Sitting ducks for mental issues? Exploring the relationship between sedentary behaviour and mental well-being
Theme: Mental health in a digital age
Type of research: quantitative empirical
Description:
Although sitting is ubiquitous in modern life, prolonged sitting time is linked to severe somatic long-term health risks. Additionally, over the past decade, increasing evidence of associations between sitting time (or precisely: sedentary behaviour) with mental well-being and mental distress have emerged. Intuitively, you might feel that your mood goes down when you sit for too long. However, the directions and precise nature of these associations are still unclear, nor are factors in these associations clear. One important question is for example: to what extent does the context in which we sit matter for our mood?
In this project, you will investigate the relationship between sitting time and mood – or one or more psychological construct of choice – and examine mechanisms that influence or explain this relationship. For example, SB may influence mood depending on the kind of sitting activity or depending on the social or physical context. Maybe sitting is not necessarily bad for your mental well-being all the time?
The primary method of investigation will be an experience sampling methodology (although cross-sectional study may be possible). Data will be collected as a group, with each student focusing on their own research question(s) and psychological constructs (predictor/outcome such as mood, stress, or optimism; moderator such as baseline sedentary tendency, (state) cognitive load/context, being inside or outside, or trait neuroticism).
Who are we looking for?
Students who are interested in examining lifestyle/health behaviours and psychological processes and outcomes. For experience sampling, affinity with statistical analysis and data management is strongly encouraged.