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MS Proposal by Grazia Mirabito

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Name: Grazia Mirabito

Master’s Thesis Proposal Meeting
Date: Thursday, April 16th

Time: 2:00-4:00pm

Location: https://bluejeans.com/873773357/9264?src=calendarLink (Meeting ID: 873 773 357)

 

Advisor: Paul Verhaeghen, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

 

Thesis Committee members:

Paul Verhaeghen, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Chris Hertzog, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Chris Wiese, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

 

Title: Ecological Momentary Assessment During a Mindfulness Intervention Assessing Changes in Lifestyle Factors and Psychological Outcomes

 

Abstract: Stress and related issues of anxiety disorder and depression pose huge mental and public health risks in the population in general, and on college campuses in particular. At Georgia Tech, 90.9% of students state that they are “very stressed,” compared to the national average of 52.9%. Prior research shows that mindfulness interventions help to relieve symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as decrease rumination, and increase sleep and exercise behaviors. Yet, the causal mechanisms of these variables and the sequencing of effects are unknown. In my thesis, I propose to examine how mindfulness, rumination, worry, and quality of mindfulness formal and informal practice affect stress, affect, mood, well-being, and anxiety and how sleep and exercise play a role in that as well. I propose a randomized controlled trial (64 students in each arm), with a 4-week KORU mindfulness intervention as the intervention arm, with pretest and posttest assessment of the relevant variables, as well as daily ecological momentary assessments (EMA) of formal and informal mindfulness practices, state mindfulness, rumination, sleep, exercise, mood, wellbeing, stress, and anxiety.  I predict that the mindfulness intervention will lead to increases in trait mindfulness, mood, psychological well-being, quality of mindfulness, sleep quality, and exercise; as well as decreases in stress, depression, anxiety, and rumination. My first exploratory question concerns the cascade of effects, that is, the timeline of effects that occur as participants go through the mindfulness intervention. I expect that mindfulness will increase, first leading to decreases in rumination, which will lead to increases in sleep and exercise, finally leading to increases in mood and well-being, and decreases in stress and anxiety. The second exploratory question concerns the question of informal versus formal mindfulness practice and whether these have differential mediating effects on the outcome measures. I expect correlations between self-rated quality of practice and changes in outcome measures. This could possibly take the form of individual differences, where some participants might report a high quality in one type of practice (formal or informal) and not in the other, and therefore only show correlations between the quantity of the favored type of practice and psychological outcomes.

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Tatianna Richardson
  • Created:04/06/2020
  • Modified By:Tatianna Richardson
  • Modified:04/06/2020

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