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The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 12 May 2020. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4878591.v1., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Objective: To evaluate the metric properties of distinct measures of psychological personal factors comprising feelings, beliefs, motives, and patterns of experience and behaviour assessed in the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI), using Rasch methodology., Methods: SwiSCI Pathway 2 is a community-based, nationwide, cross-sectional survey for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) (n = 511). The Rasch partial credit model was used for each subscale of the Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), Appraisal of Life Events Scale (ALE), Purpose in Life test - Short Form (PIL-SF), and the Big Five Inventory-K (BFI-K)., Results: The measures were unidimensional, with the exception of the positive affect items of the PANAS, where pairwise t-tests resulted in 10% significant cases, indicating multidimensionality. The BFI-K subscale agreeableness revealed low reliability (0.53). Other reliability estimates ranged between 0.61 and 0.89. Ceiling and floor effects were found for most measures. SCI-related differential item functioning (DIF) was rarely found. Language DIF was identified for several items of the BFI-K, PANAS and the ALE, but not for the PIL-SF., Conclusion: A majority of the measures satisfy the assumptions of the Rasch model, including unidimensionality. Invariance across language versions still represents a major challenge.

Expressive writing is beneficial for promoting both positive psychological and physical health outcomes. Unfortunately, inhibiting emotions is related to impairments in psychological and physical health. James Pennebaker and others have used expressive writing as an experimental manipulation to gauge its efficacy in treating a wide variety of physical and psychological outcomes. While many studies have been conducted that examine the efficacy of expressive writing across such outcomes, a considerable amount of these studies tend to neglect necessary considerations, such as different levels of symptomatology, power, and meaningfulness of respective effect sizes. Six previous meta-analyses have been conducted that examine expressive writing's effect on psychological outcomes. However, these studies focus on the experimental versus control group effect size. Thus, our meta-analysis sought to examine the efficacy of an expressive writing task on only the experimental conditions in studies measuring posttraumatic stress, posttraumatic growth, and quality of life using random effects models. Results indicated a small overall effect size for posttraumatic stress and negligible to small effect sizes for posttraumatic growth and quality of life. However, those studies requiring a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibited a medium to large effect size. Implications for future research design and interpretation of published research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives This study's purpose was to assess perceived meaning in adolescents. Specifically, our goals were to examine the psychometric properties of the Purpose in Life test-Short Form (PIL-SF) and its ability to predict psychological outcomes in an adolescent sample. Method Aspects of well-being (self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and resilience) and psychological distress (posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and general stress) were assessed in a sample of adolescents ( N = 91; 58.2% female; mean age = 14.89) receiving clinical services following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Results Meaning was positively associated with life satisfaction, self-efficacy, and resilience, and negatively associated with posttraumatic stress and depression. Meaning was not significantly related to anxiety or general stress. Females reported significantly more meaning than males, while no significant differences were noted by race/ethnicity. Conclusions The PIL-SF is a useful measure with adolescents. Moreover, meaning is an important concept to consider with respect to disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that non-clinical women, particularly those with high body concern, engage in frequent body checking behaviors. The purpose of this study was to use ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine the frequency and correlates of body checking behavior, including its association with body image dissatisfaction and negative affect, in non-clinical women with high body concern. Undergraduate female participants with high body concern (n=22) were assessed five times per day for five days via text messages sent to their smart phones. During each assessment, participants reported the number of times they engaged in eight different body checking behaviors and their current level of negative affect and body dissatisfaction. After aggregation, a total of 3064 body checking behaviors were reported by the sample during the five-day period. All participants reported engaging in body checking at least once per day, with a mean of 27.85 checking behaviors per day. Hierarchical Linear Modeling revealed that body checking significantly predicted both body dissatisfaction and negative affect. These results provide preliminary support for the cognitive behavioral theory of eating disorders, suggesting that as women engage in more frequent body checking behaviors, they also experience higher levels of body dissatisfaction and negative affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]