Exploring Tailored Virtual Emotion Regulation Approaches for Individuals with Emotional Eating 175 6 alone or with others) could predict the selection of specific emotion regulation strategies. Accordingly, some participants in the current study, who practiced with the positive reframing exercise, did not consider the exercise for everyday use, and questioned its usefulness in varying circumstances because of its extensiveness. Subsequently, in accordance with the current emotion regulation literature, it is recommended for future research to use experience sampling methods [54] to identifying which contextual factors (e.g., location and/or social context) may predict the willingness of individuals with emotional eating to use emotion regulation exercises. The deployment of JITAI models could support this by tailoring specific emotion regulation strategies to the contextual factors at stake at that moment [87]. Deployment of EMA’s allow a personalized virtual coach to provide appropriate interventions at the right time. The decision rules to be applied can be based on dynamic computer models derived from EMA data according to the target behavioural variables, translating users’ input into tailored exercises. Implications for future design To decrease potential dropout, future work should focus on reasons for dropout, such as further reducing participant burden, avoiding boredom by providing variation in exercises, and optimizing the use of reminders. Users should be empowered by deployment of EMA’s to determine their own moments of practice and reflection. Applying JITAI’s can help identifying those moments. Finally, it is important that when developing exercises, their presentation and the accompanying explanations better meet the needs of end users by involving them in the development process from start. Conclusions In accordance with the discussion, we can conclude that the positive and negative experiences gained by users, and the resulting suggestions for improvement, can significantly improve the exercises and that modifications to be made, will have a positive impact on the effectiveness of the exercises. Based on the current findings, we can cautiously suggest that further research among a larger population on delivering online exercises for this hard-to-reach group holds promise.
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