9.91 % and 11.69 % of the changes in shame and stress over time (respectively), whereas sinusoidal models explained 35.76 % and 39.10 % of the changes in shame and stress over time (respectively). The differences in explained variances were statistically significant for both shame and stress. In addition, we examined whether the parameters of the best-fitting sinusoidal models were associated with levels of social anxiety. As expected, we found that the vertical offset parameters (i.e., average levels) of both shame and stress were significantly and positively associated with social anxiety. In addition, we found that fluctuations (sine wave amplitudes) in shame were positively associated with social anxiety whereas fluctuations in stress were negatively associated with social anxiety. Our findings demonstrate that sinusoidal waves can model temporal changes in emotions successfully. Moreover, sine wave parameters of shame and stress can be markers of social anxiety and can have implications for diagnosis and treatment.
To investigate the effects of repetitive bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on sleep of latency (SOL) and resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) in individuals. Twenty-eight young adults, aged 21-25 years, with a mean of 22.96 ± 0.87 years, were recruited and randomly grouped into an experimental group(13 people) and a control group (15 people). Subjects in the experimental group received five awake-phase resting-state tDCS over a one-week period, with anodes placed bilaterally in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (F3, F4) and cathode in the left upper arm. The current intensity was 1.5 mA, and the stimulation time was 15 min. The control subjects received pseudo-stimulation, with only the beginning and end of the stimulation for 30 s to receive a gradual rise and fall of the current. The intermediate current intensity was 0 mA, and the rest of the treatment parameters and processes were the same as those in the experimental group. All subjects filled out a sleep diary every day during the experiment. Compared with the pre-intervention period, in the subjective scale results, the sleep of latency factor score in the subjective sleep quality assessment scores of the subjects in the experimental group was significantly lower (p = 0.001); in the EEG results, the theta band power in the midline regions of the brains of the subjects in the experimental group (especially in the central Cz location and the prefrontal cortex) was significantly elevated, whereas the control group did not show such a difference. Transcranial direct current stimulation can significantly reduce the sleep of latency of individuals and enhance theta band power to promote changes in the brain from wakefulness to drowsiness, thus enhancing sleep quality. This enhancement may be due to enhancement of inhibitory executive function. In the future, neuromodulation technology is expected to be applied to insomnia patients, especially those whose main symptom is difficulty falling asleep.
Adolescents with overweight/obesity have an elevated risk of mental health and behavioral difficulties. Exercise has been shown to impart psychological benefits to these individuals; however, whether the effects of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) delivery differ between weekdays and weekends is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of weekday and weekend MVPA at age 14 on internalizing and externalizing problems at age 17 among adolescents with overweight/obesity. We analyzed data from two assessment waves of the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MSC): MCS6 (2015-2016; age ∼14) and MCS7 (2018-2019; age ∼17). Data were restricted to adolescents classified as overweight/obesity at MCS6 using the UK90 thresholds. Weekday and weekend MVPA were measured at age 14 using the wrist-worn GENEActiv accelerometer, including one pre-specified weekday and one weekend day. Outcomes at age 17 were parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) internalizing (emotional + peer problems) and externalizing (conduct + hyperactivity/inattention) composites. We estimated average treatment effects (ATEs) and conditional average treatment effect (CATEs, heterogeneous effects) using a causal forest framework (EconML) and adjusted for pre-exposure covariates (age, sex, body mass index, ethnicity, cognitive decision-making, household income, parental education, and parental mental health). Missing data were treated via K-Nearest Neighbors imputation. The analytic sample included 1,238 adolescents (mean age 14.25 years). Mean MVPA was higher on weekdays than weekends (135.74 ± 62.08 vs 113.80 ± 64.37 min/day). Covariate-adjusted average treatment effects (ATEs; per 1 min/day MVPA) were small and not statistically significant for internalizing or externalizing problems. Weekday MVPA ATEs were -0.0025 (95% CI -0.0062 to 0.0012) for internalizing and 0.0003 (-0.0027 to 0.0033) for externalizing; weekend MVPA ATEs were -0.0008 (-0.0051 to 0.0035) and 0.0005 (-0.0026 to 0.0037), respectively. Heterogeneity was evident only for weekday MVPA effects on internalizing (22.98% with significant individual effects), with height as the strongest moderator (β = 0.0002; p < 0.001; R² = 0.519) and more negative CATEs among shorter adolescents (Q1 -0.004994 vs Q4 -0.001903; ANOVA F = 106.741, p < 0.001). In adolescents with overweight/obesity, estimated average effects of weekday and weekend MVPA at the age of 14 on parent-reported internalizing and externalizing problems at age 17 were close to zero under a selection-on-observables framework. Any potential benefits may be subgroup-specific and context-dependent; the observed weekday-specific heterogeneity warrants replication with more reliable exposure measurement and a richer set of contextual covariates.
Previous theoretical and empirical research has highlighted the predictive utility of different physiological reactivity and recovery patterns during acute stress for long-term mental health outcomes. Timely identification of mental health risk can be achieved by integrating these multiple temporal responses to characterize adaptive, dynamic resilience factors and then generating a resilience index. This study aimed to generate a resilience index to characterize the adaptive and dynamic resilient physiological responses and identify the predictors of these responses from a wide array of candidate predictors of psychological resilience in previous studies. Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used to induce acute stress responses in a sample of 248 participants (56.0 % female). Principal component analyses (PCA) were employed to integrate cortisol and cardiovascular responses to the TSST. The resilience index, comprising of the PCA reactivity and recovery scores, was related to better mental health. Using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression, 25 of the 48 predictors were identified as critical ones, including baseline physiological activity, coping and emotion regulation strategies (e.g., positive reappraisal and instrumental support seeking), positive affective style and emotional reactivity, cognitive functions (e.g., interference inhibition), and demographic factors (e.g., minor medical conditions) (absolute magnitude of coefficients=0.402-3.865). These findings highlighted the importance of considering stress reactivity and recovery and physiological stress responses to understand the resilience factors, offering significant insight into developing wearable cognitive behavioral adjustment protocols to promote recovery from stress and hence mental well-being.
Elevated error-related brain potentials such as the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) have been discussed as neural markers of error sensitivity and are thought to reflect increased risk for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Consequently, targeting error sensitivity with precise interventions has been found a promising avenue of recent mechanism-based research aiming to reduce this risk. In this preregistered, randomized-controlled trial, we tested the efficacy of a one-week, online intervention designed to reduce error sensitivity. A sample of 237 individuals was randomly assigned to either the intervention or a waitlist control group. Participants completed self-report measures of error sensitivity as well as worry, obsessive-compulsive, and depressive symptoms at pre- and post-intervention, and at an eight-week follow-up. Additionally, neural measures (ERN and Pe) were assessed in a subsample of 69 participants before and after the intervention. Intent-to-treat analyses revealed a medium-sized reduction of self-reported error sensitivity and worry symptoms in the intervention group, with effects persisting at follow-up. Moreover, greater baseline severity and higher intervention adherence were associated with larger reductions of self-reported error sensitivity. In the subsample, no evidence was found for an ERN reduction. However, a reduction in the Pe was observed, indicating diminished error significance and decreased allocation of cognitive resources to erroneous actions. These results suggest that the online intervention reduces both self-reported and neural error sensitivity (Pe but not ERN), offering a low‑threshold, easily disseminable approach with promise as an early prevention tool and as an adjunct to established cognitive‑behavioral treatments.
Children with overweight or obesity are at elevated risk for later-life mental health challenges, but the role of accelerometer-derived waking movement behaviors remains uncertain. Thus, we examined longitudinal associations of sedentary behavior (SB), light-intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) at age 7 with later-life internalizing and externalizing problems. We used data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, focusing on children with overweight or obesity at age 7 who had valid accelerometer data and a complete set of predefined analytic variables (N = 858). Exposures were average daily minutes of SB, LPA, and MVPA. Outcomes were parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-based internalizing and externalizing problems scores at ages 11 and 14. A generalized random forests approach was used to estimate average treatment effects (ATEs) and conditional average treatment effects (CATEs), adjusted for relevant demographic, socioeconomic, body mass index, parental distress, baseline mental health, and co-occurring movement intensities; day-of-week activity-pattern variables were used as exploratory candidate moderators. Estimated ATEs were small. After applying the Benjamini-Hochberg false-discovery-rate (FDR) correction across the 12 primary exposure-outcome tests, only the association between higher SB and lower internalizing problems at age 11 remained statistically significant (ATE = -0.013 SDQ points per additional min/day; 95% CI, -0.019 to -0.007; q < 0.001). No other pathway survived FDR correction, and other nominal or directionally suggestive estimates were interpreted as exploratory. CATE summaries and calibration tests provided limited evidence of reproducible heterogeneity. Accelerometer-derived waking movement behaviors at age 7 were associated with later SDQ problems scores in small and outcome-specific ways among children with overweight or obesity. Since the study is based on observational data and relies on measured-confounder assumptions, the findings should be interpreted cautiously, and as model-based estimates rather than definitive causal evidence.
Stress increased markedly in recent years, highlighting the need for effective and accessible relaxation strategies. Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged as a promising intervention. While most prior VR studies were conducted under controlled conditions, the present study explored the acceptability and feasibility of VR as a relaxation tool in naturalistic settings. Additionally, it explored the effects on the perceived level of relaxation and mood, and whether heart rate (HR) data obtained from consumer-grade wearables correlated with changes in psychological state. The study involved 160 participants, including healthcare and research professionals, patients, and attendants in healthcare organizations. VR relaxation was tested using both smartphone-based and standalone VR applications in clinical and non-clinical studies. Changes in mood and relaxation were explored using validated instruments, while acceptability and feasibility were assessed through open-ended questions. Qualitative feedback was predominantly positive, with participants willing to reuse and recommend the VR application. VR relaxation was perceived as an effective means of environmental escape, offering immersive natural settings complemented by guided exercises, ambient sounds, and voice instructions. Wearable devices generally recorded HR reductions during VR sessions; however, these exploratory physiological changes did not significantly correlate with subjective relaxation levels. Participants reported increased relaxation (VAS scores), reduced muscle tension, fewer cardiovascular symptoms of stress (slower breathing and HR), and greater overall physical calmness. Regarding mood, most participants experienced fewer negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, guilt, sadness) following VR exposure, although positive affect (e.g., enthusiasm, confidence) remained unchanged according to PANAS. POMS scores indicated reductions in tension after VR sessions.
Hope and despair are often conceptualized as opposing emotional responses following adversity. While traditionally considered as mutually exclusive, contemporary theoretical frameworks and qualitative research suggest that these emotions may coexist or fluctuate over time. This study examines the relationship between hope and despair in the context of protracted war, exploring their connection with three types of resilience, negative coping factors such as distress, sense of danger, and perceived threats, as well as demographic variables, using quantitative methods. The study is a correlational research based on an internet panel sample of 745 Hebrew-speaking adults in Israel, surveyed at two time points during the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza, with data collected in December 2024 and June 2025. A range of established scales was used to assess the various variables. The findings showed that hope and despair predicted each other only in the first measurement, and, contrary to the assumption that they are opposites, both emotions increased simultaneously from the first to the second measurement. Furthermore, they were predicted by different factors: resilience, particularly societal, individual, and community resilience, predicted hope, while negative coping factors, such as distress symptoms, sense of danger, and perceived threats, predicted despair. These findings suggest that hope and despair are not merely opposites, but rather distinct emotions influenced by different underlying factors. The results underscore the need for further research on the interplay between these emotions and highlight the importance of understanding the mechanisms influencing them in extreme contexts to inform therapeutic and resilience-building interventions.
The death of a loved one is a common yet potentially traumatic event that can impact bereaved people's daily lives substantially. However, bereavement experiences have been investigated mostly with cross-sectional surveys, which provide limited information about bereaved people's everyday functioning. Intensive longitudinal methods (ILM) that collect self-reports once (daily diary; DD) or multiple times (ecological momentary assessment; EMA) a day allow researchers to examine momentary variations in bereaved people's everyday experiences. In this preregistered study, we aimed to systematically review studies that investigated the daily life of bereaved people using ILM. We searched for English peer-reviewed journal articles in Scopus, PubMed, and PsycINFO. After title, abstract, and full-text screening of 230 records, 18 articles were included in the final review. Fourteen studies used DD, and four used EMA designs. Studies examined four topics: a) the acceptability, feasibility, and reactivity effects of ILM among bereaved people, b) emotions and emotion regulation strategies, c) sleep quality, and d) romantic relationships. While the acceptability, feasibility, and reactivity effects of ILM were investigated by both DD and EMA studies, the latter three topics were examined only by DD studies. The studies show that DD and EMA are acceptable and feasible methods among bereaved people. DD studies showed that experiences of positive emotions and affectionate touch were related to better psychological outcomes, such as intimacy, while there were inconsistent associations between grief and sleep quality. ILMs appear to offer valuable yet largely untapped potential for capturing dynamic experiences of grief in bereavement research.
The diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) can create stress for patients and their care partners (dyads). This study aimed to understand how dyadic coping (DC; how well couples feel they cope together in the face of a stressor) is related to the psychological health and overall well-being of couples coping with an MCI diagnosis. Additionally, this study attempted to characterize the impact of the HABIT Healthy Action to Benefit Independence & Thinking® program as a novel approach for improving DC. We analyzed DC in 213 people with MCI (pwMCI) and 205 care partners using the Dyadic Coping Inventory (Bodenmann, 2005). We compared DC scores to outcome measures of psychological health and well-being. We also analyzed DC in a subset of 135 pwMCI and 138 care partners with 3-month post HABIT DC scores to look for evidence of change. pwMCI and care partner DC significantly affected their own perception of emotional functioning on other measures [quality of life (QoL) and mood for pwMCI and QoL, mood, anxiety, and sense of burden for care partners]. pwMCI DC also predicted care partner anxiety. In all cases, better DC predicted better emotional functioning. Care partner DC was also found to significantly relate to how they rated the pwMCI's cognitive and daily functioning as well as the pwMCI's adherence with a cognitive rehabilitation intervention. pwMCI and care partners with low baseline DC showed an increase in DC scores after completing HABIT, as did pwMCI in the medium baseline DC group. Care partners with medium baseline DC did not experience change post HABIT. High copers in both the pwMCI and care partner groups experienced a decline in DC, although scores remained average to above average. These results suggest that DC is an important part of a couple's psychological health and well-being in MCI. Care partner DC may be particularly important in how partners rate their loved one's cognitive and functional status and how they respond to cognitive rehabilitation intervention. The HABIT program may also represent a novel way to improve DC for low and medium coping couples.