Sivapragasam, Kavitha A/P
(2021)
The effects of daily gratitude writing and self-paced high intensity interval training on regulating emotional distress, sustained attention and hedonic perception among students in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus.
Other.
Pusat Pengajian Sains Kesihatan, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
(Submitted)
Abstract
A 2017’s cross-sectional study found that more than 80% of 287 Malaysian
adolescents were either, depressed, stressed or experiencing anxiety with university
students have being identified as the higher risk group for developing those mental
health challenges. Due to the transitional phase adolescents face, there has been
inadequate coping strategies towards stress. However, positive psychology has
highlighted the potential impact that physical activities and the act of expressing
gratitude has towards managing psychological challenges. Hence, this study aims to
determine the effects of daily gratitude writing and self-paced high intensity interval
(HIIT) training towards regulating emotional distress, sustained attention and hedonic
perception among 46 students in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus. The selfdetermination
theory and the ‘Broaden-and-Build’ theory of positive emotions
contributed significantly to the development of this study. The RESET app – a mobile
application was introduced as a gratitude journaling tool while quantitative data was
obtained through the administration of a pre-post-Depression, Anxiety and Stress
Scale-21 Questionnaire (DASS-21), Borg’s Scale for Rate of Perceived Exertion
(RPE), Feeling Scale, and the Digital Vigilance Test (DVT). Upon completing the 8-week study, the results showed that there were differences between the pre-post
intervention for DASS-21 and RPE scores within the 4 experimental groups but the
results were not significant (p > .050). However, there was a significant decrease in
errors made in the DVT (F (1,42) = 17.057, p = .000) while there was a significant
increase in the Feeling Scale scores for gratitude journaling within participants (F
(2,40) = 3.879, p = .029). Due to the study’s novelty, the results serve as a launch pad
for future works in the efforts of integrating physical activities and positive psychology
interventions towards effective psychological management and nurturing among the
Malaysian youth.
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