Boosts for walking: how humorous messages increase brisk walking among cognitively fatigued individuals.

BACKGROUND: A well-studied internal barrier to regular physical activity, and more specifically brisk walking, is cognitive fatigue. However, thus far little research examined how cognitively fatigued individuals can be motivated to exercise, more specifically to engage in brisk walking. This study investigates whether humorous intervention messages might be an effective strategy to motivate cognitively fatigued individuals to brisk walk, and through which underlying processes. METHODS: An online experiment was performed in which variation in cognitive fatigue was induced through mental arithmetic questions. Afterwards, participants (n = 250) recruited through Prolific, randomly received either humorous or non-humorous intervention messages related to brisk walking. Potential mediators of the relations between physical activity, humour and cognitive fatigue were measured, were self-efficacy, self-control, and motivation. RESULTS: First, regression analyses confirmed that cognitive fatigue negatively influences brisk walking intentions and that the perceived humour of the intervention messages moderated this relationship. Second, results showed that self-control and self-efficacy are mediators explaining the relationship between cognitive fatigue and brisk walking intentions. Lastly, this study found that perceived humour of the intervention messages moderated the relationship between cognitive fatigue and self-control, indicating that perceptions of self-control were positively changed after receiving messages that were perceived as humorous compared to messages that were not perceived as humorous, subsequently increasing brisk walking intentions. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to unravel the underlying relationship between humorous intervention messages and brisk walking intentions through positive changes in perceptions of self-control within a cognitively fatigued sample. Results of this study suggest that existing smartphone applications monitoring and promoting brisk walking should integrate tailored message strategies within their cues to brisk walk by implementing humour as a strategy to motivate users when they are cognitively fatigued.

The Facts or the Story? It Takes Both to Sensitize People About Unknown Health Hazards.

Communicating about new or unknown health risks is challenging because it requires audiences to engage with and process novel and often complex health information. This study examines how texts can convey awareness and increase knowledge about health risks people are unaware of. The focus is on how text genre (narrative, expository, and mixed-genre) affects relevant emotional (arousal, transportation) and cognitive outcomes (knowledge and risk severity), measured using both online (electrodermal activity) and offline self-report measures. Mixed-effects model analyses revealed that narrative texts exhibit the highest self-reported arousal, transportation, and risk severity. Additionally, transportation mediates the relationship between text genre and risk severity. Ultimately, mixed-genre texts produced significantly higher arousal peaks and confidence ratings on knowledge posttests compared to expository texts. Taken together, the findings suggest that narrative texts perform better at raising awareness, whereas mixed-genre texts seem more effective in learning. The implications for health risk communication are discussed.

Supporting teachers to actively respond to bullying and to build positive relationships with their students: effects of the T-SUPPORT training.

Despite the central role that teachers can have in preventing and reducing bullying, they often feel insecure about how to deal with bullying. This study evaluated a short teacher training - called the Teachers SUPporting POsitive RelaTionships (T-SUPPORT) training - that aims to reduce bullying by supporting teachers in building positive teacher-student relationships and in actively dealing with bullying. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether the T-SUPPORT training resulted in higher quality teacher-student relationships, and more active and less passive responses to bullying incidents, and whether these improvements in turn resulted in lower levels of bullying victimization. In a Randomized Controlled Trial 10 Belgian primary schools were randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition. The Grades 4-6 teachers of the five schools in the intervention condition received the three-session school-based training; control teachers received no intervention. Grade 4-6 students (N = 964; 55 classrooms) in these schools completed questionnaires at pre- and post-test. In contrast to the hypotheses, results of the two-level linear mixed model analyses revealed no significant effect of the training on teacher-student relationship quality, teachers' responses to bullying and bullying victimization. Yet, higher quality teacher-student relationships and more active teacher responses to bullying were significantly associated with less bullying victimization, whereas more passive responses were linked with more victimization. The latter findings are in line with theorizing and research on the role that teachers can play in reducing bullying.

Pathways to informed choices: The impact of freedom of choice and two-sided messages on psychological reactance and vaccination intentions among individuals who express concerns.

BACKGROUND: Reducing the spread of infectious diseases through vaccination faces the challenge of vaccine hesitancy: referring to questions, concerns and doubts arising when making a vaccine-related decision. A motivational state often arising within people exposed to health messages supporting informed decision making is psychological reactance, functioning as a driver to behavior opposed to the one recommended through the health message. Hence, there is a pressing need for communication strategies effective in counteracting reactance to health messages. METHODS: This study tested two communication strategies that can potentially reduce psychological reactance and ameliorate evaluations of the message and subsequent behavioral vaccination intentions in the context of COVID-19. These were: (1) explicitly reminding individuals of their freedom of choice (to either accept or refuse the vaccine) and (2) providing a two-sided message, including, apart from evidence-based information on the necessity of vaccines, a set of concerns, and questions (about the vaccines) which are refuted immediately. A total of 234 participants who indicated having concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine participated in a 2 (freedom of choice: no choice vs. choice) × 2 (message sidedness: one-sided vs. two-sided) between-subjects online experiment where they received an informational brochure about COVID-19 vaccination. RESULTS: The results show that emphasizing freedom of choice significantly increased perceived credibility of the message, perceived information utility, and ultimately, vaccination intentions. A decrease in psychological reactance mediated these effects. Message sidedness did only show a significant direct effect on perceived information utility. No interaction effect was found. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate the importance of freedom of choice in reducing psychological reactance, which in its turn can lead to an increase of positive message evaluations and vaccination intentions among individuals who express concerns. The opportunities of message sidedness as an efficacious vaccination communication strategy should be further investigated.

Drug behaviors, sexually transmitted infection prevention, and sexual consent during chemsex: insights generated in the Budd app after each chemsex session.

Chemsex refers to the intentional use of drugs before or during sex in a specific context, typically involving prolonged sex sessions with multiple partners. Engaging in chemsex is associated with a wide range of health risks and related risk behaviors. We developed a mobile phone application ('Budd-app') to support and inform chemsex participants, reduce potential negative impacts associated with chemsex (e.g., physical, psychological and social health harms), and encourage more reasoned participation. During Budd's development process, 11 participants completed a survey after each chemsex session they attended. This data collection approach provided precise experiences on drug related behavior, prevention measures for sexually transmitted infection and sexual consent on 63 chemsex sessions. The mean duration of chemsex sessions was 17.5 h. Polydrug use was reported during 95% of chemsex sessions with an average of 3.5 agents per session. Unsafe dosing occurred at 49% of chemsex sessions, and 9/11 participants dosed unsafely at least once. Seven participants did not consistently take measures to prevent STI transmission. Nine had experienced peer pressure, both regarding drug use and sexual health. The same number reported sex without consent, not respecting others' boundaries as well as their own boundaries not being respected. Many participants experienced negative impact of their chemsex behavior during (7/9) and after (8/9) chemsex. Through participants' behavior assessment during multiple chemsex sessions, 'within-person' variability can be clarified. This clarification provides valuable insights in personal, emotional and contextual vulnerabilities. These insights can direct an individualized care and support trajectory aimed at addressing those vulnerabilities.

Features for Hate? Using the Delphi Method to Explore Digital Determinants for Online Hate Perpetration and Possibilities for Intervention.

Online hate speech on social media platforms causes harm to those who are victimized as well as society at large. The prevalence of hateful content has, thus, prompted numerous calls for improved countermeasures and prevention. For such interventions to be effective, it is necessary to gain a nuanced understanding of influences that facilitate the spread of hate speech. This study does so by investigating what are relevant digital determinants for online hate perpetration. Moreover, the study explores possibilities of different technology-driven interventions for prevention. Thereby, the study specifically considers the digital environments in which online hate speech is most often produced and disseminated, namely social media platforms. We apply frameworks related to the concept of digital affordances to focus on the role that technological features of these platforms play in the context of online hate speech. Data were collected using the Delphi method in which a selected sample of experts from both research and practice answered multiple rounds of surveys with the goal of reaching a group consensus. The study encompassed an open-ended collection of initial ideas, followed by a multiple-choice questionnaire to identify, and rate the most relevant determinants. Usefulness of the suggested intervention ideas was assessed through the three lenses of human-centered design. The results of both thematic analysis and non-parametric statistics yield insights on how features of social media platforms can be both determinants that facilitate online hate perpetration as well as crucial mechanisms of preventive interventions. Implications of these findings for future intervention development are discussed.

Co-Designing Communication: A Design Thinking Approach Applied to Radon Health Communication.

Indoor radon is a natural radioactive gas and is one of the leading causes of lung cancer. Despite multiple policy and communication interventions to increase radon testing and mitigation, the uptake of these measures remains insufficient. A participatory research design was applied in Belgium and Slovenia to probe the barriers and facilitators homeowners experience regarding radon protective behavior on the one hand and co-designing communication tools on the other hand. The results show that there remains a need for interventions on all levels (i.e., policy, economic interventions, and communication). Moreover, results indicated a need for a communication strategy that follows the different steps between awareness and performing mitigation measures. Further, involving the target group in the early stages of intervention design was beneficial. Future research is needed to test the effectiveness of the proposed communication strategies in a controlled setting.

"Meating halfway": Exploring the attitudes of meat eaters, veg*ns, and occasional meat eaters toward those who eat meat and those who do not eat meat.

Empirical studies have persistently reported negative attitudes of meat eaters toward vegetarians and vegans (veg*ns), but scant attention has been paid to veg*ns' attitudes toward meat eaters. We aimed to investigate the attitudes of meat eaters and veg*ns from both perspectives. In addition, we explored the attitudes of occasional meat eaters. We performed a cross-sectional study (Study 1) among meat eaters, veg*ns, and occasional meat eaters, as well as a content analysis of publicly available tweets (Study 2). Study 1 (N = 477, Mage = 23.45, SD = 5.91) showed that the attitudes of veg*ns toward meat eaters are significantly more negative compared to the attitudes of meat eaters toward veg*ns, but both were lower than the midpoint on scales measuring negative attitudes toward the other. Study 2 showed that only a small portion (<1%) of tweets (N = 1,328) on meat eating or veg*nism contained signs of negative attitudes. The two studies provide little evidence of the existence of strong negative attitudes.

Using Intervention Mapping to Develop an mHealth Intervention to Support Men Who Have Sex With Men Engaging in Chemsex (Budd): Development and Usability Study.

BACKGROUND: Chemsex refers to the intentional use of drugs before or during sex among men who have sex with men (MSM). Engaging in chemsex has been linked to significant negative impacts on physical, psychological, and social well-being. However, no evidence-based support tools have addressed either these harms or the care needs of MSM who engage in chemsex. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper was to describe the development of a mobile health intervention (named Budd) using the intervention mapping protocol (IMP). Budd aims to support and inform MSM who participate in chemsex, reduce the negative impacts associated with chemsex, and encourage more reasoned participation. METHODS: The IMP consists of 6 steps to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based health interventions. A needs assessment was carried out between September 2, 2019, and March 31, 2020, by conducting a literature study and in-depth interviews. Change objectives were selected based on these findings, after which theory-based intervention methods were selected. The first version of the intervention was developed in December 2020 and pilot-tested between February 1, 2021, and April 30, 2021. Adjustments were made based on the findings from this study. A separate article will be dedicated to the effectiveness study, conducted between October 15, 2021, and February 24, 2022, and implementation of the intervention. The Budd app went live in April 2022. RESULTS: Budd aims to address individual factors and support chemsex participants in applying harm reduction measures when taking drugs (drug information, drug combination tool, and notebook), preparing for participation in a chemsex session (articles on chemsex, preparation tool, and event-specific checklist), planning sufficient time after a chemsex session to recover (planning tool), seeking support for their chemsex participation (overview of existing local health care and peer support services, reflection, personal statistics, and user testimonials), taking HIV medication or pre-exposure prophylaxis in a timely manner during a chemsex session (preparation tool), and contacting emergency services in case of an emergency and giving first aid to others (emergency information and personal buddy). CONCLUSIONS: The IMP proved to be a valuable tool in the planning and development of the Budd app. This study provides researchers and practitioners with valuable information that may help them to set up their own health interventions. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR1-10.2196/39678.

Exploring the perceived negative and positive long-term impact of adolescent bullying victimization: A cross-national investigation.

Adolescent bullying victimization can have long-term mental health and well-being outcomes. This study focused on the potential mediating role of the perceived long-term negative and positive impact of adolescent bullying victimization to understand its relations with mental health and well-being problems during emerging adulthood. A retrospective study consisting of closed and open-ended questions was conducted among 1010 Flemish and 650 Dutch emerging adults aged 18-26. Path analyses among early victims (NFlemish = 644; NDutch = 217) demonstrated that the relations between bullying victimization intensity and current self-esteem, social interaction anxiety, and life satisfaction were all mediated by the perceived negative long-term impact of adolescent bullying victimization. Additionally, the open-ended questions provided a better understanding of the perceived negative and positive impact of adolescent bullying victimization. The present study offers insights into the importance of considering subjective perceptions of the overall impact of being bullied to understand long-term bullying victimization outcomes. Implications and limitations are discussed, including the need for longitudinal data-for instance, a three-wave panel study-to establish the temporal order of effects.

Physical Activity during the First Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating the Reliance on Digital Technologies, Perceived Benefits, Barriers and the Impact of Affect.

The measures to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have been concentrated on inviting people to stay at home. This has reduced opportunities to exercise while also shedding some light on the importance of physical health. Based on an online survey, this paper investigated physical activity behaviours of a Belgians sample (n = 427) during the lockdown period between the end of May 2020 and the beginning of June 2020 and found that, during this period, the gap between sufficiently and insufficiently active individuals widened even more. This paper analysed important moderators of physical activity behaviours, such as barriers and benefits to exercise, digital support used to exercise, and individuals' emotional well-being. Descriptive analysis and analyses of variance indicated that, generally, individuals significantly increased their engagement in exercise, especially light- and moderate-intensity activities, mostly accepted the listed benefits but refused the listed barriers, increased their engagement in digital support and did not score high on any affective measures. A comparison between sufficiently active and insufficiently active individuals during the lockdown showed that the former engaged even more in physical activity, whereas the latter exercised equally (i.e., not enough) or even less compared to before the lockdown. By means of a logistic regression, five key factors of belonging to the sufficiently active group were revealed and discussed. Practical implications for government and policies are reviewed.

Harm Reduction Practices and Needs in a Belgian Chemsex Context: Findings from a Qualitative Study.

Chemsex is a growing public health concern, with little evidence-based care and support available. The aim of this study is to understand current risk reduction practices, and the information and care needs of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) who engage in chemsex. Between January and March 2020, semi structured in-depth interviews with drug-using GBMSM (n = 20) were conducted. Data were analyzed thematically. The reported preparatory measures were: deliberately scheduling chemsex sessions, and discussing preferences regarding setting and attendees. During the event, a logbook is kept to monitor drugs taken by each participant. People try to take care of each other, but this is often counteracted. Respondents highlighted needs: reliable and easily-accessible information, anonymous medical and psychological healthcare, chemsex-specific care, and a value-neutral safe space to talk about chemsex experiences. Results imply two types of users: planned and impulsive users. Adherence to intended harm reduction practices are complicated by drug effects, peer pressure, and feelings of distrust among users.

Online Celebrity Bashing: Purely Relaxation or Stressful Confrontation? An Experimental Study on the Effects of Exposure to Online Celebrity Bashing on the Emotional Responses and Physiological Arousal Among Adolescent Bystanders.

Adolescents regularly observe practices of online celebrity bashing. Existing research pointed to adolescent bystanders' approving attitudes toward this practice. However, knowledge is lacking on how adolescent bystanders respond emotionally and physiologically to cases of celebrity bashing. An experimental study with two conditions (bashing/neutral) was conducted to investigate the influence of exposure to online celebrity bashing on the emotional responses and physiological arousal among adolescent bystanders (n = 67). Self-reported questionnaires before and after exposure to celebrity bashing were used to measure participants' emotional state. Their physiological activation (heart rate and skin conductance) was recorded using the E4 Empatica Wristlet. The results indicated that adolescents responded quite negatively to the cases of celebrity bashing, expressing increased feelings of anger, sadness, frustration and powerlessness, and decreased feelings of amusement. Moreover, adolescent bystanders experienced celebrity bashing as stressful, as both the heart rate and phasic skin conductance significantly increased after exposure to bashing.

Associations Between Bystander Reactions to Cyberbullying and Victims' Emotional Experiences and Mental Health.

Bystanders in cyberbullying may play a crucial role in reducing cyberbullying's harm for victims. This study assessed bystander responses, and the associations with adolescent victims' emotional reactions to cyberbullying and victims' mental health outcomes (symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress; suicidal ideation). A total of 1037 adolescents (49.8 percent female, mean age = 15.17 years) participated in the cross-sectional study and filled out an anonymous questionnaire. Victimization was measured with a single-item scale (cybervictims) and a multiple-item scale with cyberbullying examples (youth experiencing offensive practices). Associations of positive (e.g., defending) and negative (e.g., ignoring) bystander responses with victims' emotions (8 types of emotions rated on 5-point Likert scale) were assessed through correlations; and with victims' mental health outcomes (Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale [DASS-21], single item for suicidal ideation) using regression analyses, adjusting for the influence of gender and coping styles (KIDCOPE). Cybervictims (single-item scale) showed more victimization experiences, and more negative emotional and mental health outcomes than youth only experiencing offensive practices. Negative bystander responses predicted some mental health outcomes among cybervictims, but not among youth only experiencing offensive practices. Positive bystander behavior did not predict any mental health outcome. There is a clear need for cyberbullying prevention programs to include components that target bystander responses, to alleviate victims' emotional and mental health harm after cyberbullying. Attention is needed to create effective programs to reduce negative bystander behavior, while most current programs are focused on positive bystander behavior.

The Longitudinal Association Between Poor Sleep Quality and Cyberbullying, Mediated by Anger.

Adolescents tend to go to bed later and sleep less as they grow older, although their need for sleep stays the same throughout adolescence. Poor sleep has negative consequences on personal and interpersonal functioning, including increased aggressive tendencies. With adolescents' social life increasingly including interactions via digital media, these interactions may also become more aggressive when adolescents' sleep problems increase. One of the ways in which online aggression may be enacted is through cyberbullying. Although previous research has examined the role of sleep disruptions in offline bullying, the role of sleep in cyberbullying has not yet been addressed. Therefore, this study examines the longitudinal effect of poor sleep quality on later cyberbullying behavior. Thirteen- to fourteen-year-old adolescents completed self-report measures on sleep quality, anger, cyberbullying perpetration, and frequency of digital media use. Because one of the pathways through which sleep is proposed to be linked to aggression is an affective pathway, namely via angry affect, a mediation model of poor sleep quality predicting cyberbullying via feelings of anger was tested. Results from structural equation modeling and a bootstrap test indicated that poor sleep quality was indeed indirectly associated with later cyberbullying behavior through heightened feelings of anger, even when taking the effects of the use of digital media and previous cyberbullying behavior into account. This finding provides support for the proposed affective pathway linking sleep problems to aggression. As sleep problems and anger seem to play a predicting role in cyberbullying behavior, suggestions for cyberbullying intervention and prevention strategies are formulated.

Patterns of cybervictimization and emotion regulation in adolescents and adults.

Research on cyberbullying has boomed in the past two decades. Findings from studies among adolescents suggest that they can be classified into distinct groups based on their cyberbullying experience, and that cyberbullying seems to be related to poor emotion regulation. So far, only a few studies have examined cyberbullying among adult workers and it is unclear whether cyberbullying develops similarly in that population. Therefore, in this study cyberbullying victimization was assessed in adolescents and adult workers simultaneously to address three aims: (1) to explore which groups can be distinguished based on their cyberbullying experience; (2) to analyze the associations of group membership with the way people regulate their emotions; and (3) to examine whether the results are comparable in adolescents and adults. Latent class analysis was used to analyze data from 1,426 employees and 1,715 adolescents in the first year of secondary education (12-13 years old). In each population, three profiles differing in their patterns of cybervictimization were identified: no cybervictimization (80%), work-related cybervictimization (18%), and pervasive cybervictimization (3%) for adults, and no cybervictimization (68%), similar-to-offline cybervictimization (27%), and pervasive cybervictimization (4%) for adolescents. Furthermore, these profiles differed in their use of emotion regulation strategies, with pervasive cyber-victims suppressing their emotions significantly more than other groups. Future research is needed to clarify the role of emotion regulation in cyberbullying as an antecedent or consequence of victimization.

Help, I Am Losing Control! Examining the Reporting of Sexual Harassment by Adolescents to Social Networking Sites.

Sexual harassment is often encountered by adolescents on social networking sites (SNS). One option to cope with a situation of harassment on SNS is to alarm the provider by reporting the transgressive content. It is yet unclear what the determinants of reporting a sexual harassment situation on SNS are, as well as the subsequent actions to these reports from the part of the SNS provider. In this article, we seek to address these gaps, and in particular examine whether control-by-the-self over the situation and negative emotions play a role in the reporting of sexual harassment on SNS. Findings indicate that a low situational control-by-the-self, indirectly (namely through a higher experience of negative emotions such as anger and shame) increases the reporting of sexual harassment by the victim. Public visibility of the incident and the impossibility to remove the content reduce the situational control-by-the-self. Results further suggest that SNS providers often ignore reported situations of sexual harassment. The study concludes with suggestions for responses to reported harassment on SNS, which should be directed toward increasing behavioral control and thereby alleviating negative emotions.

An Investigation of Short-Term Longitudinal Associations Between Social Anxiety and Victimization and Perpetration of Traditional Bullying and Cyberbullying.

Previous research has suggested that social anxiety is associated with victimization and perpetration of (cyber)bullying. The direction and causality of this relationship has not yet been empirically supported for both traditional and cyberbullying involvement. This study examined short-term longitudinal associations between feelings of social anxiety and involvement in traditional bullying and cyberbullying among 2128 adolescents aged 10-17 (56.6 % girls). A cross-lagged panel analysis provided evidence for the contribution of social anxiety to later victimization of bullying, both on- and off-line. The possibility of a reciprocal relationship was also examined, although it was not supported. Furthermore, longitudinal bidirectional relationships between social anxiety and the perpetration of bullying were investigated. Only one significant longitudinal association was found: the perpetration of traditional bullying predicted subsequent higher levels of social anxiety. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Correlates of cyberbullying and how school nurses can respond.

Cyberbullying is one of many online risks that affect an increasing number of children and teenagers. This form of abuse often occurs under the radar of adults as it usually takes place outside of school and away from adult supervision. Moreover, bystanders and victims are often reluctant to report what they have experienced. School nurses might be among the first to witness the real-life consequences of this virtual behavior, as involvement in cyberbullying is often correlated with psychological and behavioral problems. For this reason, school nurses should know how to recognize the warning signs so that they can respond and intervene appropriately. This article provides a discussion of what cyberbullying is and a summary of research on factors associated with cyberbullying, in terms of both victimization and perpetration. It also provides school nurses with evidence-based strategies for responding effectively.

A meta-analysis of serious digital games for healthy lifestyle promotion.

Several systematic reviews have described health-promoting effects of serious games but so far no meta-analysis has been reported. This paper presents a meta-analysis of 54 serious digital game studies for healthy lifestyle promotion, in which we investigated the overall effectiveness of serious digital games on healthy lifestyle promotion outcomes and the role of theoretically and clinically important moderators. Findings showed that serious games have small positive effects on healthy lifestyles (g=0.260, 95% CI 0.148; 0.373) and their determinants (g=0.334, 95% CI 0.260; 0.407), especially for knowledge. Effects on clinical outcomes were significant, but much smaller (g=0.079, 95% CI 0.038; 0.120). Long-term effects were maintained for all outcomes except for behavior. Serious games are best individually tailored to both socio-demographic and change need information, and benefit from a strong focus on game theories or a dual theoretical foundation in both behavioral prediction and game theories. They can be effective either as a stand-alone or multi-component programs, and appeal to populations regardless of age and gender. Given that effects of games remain heterogeneous, further explorations of which game features create larger effects are needed.