Date Approved
7-30-2024
Embargo Period
7-31-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Clinical Psychology
College
College of Science & Mathematics
Sponsor
American Psychological Foundation
Advisor
Danielle Arigo, Ph.D.
Committee Member 1
Jonathan Lassiter, Ph.D.
Committee Member 2
Philip Fizur, Psy.D.
Committee Member 3
Adarsh Gupta, D.O.
Keywords
cardiovascular risk; coping; m-health; midlife women; physical activity
Subject(s)
Women--Mental health; Middle age--Psychological aspects
Disciplines
Clinical Psychology | Medicine and Health Sciences | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Midlife women are at unique risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and benefit from increasing physical activity (PA). Many PA interventions involve social support, though fail to address related processes such as social comparison. Desire for specific types of social support and comparison may represent emotion-focused versus problem-solving coping, though little is known about women’s preferences for/responses to these coping opportunities. The present study examined women’s selections of PA content in a digital environment. Over 7 days, women in midlife ≥1 CVD risk factor (N = 60, MAge = 50.70, SD = 5.89) wore a PA monitor and visited a proprietary website. General stress (not PA/health stress) positively predicted both emotion-focused (F1, 56] = 6.0, p = 0.02) and problem-solving coping (F[1, 56] = 5.29, p = 0.03). PA/health stress was positively associated with perceived helpfulness of emotion-focused content (r[56] = 0.26, p = 0.05), and negatively associated with problem-solving content (r[56] = -0.19, p = 0.16). Only emotion-focused content was associated with increased step count across 7 days (F[6, 162] = 2.19, p = 0.047, partial η2 = 0.08), though not active exercise minutes (F[6, 162] = 0.94, p = 0.47, partial η2 = 0.03). Findings suggest PA interventions in this population may benefit from tailoring based on coping preference, threat perception, desired outcome, and maintain flexibility given multiple unique psychosocial stressors.
Recommended Citation
Pasko, Kristen, "Associations Between Coping Style and Perceptions of Web-Delivered Physical Activity Messages Among Women In Midlife with Cardiovascular Health Risks" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 3275.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/3275
