Applied psychology. Health and well-being最新文献

High levels of parental stress can adversely affect both parents and children, leading to negative psychological outcomes. The present study consists of two randomised controlled trials investigating the effectiveness of a 14-day mindfulness- and compassion-based parenting programme delivered through instant text messaging in reducing parenting stress. Studies 1 and 2 recruited 222 and 271 parents in August 2021 and January 2022, respectively. All participants had at least one child studying in nursery or primary school. Participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a waitlist control group. Assessments were conducted before the intervention, immediately following the intervention and 14 days after the intervention. During the 14-day intervention, 14 audio recordings (ranging in length from 12 to 17 min) introducing parenting skills as well as mindfulness and compassion exercises were sent to the participants through WhatsApp and Signal. The primary outcome of both studies was parenting stress. Mental well-being, interpersonal mindfulness in parenting and parenting behaviours were measured as secondary outcomes. Data were analysed using linear mixed models with full maximum likelihood estimation. A significant time by group interaction effect on parenting stress was found in both studies. In both studies, intervention effects on parenting stress were not sustained at 14-day follow-up. The results of the present study provided evidence that a brief, instant messaging-based parenting programme has the potential to reduce parenting stress.

Despite growing interest in technology-mediated mental health solutions, the efficacy of online social support interventions remains theoretically ambiguous and empirically inconsistent. To address this gap, we conducted a three-level meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of online social support interventions on psychological well-being. It synthesized 84 effect sizes from 32 studies involving a total of 10,776 participants. Our multilevel modeling revealed three key results: First, while aggregate effects showed nonsignificant improvements in psychological well-being at short-term and long-term, significant cross-study heterogeneity underscored contextual variability. Second, cultural context emerged as a moderator, with populations in Eastern countries demonstrating greater long-term maintenance of intervention effects. Intervention provider (professional vs. peer vs. mixed) showed a marginally significant impact on short-term effects. Our findings highlight that the effectiveness of online social support interventions is not inherent to the digital medium itself, but is profoundly influenced by the alignment between the support provider and the socio-cultural context of both providers and recipients. This emphasizes the need for theory-driven, customized interventions that integrate social and contextual elements to enhance psychological well-being.

Integrating an existential lens into chronic pain treatment enables a holistic and biopsychosocial approach to treating chronic pain. This scoping review aimed to identify the characteristics, themes, and results of existential therapy for treating chronic pain. We searched seven databases for empirical papers that described an existentially based intervention for a chronic pain sample. Conducted in May 2023, the search terms were related to chronic pain and truncated versions of existential and humanistic therapies. Six articles met the criteria and were included. Quantitative and qualitative studies were included, ranging from randomized controlled trials, non-randomized experiments, a case report, and a case study. Extracted data included study characteristics and common intervention themes (e.g., meaningfulness, self-identity, etc.) and outcome themes (e.g., pain-related, life satisfaction, etc.). All studies reported a reduction in pain symptoms or severity. Physical functioning was generally not influenced by existential therapy; however, it did improve with or in combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Meaningfulness was a common theme in all the interventions, and most articles reported increased meaningfulness in the outcomes. Spirituality seems to moderate the effectiveness of existential therapy. This offers an overview of the current state of knowledge of academically labeled existential therapies for chronic pain treatment. This further provides suggestions for advancing the study of this topic by highlighting both commonalities and inconsistencies in intervention findings.

This sequential explanatory mixed methods research study explored differences in financial literacy between people with problem gambling (PG) and non-problem gambling (non-PG), focusing on three subdimensions: actual financial knowledge, perceived financial knowledge, and financial attitude. The influence of financial socialization was also accounted for in the survey and interviews. The research included a survey of 234 help-seeking gamblers and follow-up in-depth interviews with 12 gamblers and five significant others. Hierarchical binomial logistic regression indicated that perceived financial knowledge was the key factor distinguishing people with PG and non-PG. Higher perceived financial knowledge was correlated with lower odds of being classified as a person with PG, even when accounting for individual and environmental factors. The interviews provided additional insights, showing that actual financial knowledge and financial socialization from significant others did not significantly impact PG severity or involvement. Gamblers with high perceived financial knowledge were more likely to make sound financial decisions. Furthermore, people with non-PG exhibited different financial attitudes than their counterparts, being more open to exploring diverse financial products rather than relying solely on gambling activities. These findings suggest that enhancing perceived financial knowledge could be a valuable focus for future research and interventions aimed at reducing problem gambling.

Adolescents vary widely in how they engage with digital media, yet prior research often overlooks the heterogeneity and developmental dynamics underlying these behaviors. Using four waves of data collected between 2013 and 2021 from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents (N = 14,798; ages 12–17 at baseline), we identified three media use trajectories via latent class growth analysis: low-increasing, moderate-stable, and high-stable. Internalizing and externalizing problems significantly predicted trajectory membership. To examine bidirectional associations between media use and psychological symptoms, we applied autoregressive latent trajectory cross-lagged panel models, which allowed for the modeling of within-person dynamics while accounting for interindividual change patterns. Results revealed several modest but significant bidirectional effects between media use and psychological problems over time. Specifically, higher media use predicted later increases in externalizing and internalizing symptoms, while earlier media use was also associated with short-term reductions in internalizing problems. Strong trait-level associations were observed across all three constructs, indicating that adolescents with consistently high media use also experienced persistent emotional and behavioral difficulties. These findings highlight the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of adolescent digital engagement and its mental health correlates. The results underscore the importance of person-centered and developmentally informed interventions that account for psychological vulnerability and sociodemographic context.

A promising approach for organizations to advance environmental sustainability and ensure the long-term well-being of humanity is to encourage employees to proactively address environmental issues. However, the understanding of how proactive employee green behavior (EGB) is associated with the well-being of employees engaging in such behavior is currently limited. This is problematic, as the potential co-benefits of proactive EGB and well-being may motivate employees to engage in proactive EGB and encourage organizations to promote environmental and well-being goals simultaneously. Based on data from n = 1354 employees in Germany collected across four measurement points separated by 3-month time lags, we examine how proactive EGB and work-related subjective well-being (i.e., job satisfaction and positive and negative affect) are related to one another over time. Results of random intercept cross-lagged panel models did not provide support for effects of proactive EGB on subsequent well-being. However, higher positive affect predicted a subsequent increase in proactive EGB. Additionally, we found that the positive within-person association between job satisfaction and subsequent proactive EGB was stronger among employees who perceived stronger organizational pro-environmental norms. These findings highlight the importance of promoting subjective well-being and organizational pro-environmental norms to support employee initiative that addresses environmental issues.

Refugees are often forced to leave their homes and rebuild their lives in unfamiliar environments. Adapting to a new place can be challenging, as it involves coping with the loss of familiar surroundings while navigating new ones. Emotional bonds with places—known as place attachment—may play an important role in this adaptation process, serving both as a protective factor and a potential burden. We examined these dynamics in a study among Ukrainian refugees in Poland (N = 1,016) following the full-scale Russian invasion. We measured attachment to participants' hometowns in Ukraine and their current towns of residence in Poland, as well as life satisfaction, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and post-traumatic growth (PTG). Stronger attachment to one's hometown in Ukraine was associated with higher PTSD symptoms and lower life satisfaction. In contrast, attachment to a new town of residence in Poland was positively linked to life satisfaction and PTG. Attachment to the former hometown was negatively related to attachment to a new place in Poland. However, the more similar the two locations were perceived to be, the stronger the attachment to the new town. These findings suggest that place attachment can act as both a resource and a risk factor, depending on how migrants navigate continuity between past and present places.

While previous studies have established a significant association between self-compassion (SC) and adolescent well-being, the specific link between SC and psychological richness, a newer concept of well-being, remains underexplored. This study aimed to address this gap by using a two-wave cross-lagged panel network analysis to explore the dynamic relationships between the six dimensions of SC and psychological richness among 528 adolescents. The findings revealed that self-kindness and mindfulness positively predicted psychological richness, whereas self-judgment and isolation negatively predicted psychological richness. Furthermore, self-kindness and mindfulness showed the most significant connections with other nodes. The findings emphasize the critical function of SC in fostering psychological richness during adolescence, highlighting the potential of interventions focused on self-kindness and mindfulness to enhance psychological richness in this group.

Few studies have investigated the longitudinal correlations among negative life events, a sense of security, and internet addiction (IA). The aim of the present study was to test these correlations in Chinese university freshmen. This study included a total of 912 university freshmen (384 men [42.11%]; mean age, 18.36 ± 0.82 years). Assessments were performed at four time points at 6-month intervals. Random intercept cross-lagged analysis revealed that negative life events at T1 positively predicted IA at T2, negative life events at T2 negatively predicted a sense of security and positively predicted IA at T3, a sense of security at T3 negatively predicted negative life events and IA at T4, IA at T2 negatively predicted a sense of security at T3, and IA at T3 positively predicted negative life events at T4. Importantly, a sense of security at T3 mediated the effect of negative life events at T2 on IA at T4 and the effect of IA at T2 on negative life events at T4. Additionally, the longitudinal correlations among negative life events, a sense of security, and IA were stronger in female students than in male students. Our findings suggest that the correlation between negative life events and IA is pathological compensation and that a sense of security is an internal compensation mechanism. This information may contribute to the development of psychological interventions for reducing IA in university freshmen.

Pelagi, A., Camastra, C., & Sarica, A. (2025). Social, emotional, and personality factors shape four psychological well-being profiles: A clustering approach in young adults with affinity propagation algorithm. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 17(5), e70072. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.70072

The Acknowledgments section was incomplete. This section should have been:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Data were provided by the Human Connectome Project, WU-Minn Consortium (Principal Investigators: David Van Essen and Kamil Ugurbil; 1U54MH091657) funded by the 16 NIH Institutes and Centers that support the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research; and by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience at Washington University. Open access publishing facilitated by Università degli Studi Magna Graecia di Catanzaro, as part of the Wiley - CRUI-CARE agreement.

This work was funded by the Next Generation EU - Italian NRRP, Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.5, call for the creation and strengthening of ‘Innovation Ecosystems’, building ‘Territorial R&D Leaders’ (Directorial Decree n. 2021/3277) - project Tech4You - Technologies for climate change adaptation and quality of life improvement, n. ECS0000009. This work reflects only the authors' views and opinions; neither the Ministry for University and Research nor the European Commission can be considered responsible for them.

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