Development and Feasibility Test of an Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI) - ReApp, to Increase Reappraisal.

Summary

The aim of the current project is to develop and test Ecological Momentary Interventions (EMIs) to promote and improve stress resilience, specifically, an EMI to increase positive reappraisal.

EMIs are mostly smartphone-based applications that deliver interventions to people as they go about in their daily lives. The EMI tested here is based on theoretical and empirical findings and consists of several items and repeated training using various individual scenarios from participants' life that will be presented to participants via an app on their smartphones.

This study tests the efficacy of the EMI on a change in (i) reappraisal and (ii) indices of perceived stress. One hundred twenty healthy student participants, aged 18-29 will be invited to the study. Participants will be screened and those who score below 13 points of reappraisal skills in a Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, will be included in the study. This is necessary in order to avoid a ceiling effect on reappraisal skills, which may be high in students.

Then, the participants will be randomly assigned to experimental (reappraisal EMI in regular and burst design) and control conditions (control EMA) and fill in questionnaires. The reappraisal EMI groups will be taught reappraisal skills and will be asked to apply them to personal situations repeatedly. The control EMA group will have the same app consisting of Ecological Momentary Assessment only. The training will last 21 consecutive days and the app will send (i) 5 prompts per day to ask about the current mood of the user in control and both experimental groups and (ii) at least two prompts per day resulting in a total of min. 42 reappraisal training sessions in the regular experimental group or 28 reappraisal training sessions in the burst experimental group. What is more, every participant has the possibility to trigger the EMA or EMI anytime they wish to. After using the app, participants will fill in some questionnaires again. The whole study will be conducted remotely (Video calls and app use) to avoid unnecessary COVID-related risks for participants.

Conditions

• Stress

Interventions

DEVICE

Reappraisal training

The EMI developed and tested here is based on theoretical and empirical findings and consists of several items and repeated training using various individual scenarios from participants' life that will be presented to participants via an app on their smartphones.

DEVICE

Ecological Momentary Assessment

The EMA tested here collects data on participants' mood and behavior.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

  collaborator OTHER

• Radboud University Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER

• Universitaire Ziekenhuizen KU Leuven

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Zurich

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Birgit Kleim, PhD · University of Zurich

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

29 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-04-30

Primary Completion

2022-05-22

Completion

2022-05-22

Countries

• Switzerland

Study Locations