Targeting Components of Distress Tolerance
- Conditions
- Distress, Emotional
- Interventions
- Behavioral: PsychoeducationBehavioral: Self-EfficacyBehavioral: Willingness
- Registration Number
- NCT06570603
- Lead Sponsor
- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
- Brief Summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn which aspects of distress intolerance (i.e., difficulties withstanding upsetting emotional states) are the most important for improving effective emotion regulation and associated mental health symptoms.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
How are willingness to feel upset and self-efficacy for withstanding distress associated with different emotion regulation strategies used in daily life?
Does targeting willingness to feel upset and/or self-efficacy for withstanding distress help people use more effective emotion regulation strategies in daily life when they feel upset?
Are improvements in emotion regulation strategies in daily life associated with fewer symptoms of mental health problems over time?
Participants will:
Answer questions about their moods, willingness to feel upset, self-efficacy for withstanding distress and emotion regulation strategies for three weeks using a cell phone app
Undergo a willingness, self-efficacy, combined or psychoeducational control intervention in the lab
Be prompted to use the intervention skill via the cell phone app during the second week, after the intervention
Complete weekly reports of mental health symptoms
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- NOT_YET_RECRUITING
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 240
- Fluent in English
- Uses Android or iPhone smartphone
- Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) scores of 42 and higher
- Distress Intolerance Index (DII) scores of 3 or higher
- Work or School that does not allow consistent access to phone (or is unsafe)
- No internet access for completing follow-up surveys
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Psychoeducational Control Psychoeducation Participants will receive psychoeducation only Self-Efficacy (Only) Self-Efficacy Single session intervention focusing on increasing self-efficacy to manage distress. Will include brief psychoeducation about emotion, then a focus on agency and self-criticism, using stressors the participant provided from the previous week, with an aim to teach self-compassion skills that will improve self-efficacy. Willingness (Only) Psychoeducation Single session intervention focused on increasing willingness to allow distress. Will include brief psychoeducation about emotion, then a discussion of values and how allowing and experiencing emotions nourishes values, experiencing discomfort enhances growth. Will use stressors from the prior week as examples. Combined Willingness and Self-Efficacy Self-Efficacy Single session intervention focused on increasing both willingness and self-efficacy. Will include brief psychoeducation about emotion, then a combination of using values and self-compassion to increase both allowing and self-efficacy. Combined Willingness and Self-Efficacy Willingness Single session intervention focused on increasing both willingness and self-efficacy. Will include brief psychoeducation about emotion, then a combination of using values and self-compassion to increase both allowing and self-efficacy. Self-Efficacy (Only) Psychoeducation Single session intervention focusing on increasing self-efficacy to manage distress. Will include brief psychoeducation about emotion, then a focus on agency and self-criticism, using stressors the participant provided from the previous week, with an aim to teach self-compassion skills that will improve self-efficacy. Willingness (Only) Willingness Single session intervention focused on increasing willingness to allow distress. Will include brief psychoeducation about emotion, then a discussion of values and how allowing and experiencing emotions nourishes values, experiencing discomfort enhances growth. Will use stressors from the prior week as examples. Combined Willingness and Self-Efficacy Psychoeducation Single session intervention focused on increasing both willingness and self-efficacy. Will include brief psychoeducation about emotion, then a combination of using values and self-compassion to increase both allowing and self-efficacy.
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Engagement behaviors Assessed 5x/day via ecological momentary assessment Emotion regulation strategies reflective of engagement; these are new items developed for this study and are not from an established scale. All items will be rated from 0 (not at all) to 6 (extremely). There will be 7 items assessing labeling ("I'm using emotion words to describe how I feel right now"), processing ("I'm reflecting on or writing about my feelings"), sharing ("I'm sharing how I feel with another person"), physical feeling ("I'm intentionally feeling my feelings in my body"), curiously considering ("I'm curiously considering how my feelings came about"), defusion ("I'm observing my feelings without getting 'stuck' in them"), and importance ("I'm trying to think about how this current situation maps on to what matters.")
Binge Eating Disorder Scale Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup binge eating symptoms
GAD-7 Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup Symptoms of anxiety
PHQ-9 Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup symptoms of depression
Disengagement behaviors Assessed 5x/day via ecological momentary assessment Emotion regulation strategies reflective of disengagement, some of which were modified from a momentary experiential avoidance measure (Hershenberg et al., 2017). All items will be rated from 0 (not at all) to 6 (extremely).Items will assess distraction ("Trying to distract myself from my feelings'), thought suppression ("Trying to push unwanted thoughts out of my mind."), discounting ("I'm telling myself I shouldn't be feeling the way I'm feeling"), expressive suppression ("I'm trying to control my feelings by not expressing them"), procrastination ("I'm intentionally putting of an unpleasant task until later"), denial ("I'm trying to 'turn off' the feelings that I don't want to feel"), and reduce importance ("Trying to think about the current situation as unimportant to me.")
AUDIT Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup Alcohol misuse
DSM Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup symptoms of psychopathology
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup life satisfaction
State Loss of Interest and Pleasure Scale Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup anhedonia
Self-Compassion Scale - Short Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup self-criticism and self-compassion
Rumination and Reflection Questionnaire Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup rumination and self-reflective tendencies