Promoting Positive Emotions and Savoring in the Elderly Through an Online Self-help Intervention: a Controlled Study.
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Enrollment
- 46
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)
Study Overview
Brief Summary
This study is part of the larger project to promote positive aging (PNRR Age-IT Project) in the elderly through the amplification of positive experiences and emotions. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary effects in terms of effectiveness of the "Savoring: the art of savoring positive emotions project", which is a self-help e-savoring training aimed at increasing psychological and subjective well-being in elderly participants. As secondary goals, this study aims to decrease depression and feelings of loneliness. An additional objective is to investigate user experience regarding the online protocol. A between-subjects design will be used.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Treatment
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 60 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Age over 60
- •Adequate understanding of the Italian language
- •Possession of a technological tool to be able to access the Internet
Exclusion Criteria
- •Having a score below 26 on the MMSE that will be administered by telephone (Itel-MMSE) before division into the two groups. The Itel-MMSE scores will be converted into MMSE scores.
Arms & Interventions
E-Savoring Group
Participants will complete the online savoring training for 3 weeks, by doing 2 activities per week. The exercises will be focused on savoring past, present and future time.
Intervention: Savoring (Other)
Emotional Induction group
Participants will complete six emotional induction exercises.
Intervention: Positive Emotional Induction (Other)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)
Time Frame: This questionnaire will be administered in T0 (baseline), T1 (post intervention - after 3 weeks) and T2 (one-month follow up).
This scale was designed by Diener and colleagues (1985; Italian version: Di Fabio \& Busoni, 2009) to investigate life satisfaction and consists of 5 items that can be answered through a 7-step Likert scale ranging from 1 "strongly disagree" to 7 "strongly agree."
Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences (SPANE)
Time Frame: This questionnaire will be administered in T0 (baseline), T1 (post-intervention - after 3 weeks) and T2 (one-month follow-up).
This self-report scale consists of 12 items and was developed by Diener and colleagues (2010; Italian version: Corno, Molinari, \& Baños, 2016) to measure positive and negative affect. It is composed of two sub-scales: the first refers to positive emotions (6 items: positive, good, pleasant, happy, joyful, satisfied) and the second to negative emotions (6 items: negative, bad, unpleasant, sad, fearful, angry). It can be answered through a 5-step Likert scale where 1 means "very rarely or never" and 5 means "very often or always."
Flourishing Scale (FS)
Time Frame: his questionnaire will be administered in stages T0 (baseline), T1 (post-intervention - after 3 weeks) and T2 (one-month follow-up)
This scale, developed by Ryan and Deci (2001; Italian version Di Fabio, 2010), aims to investigate the elements that make up psychological well-being, including relationships, self-esteem, life purpose and optimism. It consists of 8 items and each is positively worded and responses are measured on a 7-step Likert scale, where 1 means "strongly disagree" and 7 means "strongly agree." The score range is from 8 to 56.
Secondary Outcomes
- DeJong Gierveld Loneliness Scale(This instrument will be administered in T0 (baseline), T1 (post-intervention - after 3 weeks) and T2 (one-month follow-up).)
- Center for Epidemiologic Studies- Depression Scale (CES-D)(This scale will be administered in T0 (baseline), T1 (post-intervention - after 3 weeks) and T2 (one-month follow up).)
- Perceived Usefulness and Pleasantness of the Exercises(Immediately after each of the 6 activities of the training)
- User Experience(This questionnaire will be administered at T1 (post-intervention - after 3 weeks from baseline).)
- Perceived Usefulness of the Training(This questionnaire will be administered at T1 (post-intervention - after 3 weeks from baseline).)
- Usefulness and Pleasantness of the exercises when the training is completed(These items will be administered at T2 (one-month follow-up).)
- Frequency of Use of the exercises learned during the training(This item will be administred in T2 (one-month follow - up).)
Investigators
Daniela Villani
Professor
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart