Journal of Happiness Studies最新文献

Approximately 12–14% of Black adults meet the criteria for PTSD each year. Mindfulness is associated with lower rates of PTSD and lower PTSD symptom severity in Black adults. Hope and mindfulness are associated with higher levels of well-being in Black adults. The present study examines the unique, latent associations of hope and mindfulness with PTSD and three domains of well-being among Black adults. 403 adults who identified as African American/Black and reported experiencing a traumatic event on the Life Events Checklist 5 completed questionnaires on hope, mindfulness, PTSD, and well-being. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via Mplus were used to quantify the independent associations of hope and mindfulness with PTSD, psychological, subjective, and social well-being. Mindfulness and hope were associated with greater well-being and lower PTSD. Mindfulness and hope were associated with greater well-being when accounting for one another. Hope had unique, significantly larger relationships with psychological and subjective well-being than mindfulness but did not have an independent association with PTSD when accounting for mindfulness. Mindfulness maintained a unique association with PTSD and the three domains of well-being when accounting for hope. Hope and mindfulness were associated with greater well-being and lower PTSD symptom severity in trauma-exposed Black adults. Mindfulness had a unique relationship with PTSD and well-being, whereas hope had independent associations with well-being. Hope had substantially larger associations with psychological and subjective well-being than mindfulness. Additional research on the differential relevance and effectiveness of such traits among Black adults is needed.

This study aims to explore the single and joint contributions of temperament and family functioning to subjective happiness in emerging adulthood. A sample of 332 Spanish college students completed measures of temperament, family functioning and subjective happiness. Results revealed that resilient and reserved temperaments showed higher levels of subjective happiness than those which were non-desirable. Regarding family functioning, students who live in healthy families showed higher levels of subjective happiness than those in unbalanced family systems. Finally, the resilient, reserved and non-desirable temperament profiles varied significantly in their contribution to subjective happiness depending on the family profile of the student. Overall, results provide new knowledge regarding the contribution of both temperament and family functioning to the subjective well-being of young people.

Given the rising demands of chronic conditions and mental health challenges, there is an urgent need to reduce burden on formal, statutory services. Local communities are under-utilised yet offer many opportunities to facilitate the key determinants of health and wellbeing. Local Area Coordination (LAC) provides a practical, asset-based approach in which purposefully recruited coordinators meet and build relationships with community members, use their strengths and leverage community assets to help them build their version of ‘the good life’. Here we report on the impact of LAC on wellbeing outcomes and explore potential mechanisms underpinning the approach. A rigorous mixed-methods design was implemented including data from psychophysiological synchrony, a quantitative survey, and qualitative ripple effects mapping. The presence of in-phase cardiac synchrony was found during conversations between coordinators and community members, suggesting physiological attunement during interaction. Survey data analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling found that relationship rapport significantly predicted community integration, which in turn, predicted the wellbeing of community members. Longer meeting durations predicted improved relationship rapport, whilst the frequency of meetings did not. Qualitative feedback indicated that the person-centred approach was a key mechanism underpinning its success and that fostering a safe, trusting relationship is crucial for bridging people into the community. Overall, Local Area Coordination’s community-led approach is a promising opportunity to harness community assets, empower individuals, and contribute to a more inclusive and connected society.

Gratitude practices have been shown to increase subjective well-being and other positive outcomes; however, research on gratitude training has focused primarily on the practice of journaling. Further research examining alternative gratitude practices may yield valuable insights on the comparative efficacy of various gratitude interventions, and could suggest additional gratitude practices that warrant further study. This study examined the efficacy of the My Best Self 101 (MBS101) gratitude module: an online training resource that provides psychoeducation about gratitude along with a menu of empirically-based gratitude practices anchored in the research literature. Using mixed effects models of repeated measures, we examined gratitude and subjective well-being outcomes for participants assigned to either the MBS101 gratitude module or a traditional gratitude journaling practice. Participants were 290 adults recruited online from the general population and from a university student research pool. Mixed effects models of repeated measures were also used to analyze the interaction between time spent on gratitude practice, group assignment, and timepoint (post-test). Although both groups showed significant improvements, compared to the gratitude journaling group, the MBS101 group had significantly better outcomes on gratitude and subjective well-being. Additionally, when the time, group, and timepoint interaction was added, the MBS101 group had limited benefits for gratitude and mixed benefits for subjective well-being with increased time spent. These findings support the possibility that using a flexible, menu-based approach to gratitude training may yield improved outcomes and increase the likelihood of ongoing engagement with gratitude practices.

The present study examined the effect of happiness goals (i.e., the degree to which individuals want to be happy) on experiences of happiness. A daily diary study was conducted among 100 French participants. Each evening over a 1-month period, participants reported their experience of happiness during the day, their engagement in savoring and rumination during the day, and their wish to be happy tomorrow. Two main results were obtained. First, as expected, at the between-individual level, individuals with higher happiness goals were more likely to experience intense happiness, partly because they engaged more in savoring. Second, as expected, at the within-individual level, when an individual displayed higher happiness goals for tomorrow than usual, the individual was more likely to experience intense happiness during the next day than usual, partly due to stronger engagement in savoring. The results suggest that, on average, happiness goals foster happiness experiences by eliciting happiness-promoting behaviors.

Divorce and separation are some of the most traumatic life events experienced by women, posing serious consequences for wellbeing. The impact of later-life relationship dissolution has been neglected in the literature. This study aimed to compare decades-long life satisfaction trajectories of Australian middle-aged women who did, and did not, experience relationship dissolution, and to examine why some women adjust better than others. Prospective longitudinal data came from nine waves of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Women who divorced or separated during the study (n = 1462) were propensity-score matched to women who remained married or partnered (n = 2587). Results from Bayesian piecewise latent growth curve modelling indicate stable life satisfaction before relationship dissolution, a sudden decline in the years surrounding the event, and long-term increases thereafter. Matched controls showed stability and slight increases in life satisfaction across the observation period, which suggests that at least some change in life satisfaction experienced by divorced and separated women is associated with relationship dissolution. Social support, perceived control, and subjective income were significant positive moderators of women’s adjustment to relationship dissolution. Implications regarding wellbeing interventions for middle-aged women are discussed.

It is widely agreed that social bonds should be strengthened but is not clear how that can be achieved. One way could be to foster happiness, since happiness seems to foster social bonds. If so, two desirables can be achieved together: happier people and stronger social bonds. This raises the following questions: Does happiness really foster social bonds? If so, is that effect universal? How strong is the effect? Does the strength vary across persons and situations? What are the causal mechanisms? To answer these questions we took stock of the available research findings, restricting to longitudinal studies examining the effect of earlier happiness on later social bonds. We used the World Database of Happiness (WDH), a findings-archive consisting of data about happiness in the sense of the subjective enjoyment of one’s life-as-a-whole. To date, the WDH contains the results of 16 follow-up studies on the relation between earlier happiness and later social bonds, which together yield 33 findings. We found strong evidence for a causal effect of happiness on the formation and stability of primary social bonds on happiness, in particular, with marriage, love and friendship. Happiness fosters social bonds and this effect seems to be universal. Consequently, fostering happiness can be used as a means to strengthen social bonds. This is another reason to opt for policies that aim to achieve greater happiness for a greater number.

This article presents a study examining 1) how personality predicts subjective well-being (SWB) and the possible suppression and confounding effects, and 2) the mediating role of fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption. This article addresses the lack of acknowledgment of suppressor variables in psychological research by illustrating the statistical methods and theoretical importance of identifying, classifying, and interpreting suppressor variables. This study employed a cross-sectional sample (N = 893) to identify and classify suppressor and confounding variables in the associations between Big Five personality (Big-5) and SWB. This study also examined the mediating role of FV consumption. The findings provided evidence for the suppression effect of openness and confounding effect of neuroticism in the associations between the Big-5 and SWB. The findings also demonstrated the importance of including all theoretically meaningful variables (including suppressor variables) in a model to accurately assess the contribution of each predictor. This study demonstrated that recognizing the presence of suppressor variables provided essential information for examining and interpreting the mediating role of FV consumption. This study also found that FV consumption significantly mediated the association from conscientiousness to SWB. Conscientiousness was positively associated with FV consumption, while FV consumption was positively associated with SWB. The findings provided preliminary support for targeting FV consumption as a form of intervention to enhance SWB, especially for those who are low in conscientiousness. This is the first article investigating suppression, mediating, and confounding effects in a single research article, and highlights the importance of accounting for these effects when testing models with multiple predictors.

It is widely held that economic freedom is fundamental for a society’s prosperity and growth, and neoliberalism has now become the dominant ideology in shaping our world. While a large literature on economic freedom has documented mainly favourable impacts on economic outcomes, only a handful of studies have examined the link between economic freedom and life quality. Building on the most recent data available on European countries, we combined the Index of Economic Freedom from the Frasier Institute with data from the World Bank, Varieties of Democracy and the European Social Survey in the period 2010–2020, allowing for a multilevel analysis of a total of nearly 199,000 respondents from 28 countries. At the individual level, the analysis controlled for the respondents’ demographic background, socio-economic status and social trust. At the country level we controlled for levels of democracy through a composite index. The results for the aggregate models indicate that there is a reversed U-shaped curvilinear association between economic freedom and happiness. However, the results of the disaggregate models, where we tested the associations between each of the individual components of economic freedom and happiness, indicate a reversed U-shape for only one of the five components, sound money. The one-sided focus on minimal government in the research and discourse on economic freedom seems mis-specified. By treating economic freedom as a general composite measure, we run the risk of dramatically over-simplifying the processes at play. Recent developments in multilevel methods and improved access to data should inspire further studies of how economic freedom can serve and benefit citizens’ well-being and thus contribute to well-functioning societies.

The present study examines the association between patterns of cultural engagement and subjective well-being amongst older adults, with a focus on gender differences and physical limitations. We carried out a latent class analysis using Italian data from a 2018 survey to identify the profiles of cultural consumers, exploring the relationship between these profiles and life, leisure, and friendship satisfaction. The results show that allocating more time to diverse cultural experiences was associated with higher levels of subjective well-being, even in the presence of gender differences and physical limitations. Women who engaged in diverse cultural experiences with increased intensity and who participated in highbrow activities exhibited higher levels of leisure and friendship satisfaction than men. Moreover, the analysis emphasizes the potential of cultural participation for aging adults dealing with physical challenges documenting that their participation in a diverse range of cultural activities is positively associated with friend and leisure satisfaction. The findings highlight the importance of cultural participation in enhancing older adults’ well-being; it is hoped that they will be used to inform the development of targeted welfare policies.