We conducted a rapid review and quantitative summary of meta-analyses that have examined interventions which can be used by individuals during quarantine and social distancing to manage anxiety, depression, stress, and subjective well-being. A literature search yielded 34 meta-analyses (total number of studies k = 1,390, n = 145,744) that were summarized. Overall, self-guided interventions showed small to medium effects in comparison to control groups. In particular, self-guided therapeutic approaches (including cognitive-behavioral, mindfulness, and acceptance-based interventions), selected positive psychology interventions, and multi-component and activity-based interventions (music, physical exercise) showed promising evidence for effectiveness. Overall, self-guided interventions on average did not show the same degree of effectiveness as traditional guided individual or group therapies. There was no consistent evidence of dose effects, baseline differences, and differential effectiveness of eHealth interventions. More research on the effectiveness of interventions in diverse cultural settings is needed.
We conducted a rapid review and quantitative summary of meta-analyses that have examined interventions which can be used by individuals during quarantine and social distancing to manage anxiety, depression, stress and subjective well-being. A literature search yielded 34 meta-analyses (total number of studies k = 1,390, n = 145,744) that were summarized. Overall, self-guided interventions showed small to medium effects in comparison to control groups demonstrating their effectiveness. In particular, therapeutic approaches (including cognitive-behavioral, mindfulness, and acceptance-based interventions), selected positive psychology interventions, and multi-component and activity based interventions (music, physical exercise) showed promising evidence for effectiveness. Many of these interventions are available in online or smartphone app form. At the same time, self-guided interventions on average did not show the same degree of effectiveness as traditional guided individual or group therapies. The review points to activities and practices that can be adapted by individuals as a first step to manage their mental health during social distancing and quarantines. Further research is clearly needed on activities helping individuals to interact and live in constrained living conditions (e.g, improving social interactions during quarantine) and the relative effectiveness of self-guided interventions across cultural boundaries.
Research on self-determination theory and clinical models such as acceptance and commitment therapy has shown that behaving in line with our values is a key to maintaining healthy well-being. Combining work on values and experimental studies on moral hypocrisy and well-being, we experimentally tested how behaving incongruently with values affects well-being. We hypothesized that discrepancies between how one thinks one should have behaved and how one reported one did behave would be more detrimental to well-being when the behaviors were value-expressive and motivationally coherent compared to a control condition; greater perceived gaps between how participants feel they should have acted and how they report they did act would be associated with more negative well-being outcomes; the relationship between value manipulation and well-being would be mediated by perceived behavioral gap; and that personal values would interact with value manipulation to produce differential effects on well-being. One-hundred and fifty-eight first-year psychology students participated in an experiment designed to highlight discrepancies between how participants have behaved in accordance with a certain value and how they think they should have behaved, before reporting their well-being. As hypothesized, greater discrepancies between reported past behavior and how participants thought they should have behaved was associated with negative affect and decreased reports of positive well-being. We found no evidence for differential effects of manipulated value-expressive behaviors on well-being, or for our hypothesis that personal values and manipulated value-expressive behaviors interact. Nevertheless, value content mattered in terms of inducing perceived behavioral gaps. Our study suggests that perceived discrepancies between any value and reported past behavior can have a negative impact on some aspects of well-being. We discuss how the application of our methodology can be used in further studies to disentangle the value-behavior nexus.
<p>Wellbeing is thought to decrease when one’s actions do not align with one’s values. This study refined a previous experimental method to investigate how perceived failure to live up to expectations of value-expressive behaviours may affect eudaimonic and hedonic wellbeing. One hundred and ninety-nine students considered their own past value-expressive behaviours in a survey designed to induce a discrepancy or “gap” between reported and ideal behaviour. We tested whether the importance of value-expressive behaviours—and whether this importance was based on personal or social ideals—would affect the perception of behavioural discrepancies and wellbeing. Results showed that being asked about more important behaviours predicted a greater perceived behavioural gap and less hedonic wellbeing. Whether this importance was based on personal values or social desirability did not differentially predict perceived behavioural gap or wellbeing, challenging the focus that some therapy models place on personal value expression to improve wellbeing. The perceived behavioural gap did not mediate a relationship between experimental condition and wellbeing, suggesting that other variables may play a role in the relationship between values, behaviour, and wellbeing. Further exploratory tests, limitations, and theoretical implications are discussed.</p>
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