Journal of Happiness Studies最新文献

Abstract

This meta-analysis aims to clarify the correlations between cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and life satisfaction. We searched the literature using eight databases and set a deadline of April 19, 2021. A total of 33 studies (66 effect sizes) were obtained, and random-effect models were also used to evaluate the relationships between the two strategies and life satisfaction. Additionally, the moderating effects of age, gender, and regional cultural values of participants were analyzed. The results showed that cognitive reappraisal was moderately positively correlated with life satisfaction, whereas expression suppression was not. The relationships between the two strategies and life satisfaction were not affected by age and gender, and only the regional cultural values of the participants moderated the relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction. The relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction in Western cultural values is significantly negative, while the relationship in Eastern cultural values is non-significant. We examined the relationships between cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and life satisfaction, and demonstrated that regional cultural values had a moderating effect on the relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction.

Abstract

Environmental factors are crucial in shaping individual characteristics. One key contextual factor is economic inequality, which is increasing in most OECD countries and negatively impacting individuals and societies, including personality traits. To date, no studies examined the relationship between economic inequality and positive personality traits such as character strengths. In a large cross-cultural study (N = 980,807, 68 countries) we investigated the relationship between country-level economic inequality and the level of the 24 character strengths. Across countries, we found consistent, robust evidence that economic inequality is positively linked to 22 character strengths, even after controlling for the Human Development Index, population density, urbanization, and climate of each country. On average, inequality explained 34% of the between-country variance in character strengths. Different alternative explanations for such unexpected effects, including increased competitiveness or resilience in the face of adversity, are discussed. Our research provides novel insights into the importance of environmental factors in shaping human character.

There is an urgent need for effective and easily accessible interventions targeting young adults’ social connection. This study tests whether engaging in prosocial behavior can mitigate social disconnection using an acts of kindness intervention that can be easily integrated into people’s daily routine. University students were randomly assigned to one of two kinds of 14-day kindness exercises (regular or anonymous) or an active control activity. 388 participants completed diary assessments of social contact and loneliness before and after the intervention. Results showed that the intervention promoting prosocial engagement increased social contact (especially with close others) and reduced daily loneliness for lonely participants. Anonymous kindness did not yield these outcomes, suggesting that direct contact with recipients may be an active ingredient driving such effects. This research provides a self-delivered and low-cost intervention that holds promise to reduce both objective social isolation and subjective feelings of loneliness among young adults.

Studies in psychology and sociology have documented that anti-rich mentality is a threat to the stability of society and harms personal mental health, but few studies have investigated ways to intervene in anti-rich mentality. In the current work, we took an initial step to explore whether anti-rich mentality can be reduced by appreciative joy, a positive psychological concept that refers to feeling happy for others with an appreciative and unenvious attitude. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey in Study 1 (n = 632) first established a negative association between appreciative joy and anti-rich mentality. In Study 2, a randomized controlled trial further evaluated the effects of appreciative joy intervention (n = 499). The results showed that the intervention increased appreciative joy and decreased anti-rich mentality. Moreover, two concepts closely related to anti-rich mentality (i.e., perceived fairness in allocation and envy) were influenced by appreciative joy intervention. Our findings not only confirm the possibility of a positive psychology intervention to relieve anti-rich mentality but also highlight the effectiveness of appreciative joy in changing attitudes toward social groups. Implications for practices and prospects for future research are discussed.

The present research proposes a novel emotion regulation strategy called “realizing growth potential” (RGP) strategy. The strategy involves realizing that negative events hold the potential for psychological growth and thus, to the extent that psychological growth is a cherished goal, we expect the affect-intensities associated with negative events to be mitigated when one employs the RGP strategy. We first differentiate RGP strategy from other emotion-regulation strategies (including benefit-finding). Then, across two pilot and two main studies, we test for the effectiveness of the RGP strategy in reducing the intensity of emotions associated with non-traumatic but serious negative events (such as, job loss). Pilot studies 1 and 2 reveal that, with distant-past (vs. recent-past) negative events, the drop-off in affect-intensity occurs naturally and is mediated by psychological growth. Study 1 investigates the impact of prompting individuals to recognize the potential for psychological growth arising from a recent-past negative event and suggests that this intervention can effectively mitigate the affect-intensities associated with such negative events. Study 2 illustrates that contemplating the psychological growth stemming from a distant-past incident, and even mere exposure to the notion that negative events foster psychological growth, can reduce emotional negativity linked to recent-past negative events. Our findings suggest the potential of the RGP strategy as a valuable tool for practitioners and therapists to address significant negativity.

This naturalistic study examines how broad societal events like the COVID-19 pandemic affect children’s gratitude expressions for general and specific categories of needs. Gratitude expressions (N = 6908) written by children in the United States (N = 3613, M_age = 6.96 years) before the pandemic (November 2018, 2019) and during the pandemic (November 2020, 2021) were collected from online newspapers. The gratitude expressions were coded for general and specific categories based on Maslow’s Theory of Motivation. Between time periods, there was no difference in prevalence of gratitude for the fulfillment of the general categories of deficiency needs (physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem) and growth needs (cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and transcendence) as well as the specific sub-categories that they subsume. However, within time periods, there was a greater prevalence for the fulfillment of deficiency than growth needs, especially the specific category of love and belongingness. Together these results highlight the enduring nature of particular categories in the face of a broad societal event and have implications for public policies and services aimed at protecting children and meeting their needs.

Abstract

While the individual trajectories of immigrant children may differ, attending school is a collective experience for most children. When considering children’s integration into their respective school environments, social interactions with peers and teachers may contribute to their ease of integration and overall subjective well-being, as well as potential experiences of violence within the school context. The objectives of this study are to (a) explore the contribution of satisfaction with friends, teachers, and school violence to the SWB of immigrant children, and (b) examine how said contributions and subsequent associations vary across generations. Participants are 8360 children from 21 countries between the ages of 9–13, who report that they themselves or at least one of their parents was born in a foreign country. The participants completed a survey that included demographic information and validated measures from the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB), including the Children’s Worlds Subjective Well-Being Scale (CW-SWBS), and was contextually adapted as appropriate. The data was analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicate that higher levels of satisfaction with peer and teacher relationships, as well as fewer experiences of perceived violence, are associated with the subjective well-being of immigrant children. Thus, our model presents a good fit and accounts for 30% of the subjective well-being variance. Our results indicate the importance of social relationships, specifically with peers and teachers, and reinforces school as a crucial context for significant social support and correspondingly may improve immigrant children’s subjective well-being.

Emotional experiences (positive and negative affect) profoundly influence adolescents’ health and psycho-social functioning. Both positive and negative affect are important for well-being. However, few studies have examined different contributions of positive and negative affect to adolescents’ well-being in a global context. Using a dataset derived from the PISA 2018 survey, this study examined the association between emotional experiences and adolescents’ well-being (physical, hedonic, and eudaimonic well-being), and the moderating role of individualistic cultural value in the abovementioned relationships. The sample sizes (69,502 adolescents from 8 societies when physical well-being was the outcome,413,974 adolescents from 66 societies when eudaimonic well-being was the outcome, and 421,136 adolescents from 67 societies when hedonic well-being was the outcome) were large enough for sound conclusions. The results showed that positive affect was positively associated with all well-being indicators (physical, hedonic, and eudaimonic well-being), while negative affect was negatively associated with all well-being indicators. The results of the relative weighting analyses showed that positive affect contributed more strongly to adolescents’ well-being than negative affect. In addition, multilevel analyses showed that individualism increases the association of positive affect, but decreases the association of negative affect, and adolescents’ eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. These findings suggest that positive affect may be more closely associated with adolescents’ well-being than negative affect. The effects of emotional experiences on well-being can be moderated by culture.

Research interest in children’s happiness has increasingly grown in recent years. Studies of children’s happiness have shown that happiness promotes greater social and emotional well-being during childhood. The present study explores the different perspectives of children and their parents on happy moments spent together, examining potential discrepancies in points of view. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 154 children (6–13 years old: M_age=8.72, SD = 2.00; 57% girls), their mothers (M_age=42.30, SD = 4.50), and their fathers (M_age=45.47, SD = 5.42). Children were asked to indicate their level of happiness using a single item and to recount their happy moments spent with their fathers and mothers. Parents were asked to evaluate their children’s happiness and to identify what they thought was the happiest moment their children had experienced with them. The data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis. Six main themes related to children’s happy moments emerged from the transcripts: (1) Activities outside the home; (2) Shared activities between parents and children; (3) Happy moments of play between parents and children; (4) Parent-child moments of affection; (5) Relevance of material gifts; (6) Non-specified happy moments. Emotional interactions characterized the happiest moments reported with mothers, while those with fathers were more frequently playful and fun situations. Results showed that parents and children disagree on children’s happiness levels and tend to identify different episodes as the happiest moments spent together. The study examined parent-child interactions in the context of family happiness, considering the protective role of a child’s happiness against negative psychological symptoms. It aimed to identify components of happier moments as potential indicators of family well-being, given the family’s role in psychological development.

Abstract

Meaning in life has been established as a key factor of human well-being and flourishing. Beneficence and the three psychological needs of self-determination theory—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—have all been individually studied as antecedents of meaningfulness. Yet, no previous research has examined them neither longitudinally nor simultaneously as predictors of meaning over time. In a three-wave longitudinal study in Chile (n: T1 = 1477, T2 = 820, T3 = 487) we examined the reciprocal relations between autonomy, competence, relatedness, beneficence, and meaning, using cross-lagged panel analysis. Taken individually, each of the four factors predicted meaning, and when entered simultaneously into the same model, competence, relatedness, and beneficence predicted meaning over time. Furthermore, we found that meaning predicted all four factors over time. Our results thus advance research on meaning in life by examining key predictors of it and showing that meaning itself predicts the same factors dynamically over time.