The relationship between value-based actions, psychological distress and well-being: A multilevel diary study

Although value-based actions are often associated with improved mental health outcomes, few studies have explored this relationship on a daily level. The aim of this diary study was to explore how value-based actions change over time and assess how these fluctuations are associated to psychological distress and well-being both within- and between-day. Ninety-seven Canadian post-secondary students (n = 1581 observations) took part in this study. For 21 consecutive days, they were invited to complete end-of-day diaries (EOD) querying their daily level of distress, well-being and value-based actions. The questionnaires were sent to each student's mobile phone at a random time between 18:00 p.m. and 22:30 p.m. Data were analysed using multilevel modeling and time-lagged analysis. The results show that 1) daily value-based actions were negatively associated with daily distress and positively associated with daily well-being, 2) well-being reported in a given daily diary predicted next-day value-based actions, and 3) greater variability in daily value-based actions was associated with marginally lower daily well-being and steepened increases in daily distress over time.