Applied Research in Quality of Life最新文献

The impact of air pollution on individuals’ happiness and life satisfaction (LS), and its relationship to other factors became the focus of recent research. Though, the underlying mechanism of how air pollution impacts LS remains unclear. In this study, we examined the direct and indirect effect of air pollution on individuals’ LS through health mediation. We used longitudinal individual-level data from “Understanding-Society: the UK Household-Longitudinal Study” on 59,492 individuals with 347,377 repeated responses across 11 years (2009–2019) that was linked to yearly concentrations of NO₂, SO₂, and particulate-matter (PM10, PM2.5) pollution. Generalized structural equation models with multilevel ordered-logistic regression were used to examine the direct effect of air pollution on LS and the indirect effect from health impairment. Higher concentrations of NO₂ (coefficient = 0.009, 95%CI = 0.007,0.012, p < 0.001), SO₂ (coefficient = 0.025, 95%CI = 0.017,0.034, p < 0.001), PM10 (coefficient = 0.019, 95%CI = 0.013,0.025, p < 0.001), and PM2.5 (coefficient = 0.025, 95%CI = 0.017,0.033, p < 0.001) pollutants were associated with poorer health, while poorer health was associated with reduced LS (coefficient = -0.605, 95%CI = -0.614,-0.595, p < 0.001). Mediation path analysis showed that air pollution impacted individuals’ LS directly and indirectly. The percent of total effect mediated through health was 44.03% for NO₂, 73.95% for SO_2, 49.88% for PM10, and 45.42% for PM2.5 and the ratio of indirect to direct effect was 0.79 for NO₂, 2.84 for SO_2, 0.99 for PM10, and 0.83 for PM2.5. Health plays a major mediating role in the relationship between air pollution and LS. To alleviate the impact of air pollution on LS, future strategies should focus on health promotion besides reducing air pollution emissions.

Positive Youth Development (PYD) has received increasing attention among researchers worldwide and has played an important role in the creation of youth development strategies and policies across many countries. However, previous research in the field of PYD has suggested that separate studies should be conducted for each different context (especially culture). As a result, the need to determine the positive development indicators of young people in their own context has emerged. There is currently a lack of scientific research focused on developing adapting the PYD model specifically to the context of Türkiye. This study aims to test a PYD model applied to Turkish contexts by benefiting from the insights of experts working in the field of youth development. Using the Delphi Method, we determined the indicators/attributes in two consecutive stages with a panel of youth development experts (Stage 1: n = 715 and Stage 2: n = 334). In the first Delphi phase, we collected the responses of the participants (3,724 meaningful words, phrases, or sentences) with an open-ended question. In the second Delphi phase, we presented the 17 indicators/attributes we created through the data to the approval of the participants using a 5-point Likert scale. In the second phase, participants reached consensus on all 17 indicators/attributes (over 80% for 5 features and over 90% for 12 features). 56.2% of the participants chose morality, 40.4% the desire to learn, 30.8% responsibility, and 30.2% honesty as the most important indicators. All but two of the 17 indicators in the model (respect and awareness/consciousness) overlapped with one indicator of at least one of the current models in the literature. The findings showed that when determining developmental indicators/attributes for the PYD in Türkiye, the contexts in which young people live (especially culture) should be taken into account. In addition, the findings suggest that trying to adapt only one of the models developed in different contexts directly to young people in other contexts may cause other indicators that are seen as important and needed in their own contexts to be overlooked.

The following study examined the perceptions of spirituality and life satisfaction of 13 adults residing in a rural region of Southern U.S. The study sought to address the research question, “What is the perception of spirituality and life satisfaction among multicultural adults in Southern U.S.?” To explore the question, a generic qualitative design was used. In conclusion of the study, data was analyzed using a theoretical thematic analysis through which seven themes emerged. The following are themes that developed through analysis: (a) foundation in Christ, (b) feelings of peace and contentment, (c) guidance and security, (c) connection with others, (d) way of living/purpose, (e) spiritual practices, and lastly, (f) spiritual conflict.

It’s increasingly recognized that the evaluative space of economic evaluations in health and social care needs to be broadened and instruments measuring well-being are required. A generic measure of well-being comprehensively capturing all relevant domains of well-being in the adult population is not available. The aim is to describe the development of such an instrument, the 10-item Well-being instrument (WiX), and to report the findings from a content validation study. A draft version of the instrument was based on available instruments pursuing the same aim, a comprehensive theoretical framework of the domains of well-being, and recent empirical evidence from the general population about the constituents of well-being. Content validation was conducted following COSMIN methodology and investigated relevance, comprehensiveness, and comprehensibility. In the qualitative content validation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts and members of the general population. During quantitative content validation, a representative sample (n = 501) from the general population completed an online survey. The qualitative validation showed the relevance and comprehensiveness of the WiX were adequate, but several changes were made to consecutive draft versions of the items and their descriptions and response levels to improve comprehensibility. The quantitative validation confirmed these findings and resulted in some additional, minor changes. A new instrument aiming to capture overall (or general) quality-of-life in terms of subjective well-being by measuring how satisfied people are on ten important domains of life in the adult general population was developed. The content validation results are encouraging, but further validation and valuation steps are necessary before the WiX can be used in (economic) evaluation studies of interventions with impacts broader than health.

Women’s mental health vulnerability, already a concern before the COVID-19 pandemic, has been exacerbated due to social isolation and restrictions on daily activities. This paper aims to follow a cohort of women from pre - to during the pandemic to determine the change in their mental health using the PHQ-2 scale (a mental health screening tool). Additionally, we investigate whether women with depressive symptoms before the pandemic suffered similarly to those without while controlling for pandemic-related factors. Primarily, we use the Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey dataset and apply pooled ordered logit and fixed effects ordered logit models. We find that the value of the PHQ-2 scale significantly increased during the first period of the pandemic and then eased over time. Interestingly, the behaviour of the individual scale items differed over time. This result questions the internal reliability of the scale during the pandemic and the importance of analysing the scale items individually. Furthermore, being depressed before the pandemic increases the probability of ‘depressive feelings’ and does not matter for ‘anhedonia’. Other factors increasing the probability of mental health disorders are taking care of children for 13–24 h a day and living with a person who has gone hungry. In contrast, wearing a mask and living in a grant-receiving household decreases the probability. These findings inform future researchers of the unexpected behaviour of scales and policymakers of the vulnerability of women’s mental health during unprecedented times, given their vital role in increasing the well-being of future generations.

Human Development Reports initiated by Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq in 1990 have been regularly published by United Nations Development Programme featuring the gender and human development assessment. Nepal has been publishing its Human Development Reports since 1998. According to the reports, Human Development Index (HDI) of Nepal was found increasing from 0.399 in 1990 to 0.602 in 2021 with a 50.88% improvement compared to 1990. Moreover, notable progress has been found in the area of gender and human development but significant disparities still persist among different castes, ethnicities and regions. We examined human development related indexes of Nepal focusing on gender, caste/ethnicity, regional, rural-urban disparities. We applied descriptive methods and cluster analysis for classification of districts of Nepal using published secondary data. The K-mean cluster analysis based upon averaged district level estimates for the period 1996–2011 with five clusters showed relatively optimum classification scheme with average HDIs ranging between 0.33 and 0.58, low intra-cluster variances (0.0001–0.0020) and a high Silhouette score (0.593). Considering average HDI data, only 3 districts were in medium HDI category (0.55 ≤ HDI < 0.70) and rest of the 74 districts were in low HDI category (HDI ≤ 0.55). Moreover, cluster analysis showed 4 districts with highest cluster centroid (0.58) that belong to medium HDI category. In conclusion, there exists urgent need to cope with human development related issues for formulating development policies and strategies in Nepal.

While the COVID-19 has brought severe challenges to university students’ mental health, there is inadequate research on the related protective factors from different ecological systems and the underlying mechanisms. Guided by the ecological systems theory and the positive youth development approach, this study investigated the associations between two protective factors in the ecological systems (i.e., positive family functioning in the microsystem and Chinese cultural beliefs of adversity in the macrosystem) and students’ mental health in Hong Kong higher education during the period of the pandemic, with resilience (i.e., an important positive youth development quality) proposed as a mediating factor. This study was based on data collected in a large-scale survey of 978 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduate students (mean age = 20.69 with 62.9% being female) in the summer of 2022. Validated measures were used to assess students’ mental health problems (anxiety and depression), the ecological protective factors (positive family functioning and Chinese cultural beliefs of adversity), and resilience. Structural equation modelling was conducted to examine the associations between ecological protective factors and mental health problems, as well as the mediating effects of resilience in the associations. Structural equation modelling revealed that both positive family functioning and Chinese cultural beliefs of adversity negatively predicted anxiety and depression, with resilience partially mediating all paths. The study contributes significantly to the understanding of different ecological protective factors in higher education students’ mental health and the mediating role of resilience. It also provides practical implications for intervention and prevention.

Being globally competent is significant for students to effectively navigate the complexities of the interconnected world and live a high quality of life. Yet little is known about how intercultural learning activities impact adolescents’ global competence. In this vein, this study aims to examine the impact of intercultural learning on adolescents’ global competence as well as the potential moderating effect of school discriminatory climate. Using a sample of 211,554 students representing 7,012 schools across 26 economies, this study reveals a noteworthy inverted U-shaped effect of intercultural learning. Specifically, as students’ participation in intercultural learning activities increases, their global competence initially grows and subsequently declines after reaching a critical turning point. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the curvilinear effect of intercultural learning is significantly moderated by the prevailing climate of discrimination within schools. The curvilinear pattern is more pronounced when discrimination levels are low (-1SD) and becomes comparatively flatter under conditions of high school discrimination climate(+ 1SD). Further policy and practical implications are discussed.

The nurturing of offspring within divorced families has consistently been a matter of concern. Parental divorce is a pivotal environmental determinant influencing the progression of adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Apart from the family, school serves as another significant sphere for adolescents, hence, school acceptance and support might also bear a substantial impact on shaping adolescents’ prosocial behavior. This investigation undertook a comprehensive longitudinal survey to elucidate the correlation between parental divorce and prosocial behavior in adolescents, subsequently exploring the moderating role of school acceptance and support on the connection between parental divorce and prosocial behavior. A collective sample of 1,655 and 1,322 Chinese adolescents partook in this study during the first year (Term 1 - T1) and the subsequent year (Term 2 - T2), respectively. The findings demonstrated that parental divorce was negatively correlated with prosocial behavior in adolescents, both concurrently and longitudinally. Additionally, school acceptance and support altered the relationship between parental divorce and prosocial behavior. Specifically, school acceptance and support could ameliorate the detrimental effect of parental divorce on prosocial behavior in adolescents. This study provides a unique perspective which may be beneficial in fostering adolescents’ prosocial behavior in divorced households.

Considering the pervasive utilization of social networking site (SNS) in our everyday existence, it is crucial crucial to profoundly comprehend its ramifications on individuals’ psychological well-being. Under the circumstance, fear of missing out (FoMO) receives extensive examination due to its prominence within the digital epoch. However, the factors inducing FOMO and the mechanism through which FoMO impairs users’ psychosocial well-being require further exploration. Combining quantitative data with Stimulus-Organism-Behavior-Consequence (SOBC) framework, this research establishes an innovative model that explores existing research gaps. It also delves into social media intensity and depressive mood as potential antecedents of FoMO. Additionally, this research hypothesizes that the impacts of FOMO on psychological well-being is mediated by three SNS engagement behaviors: self-presentation, upward contrast, and social media stalking, respectively. The current study gathers statistics from 896 SNS users in northern China and empirically verified the conceptual model. Conclusive results illustrate that FoMO can be induced by social media intensity and depressive mood. Furthermore, FoMO adversely affects individuals’ psychological well-being through the intermediary mechanisms of upward contrast and social media stalking. Consequently, the present study bridges the identified research gaps. It further augments the comprehension of younger generation’s mental experiences and SNS usage behaviors. Apart from yielding valuable insights within the domain of media and psychology, the discoveries provide vital guidance for correlated social groups. Various stakeholders, including mental health professionals, community groups, and policy makers should formulate interventions and initiatives directed toward mitigating the adverse impacts of emerging technologies on users’ psychological well-being.