Diary Approach Research Articles

Reports of Therapy Skill Use and Their Efficacy in Daily Life in the Short-Term Treatment of Depression

Previous studies have shown that the use of therapy skills in between sessions is an important mechanism of symptom improvement. The current study expands this line of research by using a diary approach to examine the use of therapy skills in daily life. A sample of 39 depressed adults (85% female, mean age 38) were signaled twice per week throughout the course of either cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or self-system therapy (SST). Results showed that, on days when participants reported greater use of therapy skills, they reported better mood and functioning in almost all domains. Additionally, participants in CBT reported greater use of cognitive skills while participants in SST reported greater use of self-regulatory skills. This study demonstrates that repeated assessments of daily events and experiences, which prevent retrospective reporting biases, further confirm the importance of therapy skill use as a mechanism of action in psychotherapy.

The cascade of positive events: Does exercise on a given day increase the frequency of additional positive events?

Research suggests exercise promotes well-being while reducing the risk and symptoms of certain psychiatric disorders. Similarly, positive events improve quality of life and may minimize the impact of negative life events; a dearth of positive events is also associated with increased psychiatric symptoms. Thus, increasing physical exercise and the occurrence of positive events is central to well-being promotion. Behavioral activation theory suggests the occurrence of one positive event increases the likelihood of engaging in subsequent positive events. We used a daily diary approach to examine this possible positive cascade, exploring relationships between exercise and positive social and achievement events. For three weeks, participants (N=179) completed questionnaires at the end of each day. Multi-level modeling analyses revealed that daily exercise predicted increased positive social and achievement events on the same day. Exercise on one day also predicted greater positive social events on the subsequent day. Positive events did not affect exercise on the next day. Findings suggest that exercise creates a positive cascade, increasing positive social and achievement events experienced on the same day and positive social events on the following day.

Daily discrimination and binge eating among lesbians: a pilot study

ABSTRACTCross-sectional research has shown that discrimination is associated with increased negative affect and binge eating among lesbian women. However, the relation between discrimination and binge eating on a daily basis has received limited empirical examination. We posit that discrimination can represent a form of aversive self-awareness such that after experiencing discrimination, individuals may become more conscious of society’s negative feelings towards sexual minorities. Participants were recruited through Facebook and LGBT organisations. A sample of 30 lesbian women aged 18–30 who reported binge eating in the past week completed daily measures of discrimination, negative affect, self-awareness and binge eating for 10 days. Hierarchical linear modelling showed that daily discrimination was associated with greater daily negative affect and lowered daily self-awareness. Daily negative affect was associated with reduced self-awareness, which in turn was associated with more binge eating. These results are consistent with escape theory and demonstrate the negative impact that daily discrimination has on binge eating in daily life among lesbian women via negative affect and lowered self-awareness. This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of using a daily diary approach to examine discrimination as a risk factor for disordered eating behaviour among lesbian women.

Sleep duration moderates the association between insula activation and risky decisions under stress in adolescents and adults

Insufficient sleep has been associated with increased risk-taking and poor decision-making, enhanced physiological responses to stress, and attenuated anterior insula (AI) activity to risk. The AI has also been linked to risky decision-making under acute stress. However, it is yet unknown how naturalistic sleep habits affect risky decision-making and AI activity when individuals feel stressed. In the current study, a daily diary approach was used to document participants' daily stress. Adolescents and adults reported their recent sleep duration and completed two fMRI visits during which they performed a risky decision-making task: once each when they endorsed a high and low level of stress. Results revealed that, regardless of age, individuals who reported receiving more sleep took fewer non-advantageous risks during high stress relative to those who reported receiving fewer hours of sleep per night while sleep duration was not associated with risky behavior under low stress. Among individuals who reported less sleep, those who exhibited reduced AI activation during risk-taking under high stress also took more disadvantageous risks whereas this effect was attenuated for those who reported longer sleep duration. Moreover, longer sleep duration was associated with greater functional coupling between the AI and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) under high stress whereas sleep duration was not associated with AI-DLPFC functional coupling under low stress. These findings suggest that naturalistic sleep duration may amplify the effects of daily stress and alter risky decision-making behavior through interactions with the AI.

Proud to Stay or Too Proud to Stay? How Pride in Personal Performance Develops and How It Affects Turnover Intentions

Although a considerable amount of research has been devoted to the formation of turnover intentions, the influence of pride in personal performance (PP), which is one of the most frequently felt workplace emotions, has been largely neglected. Employing a three-stage study design, this article explores how PP develops and how it affects turnover intentions among frontline employees. First, relying on affective events theory, a prestudy that employs a qualitative diary approach was performed to empirically identify work events that are the primary causes of PP. The prestudy was followed by Study 1, which applied a quantitative research design to determine which job characteristics promote these events. Finally, Study 2 utilized three-wave panel data of frontline employees to investigate the effects of PP on turnover intentions. The findings of the latter study confirm that PP triggers two processes that contrarily affect turnover intentions: (1) PP enhances job satisfaction, which decreases turnover intentions, and (2) PP increases self-efficacy, which enhances turnover intentions. However, further analyses reveal that the latter effect is not relevant for highly satisfied employees and that overall, increasing PP results in decreasing turnover intentions, suggesting that companies should foster PP to retain their frontline employees.

Day-to-day Consistency in Positive Parent-Child Interactions and Youth Well-Being.

The frequency of positive parent-child interactions is associated with youth adjustment. Yet, little is known about daily parent-child interactions and how day-to-day consistency in positive parent-child interactions may be linked to youth well-being. Using a daily diary approach, this study added to this literature to investigate whether and how day-to-day consistency in positive parent-child interactions was linked to youth depressive symptoms, risky behavior, and physical health. Participants were youth whose parents were employed in the IT division of a Fortune 500 company (N = 129, youth's mean age = 13.39, 55 % female), who participated in an 8 day daily diary study. Analyses revealed that, controlling for cross-day mean levels of positive parent-child interactions, older (but not younger) adolescents who experienced more consistency in positive interactions with parents had fewer depressive and physical health symptoms (e.g., colds, flu). The discussion focuses on the utility of daily diary methods for assessing the correlates of consistency in parenting, possible processes underlying these associations, and intervention implications.

Spillover of Marital Interactions and Parenting Stress in Families of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Few disorders appear to be more challenging for parents than autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little is known about the extent to which parenting stress experienced by parents of children with ASD affects or is affected by marital quality. We examined daily spillover between level of parenting stress and marital interactions in a sample of 176 married couples (89.4% Caucasian, non-Hispanic) who have a child with ASD (5–12 years of age, 85% male) via a 14-day daily diary approach. On each day of the daily diary, parents individually reported on 8 positive and 8 negative marital interactions and their level of parenting stress. Dyadic multilevel modeling analyses using hierarchical linear modeling were conducted to examine same-day and lagged-effect associations between number of positive and negative marital interactions and level of parenting stress. Having a day with a higher number of negative marital interactions was associated with a higher level of parenting stress for both mothers and fathers of children with ASD. Having a day with fewer positive marital interactions was associated with having a more stressful parenting day for mothers of children with ASD. Same-day spillover was moderated by parent gender and the functioning of the child with ASD. Spillover flowed bidirectionally for mothers of children with ASD. Helping parents of children with ASD find ways to engage in positive marital interactions on stressful parenting days and avoid having negative affect, tension, and behaviors stemming from negative marital interactions spill into parenting experiences are important intervention targets.

Affective instability in patients with chronic pain: a diary approach.

Affective instability, conceptualized as fluctuations in mood over time, has been related to ill-health and psychopathology. In this study, we examined the role of affective instability on daily pain outcomes in 70 patients with chronic pain (Mage = 49.7 years; 46 females) using an end-of-day diary. During a baseline phase, patients completed self-reported questionnaires of pain severity, pain duration, disability, depression, and anxiety. During a subsequent diary phase, patients filled out an electronic end-of-day diary over 14 consecutive days assessing daily levels of pain severity, disability, cognitive complaints, negative affect (NA) and positive affect. Affective instability was operationalized as the mean square of successive differences in daily mood (separately for NA and positive affect), which takes into account the size of affective changes over consecutive days. Results indicated that NA instability was positively associated with daily disability, beyond the effects of daily pain severity. Furthermore, NA instability moderated the relationship between daily pain severity and daily disability and the relationship between daily pain severity and daily cognitive complaints. Positive affect instability, however, showed to be unrelated to all outcomes. Current findings extend previous results and reveal the putative role of affective instability on pain-related outcomes and may yield important clinical implications. Indeed, they suggest that targeting NA instability by improving emotion regulation skills may be a strategy to diminish disability and cognitive complaints in patients with chronic pain.

Examining the relationship between daily changes in support and smoking around a self-set quit date.

Social support from one's partner is assumed to be beneficial for successful smoking cessation. However, thus far, no study has examined the fine-grained temporal dynamics of daily support and smoking in the process of quitting. In this longitudinal mobile phone study, smokers (N = 100, 28% women, mean age = 40.48 years) reported daily number of cigarettes smoked and how much smoking-specific emotional and instrumental social support they received from their partner for 10 days before and 21 days after a self-set quit date. Nonsmoking partners' (N = 99, mean age = 38.95 years) reports of provision of support were assessed to validate the smokers' self-reports regarding support received. Time-lagged analyses were conducted using a change-predicting-change model. Prior and concurrent increases in received emotional smoking-specific support were related to less smoking. Effects were more pronounced after the quit date, which is when support is most needed. Prior change in smoking did not predict change in received support. Results with partner reports of provision of support and results with instrumental support were almost identical. Daily changes in social support preceded and accompanied daily changes in smoking particularly after a self-set quit date. Findings emphasize the need for a prospective daily diary approach to understand the dynamics of social support in smoking cessation.

Sex in Its Daily Relational Context.

The present study measured the daily correlates of sexual behavior in an ecologically valid context by relying on a daily diary approach. Examining the dyadic and multicomponent nature of sexual behavior is essential to create valid models of sexual responding that are better aligned with the day-to-day context of having sex in a relationship. During 3 weeks, heterosexual couples completed, two times a day, an electronic diary to report on mood, own and perceived partner behavior, relational feelings (in the evening), sexual activity, physical intimacy, and masturbation (in the morning). This design allowed testing bidirectional temporal associations between daily context and different types of sexual behavior. Positive mood, displays of positive partner behavior, perceived positive partner behavior, and positive relational feelings predicted more sexual activity and intimacy in men, which then further increased their positive mood, perceived positive partner behavior, and positive feelings about the relationship on the following day. Women showed a similar pattern of predictors regarding sexual activity as men, though the effect of sexual behavior on next-day feelings and behavior was more relationship-oriented rather than affecting personal mood. Intimacy was related to almost all daily variables in women, but related only to own and perceived positive partner behavior and positive relational feelings the next day. Several partner effects also reached significance, and these were more influential in predicting male than female intimacy. Solitary sexual activity showed a different pattern of results than dyadic sexual activity, with men experiencing masturbation as negatively in the context of their relationship. These results confirm the regulatory function of sex and intimacy in maintaining a positive relational climate and indicate that the quality of the everyday relational context is important to get partners in the mood to act in a sexual way.

Art as mode and medium: a pedagogical approach to teaching and learning about self-reflexivity and artistic expression in qualitative research

ABSTRACTThis article highlights the ways in which arts-based approaches to research can be used in teaching and learning about the qualitative research process. Specifically, in our qualitative research class graduate students used the arts as a form of reflexivity to highlight various aspects of their research process, including their positionality, their values, any ethical issues that arose during the research process, and the various methodological steps taken. This collaborative article features the voices of the instructor and three graduate students, who used the mediums of visual art, a blog and a digital diary approach to represent their reflexivity. From the voice of the instructor, we share her rationale for using arts-based approaches in the classroom, her detailed assignment, and the ways in which we can incorporate the arts in teaching about qualitative research. In the form of case examples, three graduate students illustrate their unique qualitative research studies, describing their approach and how they incorporated various artistic mediums as a form of reflexivity within their research. Concluding thoughts will discuss the strengths, limitations and possibilities of using arts-based approaches to teaching and learning about qualitative research.

Egocentric contact networks in comparison: Taiwan and Hungary

This study compares the size and structure of egocentric networks in Taiwan and Hungary using a diary approach. Both countries have transformed from authoritarian regimes to democratic states, yet they differ in social, economic, and cultural institutions that may be common to the respective larger region where each is located. To sample the structure of each egocentric network, we extracted information from largely identical contact diaries collected in both countries, 51 from Taiwan and 138 from Hungary. After comparing sample characteristics, network size, and composition, we construct a Strength of Ties (SoT) index based on two objective and two subjective measures of ego-alter ties. We then use this index to analyze tie strength by the types of relationships. On average, the number of alters contacted in one week is much larger in Taiwan than in Hungary, and the gap remains unchanged after controlling for key socio-demographic background factors. Even though the four indicators that we use to construct the SoT index are distributed similarly among the respondents in both Taiwan and Hungary, the composite index pinpoints how the types of relationships play somewhat different roles across the nations. The findings imply that the tendency to maintain only the closest ties with kin and other close friends is linked to distrust in others, a possible ill effect lingering from the authoritarian past. The implication is partially supported by further analyses using the ISSP 2006 survey data. We address how our findings may contribute to the existing literature on the linkage between societal characteristics and interpersonal ties.

Leading to customer loyalty: a daily test of the service-profit chain

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore a dynamic version of the service-profit chain. The paper examines the relationship between daily leadership behaviors, daily job satisfaction and daily employee engagement on customer outcomes in a service-based context.Design/methodology/approach– Using multi-level, dyadic data from employees and customers, the paper used a diary (within-person) approach to investigate the proposed relationships on a daily basis. Data from employees (n= 29) collected over five days were matched specifically to customer data (n= 592) during the same time period.Findings– The findings suggest that daily transformational leadership behaviors positively affect daily job satisfaction and employee engagement, which subsequently affect beneficial customer outcomes (i.e. perceptions of quality, satisfaction and loyalty).Research limitations/implications– The relationship between employee attitudes and performance may have been underestimated in the past due to the way the relationship has been studied and that the inclusion of additional predictors better defines this relationship. Methodologically, the use of a daily diary study suggests that it may be much more advantageous to study the theorized relationship in its transient form (i.e. daily, weekly, etc.) versus as stable and enduring attitudes as leaders’ behaviors and employees’ level of engagement will change from day to day in most service-based contexts due to its dynamic nature.Practical implications– The results equip organizations with a clearer picture in delivering high-quality service and its associated beneficial customer outcomes (i.e. perceptions of quality, satisfaction and loyalty). Such insight may be used to influence leadership training that aims to create and maintain an engaged and productive workforce, ultimately providing increased bottom-line performance for the organization.Originality/value– By including additional linkages into a model that aids in predicting important customer outcomes allows us to better understand the relationship. In addition, by studying the relationships from a transient perspective, it provides important information to service organizations that operate in extremely dynamic environments.

Feeling old today? Daily health, stressors, and affect explain day-to-day variability in subjective age

Objectives: Subjective age is an important correlate of health, well-being, and longevity. So far, little is known about short-term variability in subjective age and the circumstances under which individuals feel younger/older in daily life. This study examined whether (a) older adults’ felt age fluctuates on a day-to-day basis, (b) daily changes in health, stressors, and affect explain fluctuations in felt age, and (c) the daily associations between felt age and health, stressors, or affect are time-ordered.Method: Using an eight-day daily diary approach, N = 43 adults (60–96 years, M = 74.65, SD = 8.19) filled out daily questionnaires assessing subjective age, health, daily stressors, and affect. Data were analysed using multilevel modelling.Main outcome measures: Subjective age, health, daily stressors, affect.Results: Intra-individual variability in felt age was not explained by time but by short-term variability in other variables. Specifically, on days when participants experienced more than average health problems, stress, or negative affect they felt older than on days with average health, stress, or negative affect. No time-ordered effects were found.Conclusion: Bad health, many stressors, and negative affective experiences constitute circumstances under which older adults feel older than they typically do. Thus, daily measures of subjective age could be markers of health and well-being.

Use of diaries in research.

This article presents an overview of the diary as a popular method for data collection in nursing and health research. The context for using diaries as a data collection tool is considered and the nature and purpose of the diary and its relationship with health care are examined. The author reflects on different types of diary and their use in data collection, and explores the advantages and disadvantages of using a diary approach to data collection in health care.

Links between unmitigated communion, interpersonal behaviors and well-being: A daily diary approach

We examined the links between unmitigated communion, interpersonal behavior, and well-being on a daily basis with 79 college students. After completing a baseline questionnaire, participants completed brief on-line questionnaires at the end of the day to assess support interactions, interpersonal behavior, and well-being for 10 consecutive days. We used multi-level modeling to examine whether unmitigated communion was connected to support and interpersonal behavior, whether support and interpersonal behavior were connected to well-being, and whether unmitigated communion moderated the latter relations. Unmitigated communion was related to increased support provision and a host of interpersonal difficulties. Daily support provision and being overly nurturant were positively related to well-being, but these relations were limited to individuals characterized by low unmitigated communion.

Age differences in prospective memory for everyday life intentions: A diary approach

The age benefit found in many naturalistic prospective memory (PM) tasks has been taken as evidence that PM performance in real life may be spared from aging. However, this conclusion lacks empirical confirmation. Hence, the aim of the present study was to examine possible age differences in the content of everyday PM intentions and their performance. Everyday PM was assessed in young and older adults using a diary approach. Results confirmed a general age benefit for real-life PM tasks. Importantly, this finding was qualified by revealing that the benefit only held true for specific types of intentions such as health and social intentions. Further, moderation analyses showed that the relationships between cognitive functioning and everyday PM were different for young and older adults. While better inhibition, short-term and long-term memory were related with successful PM performance in the young, this was not the case in the older adults. The present findings suggest that the age benefit found in naturalistic experimenter-given tasks extends to real-life PM performance, but may differ depending on the type of intention. Furthermore, cognitive functioning predicts performance in the young, but not in the older adults.

How people move to rural areas: Insights in the residential search process from a diary approach

Given the ascribed importance of in-migration for the development of rural areas, it is remarkable that little attention is paid to how people end up in a specific rural place. This paper closely addresses the way in which the decision-making process of rural in-migrants takes place during their residential search. To do so, we experiment with the diary approach; a novel method in studying the residential search processes. Our findings indicate that the search process of home seekers in rural areas in the northern Netherlands is not always linear, and that based on their search process, different groups of searchers can be distinguished. The search areas of local, regional and distant searchers not only seem to differ in scale, but also in the extent to which they change over the course of the process. Whereas local movers began searching in their own or in neighbouring villages, and continued to do so throughout the search process, most regional and distant searchers started their search in one region but ended up somewhere completely different. Previous contact with an area, resulting in positive perceptions, appears to be essential for including an area in the search space. Our findings also suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the role of perceived social characteristics of rural areas in residential choice. Following searchers over time with a partly qualitative diary approach shows the non-linearity of the process, the role of representations, the more emotional aspects of residential decision-making and the influence of coincidence on the process.

Using a Daily Diary Approach to Understand the Psychological Experiences of Making Weight

Making weight refers to the process of reducing body weight to compete in weight-categorized sports. The current study explored judo athletes’ psychological experiences of making weight. Six international standard judo athletes participated for the length of time they required to make weight. An unstructured diary was used to collect data daily, supported by a follow-up interview. Data were analyzed using a holistic content analysis. Emergent themes included initiating the making weight process, competing demands of dual roles, temptation, impacts of restricted nutrition, and the desire for social support. Athlete stories provided rich descriptions of their experiences, revealing the extent to which difficulties were concealed and the process of making weight was normalized. Their accounts highlight the challenges associated with social support but the value of emotional disclosure. Future research should explore the potential uses of diaries as a form of disclosure.

Psychotic reactivity to daily life stress and the dopamine system: a study combining experience sampling and [18F]fallypride positron emission tomography.

Stressful life events increase the risk for psychosis, and the subjective experience of stress related to daily life activities drives moment-to-moment variation in psychotic intensity. Positron emission tomography (PET) studies suggest that dopaminergic (DAergic) activity mediates the behavioral response to an experimental stressor. However, it is not known how alterations in this DAergic stress response relate to the subjective experience of stress in real life situations assessed in momentary assessment studies. This study combined [18F]fallypride PET with an Experience Sampling ambulatory assessment approach to examine the association between the prefrontal DAergic response to experimentally induced stress and real life psychotic reactivity to the subjective experience of stress in daily life. Healthy first-degree relatives of individuals with a psychotic disorder (N = 14) and healthy controls (N = 11) participated in (a) a psychosocial [18F]fallypride PET stress paradigm and (b) an experience sampling study, using a structured diary approach. Mixed multilevel random intercept models revealed that stress-induced [18F]fallypride displacement, indicative of DAergic activity, in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) was associated with psychotic reactivity to daily life stress in the entire sample. Lower levels of [18F]fallypride displacement to stress predicted increased psychotic reactivity to daily life stress. This study combined PET neuroimaging with real life behavioral assessments in the investigation of psychotic symptoms; we showed decreased [18F]fallypride displacement to stress in VMPFC to be associated with increased psychotic reactivity to daily life stress. The preliminary evidence in this study demonstrates that it is possible to acquire a grasp on how brain function is associated with contextualized experience, which has relevance for neuroimaging studies in general.