Mindful Positive Reappraisal: a Daily Diary Randomized Controlled Trial (Reappraisal)

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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Mental Health Wellness 1
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Self-Administered Reappraisal-Only Exercise; Behavioral: Self-Administered Mindful-Reappraisal Exercise; Behavioral: Self-Administered Event Recall Exercise

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 Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 129
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Undergraduate students

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not undergraduate students

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / 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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

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

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ekaterina Pogrebtsova
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: M. Gloria Gonzalez-Morales, University of Guelph

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 1, 2013
• Study Completion (Actual): October 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 4, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 8, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): February 11, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): February 11, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 8, 2016
• Last Verified: February 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Mental Health; Mindfulness; Well-being; Primary Promotion; Positive Reappraisal
• Other Study ID Numbers: 11NV038

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Individual participant data will not be available.