ULB research| Personal data | Research themes | Ongoing teaching | Publications |
DESMET Ann
Units
Person in charge of the Unit : Oui
The research center has three main focal points: 1) healthy lifestyles, 2) prosocial behaviour (including pro-environmental behaviour), and 3) acceptance, sense of coherence and commitment. These form different but complimentary angles to improve (mental) health and well-being. Mental health issues represent a high disease burden and have a serious societal impact. Depression, for example, is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The prevalence of mental health issues is moreover increasing in the last decade. The majority of mental health problems first occur in adolescence and young adulthood, and problems related to mental health issues track into later life, such as lower employment opportunities and relational problems. This is the case even after successful treatment. Prevention of mental health issues is therefore key. As barriers to searching treatment, such as a lack of mental health literacy and a preference for solving problems autonomously delay any help with on average 5-10 years, it is crucial for a preventive approach to strengthen personal, social and community resources to avoid mental health issues. A focus on well-being and positive mental health may be one such approach in prevention of mental disorders. Indeed, longitudinal research has demonstrated that a higher level of mental well-being protects against the development of mental disorders at a later time. PACE focuses on a socio-ecological perspective of health and well-being, acknowledging that healthy lifestyles can impact both physical, social and mental health; that humans are part of their environment and that individual health therefore cannot be successfully promoted without also taking environmental and planetary health into account; and that body and mind are intricately connected. Keywords: (mental) health promotion, healthy lifestyles (e.g., physical activity, healthy diet, sexual health, sleep), prevention of mental health problems, prosocial behaviour, pro-environmental behaviour, digital health interventions, positive psychology, mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
ULB Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Sports
U-IRIS is intended to bring together research skills existing at ULB in the fields of sports and physical activity in order to stimulate collaboration and interdisciplinary research. The research carried out within U-IRIS could be the basis of evidence-based advice in various fields of sport and physical activity. ULB and each of U-IRIS partner groups, as well as their existing activities, platforms, infrastructures and collaborations, will gain in visibility, both internally and externally in a promising and rapidly evolving field. The research carried out by U-IRIS is designed to be both fundamental and applied. It is developed around five major axes: - clinics / sports medicine - high level sports / performance - rehabilitation / handicap and sports - sports and society (including education through sports) - prevention / public health / nutrition. The groups participating in U-IRIS represent the Faculties of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Medicine, Psychology and Educational Sciences, Motor Sciences, the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, the School of Public Health, the Research Department, ULB-Sports and the Erasme Academic Hospital.
Projetcs
Health goal interference and facilitation in transitional phases in young adulthood
Emerging adults undergo life transitions such as entering the workforce and higher education, or becoming a parent, that present changes in the physical and social environment. Such changes in the environment present resource constraints that may lead to goal interference, i.e., progressing in one goal at the expense of another due to time or energy limitations. Goal interference and facilitation is often studied between concrete actions (e.g. preparing a healthy meal and driving children to leisure activities), whereas healthy lifestyles can also facilitate or interfere with personal values (value of being a caring parent). Using the ecological momentary assessment (EMA) method, this study aims to investigate vertical goal facilitation and interference between health goals (physical activity and diet) and personal values among the emerging adult population (18-30 years old) as they navigate social role transitions.
A change in multiple healthy lifestyle behaviours is needed to reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases and create a public health impact. Multiple health behavior change programs are however not always effective, possibly due to goal conflicts between several health behaviours. The aims of the current research are to understand how goal interference/facilitation are associated with multiple health behaviour change in the field of physical activity and healthy diet, and what the mediating roles of compensatory health beliefs and other self-regulatory processes are. This project hereby integrates literatures on goal interference/facilitation and compensatory health beliefs in one integrated theoretical model. This association will be tested in an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) study, combined with device-measured behaviours (activity trackers, food log apps) and end-of-day diaries. EMA studies can have higher ecological validity and lower retrospective bias than traditional surveys. The focus of this project is on higher-level (e.g. values) and lower-level goals (concrete actions), which will be studied with implicit measures. This research will be conducted in a first study on implicit measures for goal interference and facilitation with 45 participants from a general adult population. A second study will consist of the EMA study, which will be conducted among participants from a general adult population, using random time-based sampling during a total of 12 measurement days across 3 months. We hypothesize that the implicit measures will be valid and acceptable to participants (study 1); for goal interference between healthy diet and physical activity to be associated with negative affect; and for compensatory health beliefs, but not coping strategies and goal-review, to have a negative effect on multiple behaviour change when used to address this negative affect.
Given the interconnection between health and climate issues, shared predictors between behaviour and pro-environmental behaviour (PEB), and the risk of crisis fatigue if attention is given to these issues one at a time, these should be targeted jointly. A change in multiple behaviours is needed to impact planetary health, and multiple behaviour change programs are indeed generally more effective than single-behaviour programs in creating societal impact. Insights are hence needed in which health behaviours and PEB can be targeted jointly. Multiple behaviour change is more successful when done sequentially than simultaneously. However, sequential behaviour change raises the issue of transfer or spill-over, which happens when a first behaviour increases (positive) or reduces (negative spill-over) the chance of adopting a next behaviour. Spill-over between health and pro-environmental behaviour has not yet been studied. Crucially, a lack of insights in the mechanisms of multiple behaviour change is likely to result in ineffective interventions. This project aims to assess how healthy lifestyle and pro-environmental behaviours in a general adult population can facilitate or conflict with each other. Finding health and pro-environmental behaviours that facilitate each other will point to behaviours that can be targeted jointly, or where interventions are needed to reduce conflict between these behaviours.
