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Positive affect predicts engagement in healthy behaviors within a day, but not across days

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Abstract

Identifying causes of healthy behaviors is important for harnessing health benefits. A growing body of experience sampling research suggests that positive emotion may drive these behaviors. However, it is not known how long elevations in positive emotion facilitate these behaviors in daily life. The present study tested how time between signals moderates the association between within-person positive affect and healthy behaviors. A sample of 197 college students completed a 10-day experience sampling diary, with 5 signals a day, measuring affect and healthy behaviors. We replicated results from Nylocks and colleagues (2018) finding that within-person positive affect predicted engagement in healthy behaviors; however, this association was only significant within the same day, and not across days (i.e. overnight). Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of considering positive affect, rather than negative affect in patients with psychopathology, to improve behavioral interventions targeted to increase engagement in healthy behaviors.

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Notes

  1. Participants in the healthy control group were determined eligible if they met the following inclusion criteria: 1) Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF; rated from the SCID-I) score was greater than 79, 2) participants had an absence of any Axis-I pathology (full or partially remitted) in the past 12 months, 3) no current symptoms of any depressive or anxiety disorder, 4) absence of any personality disorder (i.e. less than two symptoms endorsed on any SCID-II scale), 5) no use of psychiatric medications in the past 12 months, and 6) no evidence of elevated social desirability (i.e. scores greater than 25 on the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale; Crowne and Marlowe, 1960).

  2. Because participants could delay responding to signals for up to 2 h, some participants were able to respond to signal t during the time interval they received the prompt for signal t + 1. For example, if signal t was received at 11 am, and delayed for 2 h signal t could be completed by 1 pm, however, signal t + 1 could have been received at 12:00 pm. This then led to instances where participants responded to signals right after one another leaving very little time between signal responses. For example, a participant who received the prompt for signal t at 10:30 am received the prompt for signal t + 1 at 11:30 am and responded to both signals back to back at 12:00 pm and 12:01 pm.

  3. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to include response rate as a covariate, due to lower than normal compliance rate. Total number of diary responses was included as a covariate. Results remained consistent with the original analysis (see Table S2 in the supplemental materials for more detail).

  4. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine the associations of PA and NA separately. The main effect associated with Aim 1 and the moderation effects associated with Aim 2 remained consistent for each model compared to the original models (See tables S3-S5 for more detailed information.

  5. Additional analysis were conducted to examine the reciprocal relationship between healthy behaviors (t) and positive affect (t + 1). The main effect of healthy behaviors (analogous to Aim 1) was not statistically significant, however moderation effects of time (analogous to Aim 2) were statistically significant such that as the time between signals t and t + 1 decreased, the effect of healthy behaviors (t) and positive affect (t + 1) increased (See tables S6-S8 for more detailed information).

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Aurora, P., Disabato, D.J. & Coifman, K.G. Positive affect predicts engagement in healthy behaviors within a day, but not across days. Motiv Emot 46, 211–225 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-021-09924-z

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