Subjective and Perseverative Cognition Mediate the Relationship Between Sleep and Work Impairment

The study examined the mediating role of subjective and perseverative cognition on sleep and work impairment. Sixty nurses completed a background survey and 14-days of ecological momentary assessments (EMA) and sleep actigraphy. Each day, participants evaluated their subjective cognition (mental sharpness, memory, processing speed), perseverative cognition (rumination) and work impairment (how much did you cut back on normal paid work, how much did the quality of your work suffer). Multiple sleep characteristics were measured by EMA and actigraphy. Multilevel mediation models adjusted for sociodemographics and work shift. At the between-person and within-person levels, there were mediated associations of sleep quality and sufficiency (but not actigraphy-measured sleep) with work impairment through subjective and perseverative cognition. Better sleep quality or higher sleep sufficiency were associated with better subjective and perseverative cognition, which, in turn, were associated with less work impairment.

Effects of COVID-19-related worry and rumination on mental health and wellbeing during the pandemic: Longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study

Background: The lasting effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are likely to be significant, particularly in regard to mental health and wellbeing. The current study aimed to track worry and rumination (perseverative cognition) levels during the COVID-19 pandemic and to investigate whether periods with higher COVID-related worry and rumination were associated with more negative mental health outcomes in the UK population. Methods: Quota survey design and a sampling frame that permitted recruitment of a national sample was employed. Findings for waves 1 (31 March-9 April 2020), 2 (10 April-27 April 2020), 3 (28 April-11 May 2020), 4 (27 May-15 June 2020), 5 (17 July-7 August 2020) and 6 (1 October-4 November 2020) are reported here (N=1943 adults). At each wave COVID-related worry and rumination were assessed together with depression, anxiety and mental wellbeing.Results: Worry and rumination levels were highest at the beginning of the first UK lockdown and declined across the six waves but increased when the UK returned to lockdown. Worry levels were significantly higher than rumination levels throughout. COVID-related worry and rumination were significantly associated with higher symptoms of depression, anxiety and lower wellbeing. The adverse effects of COVID-related worry on depression and anxiety levels were most marked in individuals living with a pre-existing mental health condition. Conclusions: Psychological interventions should include components that specifically target COVID-related worry and rumination. Individuals with pre-existing mental health conditions should be prioritised as we continue to emerge from the current pandemic and in any future public health crises.

Beyond self-reflection: introducing the concept of rumination in personal informatics

Personal informatics tools can help users self-reflect on their experiences. When reflective thought occurs, it sometimes leads to negative thought and emotion cycles. To help explain these cycles, we draw from Psychology to introduce the concept of rumination—anxious, perseverative cognition focused on negative aspects of the self—as a result of engaging with personal data. Rumination is an important concept for the Human Computer Interaction community because it can negatively affect users’ well-being and lead to maladaptive use. Thus, preventing and mitigating rumination is beneficial. In this conceptual paper, we differentiate reflection from rumination. We also explain how self-tracking technologies may inadvertently lead to rumination and the implications this has for design. Our goal is to expand self-tracking research by discussing these negative cycles and encourage researchers to consider rumination when studying, designing, and promoting tools to prevent adverse unintended consequences among users.

Perseverative Cognition in the Positive Valence Systems: An Experimental and Ecological Investigation

Perseverative cognition (PC) is a transdiagnostic risk factor that characterizes both hypo-motivational (e.g., depression) and hyper-motivational (e.g., addiction) disorders; however, it has been almost exclusively studied within the context of the negative valence systems. The present study aimed to fill this gap by combining laboratory-based, computational and ecological assessments. Healthy individuals performed the Probabilistic Reward Task (PRT) before and after the induction of PC or a waiting period. Computational modeling was applied to dissociate the effects of PC on reward sensitivity and learning rate. Afterwards, participants underwent a one-week ecological momentary assessment of daily PC occurrence, as well as anticipatory and consummatory reward-related behavior. Induction of PC led to increased response bias on the PRT compared to waiting, likely due to an increase in learning rate but not in reward sensitivity, as suggested by computational modeling. In daily-life, PC increased the discrepancy between expected and obtained rewards (i.e., prediction error). Current converging experimental and ecological evidence suggests that PC is associated with abnormalities in the functionality of positive valence systems. Given the role of PC in the prediction, maintenance, and recurrence of psychopathology, it would be clinically valuable to extend research on this topic beyond the negative valence systems.

Perseverative Cognition and Snack Choice: An Online Pilot Investigation

Perseverative cognition (PC), consisting of worry and rumination, has been consistently linked to a variety of poorer health outcomes, namely via the worsening of stress-induced health risk behaviours. However, research into PC and unhealthy food choice, a key health behaviour, still remains relatively unexplored. In the current pilot investigation, 284 participants were recruited to take part in an online food choice paradigm before completing the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ) and the Brief State Rumination Inventory (BSRI). As a reduced availability of unhealthy snacks has been shown to improve snack choice, participants were randomly allocated to either an even condition (a 3:3 ratio of ≤99 kcal and ≥199 kcal snacks) or an uneven condition (a 4:2 ratio in favour of ≤99 kcal snacks). It was hypothesized that higher levels of PC may predict greater instances of poorer snack choices across, or even within, this paradigm. Despite an increase availability of lower calorie snacks leading to a healthier snack choice, both state and trait PC measures did not significantly influence snack choice irrespective of this varying availability. Although, marginal trends were found for higher state PC and higher calorie crisp selections. The current pilot therefore adds to the growing literature advocating for the use of behavioural economic tactics to engender healthier food choices, yet further work is needed to unpick the mediating role of PC (and its components) in snack consumption paradigms.

Health Effects of Psychological Interventions for Worry and Rumination: A Meta-analysis.

Evidence suggests that perseverative cognition (PC), the cognitive representation of past stressful events (rumination) or feared future events (worry), mediates the relationship between stress and physical disease. However, the experimental evidence testing methods to influence PC and the subsequent relationship with health outcomes has not been synthesised. Therefore, the current review addressed these gaps. Studies randomly assigning participants to treatment and control groups, measuring PC and a physical and/or behavioural health outcome after exposure to a non-pharmacological intervention, were included in a systematic review. Key terms were searched in Medline, PsycInfo and CINAHL databases. Of the screened studies (k = 10,703), 36 met the eligibility criteria. Random-effects meta-analyses revealed the interventions, relative to comparison groups, on average produced medium-sized effects on rumination (g = -.58), small-to-medium sized effects on worry (g = -.41) and health behaviours (g = .31), and small-sized effects on physical health outcomes (g = .23). Effect sizes for PC were positively associated with effect sizes for health behaviours (following outlier removal). Effect sizes for PC were significantly larger when interventions were delivered by healthcare professionals than when delivered via all other methods. No specific intervention type (when directly compared against other types) was associated with larger effect sizes for PC. Psychological interventions can influence PC. Medium-sized effect sizes for PC correspond with small, but positive, associations with health behaviours.

Significance of Social Support Among Black Mental Health Counselors: The Role of Counselor Educators and Supervisors in Combating Race-Related Stress

In general, mental health counselors face unique challenges in their job roles because of the population that they work with. However, Black Americans who worked in predominately White workspaces perceived race-based discrimination to be a real issue. Perseverative cognition related to work can cause an increase in the individual’s need to recovery because it maintains work-related stressors that deplete the individual’s resources further. The repetitive thoughts can lead to anticipatory cognition or stress, which makes the individual hyperaware or vigilant due to thinking they may experience racial discrimination or a racial encounter. Social support has been used to buffer the adverse effects that are caused by racial encounters. Social support has shown to have an influence on mental health by buffering the effects of stressors. Participants were provided a survey that include three questionnaires to complete. The results showed that the overall models for the two analyses were significant. However, the moderators for the analyses were not significant.