scholarly journals An ecological momentary compassion-focused intervention for enhancing resilience in help-seeking youth: a pilot study (Preprint)

10.2196/25650 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Rauschenberg ◽  
Benjamin Boecking ◽  
Isabell Paetzold ◽  
Koen Schruers ◽  
Anita Schick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Ecological Momentary

scholarly journals A Compassion-Focused Ecological Momentary Intervention for Enhancing Resilience in Help-Seeking Youth: Uncontrolled Pilot Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Rauschenberg ◽  
Benjamin Boecking ◽  
Isabell Paetzold ◽  
Koen Schruers ◽  
Anita Schick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Stress Sensitivity ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Emotional Resilience ◽  
Ecological Momentary

BACKGROUND Digital interventions offer new avenues for low-threshold prevention and treatment in young people. Ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) represent a powerful approach that allows for adaptive, real-time, and real-world delivery of intervention components in daily life by real-time processing of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data. Compassion-focused interventions (CFIs) may be particularly amenable to translation into an EMI to strengthen emotional resilience and modify putative risk mechanisms, such as stress sensitivity, in the daily lives of young help-seeking individuals. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the feasibility, safety, and initial therapeutic effects of a novel, accessible, transdiagnostic, ecological momentary CFI for improving emotional resilience to stress (<i>EMIcompass</i>). METHODS In this uncontrolled pilot study, help-seeking youth with psychotic, depressive, or anxiety symptoms were offered the EMIcompass intervention in addition to treatment as usual. The EMIcompass intervention consisted of a 3-week EMI (including enhancing, consolidating, and EMA-informed interactive tasks) administered through a mobile health app and three face-to-face sessions with a trained psychologist intended to provide guidance and training on the CFI exercises presented in the app (ie, training session, follow-up booster session, and review session). RESULTS In total, 10 individuals (mean age 20.3 years, SD 3.8; range 14-25) were included in the study. Most (8/10, 80%) participants were satisfied and reported a low burden of app usage. No adverse events were observed. In approximately one-third of all EMAs, individuals scored high on stress, negative affect, or threat anticipation during the intervention period, resulting in real-time, interactive delivery of the CFI intervention components in addition to weekly enhancing and daily consolidating tasks. Although the findings should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size, reduced stress sensitivity, momentary negative affect, and psychotic experiences, along with increased positive affect, were found at postintervention and the 4-week follow-up. Furthermore, reductions in psychotic, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were found (<i>r</i>=0.30-0.65). CONCLUSIONS Our findings provide evidence on the feasibility and safety of the EMIcompass intervention for help-seeking youth and lend initial support to beneficial effects on stress sensitivity and mental health outcomes. An exploratory randomized controlled trial is warranted to establish the feasibility and preliminary evidence of its efficacy. CLINICALTRIAL

scholarly journals An ecological momentary compassion-focused intervention for enhancing resilience in help-seeking youths: a pilot study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Rauschenberg ◽  
Benjamin Böcking ◽  
Isabell Pätzold ◽  
Koen Schruers ◽  
Anita Schick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Stress Sensitivity ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Emotional Resilience ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Ecological Momentary

Digital interventions offer new avenues for prevention and treatment in youth. Ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) allow for adaptive and real-time delivery of intervention components in daily life. Compassion-focused interventions may be particularly amenable to translation into an EMI to strengthen emotional resilience in youth. We aimed to investigate initial therapeutic effects, feasibility, and safety of a novel, accessible, transdiagnostic, ecological momentary, compassion-focused intervention for improving emotional resilience (‘EMIcompass’) in an uncontrolled pilot study including help-seeking youth with psychotic, depressive, and/or anxiety symptoms. The EMIcompass intervention consisted of three sessions with a trained psychologist and a 3-week EMI administered through a mobile health app. In total, ten individuals (Mage=20.3 years) were included. Reduced stress sensitivity, momentary negative affect, and psychotic experiences as well as increased positive affect were found at post-intervention and 4-week follow-up. Further, reductions in psychotic, anxiety, and depressive symptoms of medium to large effect size were found (r=0.30-0.65). Most participants were satisfied (80%) and reported low burden of app usage. No adverse events were observed. Our findings provide initial evidence on beneficial effects, feasibility, and safety of the EMIcompass intervention in help-seeking youth. An exploratory randomised controlled trial is warranted to establish feasibility and preliminary evidence of efficacy.

Encouraging Help Seeking in Youth: Pilot Study Findings

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosanne Menna ◽  
Kathryn Lafreniere
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Help Seeking

scholarly journals Exploring the Time Trend of Stress Levels While Using the Crowdsensing Mobile Health Platform, TrackYourStress, and the Influence of Perceived Stress Reactivity: Ecological Momentary Assessment Pilot Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Pryss ◽  
Dennis John ◽  
Winfried Schlee ◽  
Wolff Schlotz ◽  
Johannes Schobel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Mobile Health ◽  
Time Trend ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Stress Scale ◽  
Stress Levels ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
Momentary Assessment

BACKGROUND The mobile phone app, TrackYourStress (TYS), is a new crowdsensing mobile health platform for ecological momentary assessments of perceived stress levels. OBJECTIVE In this pilot study, we aimed to investigate the time trend of stress levels while using TYS for the entire population being studied and whether the individuals’ perceived stress reactivity moderates stress level changes while using TYS. METHODS Using TYS, stress levels were measured repeatedly with the 4-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4), and perceived stress reactivity was measured once with the Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale (PSRS). A total of 78 nonclinical participants, who provided 1 PSRS assessment and at least 4 repeated PSS-4 measurements, were included in this pilot study. Linear multilevel models were used to analyze the time trend of stress levels and interactions with perceived stress reactivity. RESULTS Across the whole sample, stress levels did not change while using TYS (<italic>P</italic>=.83). Except for one subscale of the PSRS, interindividual differences in perceived stress reactivity did not influence the trajectories of stress levels. However, participants with higher scores on the PSRS subscale reactivity to failure showed a stronger increase of stress levels while using TYS than participants with lower scores (<italic>P</italic>=.04). CONCLUSIONS TYS tracks the stress levels in daily life, and most of the results showed that stress levels do not change while using TYS. Controlled trials are necessary to evaluate whether it is specifically TYS or any other influence that worsens the stress levels of participants with higher reactivity to failure.

scholarly journals Ecological Momentary Assessment of Adolescent Problems, Coping Efficacy, and Mood States Using a Mobile Phone App: An Exploratory Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. e51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Kenny ◽  
Barbara Dooley ◽  
Amanda Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mood States ◽  
Coping Efficacy ◽  
Standardized Measures ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
Ema Data

Background Mobile technologies have the potential to be used as innovative tools for conducting research on the mental health and well-being of young people. In particular, they have utility for carrying out ecological momentary assessment (EMA) research by capturing data from participants in real time as they go about their daily lives. Objective The aim of this study was to explore the utility of a mobile phone app as a means of collecting EMA data pertaining to mood, problems, and coping efficacy in a school-based sample of Irish young people. Methods The study included a total of 208 participants who were aged 15-18 years, 64% female (113/208), recruited from second-level schools in Ireland, and who downloaded the CopeSmart mobile phone app as part of a randomized controlled trial. On the app, participants initially responded to 5 single-item measures of key protective factors in youth mental health (formal help-seeking, informal help-seeking, sleep, exercise, and sense of belonging). They were then encouraged to use the app daily to input data relating to mood states (happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and worry), daily problems, and coping self-efficacy. The app automatically collected data pertaining to user engagement over the course of the 28-day intervention period. Students also completed pen and paper questionnaires containing standardized measures of emotional distress (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale; DASS-21), well-being (World Health Organization Well-Being Index; WHO-5), and coping (Coping Strategies Inventory; CSI). Results On average the participants completed 18% (5/28) of daily ratings, and engagement levels did not differ across gender, age, school, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or nationality. On a scale of 1 to 10, happiness was consistently the highest rated mood state (overall mean 6.56), and anger was consistently the lowest (overall mean 2.11). Pearson correlations revealed that average daily ratings of emotional states were associated with standardized measures of emotional distress (rhappiness=–.45, rsadness=.51, ranger=.32, rstress=.41, rworry=.48) and well-being (rhappiness=.39, rsadness =–.43, ranger=–.27, rstress=–.35, rworry=–.33). Inferential statistics indicated that single-item indicators of key protective factors were related to emotional distress, well-being, and average daily mood states, as measured by EMA ratings. Hierarchical regressions revealed that greater daily problems were associated with more negative daily mood ratings (all at the P<.001 level); however, when coping efficacy was taken into account, the relationship between problems and happiness, sadness, and anger became negligible. Conclusions While engagement with the app was low, overall the EMA data collected in this exploratory study appeared valid and provided useful insights into the relationships between daily problems, coping efficacy, and mood states. Future research should explore ways to increase engagement with EMA mobile phone apps in adolescent populations to maximize the amount of data captured by these tools. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02265978; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02265978 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6mMeYqseA).

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