Digital Positive Affect Intervention Study

Anxiety and depression are highly prevalent mental health disorders that impose a significant burden on individuals and public health systems worldwide (GBD 2019 Mental Disorders Collaborators, 2022). Although many existing treatments focus on symptom reduction through targeting negative emotions, fewer interventions specifically enhance positive emotional experiences, despite growing evidence that low positive affect is a key feature of both anxiety and depression. Face-to-face psychologist-led positive affect therapy (PAT) is a promising intervention that aims to cultivate positive emotions, engagement, and meaning, potentially leading to greater improvements in emotional well-being than traditional approaches (Craske et al., 2019). However, empirical evaluations of digitally-delivered, asynchronously-coached, scalable versions of the PAT remain limited (Craske et al., 2024; Firth et al., 2017). The present study thus aims to investigate the comparative efficacy of a digital positive affect intervention (PAI) in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression and enhancing overall mental health outcomes. We utilize a two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to investigate the effectiveness of a six-week digitally delivered positive affect intervention (vs. self-monitoring active control; Zainal \& Newman, 2023) in reducing self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as other secondary psychosocial outcomes, including sleep quality, quality of life, and emotion regulation. The treatment program comprises weekly evidence-based therapeutic material delivered online, and daily mental health (MH) mobile application prompts delivered thrice a day for the 6-week treatment period, based on evidence-based positive affect therapy principles. The active comparator comprises self-monitoring MH mobile application prompts for the 6-week treatment period. All participants will be assessed on several psychosocial outcomes at mid-treatment, post-treatment, and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up. The study hypothesizes that participants randomized to the digital PAI will experience greater improvement in anxious and depressive symptoms both immediately after treatment and up to a year later, compared to the self-monitoring MH app. Findings will contribute to growing evidence that digital PAI is an efficacious and feasible treatment to target and enhance positive emotions and related mental health outcomes in adults experiencing anxiety and depression.