Conclusions
Our study suggests that group-based AR training significantly reduces psychopathological symptoms in daily life and leads to improvements in health-related emotional, cognitive, and behavioral traits. These favorable effects of AR training tend to be stronger in women than in men, in older than in younger individuals, and in participants with higher vs. lower baseline symptoms.Our findings underscore the importance of promoting transfer from the training setting to everyday life in prevention and early intervention programs. Future research may investigate (a) which contextual and situational factors increase or decrease the efficacy of AR in everyday life and (b) how to improve the long-term efficacy of AR training. In the intervention group, the number of relaxation attempts decreased from post to follow-up, highlighting the importance of additional booster sessions (e.g., 3 or 6 months after AR training). In this context, mobile technologies could be useful to remind participants regularly to use AR in stressful daily situations. Furthermore, the effectiveness in everyday life could be tested among particularly stressed groups such as health professionals, shift workers, or single parents.