Efficacy of a smartphone-based intervention — “Holidaily” — promoting recovery behaviour in workers after a vacation: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background: While work-related rumination increases the risk of acute stressors developing into chronic load reactions and adverse health, mental detachment has been suggested as a way to interrupt this chain. Despite the importance of mentally detaching from work during leisure time, workers seem to struggle to disengage and, instead, experience the constant mental representation of work-related stressors, regardless of their absence. Those who struggle with work-related rumination could benefit from an easy-access intervention that fosters mental detachment by promoting recreational activities. Especially during vacations, workers appear to naturally engage in sufficient recovery activities; however, this beneficial behaviour is not sustained. The smartphone app-based intervention "Holidaily" promotes recovery behaviour and, thus, mental detachment from work with the intension of extending the beneficial effects of workers' vacations into their daily working life. Methods: This randomised-controlled trial (RCT) evaluates the efficacy of "Holidaily". The Holidaily app is a German stand-alone program for mobile devices with either Android/iOS operating systems. The sample includes workers, who are awaiting to go on vacation and are randomly assigned to either the intervention (IG) or a waitlist-control group (CG). The IG receives two weeks pre-vacation access to Holidaily, while the CG receives access two weeks post-vacation. On a daily basis participants in the IG are provided with three options promoting recreational activities and beneficial recovery experiences. Online questionnaires are distributed to all participants at several timepoints. The primary outcome measure assesses participants' work-related rumination (Irritation Scale). A significant difference two weeks post-vacation is expected, favouring the IG. Secondary outcomes include symptoms of depression, insomnia severity, emotional exhaustion, thinking about work, recovery experiences, vacation specifics, work and personal characteristics. To help explain the intervention's effect, explorative analyses

Review of the Internal Structure, Psychometric Properties, and Measurement Invariance of the Work-Related Rumination Scale – Spanish Version

“…Interestingly, of the 25 studies revised, only seven studies used the complete WRRS and those included the original study in which the WRRS was developed ( Cropley et al, 2012 ; Querstret and Cropley, 2012 ; Vandevala et al, 2017 ; Dunn and Sensky, 2018 ; Sulak Akyüz and Sulak, 2019 ; Weigelt et al, 2019a ; Mullen et al, 2020 ), 11 used the affective and problem-solving pondering subscales ( Bisht, 2017 ; Kinnunen et al, 2017 , 2019 ; Querstret et al, 2017 ; Syrek et al, 2017 ; Vahle-Hinz et al, 2017 ; Firoozabadi et al, 2018a , b ; Junker et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ; Pauli and Lang, 2021 ), two studies used the problem-solving pondering and Detachment subscales ( Zoupanou et al, 2013 ; Mehmood and Hamstra, 2021 ), only one used the Detachment subscale ( Svetieva et al, 2017 ), and four studies used the affective rumination subscale ( Querstret et al, 2016 ; Van Laethem et al, 2019 ; Weigelt et al, 2019b ; Cropley and Collis, 2020 ; Smyth et al, 2020 ). Thus, the use of the subscales of the WRRS vary according to the researchers need and purpose.…”

Patterns and predictors of change in energy and mood around a vacation from the workplace: Distinguishing the effects of supplemental work activity and work‐related perseverative cognition

“…Third, studies confirm that adults can accurately report when they have been embroiled in this distinctive mode of cognitive processing (Kircanski et al, 2015). Thus, in recovery from work research, perhaps the surest method for capturing perseverative characteristics is to ask employees whether they have been worrying and/or ruminating about work (Casper & Sonnentag, 2020;de Bloom et al, 2014;Flaxman et al, 2012Flaxman et al, , 2018Smyth et al, 2020).…”

“Post-lockdown Depression”: Adaptation Difficulties, Depressive Symptoms, and the Role of Positive Solitude When Returning to Routine After the Lifting of Nation-Wide COVID-19 Social Restrictions

“…Indeed, even the release from incarceration, a much stronger form of restriction, incurs post-prison adaptation difficulties and psychological symptoms ( 37 ). Paradoxically, as social restrictions can be experienced as a break from work life ( 6 ) and even relate to improved wellbeing for some individuals ( 38 , 39 ), the difficulties involved in return-to-routine when they are lifted can be related to difficulties adapting to daily work when returning from vacation ( 40 ).…”