Impact of a Before-School Physical Activity Program on Children's Subjective Well-Being: Secondary Findings From the Active-Start Study.

ABSTRACTBACKGROUNDEngaging in classroom‐based physical activity (PA) breaks may help increase children's subjective wellbeing and enjoyment of PA, important precursors for children to remain engaged in PA. We conducted a systematic review to investigate the effect of brief classroom‐based PA interventions on primary school children's subjective wellbeing and enjoyment of PA.METHODSDatabases were reviewed between the earliest date of records and April 2020. Eligibility criteria included peer‐reviewed empirical quantitative or mixed methods studies reporting enjoyment of PA or wellbeing outcomes of participating in a brief classroom‐based PA program. Fifteen papers were included. Interventions supported 7022 child participants enrolled at baseline and 6286 children analyzed in interventions across 148 schools.RESULTSThirteen studies examined the effect of brief classroom‐based PA interventions on subjective wellbeing. Four found a significant positive effect for children in the intervention group (specifically for children's self‐efficacy in learning with video exercises, quality of life, and self‐confidence). Eight studies examined the effect of brief classroom‐based PA interventions on enjoyment of PA. Five studies reported a positive effect for children in the intervention group and only 1 study found a negative effect for 1 grade level of children in the intervention group. The remaining studies with wellbeing and/or enjoyment outcomes reported no significant effect.CONCLUSIONSFindings from these studies indicate that the integration of brief PA breaks may support PA enjoyment and specific self‐beliefs and quality of life perceptions that contribute to children's subjective wellbeing. However, more research is needed to confirm this effect.

To address the challenge of declining pro-environmental behaviors in adolescence, this paper uses the theoretical foundations for subjective wellbeing to verify the influence of three latent dimensions of subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction, positive emotions, and negative emotions) on adolescents' pro-environmental consumption behaviors (PECBs). Furthermore, we explore the moderating effects of nations and regions in the relationship between subjective wellbeing and PECBs in adolescents. Based on the international data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 (PISA 2018), we construct a unique dataset that includes 57,182 samples related to the subjective wellbeing and PECBs of 15-year-old students from eight countries/economies. Specially, we employ an ordered probit model to test our hypotheses. Both adolescents' life satisfaction and positive emotions can significantly improve their PECBs, while there is a significant negative association between negative emotions and PECBs. At the nation's level, adolescents' life satisfaction and negative emotions in developed countries/economies significantly impact PECBs. In contrast, the positive emotions of adolescents in developing countries/economies have more substantial effects on PECBs. At the regional level, the impact of all three dimensions of adolescents' subjective wellbeing on PECBs is more significant in rural than urban areas. This paper provides a new perspective for understanding adolescents' PECBs from the insights of subjective wellbeing. Previous studies have examined the effects of life satisfaction or happiness on PECBs in adults. This paper examines the impact of subjective wellbeing on adolescents' PECBs from life satisfaction, positive emotions, and negative emotions, which suggests that promoting adolescents' subjective wellbeing can be an effective strategy for encouraging PECBs. From a comparative research perspective, we further analyze the differences between the nations at different levels of development, the rural and urban areas, providing a valuable reference for policymakers and practitioners in promoting pro-environmental behaviors among adolescents.

ObjectiveSubjective wellbeing, a fundamental concept in positive psychology, encompasses an individual’s evaluation of their life satisfaction and the balance between positive and negative emotions, thus reflecting personal perceptions and thoughts about life. This research aimed to analyze the interplay between physical exercise and subjective wellbeing among university students, with a particular emphasis on the mediating roles of self-identity and self-esteem. The study investigates the correlation between physical exercise and subjective wellbeing, further exploring how physical exercise affects self-identity and subsequently impacts subjective wellbeing. It also examines how self-identity influences self-esteem and the mediation role of self-esteem between self-identity and subjective wellbeing. This research constructed a chained mediation model encompassing physical exercise, self-identity, self-esteem, and subjective wellbeing to elucidate their interactions, ultimately proposing targeted exercise strategies to enhance subjective wellbeing through university physical education programs and personal exercise regimens.MethodsUtilizing physical exercise scales, self-identity scales, self-esteem scales, and subjective wellbeing questionnaires, this study conducted a survey among 913 university students. Data analysis proceeded via Pearson correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, and bias-corrected percentile bootstrap methods.ResultsPhysical exercise showed a positive correlation with subjective wellbeing (r = 0.49), exhibiting significant direct pathways from physical exercise to subjective wellbeing (β = 0.43, p < 0.01, CI [0.36, 0.50]). Physical exercise was also positively correlated with self-identity (β = 0.37, p < 0.01, CI [0.30, 0.44]) and self-esteem (β = 0.36, p < 0.01, CI [0.30, 0.43]), with self-identity positively influencing self-esteem (β = 0.31, p < 0.01, CI [0.23, 0.39]), both of which positively impact subjective wellbeing (self-identity: β = 0.17, p < 0.01, CI [0.11, 0.23]; self-esteem: β = 0.18, p < 0.01, CI [0.11, 0.25]). Furthermore, self-identity and self-esteem significantly mediated the relationship between physical exercise and subjective wellbeing through multiple pathways.ConclusionThese findings highlight a significant positive correlation between physical exercise and subjective wellbeing. Both self-identity and self-esteem serve as independent and sequential mediators in this relationship, underlining the complex interdependencies in the chain mediation model.

BackgroundHappiness is often conceptualized as subjective well-being, which comprises people's evaluations of emotional experiences (i.e., the affective dimension: positive and negative feelings and emotions) and judgements of a self-imposed ideal (i.e., the cognitive dimension: life satisfaction). Recent research has established these two dimensions as primary parts of a higher order factor. However, theoretical, conceptual, and empirical work suggest that people's evaluations of harmony in their life (i.e., the sense of balance and capacity to behave and adapt with both acceptance and flexibility to inter- and intrapersonal circumstances) constitutes a third dimension (i.e., the behavioral dimension). This tridemensional conceptualization of subjective well-being has recently been verified using Unidimensional Item Response Theory (UIRT) and Classical Test Theory (CTT). Here, we use a recently developed and more robust approach that combines these two methods (i.e., Multidimensional Item Response Theory, MIRT) to simultaneously address the complex interactions and multidimensionality behind how people feel, think, and behave in relation to happiness in their life. MethodA total of 435 participants (197 males and 238 females) with an age mean of 44.84 (sd = 13.36) responded to the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (10 positive affect items, 10 negative affect items), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (five items), and the Harmony in life Scale (five items). We used Bifactor-Graded Response MIRT for the main analyses. ResultAt the general level, each of the 30 items had a strong capacity to discriminate between respondents across all three dimensions of subjective well-being. The investigation of different parameters (e.g., marginal slopes, ECV, IECV) strongly reflected the multidimensionality of subjective well-being at the item, the scale, and the model level. Indeed, subjective well-being could explain 64 % of the common variance in the whole model. Moreover, most of the items measuring positive affect (8/10) and life satisfaction (4/5) and all the items measuring harmony in life (5/5) accounted for a larger amount of variance of subjective well-being compared to that of their respective individual dimensions. The negative affect items, however, measured its own individual concept to a lager extent rather than subjective well-being. Thus, suggesting that the experience of negative affect is a more independent dimension within the whole subjective well-being model. We also found that specific items (e.g., “Alert”, “Distressed”, “Irritable”, “I am satisfied with my life”) were the recurrent exceptions in our results. Last but not the least, experiencing high levels in one dimension seems to compensate for low levels in the others and vice versa. ConclusionAs expected, the three subjective well-being dimensions do not work separately. Interestingly, the order and magnitude of the effect by each dimension on subjective well-being mirror how people define happiness in their life: first as harmony, second as satisfaction, third as positive emotions, and fourth, albeit to a much lesser degree, as negative emotions. Ergo, we argue that subjective well-being functions as a complex biopsychosocial adaptive system mirroring our attitude towards life in these three dimensions (A: affective dimension; B: behavioral dimension; C: cognitive dimension). Ergo, researchers and practitioners need to take in to account all three to fully understand, measure, and promote people's experience of the happy life. Moreover, our results also suggest that negative affect, especially regarding high activation unpleasant emotions, need considerable changes and further analyses if it is going to be included as a construct within the affective dimension of a general subjective well-being factor.

This study investigated the interacting dynamics of different aspects of the social network, specifically network structure (size and frequency of contact), social activity engagement, and emotional support, and different aspects of health and subjective well-being in a representative sample of 2034 older adults across 6 years of development. The analysis, using latent change score models, revealed that older age at Time 1 was related to steeper declines in network structure and social engagement, but was unrelated to changes in emotional support. Furthermore, levels of social engagement and levels of emotional support predicted changes in functional health and life satisfaction with equal strength. Changes in social engagement were associated with changes in life satisfaction, positive affect, functional health, and subjective health. Changes in emotional support were only associated with changes in negative affect. Mediation analyses suggested that network structure may stimulate social engagement and emotional support, thereby exerting indirect influences on key aspects of successful aging. The results underscore the importance of considering the multifaceted nature of social relations in understanding their impact on distinct developmental goals, and across different domains of successful aging.

Purpose: To deeply analyze the influencing factors on college students’ subjective well-being and the path mechanism between each factor. Method: The physical activity rating scale (PARS-3), the emotional intelligence scale (EIS), the self-efficacy scale (GSES), and the subjective well-being scale (SWS) were used for 826 students from two comprehensive universities in southwest China. College students conducted a questionnaire survey, and used SPSS22.0 and AMOS21.0 statistical software to process and analyze the obtained data. Results: (1) Physical exercise was significantly positively correlated with self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and subjective well-being; self-efficacy was significantly positively correlated with emotional intelligence and subjective well-being; emotional intelligence was significantly positively correlated with subjective well-being; (2) Physical exercise has a direct positive predictive effect on subjective well-being (ES = 0.16); (3) Self-efficacy (ES = 0.057) and emotional intelligence (ES = 0.077) play a part in mediating the role between physical exercise and subjective well-being, respectively. Meanwhile, the chain mediation effect (ES = 0.026) of self-efficacy and emotional intelligence also achieved a significant level, among them, only others’ emotional management and emotional application were involved in the regulation of emotional intelligence. Conclusions: Actively participating in physical exercise could not only directly improve the level of subjective well-being of college students but also indirectly affect their subjective well-being by improving their self-efficacy, as well as their emotional management and emotional application abilities, thereby improving college students’ life satisfaction feelings of happiness, such as degree, positive emotion, and negative emotion.

Combinations of physical activity, screen time and sleep, and their association with subjective wellbeing in children

Studies about well-being (WB) have been used to build an interdisciplinary research area centered on positive psychology and economics of happiness. WB research is characterized by active use of subjective data about one's life, called subjective wellbeing (SWB), as indicators of the quality of an individual's life or their society. SWB has various domains, including ones related to cognitive and emotional well-being, and each has different determinants. For example, life satisfaction, which is the cognitive aspect of SWB, is strongly correlated with income, while emotional well-being has a relatively strong correlation with health and social relationships. There are various theories about SWB's composition, and the OECD has defined three basic domains of SWB: life evaluation (life satisfaction), emotion (affect, mood), and eudaimonia. Conventional research for assessing residential environments has used "housing satisfaction" as a subjective indicator of housing quality, which belongs to the "cognitive evaluation" domain. However, based on the findings of WB research, it can be inferred that there are diverse subjective domains related to housing quality. Therefore, in the current study, we attempted to construct home-related subjective well-being (HOME-SWB) based on the OECD's SWB definition: "home satisfaction," "positive emotions at home," "negative emotions at home," and "eudaimonia derived from home." "Home satisfaction" is the cognitive aspect of HOME-SWB, which is similar to the conventional subjective indicator, housing satisfaction. "Positive emotions at home" includes the frequency of positive emotional experiences at home, such as feeling happy, cheerful, or joyful, while "negative emotions at home" includes the frequency of negative emotional experiences, such as feeling depressed, stressed out, or lonely at home. "Eudaimonia derived from home" indicate to what extent residents obtain experiences of eudaimonic well-being from their homes, such as self-esteem and the sense that life is worth living. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of HOME-SWB among 4,000 residents in the Tokyo area and the determinants of each domain of HOME-SWB using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis.

Sense of purpose is seen as a catalyst for successful ageing, predicting a wide range of health outcomes and mortality. However, its role in fostering subjective well-being during old age has received less attention, especially the bidirectional nature of this relationship. The present study examined how sense of purpose predicts and is predicted by subjective well-being in this life stage. Panel data from the Health and Retirement Study ( N = 8980) were used, spanning three measurement occasions across eight years. Four subjective well-being indicators (life satisfaction, depression, positive- and negative affect) were modelled with purpose using (random-intercept) cross-lagged panel models to disentangle within-from between-person associations. We found moderate to strong correlated change and some evidence for directional associations between the constructs. Purpose predicted changes in all four subjective well-being markers, and these associations were generally stronger than the effects of subjective well-being on purpose. Within-person changes in sense of purpose predicted subsequent changes in life satisfaction and positive affect, but not in negative affect and depression. In sum, sense of purpose is associated with higher subjective well-being in old age, but efforts to maintain or increase older adults' sense of purpose may only improve positive components of subjective well-being.

Parenting styles influence child development. Some theories and numerous studies have shown a close relationship between parenting style and youths' subjective well-being; however, the results of different studies were inconsistent. Hence, our meta-analysis aimed to determine the overall relationship between positive and negative parenting styles on subjective well-being (including life satisfaction, positive and negative affect) and any moderating effects between them. After searching and screening the literature, 155 studies were included in the analysis, comprising 79,979 participants and 417 effect sizes. The results showed that positive parenting style was significantly positively associated with subjective well-being (r = .318, 95% CI = .287 to .348), life satisfaction (r = .358, 95% CI = .326 to .389), and positive affect (r = .355, 95% CI = .303 to .406), but significantly negatively associated with negative affect (r = -.153, 95% CI = -.207 to -.098). Negative parenting style was significantly negatively related to subjective well-being (r = -.173, 95% CI = -.205 to -.152), life satisfaction (r = -.144, 95% CI = -.175 to -.112), and positive affect (r = -.078, 95% CI = -.129 to -.027), but significantly positively related to negative affect (r = .204, 95% CI = .149 to .257). Moderating effect results showed that the relationship between parenting style and subjective well-being is moderated by age, gender, and cultural background. Findings highlight the benefits of positive parenting styles in promoting healthy child development and well-being.

According to the Theory of Change, the resilience of the family unit plays a crucial role in shaping the developmental trajectory of children. Families exhibiting higher levels of family resilience are typically characterized by transparent and effective communication, optimistic outlooks on adversity, adept problem-solving skills, strong spiritual beliefs, and effective management of social and financial resources. While existing research has indicated that parental and familial characteristics can predict diverse outcomes for children, investigations concerning the association between family resilience and children's subjective well-being remains limited. Therefore, this study aims to examine whether different dimensions of family resilience can predict changes in children's subjective well-being, tested one year later. The sample includes 762 child-mother-father triads (intact families). Children aged 9-13 years (48% boys, age = 11.04, SD = 1.16) assessed their life satisfaction, positive and negative affect in two study waves, while mothers and fathers assessed family resilience in the first wave. A dyadic data common fate model was employed to create latent variables representing family resilience. Three latent variables were: family problem-solving, family spirituality, and utilization of social and economic resources. Findings from the structural equation model indicated a positive association between higher levels of family problem-solving and increased children's life satisfaction, alongside a negative relationship between higher family spirituality and negative affect. Parental assessments of social and economic resources utilization were not uniquely related to children's life satisfaction, positive, or negative affect.

Whether relative income or absolute income could affect subjective well-being has been a bone of contention for years. Life satisfaction and the relative frequency of positive and negative emotions are parts of subjective well-being. According to the prospect theory, hedonic adaptation helps to explain why positive emotion is often so hard to be maintained, and negative emotion wouldn’t be easy to be eliminated. So we expect the relationship between income and positive emotion is different from that between income and negative emotion. Given that regional reference is the main comparison mechanism, effects of regional average income on regional average subjective well-being should be potentially zero if only relative income matters. Using multilevel analysis, we tested the hypotheses with a dataset of 30,144 individuals from 162 counties in China. The results suggested that household income at the individual level is associated with life satisfaction, happiness and negative emotions. On the contrary, at a county level, household income is only associated with negative emotion. In other words, happiness and life satisfaction was only associated with relative income, but negative emotion was associated with relative income and absolute income. Without social comparison, income doesn’t improve happiness, but it could weaken negative emotion. Therefore, it is possible for economic growth to weaken negative emotion without improving happiness. These findings also contribute to the current debate about the “Esterling paradox.”

Evidence is accruing that positive emotions play a crucial role in shaping a healthy interpersonal climate. Inspired by this research, the current investigation sought to shed light on the link between proficiency in identifying positive vs. negative emotions and a close partner's well-being. To this end, we conducted two studies with neurologically intact elderly married couples (Study 1) and an age-matched clinical sample, comprising married couples in which one spouse had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (Study 2), which tends to hinder emotional expressivity. To assess proficiency in identifying emotions from whole body postures, we had participants in both studies complete a pointlight walker task, featuring four actors (two male, two female) expressing one positive (i.e., happiness) and three negative (i.e., sadness, anger, fear) basic emotions. Participants also filled out measures of subjective well-being. Among Study 1's neurologically intact spouses, greater expertise in identifying positive (but not negative) emotions was linked to greater partner life satisfaction (but not hedonic balance). Spouses of PD patients exhibited increased proficiency in identifying positive emotions relative to controls, possibly reflective of compensatory mechanisms. Complementarily, relative to controls, spouses of PD patients exhibited reduced proficiency in identifying negative emotions and a tendency to underestimate their intensity. Importantly, all of these effects attenuated with longer years from PD onset. Finally, there was evidence that it was increased partner expertise in identifying negative (rather than positive) emotional states that predicted greater life satisfaction levels among the PD patients and their spouses. Our results thus suggest that positive vs. negative emotions may play distinct roles in close relationship dynamics as a function of neurological status and disability trajectory.

Family structure and family relationship from the child well-being perspective: Findings from comparative analysis

This paper examines the subjective well-being (SWB) of children and adolescents (10‒18 years old) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia for two periods (May to July 2020 and March to May 2021), using cross-sectional data from two distinct samples of N = 1,011 (M age = 14.61) and N = 1,640 (M age = 14.86), respectively. Its aims are twofold: (1) to examine the state of SWB among Indonesian children, including its cognitive component (measured using the CW-SWBS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA), and the participants’ satisfaction with their contact with friends and how they spend their time; and (2) to compare the evolution of these SWB-related aspects from the first to the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using Google Forms and convenience and snowball sampling. Results showed that boys displayed significantly higher mean SWB scores than girls, while elementary students displayed significantly higher mean scores for the cognitive component than middle and high school students for both data collection periods. Boys also displayed significantly higher mean PA scores than girls. There were significant school grade differences on PA and NA, depending on the period of study. In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, children and adolescents displayed lower scores on satisfaction with their contact with friends than in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results suggest that children and adolescents adapted to the COVID-19 situation during the second year, and this adaptation protected their SWB from further decrease, as defended by the homeostasis theory.