Objectives: This study utilized mobile ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine the dynamic relationships among experiential avoidance (EA), mood, and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation (CVPR) attendance.
Method: Participants (n = 47; 40.4% female; 80.1% White; 85.1% Cardiac, 14.9% Pulmonary) were recruited from CVPR during their first 2 weeks of the program. They completed daily EMA prompts to assess momentary mood and EA for 2 weeks using a smartphone device. Multilevel modeling (MLM) was employed to investigate the impact of EA and mood on next-week attendance and the within-person within-prompt correlates, antecedents, and consequences of EA.
Results: Greater EA and negative mood significantly predicted worse next-week CVPR attendance rates. Within the same EMA prompt individuals with higher EA also reported greater negative affect and perceived stress, while individuals with lower EA reported greater positive mood. In addition, lagged analyses showed that EA was negatively related to next-day positive mood scores.
Conclusions: EA appears to be an important targetable mechanism negatively related to CVPR program attendance and mood in CVPR patients. The present study builds upon previous research supporting EA as a dynamic and fluid emotion-regulation process, suggesting EA's impact on mood and behavior may be best understood through repeated real-time measurement methodology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).