CHASE Lab at SBM 2024

The Society of Behavioral Medicine is our primary professional network and its annual meeting and scientific sessions is a highlight of each year. (If you’re not familiar, learn all about SBM and the field of behavioral medicine in this video series! Trainees welcome!)

It was wonderful to see everyone in Philadelphia March 13th-16th! Here is a full list of our presentations and events at the conference. See below for our team’s reflections on this experience.

@RowanCHASELab @DrDaniArigo		drarigo.wordpress. com
Title	Authors	Type/Location	Date / Time
SBM New Member and First-Time Attendee Meet and Greet	Arigo, D. (Host)	Salon D	Wednesday, March 13, 5:00 PM-5:50 PM
Physical Activity Research Participation Effects: A 2-Part Experimental Study to Isolate the Role of Researcher Observation	Pasko, K., Baga, K., Harsora, R., Gular, S., Edwards, K., König, L., & Arigo, D.	Poster Session A, Poster Number: A154	Wednesday, March 13, 5:00 PM-5:50 PM
Associations between Social Media Use, Mindfulness, and Social Comparison Orientation among College Students	Gular, S., Danielle. P., Harsora. R., Salvatore G.M., Fizur, P., & Arigo, D.	Poster Session B, Poster Number: B175	Thursday, March 14, 11:00 AM-11:50 AM
Theories and Techniques of Behavior Change Interventions SIG Mid-Career Award, for “an impressive trajectory of publication, funding, and research with real-world impacts” in this area	Arigo, D. (Recipient)	Franklin C	Thursday, March 14, 3:00 AM-3:50 PM
Meet the SBM Councils	Arigo, D. (Board of Directors Member as Outgoing Chair of the Membership Council)	Room 401	Thursday, March 14, 3:00 AM-3:50 PM
Tracy Orleans Distinguished Service Award, “in recognition of dedication and vast contributions to SBM as a member of the Board of Directors”	Arigo, D. (Recipient)	Presidential Keynote and Awards Ceremony, Salon G-H	Thursday, March 14, 4:00 PM-4:50 PM
Interaction Effects of Amotivation for Physical Activity and Fitness Social Media Exposure on Physical Activity Intentions	Berteletti, J., Arigo, D., & Nuss, K.	Poster Session B, Poster Number: B148	Thursday, March 14, 5:00 PM-5:50 PM
Personalized, Adaptive, Physical Activity-Based Social Comparisons: A Real-Time Test of the Identification/Contrast Model	Arigo, D., Lapitan, E. (presenter), Bercovitz, I., Satish, A., & Lobo, A.F.	Poster Session C, Poster Number: C55	Thursday March 14, 5:00 PM-5:50 PM
Perceived impact of the menstrual cycle on the exercise experience: Qualitative analysis among menstruating women	Salvatore, G.M., Hutchinson, J., & Arigo, D.	Poster Session C, Poster Number: C198	Thursday, March 14, 5:00 PM-5:50 PM
Cardiovascular Disease SIG Founders Award, “granted in recognition of dedication to advancing research in cardiovascular behavioral medicine and reducing the public health burden of CVD through research, mentorship, leadership, and/or service”	Arigo, D. (Recipient)	Salon I-J	Friday, March 15, 8:00 AM-8:50 AM
Understanding multilevel social and environmental influences on health behavior using mHealth/ technology-based approaches	Rehorst, C. (chair), Liao, Y., Maher, J.P., & Arigo, D. (discussant)	Symposium 20, Salon K-L	Friday, March 15, 9:00 AM-9:50 AM
Physical Activity Measurement Reactivity in an At-Risk Group: Coordinated Analysis across Two Studies	Baga, K., DeMeo, N.N., Mogle, J.A., & Arigo, D.	Live Research Spotlight (flash talk), Franklin 3	Friday, March 15th, 11:00 PM-11:50 PM
Pain Variability Over 10 Years among Midlife and Older Adults	Bercovitz, I., DeMeo, N., Travers, L., Gular, S., & Arigo, D.	Poster Session D; Poster Number: D2	Friday March 15, 5:00 PM-5:50 PM
User-Centered Design of a Web App for Naloxone Use among Supporters of Adults with Opioid Prescriptions: A Mixed Methods Study	Bercovitz, I., Baga, K., Travers, L., Rivera, A., Harsora, R. (presenter), Lobo, A.F., Ainsworth, C., Zhou, J., Jermyn, R., & Arigo, D.	Poster Session D, Poster Number: D86	Friday March 15, 5:00 PM-5:50 PM
Associations Between Exposure to Fitspiration, Body Positive, & Body Neutral Social Media and Physical Activity Engagement	Berteletti, J., Arigo, D., & Nuss, K.	Poster Session D, Poster Number: D148	Friday, March 15, 5:00 PM-5:50 PM
Ecological Momentary Assessment of Sleep Quality, Stress, and Pain Experiences among Women in Midlife with Risk for CVD. In Gaffey, A.E. (chair), Sleep Health: An Essential Component of Cardiovascular Disease Risk	Arigo, D., Salvatore, G.M. (presenter), Bercovitz, I., & Gular, S.	Symposium 28, Room 411-412	Saturday, March 16, 9:00 AM-9:50 AM
Subjective Memory Problems, Individual Characteristics, and Social Comparison Tendencies among Midlife and Older Adults	Jackson, D.A., Jeong, M., Salvatore, G.M., Arigo, D., & Mogle, J.	Poster Session E, Poster Number: E4	Saturday, March 16, 11:00 AM-11:50 AM
Understanding the selection of external support partners in a behavioral weight loss program	Crane, N. T., Miller, N. A., Arigo, D., & Butryn, M. L.	Poster Session E, Poster Number: E124	Saturday, March 16, 11:00 AM-11:50 AM

Dr. Gabrielle Salvatore, Postdoctoral Research Fellow: “In addition to presenting a poster (as I have in the past), this year I had the exciting opportunity to give my first oral presentation at a national conference. The presentation was part of a larger symposium hosted by the SBM Cardiovascular Disease and Sleep Special Interest Groups (SIGs). I enjoyed presenting the results of secondary analyses from an ecological momentary assessment study, which I led with support from Dr. Arigo, Iris, and Sofia, as well as meeting the other presenters and learning about their areas of expertise. I also attended networking events and SIG business meetings, where I learned more about what service to this organization entails, as well as what relevant programming and opportunities align with my career goals. I look forward to getting more involved as a trainee member!”

Emmanuel Lapitan, First-Year Clinical Ph.D. Student: “I enjoyed my first time attending SBM and its various multidisciplinary sessions. It was very exciting to hear about the innovative research occurring in the behavioral medicine field. It was also a great pleasure to present my poster to the scientific community, support my lab mates during their presentations, spend time getting to know them as colleagues and friends. I also got to catch up with former colleagues and mentors from my old lab before Rowan.”

Kristen Pasko, Sixth-Year Clinical Ph.D. Student (on clinical internship at Geisinger Medical Center): “I was thrilled to return to SBM, particularly as I am wrapping up my internship year and finishing my doctoral program. In addition to presenting updated findings on a measurement reactivity project I was involved in with the lab across several years, I was also able to return with a new perspective after working full time across multiple specialty areas of behavioral medicine (I.e., primary care, weight and eating, cancer care, chronic pain). With the innovative, interdisciplinary focus across research presentations this year, I felt inspired to further explore my budding interests intersecting eating pathology and chronic pain. Additionally, I was immensely grateful to spend one final SBM as a doctoral student with the CHASE Lab.”

Raj Harsora, Postbacc Research Assistant: “As a first-time attendee to SBM this year, I found it really interesting to see the breadth and depth of research the field of behavioral medicine has to offer. Exploring the diverse set of topics shown in the conference exposed me to the complexities and the reach that behavioral medicine has on different communities. I also had the opportunity to present a poster about barriers to naloxone carrying and administration among primary supporters of adults who have opioid prescriptions. I found the experience very rewarding and enjoyable, as I got to have some very interesting conversations with different people in the field! I look forward to attending SBM again in the future and learning how I can be more involved in the goals of the organization in the coming years.”

Kiri Baga, Third-Year Clinical Ph.D. Student: “This year I had the opportunity to give a ‘flash talk’ about one of the major research projects in our lab. It was really exciting to share initial findings from our study on physical activity measurement reactivity and discuss the results with our collaborators at the conference. I also enjoyed spending time with our team, which has grown so much this past year. It was fun to catch up with everyone in person and celebrate our accomplishments as a group.”

Iris Bercovitz, Second-Year Clinical Ph.D. Student: “I had the wonderful experience of presenting a poster at SBM for the second time. I enjoyed sharing information about pain experiences among midlife and older adults as well as learning from experts in the field. I especially enjoyed the keynotes which highlighted the need for greater collaboration between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sciences. I look forward to attending SBM again in the future.”

Sofia Gular, Postbacc Lab Manager/Research Coordinator: “This was my first time attending SBM and presenting a poster at a national conference. Overall, I enjoyed the multidisciplinary nature of the conference and the opportunity to see the interaction of many different areas of research, such as physical activity, digital health, mental health, etc. I particularly enjoyed learning about the topic of health equity and how it’s addressed in many areas of research, and this has shaped the way I think about what it means to become a researcher. I am looking forward to attending next year and continuing to learn in order to make meaningful contributions to behavioral medicine.”

Daija Jackson, Psy.D. Research Assistant (on clinical internship at the Brooke Army Medical Center): “This was my first time attending SBM, and definitely won’t be my last! I was able to present a research poster highlighting one of my specific research and clinical interests (subjective cognitive complaints), and I was able to attend many symposia and panel discussions on research that is pushing behavioral medicine forward for many patient populations. It was also exciting to see a large military presence at this conference and hear about the amazing work my Department of Defense colleagues are doing to improve clinical care and outcomes for our service members and veterans. SBM provided a very inviting and inspirational environment to me as a new member and soon-to-be early career psychologist, and I look forward to being more involved with the organization in the future.”

Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab Director: “I’ve been a member of SBM and an attendee at the conference for about 15 years now, and I just finished my three-year term as a member of the Board of Directors. As great as all of these years have been, this year’s conference was really special. This is the largest group we’ve had representing the lab (9 team members attended), with presentations across as many projects. It was incredible to see the scope of the work we’re doing and its potential impact – both on the field and on team members’ professional development. I’m also grateful that our research received recognition from both the Cardiovascular Disease SIG and the Theories and Techniques of Behavior Change Interventions SIG, and that my service was recognized by SBM’s Board. I could not be more proud of what we’ve accomplished and I’m so glad we got to celebrate together at the conference.”

All In On Our Latest Paper: Women’s Comfort with Mobile Applications for Menstrual Cycle Self-Monitoring Following the Overturning of Roe v. Wade

The most recent publication from the CHASE Lab, published in mHealth (short for mobile health), explores women’s views on mobile applications for tracking the menstrual cycle and associated symptoms. These apps allow women to keep tabs on their period and reduce the burden of memorizing this information. 

We were interested in updating the evidence on this topic after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, which ended federal protections on aspects of women’s reproductive healthcare. This decision leaves laws about women’s healthcare up to individual states and has dramatically changed the landscape of women’s reproductive rights. In addition to consequences for women of reproductive age, there may also be consequences for researchers dedicated to improving women’s health. 

For example, one consequence was that women have new or increasing concerns about  privacy on menstrual cycle tracking apps. They’re concerned about companies sharing personal reproductive health data that they enter in the app with law enforcement, which can be used to prosecute for suspected violations of reproductive healthcare laws. In fact, many women have stopped using these apps since June 2022.

This could be a huge problem for women’s health researchers. Menstrual cycle apps are valuable tools for understanding women’s experiences, especially as they can help to identify when women have various physical or psychological symptoms. They’re also easy to use and useful for linking symptoms with other daily activities such as exercise. We recognized a potential problem right away, as our team has a particular interest in promoting women’s physical activity and overall health. In fact, our team had planned to conduct this kind of research when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Would women be willing to participate in this research now? We had to reconsider our plans to include the possibility of women feeling hesitant about using menstrual cycle tracking apps, and we wanted to learn more about women’s perspectives on these apps after Roe v. Wade. 

What Did We Do? 

We launched an anonymous, electronic survey in August 2022 and collected responses from menstruating women until November 2022. This allowed us to gather insights from 206 women between the ages of 18 and 60, to understand their preferences for menstrual cycle tracking methods. We asked about their preferences for their personal tracking as well as for participating in research focused on the menstrual cycle.

What Did We Find?

The majority of women who responded to our survey had used menstrual cycle tracking applications before; they were either current users or ex-users. More than one-third of these women (38%) reported that they had concerns about using menstrual cycle tracking apps due to current events in the United States. When asked about their preferred way of tracking menstrual cycle information, 30% said that they would prefer methods that did not involve app-based technology (such as electronic spreadsheets or paper records). Finally, 34% said that they would not be willing to participate in research if it involved daily tracking of the menstrual cycle. Of note, we collected a low number of responses from women from underrepresented backgrounds, and we did not include any information on our survey about gender identity (meaning that our work may not be entirely representative of the population of menstruating people). 

What Does This Mean and Why is it Important?

The results of this study show that a large subgroup of women are concerned about using mobile apps to track their menstrual cycle experiences and are not willing to use them in research. This means that some women’s perspectives would not be included in future research, as they would decline to participate, and we would miss critical information about this subgroup of women. So it’s important for researchers to tailor menstrual cycle tracking to the needs of menstruating women in today’s cultural climate, to ensure participant comfort and maximize representation across groups. This may involve offering other methods for menstrual cycle tracking if they are uncomfortable with mobile apps, such as paper records. 

For researchers, these findings also highlight a pressing need to establish new criteria for menstruation-related research that reflects the current climate around women’s healthcare. It is urgent for women’s health researchers to investigate how to reach groups of women who are currently underrepresented, including women who identify with racial and ethnic minority groups. This study provides us with initial insight into how menstruating women (presumably cis-gender women) in the United States view and use these mobile apps, and our goal is to use broader inclusion criteria in the future so that we further improve this understanding. 

What Was It Like to Work on This Study?

It has been very rewarding to see this study advance from idea conceptualization to data collection and manuscript writing! I am so glad we were able to develop this survey in direct response to a decision that has implications for women’s health research, in general and specifically for menstruating women living in the United States. I led the execution of the data collection, data analysis, and writing the published paper, with valuable contributions from Iris and Dr. Arigo. I’ve learned a lot about being flexible during the research process and with my research questions when the unexpected happens. It’s been a pleasure to work with a group committed to advancing women’s health research, and I look forward to expanding on this line of research in the future!

Dr. Gabrielle Salvatore, CHASE Lab postdoctoral fellow and lead researcher on this project

It was exciting to work on this study given the timeliness and importance of women’s experience trusting menstrual cycle tracking applications post Roe V. Wade. Additionally, this study contributes to a growing understanding of the wide implications that distrust in mobile health applications may have in the collection of women’s health data. As a co-author on the published paper, I was also grateful for the collaborative nature of the writing process and study development. I learned more about how to work productively as a team which was an invaluable experience! 

Iris Bercovitz, 2nd-year clinical psychology Ph.D. student

For the past 10 years, an important subset of our work has been dedicated to understanding how women use mobile technology (including smartphone applications) for self-monitoring of health experiences such as physical activity. We were delighted when Dr. Salvatore joined our team in 2022 – her specific interests in the menstrual cycle and its potential effects on physical activity aligned with and expanded our impact. With this study, I was very proud of our team’s ability to pivot to address societal shifts that are critical to informing future work. I look forward to our next steps.

Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab director 

Next Steps

This study was a necessary step to explore women’s willingness to use menstrual cycle applications after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Now that we better understand women’s perspectives, we have set up a new study to understand how to best include menstrual cycle tracking in research on women’s physical activity. In fact, we’re currently recruiting women to participate in a 2-part pilot that includes a virtual interview and wearing a Fitbit to log physical activity and menstrual cycle symptoms. If you are interested, please complete this short survey to find out if you’re eligible to participate. This work will help us move toward women’s health research that is inclusive and responsive to women’s needs.

Keep reading for more insight into our team’s experiences of these next steps!

When I joined the CHASE lab I was quickly introduced to this topic of menstrual cycle tracking applications in a post-Roe era. Contributing to a study that sheds light on the impact of the shift in women’s reproductive healthcare was both challenging and rewarding. It highlighted the evolving dynamics of women’s health, especially in a time where privacy concerns have become so paramount. Working closely with esteemed professionals like Dr. Arigo and Dr. Salvatore has been a valuable learning experience. I was able to conduct secondary analyses from this survey to explore women’s anxiety levels, and I’m now helping with data collection for Dr. Salvatore’s active 2-part study (described above). This work has greatly enhanced my understanding of research methodologies and the nuanced aspects of women’s health studies. Learning how to effectively contribute within a team dynamic and navigate the intricate aspects of research is an opportunity I will always appreciate.

Haley Thiel, undergraduate research assistant

All In On Our Latest Paper: Time-Sensitive Associations between Body Satisfaction and Physical Activity in Women’s Daily Lives

We’ve been very active these past few weeks, and we’re really happy to share another new publication, available now in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. This work falls under our Project WHADE Program (for Women’s Health and Daily Experiences), which our team has been dedicated to for the past 10 years. 

If you’re new to the CHASE Lab’s work, welcome! One of our main interests is in learning more about how we can support the health behaviors of women between the ages of 40-60 who have risk factors for heart disease – particularly their physical activity. National data show that most women in this age range do not meet the recommended physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. (In other words, the type of activity that we typically think of as “exercise.”) Not surprising, given that these women often have to balance work, family, menopause, and other life transitions, as well as their own health. It’s a lot to fit in each day! But because we know that movement of any type has so many positive effects on our heart health, we want to help women find ways to fit it in.

To do this, we need to understand what makes physical activity so challenging for these women, as well as what helps them be active. And it’s important that we see how this plays out as they go about their typical days. For example, in the past we have looked for real-life associations between social experiences and physical activity and under what circumstances women follow through on their exercise intentions. 

This time we focused on body satisfaction. What younger women think and feel about their bodies gets a lot of attention, but we know a lot less about this experience for women ages 40-60. In general, many people feel better about their bodies if they’re more physically active. But we don’t know if (or how) associations between body satisfaction and physical activity unfold as women ages 40-60 go about their daily lives – does activity follow from body satisfaction, does satisfaction follow from activity, or both?

What Did We Do?

We asked women ages 40-60 with one or more risk factors for heart disease (smoking, high cholesterol, etc.) to complete 5 electronic surveys per day, for a period of 10 days. At each survey, women were asked to (1) rate their body satisfaction, (2) report on how motivated they were to be physically active in the next few hours, and (3) indicate if they intended to exercise over the next few hours. If they did intend to be active, they also told us what kind of exercise they planned to do, and for how long. We also asked these women to wear a research-grade physical activity tracker (i.e., an accelerometer) daily, during waking hours, over the course of this 10-day study. There were 75 participants and 50 assessment points during this period, so we got a great representation of these experiences in women’s everyday lives.

What Did We Find and What Does it Mean?

Across all reports, women said they were dissatisfied with their bodies 51% of the time. Those who were more satisfied overall also had higher physical activity motivation. But at times when women were more satisfied than they usually were, they were also more motivated to be active, and this lasted through the following day. There were no associations between ratings of body satisfaction and exercise intentions.

With respect to physical activity behavior, at times when these women engaged in more light-intensity physical activity than usual, they felt more satisfaction with their bodies in the next few hours. But the reverse was not true – better-than-usual body satisfaction did not predict later physical activity, and there was no association with more intense activity. So activity followed from body satisfaction, not the other way around!

This means that, for women in midlife, there is a real-time link from body satisfaction to physical activity in daily life – particularly light activity, which has many health benefits. Perhaps it is more effective to focus on light activity for women ages 40-60, as they may find it easier to increase this type of activity than to increase more intense “exercise.” It is possible that promoting body satisfaction in daily life may lead to increases in light activity for these women. And although engaging in light activity than usual did not relate to body satisfaction later that day, it is possible that over time, increases in light activity could result in better body image more generally. But because the method we used doesn’t speak to cause-and-effect relations, testing these predictions is an important next step for research and intervention. More broadly, now that we know body dissatisfaction is so common for women ages 40-60 (occurring 51% of the time), it will also be critical to recognize and address this experience for its own sake. 

What Was It Like to Work on This Study?

I really enjoyed working on this paper, particularly in my roles as the researcher who ran the statistical analyses and led the development of the manuscript. It was interesting that women’s engagement in light-intensity physical activity was associated with greater body satisfaction in the following few hours, but that these associations did not also extend to their engagement in more intense physical activity (exercise). As this was the first study to examine these associations among women in midlife, I think that it would be interesting to see if they are replicated and other samples from this population.

— Dr. Kelly Romano, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Minnesota Medical School

I was so pleased I got to work on this paper, in part because it has been a few years since Dr. Arigo and I have collaborated in this way. We worked in the same lab during graduate school at Syracuse University and have been fortunate to continue to be friends and colleagues for nearly 17 years now! As we did in this study, my own research team frequently uses intensive self-report methods to study body image, but we use objective measures of physical activity much less often. It was a great experience to get to work on this project with my (now former) graduate student Dr. Kelly Romano and Dr. Arigo.

— Dr. Kristen Heron, Associate Professor of Psychology at Old Dominion University and HaBiT Lab Director

Working on this sub-project was a privilege for me and it would not have happened without this team. The CHASE Lab collected the data in 2019/2020 and always intended to examine body image experiences, in a population of women that is usually overlooked in this area. But there never seemed to be enough time to give this the attention it deserves. As Drs. Romano and Heron are experts in this area (and longtime collaborators/friends, as Dr. Heron noted), it was a great opportunity to combine forces, and I’m delighted that they were interested in taking the lead. “Which comes first – body image or physical activity?” and “are these actually reciprocal in daily life?” are questions that the field has been asking for years. Addressing them among women ages 40-60 makes an important contribution and highlights the experiences of this large and diverse group.

— Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab Director

Next Steps

Our ultimate goal is to design better physical activity interventions for women in midlife. We want to be mindful of their body satisfaction and sensitive to this topic in all that we do. And we are one step closer! Many of our participants tell us that they do not get enough social support for their physical activity and have a strong interest in finding social sources of accountability to achieve their individual goals. We think that forming physical activity partnerships will be helpful, and we’re offering the opportunity to help us test this hypothesis in a new physical activity program. Project WHADE: A Partner-Based Physical Activity Program for Women is launching in January 2024 – see here for more details and how to reserve your spot.

An Inside Look at Rowan CHASE Lab’s First Mixed Methods Study (for Project WHADE)

We’re so excited to share our newest publication, available now in the journal Digital Health. This one is special because it represents a first for our team: it’s the first time we used a mixed methods research design, which involves quantitative methods, qualitative methods, and integration of findings from each approach. As we’re quantitative researchers and this was our first try at qualitative and mixed methods, we worked closely with experts in these areas (Drs. Jonathan Lassiter at Rowan and Timothy Guetterman at the University of Michigan). We wanted to make sure that we had guidance throughout the process and that we used high standards of scientific rigor across all approaches to data collection and analysis.

Regular readers aren’t strangers to our work with women ages 40-60 who have conditions that increase their risk for heart disease. (New to our women’s health work? Read more here!) We’ve worked with this group for the past decade to better understand how we can support their heart health, including support for small but meaningful changes in their physical activity behavior. In 2020-2021, we used this information to design a web application (web app, or a website) to walk these women through a brief series of tasks to help them set and achieve goals for physical activity each day. We tested the app with small groups of women in 2021-2022, and this new study allowed us to study their experiences with it over a week of use.

What Did We Do? 

To get a detailed understanding of women’s experiences with the web app, we asked them to use it each morning for 7 days, before they started their daily routine. We intend for using the web app to give women a chance to reflect on their goals and set a positive tone for the day’s physical activity. Women who participated also wore a physical activity monitor (such as a pedometer or personal device) for the same 7 days and completed a short survey before bed, to summarize their experiences over the course of the day. Both the web app and the end-of-day survey asked for responses that were coded with numbers and our analyses followed a common statistical approach to assessing the same person at multiple different times (quantitative methods).

At the end of 7 days, women met with a member of the research team for a 1-hour interview. This let us collect women’s experiences with the web app, their preferences, and their feedback in their own words. We used the same set of discussion prompts for each person but let the conversation flow as naturally as possible. We recorded these interviews, transcribed them into text files, and coded specific sections for particular topics or small units of meaning. Our analyses of these transcripts included integrating across topics and meaning units, as well  as reflecting on our experiences of interviewing participants (qualitative methods).

When both sets of analyses were complete, we mixed the two sets of findings by comparing and contrasting them. This allowed us to draw meta-inferences, or larger conclusions from the integration of both sets of findings than each set could offer independently. We checked these inferences with participants and we had an outside expert review them, to make sure our logic was clear and that we didn’t miss anything critical.

What Did We Find and What Does it Mean? 

Many women in this study were grateful for our attention to their unique needs and for the opportunity to offer feedback on a tool designed for them. Women had very positive experiences with the app and their use data confirmed that it could be used as intended, with some tweaks to logistics. For example, although most women used it each day, they really wanted more help with making it part of their regular (and very busy) routines. Many of these women are trying to balance work, child care (for their kids or grandkids), and caring for others (such as their aging parents) with time for their own self-care, which isn’t easy.

Women’s experiences with the web app and with physical activity also varied; some were consistent with their activity level and chose the same app options each day, whereas others changed it up, and they reflected on their reasons for this. On the web app, several women wanted to see the range of what was available and chose no preference when asked for specific content selections. Choosing no preference allowed the web system to assign their content; they told us that they really liked having this option and that they trusted the universe to show them what they needed to see that day. (In the words of one participant, “you get what you need when you need it.”) We also heard that some women were not well represented in peer profiles – for example, those with limited financial resources, more debilitating symptoms of chronic illness and no children/partner, or those out of work due to disability. 

Overall, we learned that our web app is on the right track, and that there are specific improvements that will make it more user-friendly and helpful for this diverse group of women. Our follow-up steps have focused on making these improvements, including wider representation of women’s experiences.

What Was It Like to Work on This Study? 

My involvement in this study was a crash course in study coordination and mixed methods research. I came into the project with some research experience and knowledge about quantitative methods, but had never worked on a mixed methods study. Serving as the coordinator of this study gave me so much appreciation for researchers who use qualitative or mixed methods, which can yield extremely valuable information while also being very labor- intensive. I am very grateful to have an experience on a mixed methods study, and really look forward to continuing working with this population moving forward.  

— Kiri Baga, 2nd-year student in Rowan’s clinical psychology Ph.D. program and coordinator for this study

Working on this project helped me to grow as a mixed methods researcher. I am used to doing qualitative and mixed methods work in my own lab. However, partnering with someone who is such a rigorous scientist, like Dr. Arigo, made me make sure I brought my A++ game. It also gave me a peek into the research minds of the team members who are all at different levels of development as scientists. Overall, it was an affirming experience with a great team. I’m happy to have contributed to a great project that is sure to help many people who need it the most.

— Dr. Jonathan Lassiter, qualitative methods expert and faculty director of the SPiRiT Lab at Rowan University

This was a labor of love if ever there was one. The CHASE Lab is very comfortable with quantitative methods, but we used this project to learn *two* methods that were new to us (qualitative and mixed). This was intentional – it allowed us to work closely with Dr. Lassiter and Dr. Guetterman, to learn as much as possible about women’s experiences with the new web app. And we gave the process a lot of breathing room; it took many, many hours over a full year to code and analyze the qualitative data, before we could integrate findings with those from the quantitative side. As the project lead, I oversaw and facilitated the entire process; I also conducted the quantitative analyses and I identified the initial sets of findings from all approaches, which we then refined with input from the whole team. But this was my first time with qualitative and mixed methods, so I tried to be transparent about the limits of my knowledge and my learning process while still driving the project forward. I’m immensely grateful to our entire team, our expert collaborators, and our participants for their commitment to the integrity of this work. And I’m so proud of the outcome!

— Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab director and project lead for this study

Next Steps

A mixed methods research design allowed us much greater insight into women’s experiences with the web app than we could have gotten from just one approach. We also got incredibly helpful feedback for improving the web app. We made changes based on this feedback and ran another, larger test, so stay tuned for those findings. And we’re using all of this information to inform a new physical activity program just for women, which will be available in January 2024. Learn more about the program here and ask to reserve your spot today! Email projectwhade@rowan.edu.

Meet @RowanCHASELab: Interview with Lab Manager Sofia Gular

Sofia Gular has a B.A. in Psychology from Rowan University and joined the CHASE Research Team as our lab manager in May 2023. She was interviewed by Iris Bercovitz, a second-year student Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student at Rowan.

Rowan CHASE Lab: Hi Sofia! It’s great to talk with you. What first made you interested in joining the CHASE lab in the role of lab manager? 

SG: Hi Iris! It’s great to talk with you, too. The CHASE lab piqued my interest as I found the work to be not only interesting but hugely important. Digital health tools are becoming more prominent in our daily lives, and being able to use these tools to promote physical activity was an effort I wanted to contribute to. More specifically, the role of lab manager provides me the opportunity to further develop my skill set, not only as a researcher but as a professional. I was previously a research assistant during my undergraduate career, so this opportunity was a way to further build upon those skills and experiences. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: I know that you recently earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Rowan. What research experience did you have before joining CHASE lab, and how did they inform your interest in working with us? 

SG: During my undergraduate career, I first ventured into the world of research during a summer research internship I did under the supervision of NIDA at University of Penn’s AHA! Lab, which focused on smoking cessation. This was my first real introduction to research methods and practices, and I took part in my first individual research project using intensive assessment data (study used an ecological momentary assessment design). From there, I went on to work with the ASSeRT lab at Rowan, where I was able to gain even more experience in data collection, survey building, and presenting at conferences. I found it really interesting that the CHASE lab often uses ecological momentary assessment (or EMA), which contributed to my interest in working with this lab specifically. Ultimately, my desire to become more involved in psychological research coupled with my experience in learning about EMA nurtured my interest in working for the CHASE lab. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: In addition to being lab manager, what research experiences are you interested in gaining with the CHASE lab? Do you have a particular area of research interest? 

SG: I hope to gain experience in leading my own projects and to present research at new conferences. In addition, I would love to assist and support the many projects the lab is currently working on, to better understand the many facets of research and develop my ability to both lead and work with a team. Specifically, I would like to gain more experience in data management and analysis, as these skills are vital to performing research. I am particularly interested in physical activity as it relates to pain and sleep. In the future, I would love to take on my own projects that examine what factors influence outcomes like sleep quality and daily experiences with pain. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: From your experience so far, what have been the most interesting aspects of being a lab manager?

SG:  Most interesting so far has been reflecting on what helped me become a better research assistant and paying that forward to undergraduate students working with the CHASE Lab. Understanding what has helped me in my journey and sharing that information has been really interesting for my own personal reflection, but also in learning how to be a good supporter of our team. It has also been really interesting to learn about the many facets of health psychology and I have enjoyed learning more about health behaviors as they relate to psychology – this is an area of psychology where I did not have much exposure prior to joining the lab. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: What do you anticipate to be the most challenging parts of being lab manager? 

SG:  Learning how to juggle multiple active projects and tasks at a time. As a student, we learn how to juggle working, school work, internships, etc. Now as a lab manager, I have to use those skills I honed during my undergraduate career to not only manage my schedule, but to assist in managing the lab’s schedule and staying on top of tasks and deadlines. I am eager to learn how to best stay organized in this context and to build on these skills. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: We also love to get to know our team as more than just their research interests and experience. What kinds of things do you enjoy doing in your free time?

SG: I have two cats at home who I love to spend time with every day. Also, I really enjoy exploring new places, especially parks and nature reserves. Aside from that, I love spending quality time with my family and friends. Those interactions help me stay grounded, especially in times of stress. Lastly, I prioritize staying active (like going for runs, weight training) – not only to stay physically healthy but to stay mentally healthy as well!

Rowan CHASE Lab: Last question. What are your future career goals?

SG: I aspire to one day work as a clinical psychologist in an inpatient setting. I would also love the opportunity to teach at a university in some capacity. My next step is to continue getting relevant experience in the field to make myself a strong candidate for clinical psychology graduate programs!

Reflection: Rowan CHASE Lab Hosts International Scholars (Part 2)

This spring, we were incredibly fortunate to host two international scholars who visited our group at Rowan University. Both are long-term collaborators with our team and attended our lab and/or project meetings during their stays. We got to share progress on these collaborative efforts, make additional progress during working meetings, and plan for next steps on multiple fronts. Read on for more about these scholars and team members’ experiences of their visits! (See here for a post on our first visitor, Dr. Jacqueline Mogle.)

Dr. Laura König (The University of Bayreuth; Kulmbach, Germany)

Dr. König is Junior Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. She earned her Ph.D. in Health Psychology from the University of Konstanz, Germany. Before joining the University of Bayreuth in 2020, she was postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge, U.K. Her research interests include psychological determinants of health behaviors including eating and physical activity, the design of health behavior interventions including digital and choice architecture interventions, research participation effects, and effective science communication. Her work has been funded by the German Research Foundation and the Bavarian Ministry of Health and Care and she is the recipient of the 2022 Early Career Award from the European Health Psychology Society.

Dr. König gave a Dean’s Distinguished Speaker lecture for the College of Science and Mathematics at Rowan on April 11, 2023: Using Mobile Technology to Understand and Improve Eating Behaviors. Watch her talk here.

CHASE Lab Members Reflect on Dr. König’s Talk (and Visit)

This international collaboration started on Twitter! The Humboldt Centre for International Excellence at Dr. König’s institution offers short- and long-term fellowships to bring researchers to Germany, to facilitate collaborative research projects and workshops. She advertised this opportunity on Twitter in 2020 – during the initial height of the COVID-19 pandemic – and I contacted her to express my interest. We discussed our shared interests in digital health tools and potential measurement reactivity; our proposal to examine measurement reactivity effects in studies that measure physical activity behavior with digital tools was selected for funding, and I spent three weeks in Germany in 2021. This time in residence led to two published papers (see here and here), an NIH grant proposal (which was funded), the design of a new study (currently in data collection), and reciprocal mentoring of Ph.D. students. While she was with us in New Jersey, we made progress on three projects about physical activity measurement reactivity, including our funded NIH grant (description here). We also got to spend time in Philadelphia, at the Jersey shore, and at our research space in Camden. It’s been a wonderful, supportive partnership and I’m so glad Dr. König was able to visit us at Rowan. 

— Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab Director

Dr. König’s work is very relevant to what we do in the CHASE Lab, including both our research and clinical work. I was struck by the number of people who begin using dietary tracking tools but do not continue long term, and am so glad that we have scientists focusing on developing more accurate and sustainable methods of tracking using smartphones. Accurate measurement of these behaviors is so important to support scientific research, in terms of quantifying dietary intake, and to help individuals meet their health goals in daily life. 

— Kiri Baga, 2nd year student in Rowan University’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D.  program 

I enjoyed the discussion and visualization of the vast differences in eating behavior and dietary options between the United States and other countries, especially from the perspective of a professional from Germany. 

— Kristen Edwards, post-baccalaureate research assistant

Dr. König’s talk inspired a variety of questions. For example, she discussed the multiple assessment options for dietary intake and their respective strengths and limitations. Given that I have been working in an eating-focused clinic providing behavioral weight loss treatment this year, I couldn’t help but think about this in the context of helping patients to track their intake for weight loss or quality of life improvements. It has been my experience thus far that tracking diet to the fullest and most accurate extent is important for weight and health outcomes, but often becomes unsustainable long term; this may lead to weight regain or return to previous eating behaviors. However, this talk also reminded me that ultimately, we still have much to learn about optimal methods for certain populations and under certain circumstances. Whatever the method chosen, it is important to balance accuracy with burden to find something sustainable. I thoroughly enjoyed welcoming Dr. König to our CHASE Lab meetings, and in particular, collaborating with her on a project about perceptions of physical activity self-monitoring. It was really refreshing to hear her perspectives on our recent poster presented at the Society of Behavioral Medicine Conference at the end of April as well as her ideas for upcoming manuscripts!

— Kristen Pasko, 5th year student in Rowan University’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program and CHASE lab manager

I found it interesting that current technology is not able to accurately identify different types of food and dishes as well as portion amount. 

— Iris Bercovitz, 1st year student in Rowan University’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program 

It was wonderful to hear how far technology has come in supporting and analyzing eating behaviors, but surprising in how much further it still has to go (e.g., apps using a camera feature mixing up two different foods based on texture/color, not being able to estimate portion). It’s an exciting field and interesting how American and German portions, nutrition information, and food options may vary, yet technology presents an opportunity for research methods to span both cultures. And I won a Rowan College of Science and Math shirt! (Photo above.)

— Laura Travers, 4th year student in Rowan University’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D.  program

I found it interesting that AI was being used to detect the types of food people were eating, however it was inaccurate at times and the researchers had to detect the food themselves. I wonder if one day AI will be used for further dietary research. 

— Danielle Parthesius, undergraduate research assistant 

I loved the way the talk was presented through details, colors, visuals of how technology has further advanced to where cultural differences in food options and nutrition information can be bridged through technology. Hearing about the variations in eating habits and dietary alternatives between the United States and Germany was really interesting to hear from Dr. König. 

— Ria Singh, undergraduate research assistant 

I enjoyed her use of visuals, diagrams and pictures and how she tied it into the idea of bridging the gap between different cultures and the “digital divide.” It was interesting to also get a different perspective from someone who has done her research in Germany, but has also collaborated with those in the United States.

–– Julia Lowman, undergraduate research assistant

As a coach-interventionist on a behavioral weight loss intervention, Dr. König’s talk was particularly salient. I have been reflecting on participant experiences using digital technology for daily food recording and believe that some of the methods Dr. König discussed (e.g., taking a picture of a plate of food, focusing on the composition of the plate vs. calories) could be great strategies for those who want to make lifestyle changes but find daily dietary tracking to be burdensome. I also learned about the “digital divide” and hope to investigate this more in the future.

— Dr. Gabrielle Salvatore, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

CHASE Lab with Dr. Laura König at her talk on 4/11.

We’ve been fortunate to host two outstanding scholars this semester, and we hope to continue this trend (and have Drs. König and Mogle back very soon). As always, stay tuned for the next steps in our collaborative research with them, including published papers and a presentation at the annual meeting of the European Health Psychology Society (September 2023).

Rowan CHASE Lab at #SBM2023

Spring 2023 was a long and productive semester, and we’re still reflecting! At the end of April, CHASE lab attended the Society of Behavioral Medicine conference in Phoenix, Arizona to present our work. Over the course of the week, our team presented findings across a variety of topics, including: digital intervention tools to promote women’s health and midlife health, social media use among adults with chronic illness, effects of psychosocial and physical processes on physical activity, and associations between social processes and sleep disturbance. Our work was also recognized by the Women’s Health Special Interest Group and we hosted events on behalf of the Membership Council.

See the graphic below for the full list of our events, and here for copies of our posters. And scroll down to read our firsthand accounts.

So, How Was It?

Iris Bercovitz, 5th-year student in Rowan’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program: I had an amazing time at my first SBM conference. It was an exciting experience to hear from so many different behavioral medicine disciplines, from clinical psychologists to pediatricians. I was impressed by the keynote speakers and their focus on health equity. I also greatly enjoyed my poster session where I was able to meet many interesting researchers from across the world. I’m already looking forward to the SBM conference next year! 

Dr. Gabrielle Salvatore, Postdoctoral Research Fellow: As a first-time SBM attendee, I was impressed by the incredible energy of other attendees/presenters and the wide range of behavioral medicine disciplines represented in conference programming. I attended talks that were aligned with my research interests of physical activity and women’s health, was able to network with other SBM members who have overlapping interests, and had wonderful conversations about the future directions of my research line with professionals in the field. I really enjoyed presenting my work during two poster sessions, and had the opportunity to accept an outstanding abstract award from the Women’s Health Special Interest Group (SIG). I look forward to harnessing the connections that I have made and getting more involved with SBM in the future!

Laura Travers, 5th-year student in Rowan’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program: The conference was wonderful! Not only did I have the opportunity to present a research poster, but being able to attend different panels and hear from multiple keynote speakers was fascinating. It was also exciting to hear from so many other researchers who were passionate about their own topics and findings. I’m looking forward to reviewing all of the notes I took throughout the conference and how some new information helps shape my current projects.  

Kristen Pasko, 5th-year student in Rowan’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program and CHASE Lab Manager: As always, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the annual SBM conference. I found myself gravitating toward presentations about weight and eating this year, which is unsurprising given my practicum experience for the past year in a weight and eating clinic. One of the presentations that stuck with me the most was a symposium on addressing weight stigma in healthcare and opportunities for intervention. The question and answer portion provoked an interesting topic that has been on my mind frequently this year: whether or not there is and should be a paradigm shift in behavioral weight loss treatment to de-center the focus on weight (vs. other quality of life improvements, and including body neutrality/acceptance). Similar to my personal sentiments, one takeaway was that although potentially initially conflicting to research participants or patients, we can hold both that “I accept my body” and “I have motivation to engage in lifestyle behavior change in line with my health goals and values.” I also had a wonderful time presenting a poster on reactivity to researcher observation in physical research. I already have many new research questions after discussing the poster with many conference attendees! 

Kiri Baga, 2nd-year Ph.D. student in Rowan’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program: SBM was a very fun, motivating, and energizing experience this year! It was extremely helpful for both my research and clinical work to learn about the latest science in behavior change and digital health. The speakers and posters were thought-provoking, and I’m excited to have a new list of interesting topics and research questions to focus on. I particularly enjoyed presenting a poster and getting comments/feedback from other attendees interested in similar topics! 

Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab Director: SBM was a very different experience for me this year. As Chair of the Membership Council and a member of the Board of Directors, my primary role was representing SBM and its leadership group to our members, donors, first-time conference attendees, and attendees from underrepresented backgrounds. I attended and/or chaired many meetings and special events throughout the conference; I also led social media efforts for the Behavioral Informatics and Technology Special Interest Group (BIT SIG) and supported our group during their presentations and awards. All of this left much less time for absorbing the latest science than usual! Though it was truly fun and engaging, and it challenged me in new ways. It’s a lot of work to serve in these roles but it’s a privilege to have these opportunities as I transition to a new stage of my career. And I did make it to a few sessions, including a symposium where I presented on our latest findings from Project WHADE. Luckily I was prepared for anything, because I was last out of 4 presenters and I ended up with about 3 minutes to give a 10-minute talk! (Pro tip: if you’re presenting at a conference, be considerate of your colleagues and make sure you don’t exceed your time allowance.) This was yet another new challenge – and honestly, kind-of exciting in the moment – and the audience was great about it. I look forward to welcoming the SBM annual conference to Philadelphia in 2024.

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Up Close on Our Latest Paper, with Drexel Digital Media: Responses to Social Comparisons in a Digital Physical Activity Environment (3 Studies)

We’re excited to share our latest published work, which is available now in JMIR Human Factors!* For this paper, we took a close look at data collected by our collaborators at Drexel University, led by the Procedural Expression Lab in the Department of Digital Media. Our groups have been working together since 2018 to develop a new digital game for physical activity promotion that maximizes the benefits of team-based competition.

Physical activity and exercise games (or exergames) promote movement by basing game play and rewards on a player’s physical activity in the real world. The game is connected to a wearable activity monitor, so it knows how many steps each participant takes per day (for example). One underlying component in these games is social comparison – knowing how others are doing in the game with respect to physical activity allows us to assess how we’re doing in comparison, and may motivate us to move more, to win the game.

But, as we know from much of our previous work (see here and here), not all social comparisons are motivating – sometimes they have the opposite effect! To design an exergame that optimizes social comparison processes to motivate players to be physically active, we have to know more about how they use physical-activity based comparisons in a digital game environment.

What Did We Do?

As part of a series of studies conducted at Drexel (and funded by the National Science Foundation), the Digital Media team built digital platforms that allowed us to explore how game users selected and responded to physical activity-based social comparisons. 

In our new paper, we looked at 3 different studies in this program of research, which each gave players 7-9 days to explore their comparison target options. Each day, they could select multiple profiles to view with limited information, and they could view only one profile in full. The profile they selected to view in full was their primary target of comparison that day. We examined findings across studies to learn:

1. What types of comparisons do game players select? (Upward target- comparing to players with more steps per day than you have, or downward target – comparing to players with fewer steps per day than you have.)
2. How do players interact with the comparison targets they select? (How many different profiles do they browse based on just step information, before selecting a full profile to read; how much time do they spend looking at profiles each day?.)
3. How do players respond to the comparison targets they select? (Does their motivation change from before to after reading the profile, how many steps do they take each day based on their target selections?)

In each study, participant players had different sets of options for profiles to view, which represented different types of comparison targets. Some had many more or many fewer steps per day than the participant player, and some had only a few more or fewer steps per day than the participant player.

What Did We Find and What Does it Mean?

All 3 studies showed that the study web platform could be used as intended by the population of interest (insufficiently active adults enrolled in college classes). Further, participants’ interactions with the web platform varied a lot from day to day – whether they chose upward or downward targets, how long they spent looking at their target’s profile, and how many profile elements participants chose to view changed each day. This suggests that participants engaged with the web platform in a meaningful way, rather than falling into a pattern of the same behaviors each day. 

For example, participants in study 2 spent less time with their full profile than participants in studies 1 or 3 (on average), but the number of elements participants accessed in their full profiles increased across studies. In studies 2 and 3, participants who were older spent more time viewing profiles and viewed more elements than participants who were younger. (Age was not assessed in study 1.) In all studies, participants viewed more upward comparison targets than downward comparison targets. However, participants in studies 1 and 3 selected to view the full profile of upward targets more frequently than downward targets, while the full profiles of downward targets were most popular in study 2. 

In study 2, participants’ steps were highest on days when they selected targets most distant from themselves, in both directions – they took approximately 725 more steps on days when they selected targets with 60% and 140% of their own steps from the previous day, relative to targets closer to their own steps. Participants also took more steps on days when they were more motivated than usual after viewing their selected target, as we might expect. In study 3, however, steps did not meaningfully differ between days when participants selected an upward versus a downward target, and they took slightly fewer steps on days when they were more motivated than usual after viewing their selected target. Differences between studies may have been due to the use of different displays: profile options in study 2 were presented next to the participant’s steps from the previous day, whereas the participant’s step total from the previous day was ranked on a leaderboard with their two profile options in study 3.

Overall, these studies suggest that it is feasible to assess people’s preferences for making physical activity-based social comparisons using an adaptive web platform. Importantly, these studies confirm that people do not always select the comparison targets that are beneficial for their physical activity motivation or behavior!

What Was It Like to Work on This Study?

It was a fantastic experience to work with such a highly multidisciplinary team! Understanding how to motivate people to live a more active lifestyle is more relevant today than ever. Our team of researchers tackled some fundamental research questions by joining approaches from artificial intelligence, human-AI interaction, game design, and psychology. As the project director (principal investigator/PI), it was thrilling to see how well the different disciplines can contribute to each other in meaningful ways.

— Dr. Jichen Zhu, PXL Lab Director and NSF project PI

Working on the various iterations of this project was a fascinating learning experience for me. I served as the data collection coordinator for several of the studies in this series. Having had limited prior experience on multidisciplinary research teams, I was continuously amazed by – and grateful for – the highly creative, innovative, and collaborative contributions from each member of the study team to execute this complex project. Working on this study was like a crash course in user design, artificial intelligence, exergames, application of social comparison theory, and implementation science all in one. I look forward to seeing how future research using novel assessment and intervention tools can build off this work to understand and shape health behavior change.

– Dr. Diane Dallal, Clinical Psychologist and former NSF study coordinator

It was wonderful to work on a research project alongside this group of researchers. Our work was centered around the important topic of motivating people to adopt more active lifestyles and, more generally, improving the effectiveness of AI-based interventions for encouraging user behavior. In my role on the project, I led the development of our web platforms and machine learning algorithm for the experimental components. I appreciated working on such a multidisciplinary team, where the combination of backgrounds and approaches enabled us to explore more broadly and understand the impact our solutions had in multiple areas of study. Most importantly, it was inspiring to be part of a team that shared a passion for creating positive change, and I am excited to see the impact our work may have going forward.

– Dr. Robert C. Gray, artificial intelligence researcher

I am incredibly excited about this work and being able to work with such a skilled research team. I worked in a variety of roles on this project, including leading the development and updates to our exergame. Working on this project allowed me to design and build an application for social comparison research and better understand how to design user experiences for AI interventions for health and positive change. I look forward to seeing future work on this topic and how we can better motivate people to live a healthier life.

– Jennifer Villareale, user experience of artificial intelligence researcher

I was so pleased to join this project as a behavioral science consultant at the preparation stage, and to see its successful execution over the past few years. Multidisciplinary work has such advantages, which I think are evident here. Though it’s not without challenges – behavioral and digital media scientists speak different languages and tend to prioritize different outcomes or other aspects of the research, and it can be difficult to get on the same page. This overall project is a nice example of working through challenges to produce knowledge on multiple aspects of the same phenomenon. This paper uses only a subset of the technology built and the data collected – there’s a lot more where this came from! – and this was a unique opportunity to focus on the associations between a range of digital, physical activity-based social comparisons and activity outcomes (motivation and behavior). As we expected, people don’t always use comparisons in a way that increases their physical activity motivation or behavior, even when they’re playing a game where their team winning depends on their steps. Some of this is due to curiosity and wanting to explore options, and people can learn over time what comparisons work and don’t work for boosting their physical activity. There is still a lot to learn about how to use comparisons to promote activity, in the context of exergames and more broadly.

— Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab Director and NSF project consultant

Next Steps

It will be important to understand why people choose and respond to physical activity-based comparison targets in the ways we observed. The CHASE Lab has hypotheses that we’re testing in upcoming studies, and findings will have implications for how we use opportunities for social comparisons in digital physical activity interventions. Drexel’s Digital Media program is also studying how we might be able to personalize opportunities for physical activity-based social comparisons in exergames. Please stay tuned for much more on these topics!

*Rowan CHASE Lab’s first human factors publication!
**Read about earlier stages of this research and what we found:

Meet @RowanCHASELab: Interview with Raj Harsora

Raj Harsora is a post-baccalaureate research assistant with the CHASE Lab. He was interviewed by Iris Bercovitz, a 1st-year clinical psychology Ph.D. student at Rowan.

Rowan CHASE Lab: Hi Raj! It’s great to be talking with you today. We know you came to the CHASE lab with a bit of experience in research, broadly. Can you tell us about that experience and how that led you to interest in this lab that focuses on clinical and health psychology? 

Raj Harsora: It’s great to be talking to you, as well! My experience before the CHASE lab was focused in two main areas. In one of my research experiences, I did a great amount of wet lab work on different aspects of cancer biology. In the other lab I was part of, I was more focused on exercise and sports science. The variety in the CHASE lab projects was really what led to my interest in joining! In the CHASE lab I knew I could be exposed to different techniques, research methods, and different ways to analyze data. I believe having a broad range of skills that focus on different aspects of psychology/health will be extremely beneficial in my research journey. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: Related to that, what are the most exciting parts about psychology research for you so far? 

RH: The most exciting parts about psychology research so far is the breadth available and how applicable it is to different kinds of people. As research efforts continue, it is interesting to see how CHASE research can lead to new intervention practices among different groups of people, and to see the effects of the intervention practices. If these interventions are successful, they can make a great impact in many people’s lives. It’s also very interesting to see how fast the field of psychology evolves and updates.

Rowan CHASE Lab: What skills and experiences do you hope to gain from your work in the CHASE Lab?

RH: I want to learn more about methodology in behavioral research and to be a more effective science communicator. Although I have had other research experiences, all fields have different ways to approach experiments and how they analyze the incoming data. It would be interesting to learn more about those aspects and see their applications. For becoming a better science communicator, I believe it is an important skill to have as a researcher, to most effectively communicate with a larger audience. In health psychology, this might be even more important compared to other fields due to the great impact that it has on individuals and groups.

Rowan CHASE Lab: You’re a recent Rutgers University graduate. What are your future career goals and plans? 

RH: I’m applying to graduate school for psychology! I plan to most likely apply to Ph.D. programs in clinical psychology as I believe that would be the best fit for my interests. As someone with a passion for both the research side and the clinical side of psychology, I believe a clinical psychology Ph.D. program would be ideal for reaching my goals.

Rowan CHASE Lab: Lastly, we love to hear about how our team members spend their time outside of work! What’s been your favorite way to get in self-care or anything generally fun recently? 

RH: One thing I often do for self-care is exercise in some way. This includes going to the gym on a regular basis, sometimes trying out new classes, stretching, going for a walk, etc. I’m a big believer in the notion that “exercise is medicine” and exercise has positive effects on your physical and mental well-being. Other things that I enjoy doing are reading, going out with friends, and finding new places to eat!

An inside look at our new paper: A scoping review of behavior change techniques used to promote physical activity among women in midlife

It’s the start of the 2022-2023 academic year, and we’re pleased to share our newest paper, now out in Frontiers in Psychology! Our regular visitors won’t be surprised to hear that it’s about promoting physical activity among women during “midlife.” (As we describe below, there isn’t much agreement about when this period occurs. We usually mean ages 40-60. See more here.) This time, we looked across papers that were published previously in peer-reviewed journals, to get the details on what we already know about building physical activity promotion programs for these women.

To promote physical activity, many studies have tested the effects of psychosocial or behavioral intervention packages. These interventions are designed to target a range of behavior change techniques (BCTs), or specific methods of prompting behavior change. For example, the BCT self-monitoring involves people tracking their own activity behavior, to give them insight into their own activity patterns. Often this is done with the assistance of a monitoring device, such as a pedometer or Fitbit. Self-monitoring can provide information about opportunities to make changes (such as days of the week or times of day when activity is low) and prompt reflection on how to take advantage of these opportunities (such as setting goals to take 2-minute walk breaks in the afternoon). 

Decisions about which behavior change techniques to use in an intervention are often guided by theories or frameworks that propose explanations for how behaviors operate – either for people in general or specific to particular groups of people. (For example, Social Cognitive Theory.) One thing we know from our previous work is how important regular physical activity is for the health of women in midlife, and how difficult it is for women to achieve physical activity levels that would help promote their health due to things such as balancing multiple roles (e.g., careers, caregiving responsibilities, etc.). As we’ve gone about this work over the past few years, we noticed that there were a lot of physical activity interventions supposedly “designed for” or “tailored to the needs of” women in midlife. But there was very little information about the reasons for choosing specific theories, how these theories were used to guide the selection of behavior change techniques, or even which behavior change techniques were included in a given intervention.

What Did We Do?

First, why does this information about intervention design matter? Well, despite the existence of physical activity interventions for women in midlife, this group still struggles to achieve adequate levels of activity to protect their health. That means that our interventions aren’t terribly effective, in general. One reason they’re not effective might be that there isn’t a lot of consistency in communicating what we already know – what we’ve tried, what women respond to best, and what doesn’t work – which can prevent any meaningful achievements in this area. As a first step toward synthesizing available information, the goals of our study were to:

1. Summarize what these interventions did – who they included as “women in midlife,” what theories they used to guide the development of an intervention, and what BCTs were included
2. Identify noteworthy gaps in this information – what don’t we know (and why), what problems this can cause, and how we can move forward

To achieve our goals, we conducted a scoping review, which is a procedure for systematically identifying all relevant (published) studies in a particular topic area. (See our previous scoping reviews here and here.) We first decided on our criteria for which studies would be included versus excluded. In general, we were focused on behavioral intervention studies to promote physical activity, published in English between 2000 and 2021, that targeted women in midlife. We did not include interventions that were delivered only via digital devices (such as mobile apps) – all studies involved some element of professional support, such as from psychologists, health coaches, or nurses who led intervention sessions. We registered our plan for this study with the Open Science Framework (read more here).

Our search initially generated 4,410 published papers, which we evaluated and sorted based on whether or not they met our criteria. This process involved several stages over a full year, to get to a final list of 51 papers that described 36 unique intervention programs. Then two team members coded each paper for information about who participated in the study, which theories were used for guidance, and which BCTs were included in the intervention. One team member then reviewed all of this coding and resolved discrepancies between coders, to get to a final answer about each of the codes for every paper. Once we had these codes, we could summarize across papers.

What Did We Find and What Does it Mean?

The most popular BCTs included in physical activity interventions for women in midlife were self-monitoring, goal-setting, and social support. This didn’t surprise us, given that these BCTs are generally shown to be effective for promoting physical activity across many groups of people. What was more interesting was what was missing from these papers, and how they differed from each other. Here are a few of our observations:

• Researchers don’t agree on how to define “midlife.” Across papers, it ranges from age 30 to age 69! This is a huge range that typically incorporates many different life experiences, social situations, and levels of physical fitness.
• It isn’t clear how interventions are guided by health behavior change theories, or how they are adapted or tailored for women in midlife. Although many papers stated that their interventions were guided by theories and designed to address the unique needs of women in midlife, there was little description of the logic and process that led from these principles to which BCTs were selected. This is an important aspect of the rationale for a “new” intervention program and it was a surprise to see that the connections are not described more clearly.
• BCTs are difficult to identify in many papers, and there is very little information about how these BCTs are activated. This creates a problem: physical activity interventions that focus on women in midlife are popular, but it’s not clear how these interventions are designed or delivered. As a result, the field can’t build consensus about what works or how, and use that information to advance beyond its current state. We end up doing the same things over and over in slightly different combinations, without actually improving our ability to increase physical activity for women in midlife.

We conclude our review with a set of recommendations for reporting on future interventions for women in midlife, which focus on addressing the inconsistencies and missing information we identified.

What Was It Like to Work on This Study?

I really enjoyed collaborating on this study. One of the most interesting findings relates to how little information there is about how BCTs are activated in existing interventions for women in midlife. In addition, I was happy to see that a number of interventions targeted multiply marginalized populations (e.g., women from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds, women who were uninsured or underinsured). These studies provided important information about how behavioral interventions designed to promote physical activity can be tailored to meet the unique needs of individuals with a variety of multiply marginalized identities.

— Kelly Romano, clinical psychology intern at the Medical University of South Carolina and Ph.D. candidate at Old Dominion University

Working on this study was illuminating. I was surprised to see how frequently studies claimed to use a behavior change technique but provided little information to describe how these techniques were used in interventions. I was especially interested in how commonly “planning social support” was listed as a technique in interventions, but the studies did not seem to list ways support was facilitated beyond putting participants in a group together. Social support is a complex social process that cannot simply be assumed in a group setting. This study was a great lesson in intervention development — it is not enough to say you are using a technique. You need to describe it in detail to ensure it fits widely used definitions, can be accurately interpreted, and measured by other researchers.

— Kristen Pasko, 5th-year clinical psychology Ph.D. student and CHASE Lab manager

This was a great learning experience for me, as it was my first opportunity to learn about the process of conducting a scoping review and the collaboration process when writing. My role focused on screening assigned articles for data extraction and providing assistance with writing the results section. In helping with this process, it was very interesting to see the major differences between each paper included in the review, such as how they defined similar terms, the theory that was driving their physical activity intervention, and the sample of participants used. The scoping review identifies a significant gap in our understanding of physical activity interventions for women in midlife. I’m looking forward to seeing how reports of interventions can be refined based on this paper.

— Daija Jackson, 4th-year clinical psychology Psy.D. student at the Chicago School of Professional psychology (Washington, D.C.)

Working on this paper, it was fascinating to see how many studies met our search criteria, yet had different definitions for terms, as well as different targets and goals. I also enjoyed learning the process of how to refine article searches, especially after witnessing how many articles still popped up in our search that ended up being excluded. I look forward to the next one.

— Laura Travers, 4th-year clinical psychology Ph.D. student with the CHASE Lab

This was my first scoping review, and looking back, it’s wild to think about how many papers we screened — nearly 4,000! 😵 We were fortunate to have software for organizing the review process, which I highly recommend if you’re going to do something like this and have the resources. Extracting behavior change techniques from the articles required me to set aside my assumptions about what the interventions were really trying to target and how. This was a challenge for me, especially when study details were lacking — which happened a lot more than I expected. I look forward to seeing how the information we found is applied in future physical activity interventions for women in midlife.

— Cole Ainsworth, research associate and former CHASE Lab postdoctoral fellow

I’ve had the idea for this project for a while, but it didn’t come together until we had a large and committed team to see it through. This process took over a year just to get to the point of submitting the paper for publication — we encountered many delays, data extraction needed several revisions, and then the search needed to be updated (to include more recent papers), so we had to add to what we had already done. Once the paper was finished, the review and publication process took another full year. The team deserves a lot of credit. Everyone was incredibly patient with all of this and worked really well together, which is rewarding to experience as a mentor and team lead. It’s wonderful to have a final product after all this time, especially one that we believe makes a valuable contribution to the conversation about promoting physical activity among women in midlife

— Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab director

Next Steps

Women in midlife are vulnerable to developing conditions such as cardiovascular disease and osteopenia. Although regular physical activity can reduce this risk, women in midlife often struggle to adopt and maintain physical activity routines in the midst of their many responsibilities and life changes. So it is especially important that physical activity interventions for this group are tailored to their unique needs, but it isn’t clear what we can conclude about how to do this from previous research. Our own recent studies have used multiple research methods to understand women’s intervention preferences and perceptions of various options, and to identify influences on their activity that they may not be aware of. This work has led us to develop multiple resources that we’re testing with women in midlife, with the goals of determining what works best for whom and how it works.

Interested in learning more or participating in one of our tests? Check out our page for Project WHADE (Women’s Health And Daily Experiences) and fill out our brief eligibility survey!