Effect of Three Types of Activities on Improving Mood and Enjoyment in a Brief Online Depression Study

The goal of this study is to determine whether different types of activities have a differential effect on mood and enjoyment. Methods. A secondary analysis of the data of 754 participants (M(age) = 35.8 years, SD(age) = 12.6; M(PHQ-9) = 7.6, SD(PHQ-9) = 7.0) who were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) to participate in a brief online study. Participants completed an activity log and reported retrospectively about three types of activities (Pleasant, Meaningful, and Mastery) at baseline and one week follow-up. A mixed effects ANOVA was used to analyze the effect of weekly activities on mood, and a temporal analysis model was used to test for the effect of daily activities on enjoyment. Results. Participants who reported higher number of Mastery activities for the week had higher mood ratings at follow-up (F (1, 39) = 4.89, p < .05), regardless of depression status at baseline. Pleasant and Meaningful activities did not have a significant effect on mood. Daily engagement in any of the three activity types increased enjoyment of that day (Pleasant: b = 0.312, t (1811) = 46.73, p < .001; Meaningful: b = 0.254, t (1814) = 11.65, p < .001; Mastery: b = 0.290, t (1816) = 13.07, p < .001]. Conclusions. These findings contribute to the understanding on how brief behavioral activation interventions delivered online may influence participants' mood and enjoyment, and can inform clinicians' recommendations about types of activities.