Loneliness and sleep in everyday life: Using ecological momentary assessment to characterize the shape of daily loneliness experience.

Background: Loneliness has been linked to an increased risk of sleep problems. Past research has largely relied on trait loneliness or daily recall loneliness when evaluating associations with sleep.

Objective: The present study extended this work by evaluating the patterns of loneliness throughout the day, including a daily average of all reports, a maximum value, and daily variation.

Variances in Smoking Expectancies Predict Moment-to-Moment Smoking Behaviors in Everyday Life.

Background: Many policy decisions about tobacco control are predicated on rational choice models, which posit (1) that smokers are aware of the risks of cigarettes and (2) that perceived risks have a consistent influence on continued smoking behavior. However, research shows that beliefs about smoking may be vulnerable to changes in internal and external contexts.

Methods: Using ecological momentary assessment, we tested this by measuring how smokers' (N = 52) beliefs about smoking varied over time.

Examining how morning stress forecasts relate to subsequent ecological momentary assessments of stress and coping.

Stress forecasting is the cognitive process of anticipating and preparing to respond to future stress experiences based on one's own perceived future stress. Though it may seem intuitive that stress forecasting predicts stress, competing theories exist that indicate the relationship is not so inherent. In this paper we conducted two studies which both examine the relationships between stress forecasting and day stress, examining two different stress domains (appraisal and coping).

Mindfulness mechanisms in everyday life: examining variance in acceptance, attention monitoring, decentering, self-compassion, and nonreactivity and their links to negative emotions among a workplace sample.

Theoretical work proposes that acceptance, attention monitoring, decentering, self-compassion, and nonreactivity are mechanisms that explain beneficial effects of mindfulness training. Yet, whether these mechanisms represent independent constructs and whether they naturally vary within person is unclear. This study examined whether mindfulness mechanisms represent independent constructs that naturally fluctuate within a person over time, and whether these fluctuations differentially relate to negative emotions.

Acute Experiences of Negative Interpersonal Interactions: Examining the Dynamics of Negative Mood and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Responses Among Black and Hispanic Urban Adults.

Background: Negative interpersonal interactions are associated with acute increases in ambulatory blood pressure (ABP). Yet, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are unclear.

Purpose: This study tested whether negative interpersonal interactions predict higher ABP both in the moment and during subsequent observations, and whether increases in negative mood mediate these relations.

Trait Hostility Moderates the Relationships Between Work Environments and Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Momentary Affect.

Objective: Hostility is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality, but less is known about when hostility poses greatest risk. Work environments can be characterized by features that are reactive for high-hostile individuals. Using a person by environment approach, this article tested whether hostility interacted with work location to predict the cardiovascular disease risk factors of ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and momentary affect.

Hugs and Cortisol Awakening Response the Next Day: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Previous research suggests that affectionate touch such as hugs might downregulate stress systems such as the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. However, the current literature lacks in generalizability beyond the laboratory setting and outside the context of romantic relationships. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a measure of the HPA axis and is responsive to daily fluctuations in stress and social information.

Computing Components of Everyday Stress Responses: Exploring Conceptual Challenges and New Opportunities.

Repeated assessments in everyday life enables collecting ecologically valid data on dynamic, within-persons processes. These methods have widespread utility and application and have been extensively used for the study of stressors and stress responses. Enhanced conceptual sophistication of characterizing intraindividual stress responses in everyday life would help advance the field.

The Implementation of Behavior Change Techniques in mHealth Apps for Sleep: Systematic Review.

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) apps targeting health behaviors using behavior change techniques (BCTs) have been successful in promoting healthy behaviors; however, their efficacy with sleep is unclear. Some work has shown success in promoting sleep through mHealth, whereas there have been reports that sleep apps can be adverse and lead to unhealthy obsessions with achieving perfect sleep.

Objective: This study aims to report and describe the use of BCTs in mHealth apps for sleep with the following research questions: How many BCTs are used on average in sleep apps, and does this relate to their effectiveness on sleep outcomes? Are there specific BCTs used more or less often in sleep apps, and does this relate to their effectiveness on sleep outcomes? Does the effect of mHealth app interventions on sleep change when distinguishing between dimension and measurement of sleep?

Methods: We conducted a systematic review following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines to review articles on mHealth app interventions for sleep published between 2010 and 2020.

Testing the Associations Between State and Trait Anxiety, Anger, Sadness, and Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Whether Race Impacts These Relationships.

Background: Anxiety, anger, and sadness are related to elevated ambulatory blood pressure (ABP), yet it is unclear whether each emotion exerts unique effects. Moreover, an understanding of who might be most susceptible to the negative effects of these emotions is limited, with the trait tendency to experience them or one's race as potential moderators.

Purpose: The study examined the potential for differential effects of momentary anxiety, anger, and sadness on ABP.

Variations and Patterns in Sleep: A Feasibility Study of Young Carers in Families with ALS.

Introduction: Children and youth under the age of 19 provide daily care for family members living with illness, including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Caregiving affects school performance, social support, stress, and anxiety. Yet, little is known about potential disruptions in sleep.

Psychosocial stressors predict lower cardiovascular disease risk among Mexican-American adults living in a high-risk community: Findings from the Texas City Stress and Health Study.

The objective of this study was to examine the link between systemic and general psychosocial stress and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in a group of U.S. Latinos as a function of acculturation and education within the blended guiding conceptual framework of the biopsychosocial model of the stress process plus the reserve capacity model.

Comparing multidimensional facets of stress with social, emotional, and physical well-being using ecological momentary assessment among a Hispanic sample.

Stress is multidimensional, including exposure, subjective appraisals, perceived coping, rumination, and worry. Although research has shown each dimension can predict poor social, emotional, and subjective well-being, rarely have these dimensions of stress been compared as one is experiencing stress. This paper used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to repeatedly measure stress dimensions and self-reported health to test whether each stress dimension has a unique relationship with well-being over time at the between-person and within-person levels.

Loneliness and psychological distress in everyday life among Latinx college students.

Objective: Changes in surroundings and social relationships may heighten feelings of loneliness, suggesting the need to measure as a state. This study tested whether loneliness fluctuates within and across days and the resultant associations with psychological distress. Further it tested familism as a moderator as endorsing this cultural value may buffer the negative effects of state loneliness.

All the lonely people: Comparing the effects of loneliness as a social stressor to non-lonely stress on blood pressure recovery.

Objective: This study examined whether recalling a social stress that evoked lonely feelings produces greater affective and blood pressure responses than recalling non-social stress or a relaxing event.

Methods: Young adults (n = 114) underwent one of three inductions: recalling a social stressor in which one felt lonely, recalling a non-social non-lonely stressor, and relaxation. Negative affect was assessed during baseline, induction, and recovery.

Intra-individual Associations of Perceived Stress, Affective Valence, and Affective Arousal with Momentary Cortisol in a Sample of Working Adults.

Background: Research pairing ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology and ambulatory cortisol during daily life is still rare, as is careful testing of the within-person associations between stress, affect, and cortisol. Using a circumplex approach, we considered both valence and arousal components of affect.

Purpose: To examine the within-person covariation of momentary cortisol with momentary perceived stress, affective valence, and affective arousal in everyday life.

When belongingness backfires: experienced discrimination predicts increased cardiometabolic risk among college students high in social belonging.

Research implicates experiences of discrimination in exacerbating cardiometabolic disease (CMD) risk. Belongingness has been suggested as a buffer against the adverse effects of discrimination. However, when discrimination occurs in an environment to which one feels they belong, then the potential benefits of belongingness may dissipate or even exacerbate the effects of discrimination.

Horizontal Collectivism Moderates the Relationship Between in-the-Moment Social Connections and Well-Being Among Latino/a College Students.

Sleep problems and poorer well-being may be particularly salient for Latino/a college students as they tend to experience sociocultural adjustments during this transitory time. Social connections, a correlate of health, change moment-to-moment for college students and may be experienced differently for people who more strongly endorse horizontal collectivist cultural values. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine how in-the-moment social connections influence in-the-moment health, and how horizontal collectivism moderates the moment-to-moment associations.

A novel approach to delivery of extracorporeal support using a modified continuous flow ventricular assist device in a mid-volume congenital heart program.

Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is an essential component of a modern congenital cardiac surgery program. The circuit components and bedside management team may, however, vary among institutions. Here, we evaluate our initial experience with a modified ventricular assist device-based ECLS circuit primarily managed by the bedside nurse.

The Intersections of Race, Gender, Age, and Socioeconomic Status: Implications for Reporting Discrimination and Attributions to Discrimination.

This study employed an intersectional approach (operationalized as the combination of more than one social identity) to examine the relationship between aspects of social identity (i.e., race, gender, age, SES), self-reported level of mistreatment, and attributions for discrimination.

Everyday stress components and physical activity: examining reactivity, recovery and pileup.

The experience of naturally-occurring stress in daily life has been linked with lower physical activity levels. However, most of this evidence comes from general and static reports of stress. Less is known how different temporal components of everyday stress interfere with physical activity.

Understanding stress reports in daily life: a coordinated analysis of factors associated with the frequency of reporting stress.

Although stress is a common experience in everyday life, a clear understanding of how often an individual experiences and reports stress is lacking. Notably, there is little information regarding factors that may influence how frequently stress is reported, including which stress dimension is measured (i.e.

Age differences in everyday stressor-related negative affect: A coordinated analysis.

Advancing age is often characterized by preserved or even enhanced emotion regulation, which is thought to manifest in terms of age-related reductions in the within-person association between stressors and negative affect. Existing research from ecological momentary assessment and end-of-day daily diary studies examining such age-related benefits have yielded mixed results, potentially due to differences in samples, design, and measurement of everyday stressors and negative affect. We conducted a coordinated analysis of 5 ecological momentary assessments and 2 end-of-day daily diary studies to examine adult age differences in the within-person association between everyday stressors and negative affect.

Perseverative Cognitions and Stress Exposure: Comparing Relationships With Psychological Health Across a Diverse Adult Sample.

Background: Both exposure to stress and perseverative cognitions (PCs)-repetitive cognitive representations of real or imagined stressors-are linked with poor psychological health. Yet, stress exposure and PCs are correlated, thus potentially obscuring any unique effects.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to concurrently test associations between stress exposure and PCs and psychological health to examine the independent relationship of each with psychological health.