Journal of Positive Psychology最新文献

Sexuality is central to well-being, relationships, and health. Yet, the science of well-being has traditionally overlooked the topic. To assess whether this gap persists, we conducted a large-scale content analysis of three leading well-being journals. We scraped all abstracts published up to September 2024 (n = 3,094), then used large language models (GPT-4o-mini and Gemini 2.0) for systematic screening. Articles flagged as potentially relevant were reviewed manually. Only 18 articles (0.6%) substantively focused on the topic. Out of these, 8 (0.3%) addressed topics related to minority groups, 6 (0.2%) negative aspects of sexuality such as abuse, and 4 (0.1%) general positive or neutral aspects. Sexuality remains underexplored in well-being science. Integrating it is essential for a complete understanding of human flourishing. We call for a paradigm shift: to move beyond silence toward a research agenda that embraces sexuality as a vital dimension of well-being.

This study investigated the extent to which purpose in life predicted African American women's loneliness over time. Using data from 661 African American women (M _age = 44.92, SD = 8.10) across four waves of the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS), latent growth mixture modeling was employed to explore the trajectories of loneliness across approximately 10 years and whether level of purpose in life was a significant predictor of the trajectories. This study also accounted for potent influential factors such as positive and negative social support, religiosity, racial discrimination, and financial strain as covariates. Findings revealed significant between-individual differences in loneliness trajectories, with individuals reporting a higher initial level of purpose in life tending to have lower levels of loneliness over time. Thus, greater purpose in life predicted lower loneliness among African American women, highlighting the importance of these factors in their psychosocial well-being.

We examined early developmental pathways to compassionate concern for others in emerging adulthood by integrating child individual (gender, empathy), parental (positive parenting), and broad contextual (resources and stresses perceived by mothers) characteristics in childhood using a 17-year longitudinal data. Participants were 241 children (49% girls) and their mothers. Data were collected at 3, 6, and 19 years of child age, using multiple methods and informants. Results of structural equation modeling indicated an indirect pathway from early childhood maternal adjustment to child empathy three years later via positive parenting. In addition, having high levels of empathy in middle childhood and being a female predicted higher levels of compassionate concern in emerging adulthood. Our findings highlight the importance of maternal resources and support, in addition to parenting behaviors, in enhancing children's prosocial behaviors, and provide hints for early intervention to promote compassionate concern for others in emerging adulthood.

Despite growing interest in interventions aimed at enhancing emotional well-being, little research has addressed the question of engagement. This study explored engagement in a 7-day online well-being intervention study involving 24,180 participants from 195 countries/territories (78% female, M _age = 49, 62% White). Following an onboarding survey, participants completed a morning well-being practice and an evening follow-up survey for a week. Overall, 76% of the participants initiated the intervention (i.e., returned to the platform after enrollment to start the intervention), completing an average of four daily practices. Several demographic (e.g., being older, White) and psychological variables (e.g., lower financial strain, higher life satisfaction) emerged as common predictors of initiating the intervention and completing more practices. Age was a particularly important predictor across outcomes. These findings offer novel insights into how individual characteristics relate to engagement in online well-being interventions and have implications for both designing the interventions and interpreting findings.

Knowledge of the association between wellbeing and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment outcomes can guide recovery definitions, measurement strategies, and intervention development. This study recruited individuals in treatment for SUD (N = 81, M=39 years old, 53% female, 26% BIPOC). Wellbeing indicators included positive affect, serenity, flourishing, satisfaction with life, gratitude, quality of life, commitment to sobriety, and confidence staying sober. Outcomes included abstinence during treatment and treatment retention. After adjusting for urges to use, recruitment site, previous treatment episodes, legal issues, and days of sobriety in logistic regression analyses, only happiness with recovery remained significantly associated with either outcome (and was significantly associated with both outcomes: OR = 1.8 and 1.5, respectively, p<.05). Assessed via a single item ("In general, I am happy with my recovery"), this construct shows promise as a novel, simple indicator of wellbeing in recovery and a potential target for intervention.

Positive psychology interventions have demonstrated efficacy in treating Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), but the relationship between dispositional optimism and antidepressant treatment response remains unclear. In this study, optimism (Revised Life Orientation Test, LOT-R) and depression severity (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, HDRS) were assessed in healthy unmedicated MDD participants (N=86) and healthy controls (N=65). Treatment response (≥50% reduction in HDRS) was measured in 46 of these MDD participants after 8 weeks of open-label selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment. MDD participants reported significantly lower pre-treatment optimism than healthy controls. Higher pre-treatment optimism, as well as greater increase in optimism (pre-treatment to 8 weeks), were associated with greater likelihood of being an SSRI responder versus non-responder (β=0.21, p=0.013; β =0.32, p=0.01, respectively), even when ratings of optimism/pessimism were excluded from depression severity/response ratings. The findings are consistent with the importance of aspects of positive psychology in treatment response. Possible mechanisms are discussed.