“Holidaily”: Development Of A Smartphone Application For Better Recovery From Stressful Work Before, During And After A Vacation

Activity: Talk or presentationConference PresentationsResearch

Jessica de Bloom - Speaker

Dirk Lehr - Speaker

Christine Syrek - Speaker

Jo Annika Reins - Speaker

    Purpose: Vacations have the potential to preserve and increase psychological resources that buffer the negative impact of job stress. However, positive vacation effects on employee health and well-being are generally short-lived or fail to appear at all. We developed a smartphone application to increase and prolong beneficial vacation effects in employees.
    Methodology: The app is based on Newman, Tay and Diener´s DRAMMA model. Two weeks before, during, and two weeks after vacation, app users are challenged to engage in a short daily activity aimed at increasing mental detachment from work, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning and affiliation. The user keeps a diary of these activities by taking photos or writing notes which can later be reviewed.
    Results: We will present the design criteria and theoretical background used to develop the app. Moreover, first results from an ongoing intervention study and face-to-face structured user experience surveys will be presented. The challenges and constraints in the design process will also be discussed.
    Limitations: Adherence may be lower than in face-to-face interventions and non-usage attrition is a common problem in online interventions. This may be partly counteracted by personalized feedback.
    Practical Implications: Evidence-based mobile interventions may facilitate well-being and increase the benefits of recovery periods. Apps may constitute behavioral interventions “in your pocket”.
    Originality: This app may provide new insights on the importance of different recovery mechanisms. Bottom-up, adaptive interventions using smartphone apps constitute innovative, cost-efficient tools to deliver individualized behavioral support and to collect empirical data at the same time.
    17.05.201720.05.2017

    Event

    European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology - EAWOP 2017: Enabling Change through Work and Organizational Psychology

    17.05.1720.05.17

    Dublin, Ireland

    Event: Conference

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