RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Internet interventions provide a unique opportunity to increase widespread accessibility of treatment at reduced and scalable costs (Muñoz, 2010). Previous research has explored the impact of specific types of activities on participant's main depressive symptoms i.e., anhedonia, or enjoyment levels, and mood (Bunge et al., 2017).The aim of the current study is to improve the understanding of the effects of online micro interventions targeting motivation, enjoyment levels, and mood. METHODS: A total of 838 participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk participated in an online calendar activity to improve mood. RESULTS: A regression analysis showed that confidence and motivation were significantly associated with mood (R2 = 0.467, p < .001). The total number of activities reported in the last two days was associated with participants' current mood (R2 = 0.203, p < .001) and enjoyment (R2 = 0.156, p < .001). Interestingly, only mastery and meaningful activities improved mood but not pleasant activities. Regarding enjoyment, pleasant and meaningful activities impacted current enjoyment of the day but not mastery activities. Lastly, only individuals who engaged with the calendar showed a significant increase in motivation and confidence. LIMITATIONS: Depression may moderate engagement and was not analyzed in the present study. Additionally, there were no follow-up analyses that looked at the long-term effects of the intervention or changes in actual activity engagement. CONCLUSIONS: Online micro interventions have a promising future as an intervention that can impact the mood and motivation for change. Future studies should examine increasing engagement to facilitate confidence and motivation to enact change.
