Paradoxical Impacts of Social Relationship on Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic
AbstractSocial interaction is an important source of psychological and physical well-being during normal times. However, following the COVID-19 outbreak, which spreads rapidly from person to person, social interaction poses a fatal threat to one ’s health and life. Therefore, several countries including South Korea implemented an intense social distancing mandate to prevent the spread of the virus. During these unique times of pandemic, the current research investigated whether and how an individual’s well-being varies as a function of their interaction with various relationship partners using experience sampling data ...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - January 11, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Associations of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior with Optimism and Positive Affect in Older Women
AbstractPsychological well-being is linked to healthy aging in older women, but associations with health behaviors are not well understood. Our study aims to evaluate the relationships between objectively-measured physical behavior (including physical activity and sedentary behavior) with optimism and positive affect in a diverse sample of older women. Our cross-sectional study of 4168 American women (aged 63 –99) with accelerometer-measured physical behavior from the Objective Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health Study assessed associations using multiple linear regression. Effect modification by age, race and et...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - January 10, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Can Good Memories of the Past Instill Happiness? Nostalgia Improves Subjective Well-Being by Increasing Gratitude
This study tested the positive effects of nostalgia on emotional well-being (positive affect and negative affect) and cognitive well-being (satisfaction with life) via gratitude. Two experiments were conducted in samples of young adults who were randomized to experimental or control conditions. The analyses involved group comparisons as well as regression-based analyses of mediation. In Experiment 1 (N = 196), we induced nostalgia using a guided autobiographical recall procedure. The nostalgia group had higher positive affect and gratitude, and gratitude partially mediated the association between nostalgia and positive...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - January 9, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Efficacy of a School-Based Mental Health Intervention Based on Mindfulness and Character Strengths Use Among Adolescents: a Pilot Study of Think Happy-Be Happy Intervention
This study investigated the efficacy of a school-based intervention (8 sessions of 45 min) based on mindfulness and character strengths use (i.e., “Think Happy-Be Happy”). A quasi-experimental study, including assessments at baseline, post-intervention (i.e., one week after the intervention), and follow-up (i.e., six months after the intervention) was performed. Results at post -intervention revealed that adolescents who participated in all intervention sessions experienced significantly increased well-being (i.e., emotional, psychological, and social well-being) and decreased hyperactivity/inattention symptoms and p...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - January 8, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Functionally Calibrating Life Satisfaction: The Case of Mating Motives and Self-Perceived Mate Value
AbstractExtending the growing literature on adaptive functionality of inner experiential states, we take the approach that life satisfaction functions as a part of a psychological system that monitors current and potential achievement on important goals. From this perspective, life satisfaction is sensitively calibrated to how well one is moving toward success on important goals, thereby providing useful information for, and potentially motivating, subsequent goal-facilitating action. Focusing on mating goals, we investigated whether currently active and important mating goals shape the extent to which life satisfaction is...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - January 3, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Multidimensional Assessment of Subjective Well-being and Risk of Dementia: Findings from the UK Biobank Study
This study aimed to examine the associations between subjective well-being (SWB) and risk of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer ’s disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VD). We adopted a multidimensional approach to SWB that included the level and breadth of SWB, the latter indicating the extent to which SWB spreads across life domains. Participants (N = 171,197; mean age = 56.78;SD = 8.16 years) were part of the UK Biobank and were followed up to 8.78 years. Domain-general and domain-specific SWB were measured by single items, and the breadth of SWB was indexed with a cumulative score of satisfaction across domains. Dementi...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - December 29, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Introduction to a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Well-Being: Combining Life Satisfaction and Interdependent Happiness Across 49 Different Cultures
AbstractHow can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of well-being varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - December 26, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Good Personality and Subjective Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study in Chinese Contexts
AbstractNumerous studies have emphasized the importance of examining psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to identify the factors that affect the influence of COVID-19 on people ’s mental health. The present research was a three-wave longitudinal study (N = 1495) examining the concurrent and prospective relations of good personality with subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results showed that good personality positively predicted the subsequent well-being after controlling for the respective autoregressive effects and Big Five pe rsonality traits. Specifically, individu...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - December 19, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Well-being Effects of Natural Disasters: Evidence from China ’s Wenchuan Earthquake
This study finds that the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, one of China ’s most catastrophic earthquakes, substantially decreased victims’ subjective well-being even after incorporating the offsetting effects of post-disaster relief programs. This net well-being impact lasted for nearly 10 years and was on average equivalent to a loss of 67% of the average equivali zed household income. Although the post-disaster measures largely restored income, health, and employment, they failed to prevent well-being losses due to family dissolution, as reflected in the higher rates of divorce and widowhood after the earthquake. We fin...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - December 11, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Should We Cheer Together? Gender Differences in Instantaneous Well-being: An Application to COVID-19 Lockdowns
AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has confined millions in their homes, an unprecedented opportunity to spend more time together with family members. This paper explores subjective well-being in the uses of time for US and UK workers, differentiating between solo activities and activities done with family members, at home and outside the home. Using American and British time use surveys, we compute the instant utility associated with paid work, unpaid work, leisure, and childcare activities. OLS regressions on both men and women show that workers prefer joint leisure to solo leisure, and that significant differences exist for ...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - December 7, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Can Environmental Protection Behavior Enhance Farmers' Subjective Well-Being?
This study provides new literature support for farmers and rural development issues. Using data from the 2013 China Integrated Social Survey, a systematic and robust examination of the happiness effects of environmental protection behavior among Chinese farmers and their transmission mechanisms was conducted with the help of multiple regression techniques and mediated impact analysis. The study found that Chinese farmers' environmental protection behavior can directly trigger the experience of well-being and also indirectly enhance subjective well-being by improving the quality of life in other areas, thanks to their chara...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - December 5, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Don ’t Look Up! Individual Income Comparisons and Subjective Well-Being of Students in Thailand
AbstractEmpirical evidence supports the hypothesis that an individual ’s position in an income stratum—more than the absolute income level—determines subjective well-being. However, studies on subjective well-being suffer from a critical methodological weakness: they use exogenously defined reference groups. Our study addresses this point by applying an innovati ve new survey instrument. We ask respondents to identify individual reference persons for income comparisons. We find that these reference persons come from a range of social groups. Interactions between personality traits and the direction of income comparis...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - December 1, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The Psychological Costs of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Heterogeneous Effects in South Korea: Evidence from a Difference-in-Differences Analysis
This study estimates the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on life satisfaction and stress and examines whether these effects vary across different sociodemographic groups using a nationally representative sample in South Korea. We estimate the causal effects of COVID-19 on psychological well-being by exploiting regional variation in the spread of the pandemic in South Korea. While the number of confirmed cases was very small in other provinces in the first half of 2020, the coronavirus spread rapidly in Daegu after an outbreak in one church. We employ a difference-in-differences approach that compares changes in people ’...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - November 30, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The Effect of Consumer Confidence and Subjective Well-being on Consumers ’ Spending Behavior
AbstractThe paper focuses on the role of consumer confidence and selected well-being measures in aggregate consumption and in subsets of aggregate consumption on a broad set of 22 OECD countries. Consumer confidence played a positive and statistically significant role in the development of expenditures especially on durable and semi-durable goods and services. The increase in cognitive, affective and eudaimonic measures of well-being, measured by the Cantril ladder, positive and negative affect and freedom to make life choices variables, had negative impact on total consumption and expenditures on semi-durable goods and se...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - November 29, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Self-Compassion as a Means to Improve Job-Related Well-Being in Academia
AbstractWorking in academia entails many challenges including rejections by journals, competition for funding or jobs, and uncertain job outlooks (for non-tenure staff), which can result in poor mental health and well-being. Previous studies have suggested self-compassion as a resource for mental health and well-being, but to date no study has been published that has tested interventions targeting self-compassion in academia. In this weekly diary study, 317 academics from Germany, Switzerland, and the US were asked to recall a negative event and were then randomly assigned to either a self-compassionate writing interventio...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - November 21, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
