Online Micro Intervention for mood improvement dataset
Description
The aim of the current study is to improve the understanding of the effects of behavioral activation (BA) online micro intervention targeting enjoyment levels and mood. The hypotheses were to: 1. explore the association between confidence, motivation, activities, and mood; 2. analyze the effect of number and type of activities (Pleasant, Mastery, and Meaningful) on mood and enjoyment levels; 3. evaluate the immediate impact of the brief internet intervention on confidence and motivation to improve one’s mood; and 4. determine if levels of engagement with the intervention have an effect on participants’ outcomes. Participants were recruited from the United States and aged 18 and older from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Eligible participants filled out a demographic questionnaire, mood questions, confidence questions, motivation questions, and activity level questions. All participants were then randomly assigned into one of two conditions: intervention condition or the waitlist control (WLC) condition. The participants in the WLC were directed to a screen thanking them for their participation. Participants in the intervention condition proceeded to a webpage with psychoeducation on using behavioral activation to improve mood. These participants then completed an activity scheduling exercise wherein the participants selected the activities that they would like to engage in throughout the week. Participants in the intervention conditions were then asked follow-up questions regarding their current mood, confidence, and motivation. A regression analysis showed that confidence and motivation were significantly associated with mood. Additionally, the total number of activities reported in the last two days was associated with participants' current mood and current enjoyment. When splitting up the types of activities, mastery and meaningful activities improved mood but not pleasant activities. Pleasant and meaningful activities impacted enjoyment but not mastery activities. For individuals in the active condition, there was a significant increase in confidence but not motivation from pre to immediate post intervention. Those who scheduled at least one activity in the calendar showed a significant increase in motivation and confidence, but there was no significant increases for those that did not schedule activities. In addition, a mediation analysis found that confidence mediated the relationship between total activities and current mood. Additionally, motivation mediated the affect between total activities and current mood.
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Steps to reproduce
For the linearity assumption of multiple regression analysis, all independent variables were correlated to dependent variables. Skew and kurtosis was within normal limits for mood and enjoyment. However, Shapiro-Wilks indicates that the residuals were not normally distributed for mood and enjoyment. To account for non-normality, a maximum likelihood bootstrap of 2000 was used for all regression analyses. The assumption of independence of errors was met for mood on confidence and motivation, mood on activity types, and enjoyment on activity types. Lastly, there was minimal multicollinearity for confidence and motivation and among activity types. Missing data is noted as -999. Activity totals were calculated by summing pleasant, mastery, and meaningful 1, 2, and 3. For condition, 0 was the control and 1 was the intervention group. For calendar engagement, participants who entered 0 are in the active condition and did not enter into the calendar. R (version 3.5.2) was utilized to analyze descriptive statistics and homogeneity of variance for other analyses. MPLUS (version 8.5) was utilized for regression analyses in this study. IBM SPSS (version 28.0.1.0) and PROCESS Procedure for SPSS version 4 (Hayes, 2017) were used for mediation analyses. For baseline analysis, all the participants that completed baseline were analyzed as a whole. For the immediate post analysis, only those in the intervention condition were analyzed. For all participants, a regression analysis was conducted to determine the impact of confidence and motivation on mood as well as activity total on mood and enjoyment. A paired samples t-test was conducted to determine change in motivation and confidence following the intervention. For examining change in confidence and motivation with the intervention, a paired samples t-test was conducted on only individuals who engaged with the intervention activity. A mediation analysis looked at confidence as a mediator for total activities on mood. A second mediation analysis looked at motivation as a mediator for total activities on mood. For measures: Mood Questions: Participants rated their current mood and mood in the last week on a 9-point sliding Likert scale from 1, extremely negative, to 9, extremely positive. Confidence and motivation questions: Participants rated their confidence on a 9-point sliding Likert scale from 1, not at all, to 9, extremely. Activity Questions: Participants were asked to report the number of mastery, pleasant, and meaningful activities that they had engaged in over the last two days which ranged from 0 to 7 or more activities. They also rated their enjoyment today, yesterday, and the past two days on a 5-point Likert scale (1= not at all, 2=slightly, 3=moderately, 4=very much, 5=extremely). Calendar: Participants were presented with instructions and a calendar to input activities for the morning, afternoon, and evening for each day of the following week in which they would like to do the activity.