0000000000308420
AUTHOR
Giulia Corno
Effect of a web-based positive psychology intervention on prenatal well-being: A case series study
Abstract Background Detrimental effects of women’s negative feelings during pregnancy have been extensively examined and documented, but research on the influence of positive feelings and protective factors on their prenatal mental health is scarce. Evidence from the positive psychology field has shown that practicing some brief positive exercises, called positive psychology interventions, can maximize well-being by increasing positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. Aim The aim of this study is to examine the effect of a positive psychology web-based intervention on indices of women’s prenatal well-being. Methods Specifically, a case series design was adopted, and data from six women ar…
An Innovative Online Positive Psychology Training Addressed to Pregnant Youth
Pregnancy involves important changes for women of all ages. Specifically, young pregnant are faced with the difficult task of continuing their physical, emotional, and identity development while preparing for their role as parents. The aim of this work is to present the protocol of an innovative self-applied online positive psychology intervention addressed to pregnant youth. The purpose of this intervention is to enhance well-being, to help these women get through pregnancy in the best possible way. The intervention will be composed by four modules, for a total length of five weeks. Each module will be dedicated to the promotion of one positive dimension through the use of validated positi…
A narrative review of positive psychology interventions for women during the perinatal period
Recent studies suggest that positive perinatal maternal mood can buffer the effects of negative feelings and promote women and infant well-being. Evidence from Positive Psychology has shown that Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) can enhance well-being and/or reduce negative symptoms. The objective of this comprehensive narrative review was to identify and critically review the current evidence about the use of PPIs designed to improve women's mental well-being during the perinatal period. A systematic search of four online databases was conducted. Two intervention programmes have been identified. Both interventions were online-based and gratitude was the common PPI. The common target…
An intervention protocol proposal to modify the body image disturbance using Virtual Reality
A negative experience with one's own body has been theorized as a common antecedent of eating disorders (EDs). In fact, body image disturbance (BID) is considered a key factor in the development, maintenance and relapse of Anorexia Nervosa (AN). As yet, the mechanisms underlying this disturbance in body representation remain unclear. In this paper we present the study protocol of this novel Virtual Reality (VR) multisensorial paradigm to assess and treat BID. Participants will be asked to perform a real and virtual body size estimation task. Then, they will be assigned to one condition (experimental vs, control), and they will have to perform a task from 1st or 3rd point-ofview, in a counte…
Promoting Wellbeing in Pregnancy: A Multi-component Positive Psychology and Mindfulness-Based Mobile App
Pregnancy involves important changes for women of all ages: it is a time of physical and psychological change. Women may experience anxiety and negative emotions, which can negatively influence their wellbeing and make difficult their adaptation to the new role of mothers. Furthermore, poor mental well-being and difficulties in emotion regulation can negatively affect obstetric outcomes, development of the child and neonatal adaptation. The aim of this work is to present a new self-applied multi-component positive psychology- and mindfulness-based intervention (MPPMI) supported by a mobile App addressed to pregnant women. The core of this MPPMI is to combine traditional positive psychology …
A web-based positive psychology intervention to promote well-being in pregnant women
Introducción El embarazo es una época de cambios, un periodo de la vida que representa el inicio de un nuevo rol para las mujeres de todas las edades. Existe un amplio consenso sobre el papel del estado psicológico materno en la influencia que ejerce sobre el desarrollo del feto, el curso del embarazo y la salud física y psicológica, tanto de la madre como del bebé. La naturaleza, incidencia y las consecuencias perjudiciales del bajo bienestar psicológico materno durante el embarazo han sido ampliamente examinadas y documentadas (e.g., Agius, Xuereb, Carrick-Sen, Sultana y Rankin. 2016; Staneva, Bogossian y Wittkowski, 2015). Un pobre bienestar materno se caracteriza típicamente por bajos n…
The Adoption of New Treatment Modalities by Health Professionals and the Relative Weight of Empirical Evidence in Favor of Virtual Reality Exposure Versus Mindfulness in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders, and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure exercises is considered as the gold-standard psychological intervention. New psychotherapeutic modalities have emerged in the last decade and, among them, mindfulness has been rapidly adopted by therapists. The adoption rate is slower for the use of virtual reality (VR) to conduct exposure. The goal of the present position paper is to contrast, for the treatment of anxiety disorders, the weight of empirical evidences supporting the use of exposure in VR with the use of mindfulness-based therapy (MBT). Based on the most recent meta-analyses, we found that CBT with exposure co…
Good things never last: dampening positive emotions influences our optimism levels
A pesar del creciente interés en la comprensión de las estrate-gias de regulación emocional (RE) de las emociones positivas y su relación con la salud mental, la relación entre los diferentes estilos de respuesta al afecto positivo y estilos cognitivos como el optimismo aún no se ha proba-do empíricamente. El objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar el efecto de las estrategias para regular emociones positivas (evaluadas por el cuestiona-rio Response to Positive Affect -RPA) sobre el optimismo, y la posible media-ción del afecto positivo en esta relación. 250 participantes completaron el cuestionario RPA, medidas de optimismo y afecto positivo, y realizaron un procedimiento de inducción em…
Assessing the Relationship Between Attitudinal and Perceptual Component of Body Image Disturbance Using Virtual Reality
Body image disturbance (BID) affects quality of life even in the absence of clinically diagnosable eating pathology, and numerous studies have shown its crucial role in the emergence and maintenance of eating disorders. This study aimed at exploring attitudinal and perceptual components of BID using a novel virtual reality (VR)-based paradigm. A community sample of women (N = 27) recreated in VR their perceived body in both an allocentric (third-person view) and egocentric (first-person view) perspective. Specifically, women were able to choose between a wide range of three-dimensional bodies spanning body mass index 12.5-42.5 kg/m2. Attitudinal indexes of BID (body dissatisfaction, body un…
Providing Psychological and Emotional Support After Perinatal Loss: Protocol for a Virtual Reality-Based Intervention
The loss of an infant during the perinatal period has been recognized as a complex and potentially traumatic life event and can have a significant impact on women’s mental health. However, often times, psychological aftercare is typically not offered, and manualized interventions are rarely used in clinical care practice and have seldom been evaluated. In recent years, a growing number of studies have demonstrated the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) interventions to facilitate the expression and coping with emotions linked to a traumatic event. The objective of the proposed paper is to present the protocol of a randomized control trial aimed to assess a novel VR-based intervention for moth…
Assessing Future Expectations and the Two-Dimensional Model of Affect in an Italian Population
Future-directed thinking has been described as part of two underlying systems that integrate dimensions of affect, motivational systems, orientation to the future, and future expectations, which are initiated at the cognitive, affective, biological, behavioral, and motivational levels. The main aim of the present study is to test the two underlying frameworks model and explore future expectations in a general Italian-speaking population (N=345). Therefore, the second aim of the present paper is to confirm the factorial structure of the Subjective Probability Task (SPT; MacLeod et al., 1996), a questionnaire designed to assess specific positive and negative orientations towards the future. R…
Applying Positive Psychology to Prenatal Care Among Women from Different Cultures: A Web-Based Positive Psychology Intervention
Pregnancy is a time of important changes and challenges for women. The nature, pervasiveness, and detrimental consequences of negative feelings during pregnancy have been extensively examined and documented within multicultural contexts. In the wake of Positive Psychology perspective, a growing number of studies have examined the potential benefits of positive aspects and protective factors that can influence the course of pregnancy and childbirth, as well as women’s perinatal and infant well-being. Although the importance of promoting well-being during the perinatal period has been demonstrated, research on Positive Psychology Interventions addressed to pregnant women is still in its infan…