Abstract
BackgroundLittle is known about associations of psychological and mental well-being with cognitive and socioemotional factors in low and middle-income countries, particularly among vulnerable populations born in adverse environments that may restrict developmental potential. This study aimed to examine the cognitive and socioemotional correlates of psychological well-being and mental health in a cohort of Guatemalan adults born in contexts of poverty and malnutrition.MethodsFrom Dec 2017 to Apr 2019, data were collected from 704 women and 564 men ages 40–57 years living in four rural villages in eastern Guatemala and Guatemala City. We measured latent domains of psychological well-being, spirituality and religion, emotional support, and executive function using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Under a Structural Equation Modeling framework, we examined intercorrelations among latent domains and observed measures of intelligence and mental health.ResultsCFA supported the construct validity of factor structures in this population. Correlations of psychological well-being with spirituality and religion were moderate in women (r = 0.68, p < 0.001) and men (r = 0.70, p < 0.001). Executive function was weakly correlated with psychological well-being in men (r = 0.23, p < 0.001) and showed no association in women. Correlations of psychological well-being with emotional support and IQ were weak in women (r = 0.34, and r = 0.15, respectively; p < 0.001 for both) and men (r = 0.35, and r = 0.25, respectively; p < 0.001 for both). Mental health and IQ were weakly correlated in men (r = 0.09, p < 0.05) and showed no association in women. Mental health showed weak correlations with emotional support (r = 0.18, p < 0.001 in women; r = 0.09, p < 0.05 in men), psychological well-being (r = 0.32 and r = 0.35, in women and men respectively; p < 0.001 for both) and showed no association with executive function in both sexes.ConclusionsOf all examined factors, spirituality and religion made the greatest contribution to psychological well-being. These findings support the notion that in populations experiencing difficult circumstances, religion can perhaps make a greater contribution to well-being and aid coping. More research is needed to examine mediators of this association.
Highlights
Little is known about associations of psychological and mental well-being with cognitive and soci‐ oemotional factors in low and middle-income countries, among vulnerable populations born in adverse environments that may restrict developmental potential
Models combining the hope and faith facets with the psychological well-being components indicated a small decrease in goodness-of-fit indices (RMSEA = 0.05, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.94, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.93 in women, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.04, CFI = 0.94 and TLI = 0.93 in men)
We investigated associations of psychological well-being and mental health with executive function, intelligence quotient (IQ), spirituality and religion, and emotional support in a population of Guatemalan adults born in contexts of poverty and malnutrition
Summary
Little is known about associations of psychological and mental well-being with cognitive and soci‐ oemotional factors in low and middle-income countries, among vulnerable populations born in adverse environments that may restrict developmental potential. Much evidence suggests that some of the skills that could contribute to achieving psychological well-being rely on higher-order cognitive processes of general intelligence [3,4,5] and executive function [6,7,8]. Much of what is known about intelligence and executive function derives from studies conducted in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) countries [11]. This is a limitation to the generalizability of cognitive models because it remains unclear whether they apply to non-Western contexts. The limitations of applying tests of cognitive ability from one ethnic group to another without appropriate standardization are well-recognized [12, 13]
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