Physical activity is less fun than sex, but better than work

Between "You" and "Me": Effects of Pronouns and Order on Disclosing Sexual Assault

The wording of self-report instruments likely affects its responses; however, there has been very little inquiry into the topic. The purpose of this study was to examine how items in a sexual assault experiences questionnaire varied based on pronouns (first person or second person) and order (sexual-behavior or coercive-tactic first) affected responses. College students (N = 979) were randomly assigned in a 2 by 2 between-subjects experiment to experimental versions of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES). The findings indicated that the condition with second-person pronouns and coercive-tactic first phrasing had the highest rate of disclosure. Based on reading time results, respondents may have engaged more in processing of items with second-person pronouns or coercive-tactic first phrasing. Moreover, respondents in coercive-tactic first conditions reported more mental effort was required in answering compared to respondents in the sexual-behavior first conditions. There was no effect of condition on negative affect and very little change in negative affect from completing the SES. Overall, the results support the use of second-person pronouns and coercive-tactic first phrasing in sexual assault self-report instruments to support disclosure of this stigmatized crime. Future research should examine how these findings may be extended to other self-report instruments.

Everybody's working for the weekend: changes in enjoyment of everyday activities across the retirement threshold

BACKGROUND

the aim of this study was to explore the associations between use of time and momentary hedonic affect ('enjoyment') in adults in the peri-retirement period.

METHODS

a total of 124 adults [61 males, 63 females; age 62 (4) years] completed a computerised use-of-time recall on 4 days at each of four time points (3-6 months pre-, 3, 6 and 12 months post-retirement), as well as surveys regarding self-reported health, well-being, sleep quality and loneliness. They reported how much they enjoyed each activity on a 0-10 scale. An individual Enjoyment Index was calculated as the time-weighted average of each participant's enjoyment ratings. Time-weighted enjoyment ratings were also calculated for nine mutually exclusive and exhaustive activity domains (Sleep, Chores, Work, Social, Screen Time, Self-care, Quiet Time, Transport, Physical Activity) and sub-domains.

RESULTS

the mean (±SD) Enjoyment Index was 7.43 ± 0.61, and was significantly and positively associated with well-being (P = 0.003 to P < 0.0001) and sleep quality (P = 0.03 to P < 0.0001), and negatively associated with loneliness (P = 0.003 to P < 0.0001). Mean Enjoyment Index values increased significantly (P < 0.0001) from pre-retirement (7.19 ± 0.82) to post-retirement (7.46 ± 0.89, 7.42 ± 0.91 and 7.49 ± 0.89 at 3, 6 and 12 months post-retirement). There were significant differences in enjoyment across domains, with Physical Activity (7.86 ± 1.11) and Social (7.66 ± 0.85) being the most enjoyable, and Work (7.10 ± 0.89) and Chores (7.09 ± 0.85) the least enjoyable.

CONCLUSION

enjoyment of everyday activities increased after retirement and remained elevated for at least 12 months. Work appears to constitute a relative hedonic deficit.