Temporal and contemporaneous network structures of affect and physical activity in emotional disorders

High negative affect, low positive affect, and limited physical activity figure prominently in psychopathology, but little is known about the interrelatedness of affect and physical activity in emotional disorders.

We combined ecological momentary assessment data with a network approach to examine the dynamic relations among positive affect, negative affect, and smartphone-based estimates of physical activity in 34 participants with anxiety and depressive disorders over a 2-week period.

In the contemporaneous networks, the positive affect nodes exhibited greater overall strength centrality than negative affect nodes. The temporal networks indicated that the negative affect node 'sadness' exhibited the greatest out-strength centrality. Furthermore, physical activity was unconnected to the affect nodes in either the temporal or contemporaneous networks.

Whereas positive affect plays a greater role in the contemporaneous experience of emotions, negative affect contributes more so to future affective states.