Pilot study evidence suggests that mother-infant dyads respond differently to technoference following phone calls and text messages.

Excessive internet-connected, cellular telephone (smartphone) use is associated with greater anxiety and lower quality of life in college students. However, the acute effect of a bout of smartphone use on positive and negative affect and how this may differ from other, common activities (i.e., low-intensity exercise, school work) in college students, has not been studied. PURPOSE: To compare the effects of separate bouts of smartphone use, treadmill walking, and school work on positive and negative affect in college students. METHODS: Forty one college students (n = 25 female, 21.7 ± 2.0 years old) completed four, 30-minute conditions (control, treadmill walking, smartphone, school work), on separate days, in a controlled, laboratory environment: 1) Control, participants were seated on a chair in a quiet room. 2) Walking, participants walked at 3.1 mph on a treadmill. 3) Smartphone, participants utilized their smartphones to interact with their personal social-media accounts (e.g., Facebook, Twitter). 4) School work, participants completed self-selected school work (e.g., studying). Participants completed the positive and negative affect scale pre- and post-condition. RESULTS: Analyses of variance revealed a significant (F = 22.3, p < 0.001) condition by time interaction for positive affect which significantly increased (t = 4.2, p < 0.001) from pre- to post-condition during walking (21.8 ± 8.4 pre, 27.4 ± 9.9 post), did not change (t = 1.2, p = 0.24) during school work (21.8 ± 7.7 pre, 23.0 ± 8.2 post) and significantly (t ≥ 3.7, p ≤ 0.001) decreased during both the smartphone (21.5 ± 8.1 pre, 17.2 ± 6.7 post) and control (19.8 ± 7.8 pre, 14.9 ± 5.8 post) conditions. There was also a significant (F = 15.6, p = 0.05) condition by time interaction for negative affect which significantly decreased (t = 2.3, p = 0.03) from pre- to post-condition during school work (13.4 ± 4.4 pre, 12.4 ± 4.1 post) and did not significantly change (t ≤ 1.6, p ≥ 0.11) for the remaining conditions (control: 12.5 ± 3.5 pre, 13.7 ± 4.1 post; walking: 12.3 ± 3.7 pre, 11.8 ± 2.7 post; smartphone: 12.5 ± 3.3 pre, 12.4 ± 2.6 post). CONCLUSION: Walking on a treadmill increased positive affect and school work decreased negative affect in college students. Conversely, a bout of smartphone use significantly decreased positive affect and did not reduce negative affect.

The relations between smartphone use, mood, and flow experience

Smartphone use in outdoor recreation settings is somewhat controversial. Some individuals claim smartphones engage audiences and promote access to resources. Others claim they distract from the setting and disrupt others’ experiences. This study examined the perceptions of 151 outdoor instructors regarding appropriate student smartphone use during various activity stages (e.g. travel, main activities, down time, and waiting periods). Results suggested that most outdoor instructors dislike smartphone use outside of travel to and from events. They particularly disliked uses for games, text messaging, phone calls, and social media. However, when uses related to outdoor activities (e.g. GPS tracking, checking weather, locating relevant information), 50–65% of participants agreed they were appropriate. The exception was photography and video where ~70–82% agreed. Younger instructors and males appeared to be more amenable to smartphone use, and 74.8% of participants stated mobile applications could be valuable teaching tools.

Background &amp; Objective: Patients with HIV experience considerable negative affects, which may jeopardize their physical, mental, and social health. On the other hand, resilience and ambiguity tolerance in challenging situations may increase the psychological health of high-risk individuals, specifically HIV patients who are exposed to high levels of risk and stress. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between positive and negative affect experiences and resilience and ambiguity tolerance among patients with HIV in 2019. Materials &amp; Methods: This study used a descriptive-correlational design. Out of the HIV patients recorded in Hematological and Oncological Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, 95 cases were selected via simple random sampling method and, then, they were included in the study. Afterwards, data collection was performed using resilience, ambiguity tolerance, and PANAS (positive and negative affect schedule) questionnaires. Subsequently, multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the collected data. Results: There was a significantly negative relationship between the negative affect experiences and ambiguity tolerance and resilience. Besides, the positive affect experiences were shown to have a significantly positive relationship with resilience and ambiguity tolerance. In addition, results of the regression demonstrated that the resilience and ambiguity tolerance variables could appropriately predict the positive and negative affect experiences. Conclusions: Considering the difficult conditions of the patients with HIV as well as their great number of problems, it might be possible to reduce the experiences of negative affect and, as a result, prevent the consequent outcomes of negative affect by increasing ambiguity tolerance and resilience.

Perceived control over diabetes may serve to buffer the relationship between adolescents’ experience of daily negative affect and daily problems with diabetes. In a daily diary study including 209 adolescents (ages 10.5–15.5) with type 1 diabetes, we examined how daily affect related to daily fluctuations in experience of diabetes problems, and whether perceptions of control moderated these daily associations. Using hierarchical linear modelling, we found that day-to-day experiences of negative affect were associated with more frequent daily diabetes problems. Perceptions of treatment control moderated associations between negative affect and number of problems; negative affect was more strongly associated with number of problems among teens perceiving lower versus higher treatment control over their illness. The same pattern of association was not apparent for personal control. Results suggest that perceived treatment control may help to buffer detrimental associations between negative affect and adolescents’ ability to successfully manage their diabetes.

The impact of smartphones and social media on mental health depends on how people use these technologies. Research distinguishes between overall, social and non-social smartphone use, as well as between overall, active, and passive social media use. Recent studies revealed that the consequences of these usage types for mental health may depend on personality traits; however, evidence remains elusive. This study examines the moderating role of extraversion and neuroticism in the within-person relationship between different types of (a) smartphone use and mental health, and (b) Instagram use and mental health. In a weeklong diary study with 142 participants (63% female, average age = 26.39), we collected data on subtypes of smartphone and Instagram use, and positive and negative affect. Neuroticism and extraversion were measured at baseline. Passive Instagram use predicted increases in negative affect. Moreover, Neuroticism (but not extraversion) emerged as a significant moderator. Only for users scoring high on neuroticism, time spent on smartphones and passive use of Instagram predicted increases in negative affect, emphasizing the complex interplay between usage types, user characteristics, and mental health. These findings may help practitioners tailor interventions to specific populations. Future research with diverse samples is necessary to identify additional vulnerability and protective user characteristics.

Opioid use disorder is characterized by excessive use of opioids, inability to control its use, a withdrawal syndrome upon discontinuation of opioids, and long-term likelihood of relapse. The behavioral stages of opioid addiction correspond with affective experiences that characterize the opponent process view of motivation. In this framework, active involvement is accompanied by positive affective experiences which gives rise to "reward craving," whereas the opponent process, abstinence, is associated with the negative affective experiences that produce "relief craving." Relief craving develops along with a hypersensitization to the negatively reinforcing aspects of withdrawal during abstinence from opioids. These negative affective experiences are hypothesized to stem from neuroadaptations to a network of affective processing called the "extended amygdala." This negative valence network includes the three core structures of the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA), the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), and the nucleus accumbens shell (NAc shell), in addition to major inputs from the basolateral amygdala (BLA). To better understand the major components of this system, we have reviewed their functions, inputs and outputs, along with the associated neural plasticity in animal models of opioid withdrawal. These models demonstrate the somatic, motivational, affective, and learning related models of opioid withdrawal and abstinence. Neuroadaptations in these stress and motivational systems are accompanied by negative affective and aversive experiences that commonly give rise to relapse. CeA neuroplasticity accounts for many of the aversive and fear-related effects of opioid withdrawal via glutamatergic plasticity and changes to corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF)-containing neurons. Neuroadaptations in BNST pre-and post-synaptic GABA-containing neurons, as well as their noradrenergic modulation, may be responsible for a variety of aversive affective experiences and maladaptive behaviors. Opioid withdrawal yields a hypodopaminergic and amotivational state and results in neuroadaptive increases in excitability of the NAc shell, both of which are associated with increased vulnerability to relapse. Finally, BLA transmission to hippocampal and cortical regions impacts the perception of conditioned aversive effects of opioid withdrawal by higher executive systems. The prevention or reversal of these varied neuroadaptations in the extended amygdala during opioid withdrawal could lead to promising new interventions for this life-threatening condition.

Most empirical studies of emotion regulation have relied on retrospective trait measures, and have not examined the link between daily regulatory strategies and every day emotional well-being. We used a daily diary methodology with multilevel modelling data analyses (n = 187) to examine the influence of three emotion regulation strategies (mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression) on the experience of daily negative and positive affect. Our results suggested that daily mindfulness was associated with lower negative and higher positive affect whereas the converse pattern was found for daily emotion suppression; cognitive reappraisal was related to daily positive, but not negative affect. When daily mindfulness, suppression and reappraisal were included in the same models, these strategies predicted unique variance in emotional well-being. Random slope analyses revealed substantial variability in the utility of these strategies. Indeed the presumably “adaptive” cognitive reappraisal strategy seemed to confer no benefit to the regulation of negative affect in approximately half the sample. Additional analyses revealed that age moderates the effect of cognitive reappraisal on daily negative affect: Higher use of reappraisal was associated with more negative affect for adolescents (aged 17 to 19) but became associated with less negative affect with increasing age. We interpret these results in line with a contextual view of emotion regulation where no strategy is inherently “good” or “bad”.

The ubiquity of smartphone devices in our everyday lives has been widely recognized as a potential challenge to the quality of parent-child interactions. The aim of this study was to experimentally examine the effects of mothers' smartphone use on their children's affect regulation and on the quality of mother-child interactions, indicated by emotional availability of the dyad and maternal responsiveness. Additionally, we investigated the associations between mothers' behaviors to maintain contact with their children during smartphone use and their children's affect regulation. The experiment consisted of two counterbalanced phases: the free play phase and the interruption phase, in which mothers were replying to standardized text messages in the presence of their children. The sample comprised 52 mothers and their children aged 5 to 6 months (24 female). Infants expressed less positive affect in the interruption phase than in the free play phase, as well as more negative affect in the interruption phase when the free play phase preceded the interruption phase. In addition, the mothers showed less sensitivity and responded to less infants' signals and in a slower way in the interruption phase than in the free play phase. Moreover, mothers showed less optimal structuring, and children showed less well involvement of their mothers in the interruption phase than in the free play phase. Lastly, more children's negative affect was associated with a shorter duration of mothers' smartphone use and more active mothers' behaviors to maintain contact with their children during the smartphone use. These results suggest that, although mothers adapt smartphone use based on their children's affective response, mothers' repeated smartphone use negatively impacts their children's affect regulation and the quality of the mother-child interactions, with potentially negative consequences for the children's social-emotional development.

Previous research on smart phone use while driving has primarily focused on phone calls and texting. Drivers are now increasingly using their phone for other activities during driving, in particular social media, which have different cognitive demands. The present study compared the effects of four different smart phone tasks on car-following performance in a driving simulator. Phone tasks were chosen that vary across two factors: interaction medium (text vs image) and task pacing (self-paced vs experimenter-paced) and were as follows: Text messaging with the experimenter (text/other-paced), reading Facebook posts (text/self-paced), exchanging photos with the experimenter via Snapchat (image, experimenter -paced), and viewing updates on Instagram (image, experimenter -paced). Drivers also performed a driving only baseline. Brake reaction times (BRTs) were significantly greater in the text-based conditions (Mean = 1.16 s) as compared to both the image-based conditions (Mean = 0.92 s) and the baseline (0.88 s). There was no significant difference between BRTs in the image-based and baseline conditions and there was no significant effect of task-pacing. Similar results were obtained for Time Headway variability. These results are consistent with the picture superiority effect found in memory research and suggest that image-based interfaces could provide safer ways to “stay connected” while driving than text-based interfaces.

BackgroundThe market for wearable activity trackers has grown prolifically in recent years, with increasing numbers of consumers using them to track, measure, and ideally improve their health and wellbeing. Empirical evidence tends to support wearables as valid, reliable, and effective health behaviour change tools, however little research has been conducted to understand experiential aspects of the devices, particularly thier effects on users’ psychological wellbeing and affect. This study addresses this literature gap by exploring wearable users’ affective responses to their devices and how these relate to personality traits and individual differences.MethodsData were collected from adult wearable users (N = 237) via an online survey that assessed participant demographic characteristics, personality trait profiles, and experiences of negative (guilt, self-consciousness, & anxiety) and positive affect (empowerment, motivation, & accountability) related to their wearable both during wear, and when unable to wear (e.g. if the battery ran flat). Outcomes were analysed descriptively and general linear models used to examine associations between affect scores with personality traits and individual differences.ResultsBoth current and previous wearable users experience more positive than negative affect related to their device whilst they were wearing it (p = <.001). When prevented from wearing their device, however, this pattern was reversed with most participants reporting stronger negative than positive affect (p = <.001). These patterns were generally consistent across demographic sub-groups and personality trait profiles, although conscientiousness and openness to experience were independently and positively associated with affect during wear (p = .001).ConclusionsResults suggest that using a wearable is a positive experience for users with little risk of negative psychological consequences. Whilst experiences of negative affect were uncommon, individuals low in conscientiousness or openness to experience are at greater risk of negative affect and all users may experience negative affect such as anxiety or frustration when prevented from wearing their device. Findings contribute to mounting evidence of wearables’ safety and appeal as health behaviour tools and highlight the importance of examining psychological and experiential aspects of activity tracking.

BackgroundIncreasing research has examined the factors related to smartphone use disorder. However, limited research has explored its neural basis.AimsWe aimed to examine the relationship between the topology of the resting-state electroencephalography (rs-EEG) brain network and smartphone use disorder using minimum spanning tree analysis. Furthermore, we examined how negative emotions mediate this relationship.MethodsThis study included 113 young, healthy adults (mean age = 20.87 years, 46.9% males).ResultsThe results showed that the alpha- and delta-band kappas and delta-band leaf fraction were positively correlated with smartphone use disorder. In contrast, the alpha-band diameter was negatively correlated with smartphone use disorder. Negative emotions fully mediated the relationship between alpha-band kappa and alpha-band diameter and smartphone use disorder. Furthermore, negative emotions partially mediated the relationship between delta-band kappa and smartphone use disorder. The findings suggest that excessive scale-free alpha- and delta-band brain networks contribute to the emergence of smartphone use disorder. In addition, the findings also demonstrate that negative emotions and smartphone use disorder share the same neural basis. Negative emotions play a mediating role in the association between topological deviations and smartphone use disorder.DiscussionTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the neural basis of smartphone use disorder from the perspective of the topology of the rs-EEG brain network. Therefore, neuromodulation may be a potential intervention for smartphone use disorder.

Emotions dynamically unfold and are jointly constructed throughout social interactions between individuals. Yet, how exactly the experience and expression of emotions interact throughout such interactions remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the interplay between the experience and verbal expression of negative affect within and between romantic partners during negative interactions. We examined this interplay in terms of four possible relations: (a) how one's experienced negative affect predicts the verbal expression thereof, (b) how the verbal expression of negative affect predicts a subsequent change in one's own experienced affect, (c) how the verbal expression of negative affect predicts change in a partner's experienced affect, and (d) how one's experienced negative affect predicts the verbal expression of negative affect by a partner. We answered these questions by analyzing second-to-second data of self-reported affect ratings and verbatim transcripts of videotaped negative interactions between romantic partners. Our findings reveal inconsistent evidence for intraindividual relationships between the experience and verbal expression of negative affect. Yet, they demonstrate a consistent, though small, interpersonal relation with the expression of negative affect in one partner predicting the subsequent experience of negative affect in the other. These results suggest that verbal negative emotion expression may be more consistently related to others' experience than one's own, and highlight the role of emotion expression in interpersonal emotion regulation and the social construction of emotional experience, though the small effect sizes suggest this relationship may be subtle and that many other factors contribute to our emotional experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Employees can help to improve organizational performance by sharing ideas, suggestions, or concerns about practices, but sometimes they keep silent because of the experience of negative affect. Drawing and expanding on this stream of research, this article builds a theoretical rationale based on core affect and cognitive appraisal theories to describe how differences in affect activation and boundary conditions associated with cognitive rumination and cognitive problem-solving demands can explain employee silence. Results of a diary study conducted with professionals from diverse organizations indicated that within-person low-activated negative core affect increased employee silence when, as an invariant factor, cognitive rumination was high. Furthermore, within-person high-activated negative core affect decreased employee silence when, as an invariant factor, cognitive problem-solving demand was high. Thus, organizations should manage conditions to reduce experiences of low-activated negative core affect because these feelings increase silence in individuals high in rumination. In turn, effective management of experiences of high-activated negative core affect can reduce silence for individuals working under high problem-solving demand situations.

Theories suggest that experiences of negative and positive affect are important precursors to alcohol and illicit substance use. Research using ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) has generally supported the relation between momentary experiences of positive affect, but not negative affect, and subsequent substance use. Unfortunately, most of these studies have focused on alcohol use and not other substance use. The goal of this study was to further explore the relation between momentary affect and the use of both alcohol and illicit substances within a population of individuals with a history of substance use. In addition, this study aimed to understand whether the relations between affect and substance use would vary depending on the timing of EMAs of affect before substance use. Participants with a history of heavy substance use (N = 59) completed EMAs measuring affect and substance use using random prompts 4 times a day for 14 days. We found that positive affect was significantly related to later engagement in drinking, illicit substance use, and marijuana use. Moreover, timing of the affect was important. When affect was assessed in the last hour before substance use, relative to 7 hours earlier, the relation between positive affect and illicit substance use was stronger. Negative affect was related to a lower likelihood of subsequent marijuana use, but more so when it was measured a few hours versus several hours before the use. This study further supported the relation between positive affect and both alcohol and illicit substance use.