Experience Of Well-being Research Articles

Happiness in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Study

<i>Literature reports the challenges of parenting a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and its impacts on emotional and psychosocial wellbeing, both generally and specifically in the Hong Kong context. Positive parenting experiences are less well defined; however, research and theory in the positive psychology field suggests that people living with adversity can find and create meaning, positivity and happiness. This study aimed to investigate Hong Kong parents’ experiences and perceptions of happiness and well-being in raising their children with ASD. Eight parents (2 fathers; 6 mothers) were interviewed in-depth about their parenting-related perceptions and experiences of happiness and well-being. A thematic analysis generated four themes: A Growth Mindset, Connectedness, Self-Care, and A Better Me, each comprising several related sub-themes. Findings indicated that</i><i> </i><i>happiness was crucial for these parents, despite the challenges of raising a child with ASD in Hong Kong, and that they actively sought out activities to enhance their happiness, satisfaction and meaning. Results are in keeping with positive psychology theory, add specific detail relating to this group and could be extended with further research. Findings could also inform policy makers and support services in the development of welfare plans, educational resources and social support for this group of vulnerable families in future. </i>

Being well? A meta-ethnography of older patients and their relatives’ descriptions of suffering and well-being in the transition from hospital to home

BackgroundAs the average length of hospital stay decreases, more and more older patients will need support during and after the hospital transition, which will mainly be provided by their relatives. Studies highlight the enormous effect such a transition has on the lives of older patients and their relatives. However, research is lacking regarding in-depth understanding of the complexities and the notions of suffering and well-being the older patients and their relatives describe in the transition from hospital to home. Therefore, this study aims to examine the description of suffering and well-being on a deeper, existential level by drawing on existing phenomenological research.MethodsIn order to synthesize and reinterpret primary findings, we used the seven-step method for meta-ethnography. Following specific inclusion criteria and focusing on empirical phenomenological studies about older patients and their relatives experiences of hospital to home transitions, a systematic literature search was conducted. Data from ten studies have been analyzed.ResultsOur analysis identified three intertwined themes: i) ‘Being excluded vs. being included in the transition process’, ii) ‘Being a team: a call for support and a call to support’ and iii) ‘Riding an emotional rollercoaster’. The last theme was unfolded by the two subthemes ‘Taking on the new role as a caregiver: oscillating between struggling and accepting’ and ‘Getting back to normal: oscillating between uncertainty and hope’. Within those themes, older patients and their relatives described rather similar than contradictory aspects.ConclusionsThis study offers insights into the tension between existential suffering and well-being described by the older patients and their relatives during the transition from hospital to home. Especially, the description of well-being in all its nuances which, if achieved, enables older patients and their relatives to identify with the situation and to move forward, this process can then be supported by the health care professionals. However, there is still lack of knowledge with regards to a deeper understanding of existential well-being in this process. Given the increasing tendency towards early hospital discharges, the findings underpin the need to further investigate the experiences of well-being in this process.

Tuning in: using photo-talk approaches to explore young people’s everyday relations with local beaches

ABSTRACT Attunement, connectedness and an ‘in tune-ness’ with places have repeatedly been proposed to be central to sustainable, reciprocal human-environment relations and in turn, wellbeing. In this paper, I examine young people’s emplaced and embodied attunements with local beaches bordering the neighbourhoods in which they live. More specifically, the possibilities of participatory photo-talk approaches for sensing and accessing people’s attunements to beachplaces are proposed. Participants’ views on using photo-talk approaches are foregrounded, including the prompt and momentum given to exploring embodied feelings and experiences. The ways that photo-talk supported a shared exploration of the diverse relational entanglements of human and more-than-human beach entities are also considered. In turn, the value of such approaches for helping to ‘show’ and ‘feel’ place-specific understandings and practices of beaching, including mutually constituted wellbeing a/effects, is proposed. Following in the footprints of others, I suggest the methodological and pedagogical potential of photo-talk approaches to researchers and educators in sport, health, physical education and leisure settings when examining embodied and emplaced experiences of wellbeing.

Challenging live performance: Dance on Social Media for Wellbeing and to Resist Dance Quarantine during the 2020 Covid-19

This paper argues that the uptake of social media by the dance community due to COVID-19 challenges the conventional consideration of dance as a live performance and gratifies people with wellbeing experiences. Grounded on Digital Research Method and Theoretical sampling, findings reveal that though the dance community was seriously impacted by the COVID-19 in 2020, they challenged space by re-defining innovative strategies that fuse with the digital world to limit stress, recreate a social connection and empathy. As a strong response to COVID-19, dancers invaded the social media, stimulating various ways to observe, create, and understand space during confinement.

The Impact of Emergency Online Learning on D/Deaf College Students’ Experience of Social Isolation, Self-Efficacy, and Well-Being

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, many universities in the United States converted face-to-face classroom teaching to remote, online based learning formats. Gallaudet University was among these universities and faced particular challenges due to the need for visually accessible classrooms for d/Deaf students. Because college students are primarily made up of early and emerging adults, and d/Deaf college students have been shown to have better academic success when social connection is fostered, the current study sought to determine how d/Deaf students at Gallaudet University were emotionally impacted by the change to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The research question for this study was: How did the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent emergency switch to online course participation influence college students’ experience of well-being, self-efficacy, and loneliness? Results indicated that overall, d/Deaf students at Gallaudet university had positive emotional adjustment during this transition, despite challenges. Discussion describes within-group differences by age and how the University supported students and the campus community to encourage this positive outcome.

The Role of Stress Experience and Demographic Factors for Satisfaction with Life in Norwegian Adolescents: Cross-Sectional Trends over a Ten-Year Period.

The individual's perception of life satisfaction (LS) is regarded as a key indicator of one's overall experience of wellbeing, sensitive to the broad spectrum of functioning. Adolescence is particularly an important period for assessing LS and factors associating with LS. The present study investigated cross-sectional trends in adolescents' LS levels across three time points over a 10-year period, as well as the role of stress experience and socio-demographic differences in association with LS. The study used cross-sectional data from three time points: 2011 (n = 1239), 2016 (n = 1233), and 2022 (n =311), including adolescents from lower and upper secondary public schools, with an age range of 13-20 years. There were relatively high and stable mean scores on LS across all time points; however, significant differences were found between 2011 and 2016. Results from the multivariate linear regression analysis showed that sex and age were moreover weakly associated with LS, where LS decreased slightly between the ages of 13 and 18 years and increased from 19 to 20 years. Of the stress domains, interpersonal and school-related stressors showed the strongest negative and significant association with LS; significant interaction effects of sex by stress domains were found, but not with sex by time. This study supports the relatively high and stable level of LS in adolescents across the investigated time points. Demographic factors were moreover weakly associated with LS. The findings also contribute by showing the significant role of interpersonal and school-related stressors in association with LS.

Family's roles as a welfare pillar: The case of older persons living in extreme poverty in Bangladesh

SummaryMotivationMany mainstream welfare theories developed by social scientists and applied by economists and policy‐makers underestimate families' roles in providing welfare to citizens. This is surprising given that the family constitutes one of the main welfare pillars across typologies of the welfare state.PurposeThis article seeks to explore the role of the family as a welfare pillar with an ageing perspective. We aimed to test whether the family serves as a space for negotiations to improve wellbeing and achieve security in the absence of effective formal mechanismsMethods and approachApplying the framework of “informal security regimes,” this article draws on 37 life‐history interviews collected from older persons living in extreme poverty in Bangladesh. Recurring themes are identified and analysed to explore the relationship between family and wellbeing/security.FindingsWe find that family relationships are often central in the pursuit of security. This shows how welfare delivery in low and middle‐income countries (LMICs), in this case Bangladesh, is deeply rooted in reciprocal family systems where all members actively fulfil moral and material expectations. Pursuing this collective goal can take different forms relative to each member's physical and mental capacity, position, gender, and age. Building on the empirical evidence, we propose the concept of “relational security” as a crucial marker and shaper of wellbeing.Policy implicationsTo be effective, welfare policies need to better consider how the conception and experiences of wellbeing and security, especially for the older persons living in extreme poverty, are deeply embedded within the complex functioning of the relationships that can shape welfare outcomes in different directions.

Disruption, Slowness, and Collective Effervescence: Children's Perspectives on COVID-19 Lockdowns.

The COVID-19 pandemic represented not only a health crisis, but a social crisis for children, one that has disrupted notions of what a good childhood is. However, the longer-term implications of the pandemic are still to be seen, for children, their families and communities. This article is concerned with what these ongoing changes may be, based on a qualitative multi-stage study that asks children about their experiences of well-being before the pandemic, during lockdowns and post-COVID-19 lockdowns. This included asking seven children in online semi-structured interviews about what aspects of life brought on by COVID-19 restrictions they would like to see continue post-lockdown. We outline some of our findings. We describe new rituals and ways of organising time developed by children, facilitated by the use of digital technologies. We describe these new ways of managing time as task-based rather than rule-based, with children experiencing slowness of and greater control over their time. We found that lockdowns provided a possibility for children to assert a public agency through banal acts of sociability, for example, by conforming to public health measures such as mask-wearing and hand-washing. Whilst small acts, children discussed these in terms of being moral agents (protecting the safety of others) and as part of a larger civic attitude they observed around them. Thus, their acts can be seen as expressions of larger forms of social solidarity that contributed to a sense of collective effervescence.

Clarifying Eudaimonia and Psychological Functioning to Complement Evaluative and Experiential Well-Being: Why Basic Psychological Needs Should Be Measured in National Accounts of Well-Being

Measuring subjective well-being as a key indicator of national wellness has increasingly become part of the international agenda. Current recommendations for measuring well-being at a national level propose three separate dimensions: evaluative well-being, experiential well-being, and eudaimonia. Whereas the measurement of the first two dimensions is relatively standardized, the third category has remained undertheorized, lacking consensus on how to define and operationalize it. To remedy the situation, we propose that the third dimension should focus on psychological functioning and the identification of key psychological factors humans generally need to live well. A key part of psychological functioning is the satisfaction of basic psychological needs—specific types of satisfying experiences that are essential for psychological health and well-being. Psychological needs as a category provides a parsimonious set of elements with clear inclusion criteria that are strongly anchored in theory and our current understanding of human nature—and could thus form a core part of the third, “eudaimonic” dimension of well-being. The needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness have especially received broad empirical support. Accordingly, national accounts of well-being should include measures for key psychological needs to gain an enriched and practically useful understanding of the well-being of the citizens.

HRM models of online labor platforms: Strategies of market and corporate logics.

Studies on online labor platforms (OLPs) have revealed that OLPs can have extensive managerial control over independent workers, which affects their autonomy and precariousness. The permeability of the management makes some OLPs' roles as neutral intermediaries in labor exchanges questionable. While there are several platform work studies on the effects of human resource management (HRM) activities, earlier studies have focused more on certain types of OLP companies. Earlier OLP classifications did not make systematic distinctions between HRM activities either. This paper offers a classification to view how HRM activities manifest in OLPs. The study utilizes terms of service and webpage data from 46 multinational and Finland-based OLPs. Based on these data, OLPs have been classified into six models with five governance principles and institutional logic. The study uses the idea of institutional complexity and claims that OLPs balance their operations between the complexity of two institutional logics, market, and corporation, by using varying strategies with their HRM activities. Differently managed OLPs are also often marketed to different worker groups. This indicates that workers' levels and quality of autonomy differ between OLPs. Hence, could be expected that platform workers' expectations toward OLPs, perceptions of fairness, and experiences of wellbeing may be influenced by the HRM activities in which they engage. The results contribute to the ongoing discussions of power asymmetries between OLPs and platform workers, and thus OLPs' roles as either marketplaces or hierarchical corporations. Formed models can be utilized to enrich studies on key issues of platform workers' autonomy, precariousness, and experiences in different types of OLPs.

Complexity and interplay of faced adversities and perceived health and well-being in highly vulnerable pregnant women—the Mothers of Rotterdam program

BackgroundLiving in socially disadvantaged circumstances has a widespread impact on one’s physical and mental health. That is why individuals living in this situation are often considered vulnerable. When pregnant, not only the woman’s health is affected, but also that of her (unborn) child. It is well accepted that vulnerable populations experience worse (perinatal) health, however, little is known about the lived adversities and health of these vulnerable individuals.ObjectivesWith this article, insights into this group of highly vulnerable pregnant women are provided by describing the adversities these women face and their experienced well-being.MethodsHighly vulnerable women were recruited when referred to tailored social care during pregnancy. Being highly vulnerable was defined as facing at least three different adversities divided over two or more life-domains. The heat map method was used to assess the interplay between adversities from the different life domains. Demographics and results from the baseline questionnaires on self-sufficiency and perceived health and well-being were presented.ResultsNine hundred nineteen pregnant women were referred to social care (2016–2020). Overall, women had a median of six adversities, distributed over four life-domains. The heat map revealed a large variety in lived adversities, which originated from two parental clusters, one dominated by financial adversities and the other by a the combination of a broad range of adversities. The perceived health was moderate, and 25–34% experienced moderate to severe levels of depression, anxiety or stress. This did not differ between the two parental clusters.ConclusionsThis study shows that highly vulnerable pregnant women deal with multiple adversities affecting not only their social and economic position but also their health and well-being.

‘Do know harm’: Examining the intersecting capabilities of young people from refugee backgrounds through community sport and leisure programmes

Young people from refugee backgrounds have been repeatedly denied the ability to lead a life that they value. Community sport and leisure has been positioned as a tool to foster positive wellbeing experiences for these young people living in Western resettlement countries. Drawing on qualitative data from a Participatory Action Research project in London, England, we apply Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach to examine how the young people made sense of and negotiated their interconnecting capabilities through the sport and leisure programme. We examine three key interconnections between the capabilities of (a) life, bodily health and play; (b) affiliation and emotion and (c) bodily integrity and control over the environment. The findings are significant in ensuring sport and leisure provides opportunities for young people from refugee backgrounds to engage in positive wellbeing experiences and for enabling them and those supporting them to know and challenge harmful practices that may restrict capabilities.

Pregnant women's experiences of well-being in high-risk pregnancy: A qualitative study.

Physical changes in high-risk pregnancy (HRP) can lead to changes in mood and social relationships and negative effects on women's well-being. Individuals in different sociocultural contexts have different perceptions of well-being. Yet, there is limited information about perceptions of well-being in HRP. This study aimed to explore the Iranian women's experiences of well-being in HRP. This qualitative study was conducted in 2019-2020 through directed content analysis based on the conceptual framework of well-being in HRP. Participants were 26 women with HRP purposively recruited from public and private healthcare settings in Mashhad, Iran. Face-to-face semistructured interviews were held for data collection until data saturation. Data were analyzed through directed content analysis proposed by Elo and kyngäs (2008) and were managed using the MAXQDA (v. 10) program. Well-being in HRP had seven attributes in the five main dimensions of physical, mental-emotional, social, marital, and spiritual well-being. The seven attributes of well-being in HRP were controlled physical conditions, controlled mood, emotions, and affections, perceived threat, self-efficacy, and competence for multiple role performance, maintained social relationships, meaning seeking and relationship with the Creator, and positive marital relationships. The present study provide an in-depth understanding about well-being in the Iranian women with HRP. It is a complex and multidimensional concept with physical, mental-emotional, social, marital, and spiritual dimensions. Comprehensive multicomponent interventions are needed to promote well-being among women with HRP and designed the guidelines to provide woman-centered care.

Nursing students' perceptions regarding well-being and healthy use of digital technology: A qualitative thematic analysis.

The health and well-being of nursing students are of the utmost importance. Well-being is affected by many factors, ranging from day-to-day hassles to severe stressors in students' college lives. In addition to many other challenges, one new component is added with the advancement of technology, that is, the use of digital technology. The objectives of the study were to explore the perceptions of nursing students regarding well-being, its associated factors, digital technology usage and association between well-being and digital technology use. A qualitative descriptive design using focus group discussion (FGD) was adopted in this study. A purposive sampling technique was followed for selecting the participants. Five nursing colleges in the city of Bengaluru from Karnataka state (Central Government-1, State Government-2, and Private-2) were selected based on their willingness to allow their students to be a part of the study. Around 12-15 students from each college who might provide potentially rich data were invited to participate in the study. Six FGDs were conducted during June-August 2018 with a total of 80 participants. All the participants were informed about the study. Written informed consent was obtained. All FGDs were audio recorded, and audiotapes were transcribed. Thematic analysis was done using Atlas.ti software. The emerging themes were clustered under the following broad categories: understanding the concept of well-being and associated factors; understanding digital technology; ways to healthy use of digital technology; strategies to maintain well-being; and a felt need for professional help. This study provides an insight into the experiences of well-being, stress, and use of digital technology among undergraduate nursing students. The findings have led to elicit the components required to develop an intervention program that may help the undergraduate nursing students to enhance well-being as well as promote healthy use of digital technology.

‘The most important thing is that we actually work together towards our relationship.’An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis on how young women in couple relationships experience mental health and wellbeing

Young women’s mental health is reported to be poorer, and it seems to be most affected by relationship quality in comparison to young men. This study explored the experiences of mental health and wellbeing in young women’s couple relationships. The participants were five females, between 19 to 28 years old, and were in monogamous long-term heterosexual couple relationships. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews, which was later analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings demonstrate that couple relationships seemed to only have a positive impact on the participants’ wellbeing if their investments within the relationship were reciprocated. These findings have the potential to aid support services by shedding light on the role that the quality of couple relationships play in young women’s mental health and wellbeing.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПЕРЕЖИВАНИЯ ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО БЛАГОПОЛУЧИЯ У ЖЕНЩИН РАЗНОГО ВОЗРАСТА

The article considers aspects of women’s psychological well-being in the period of young and middle adulthood, as well as the personal characteristics of women of those age groups. The paper analyzes differences in the experience of subjective psychological well-being, level of self-attitude and the value orientations among the representatives of both groups and studies the correlations between psychological well-being and the above-mentioned personal characteristics: self-attitude and the value orientations - in groups of women of young and middle adulthood. The results demonstrate that women in the age of young adulthood have a significantly higher level of subjective psychological wellbeing, in contrast to older women. Women at the age of middle adulthood turned out to be more closed, they also have a stronger desire to preserve their qualities and see themselves unchanged. At the same time, the study showed that in both groups, closeness as an element of self-attitude is one of the factors that determine subjective psychological well-being. Moreover, in course of the study, it was revealed that the links between psychological well-being and value orientations are found only in the group of women of middle adulthood, while in the group of women in the age of early adulthood, no such links were found

EXPLORING THE ROLE OF JOB RESOURCES IN THE WELL-BEING OF WOMEN ACADEMICS IN THE WORKPLACE

Despite several changes in the workplace, women still face unique challenges with harmful effects on their well-being. Job resources are a crucial buffer between job demands and workplace well-being. The aim of this article is to present the findings of a qualitative study on women academics’ experiences of workplace well-being in relation to job resources. An exploratory and descriptive research design was used to investigate in what ways job resources contribute to women academics’ perceptions of workplace well-being. Purposive sampling was conducted at a top-rated university in South Africa. Data were gathered through twelve semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that women academics value a variety of job resources associated with psychological, social, physical, and organisational resources. The study also revealed the inherent job resources creating strains on women’s well-being in the workplace. It is recommended that higher education institutions focus on workplace well-being from a practice, organisational, and policy perspective. Keywords: conservation of resources, job demands-resources model, strengths perspective, South Africa, job resources, well-being, women in academia

A mixed-methods approach to understanding early childhood special educators’ well-being

Recent research illustrates several gaps in understanding about teacher experiences of professional well-being, as well as how teachers understand and define their well-being. Given the limited understanding of the construct and correlates of teacher well-being and the omission of theoretical models in the development of prevention efforts and supports for teachers' mental health, it is valuable to investigate the translation and application of positive psychological well-being perspectives to better understand optimal teacher functioning. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the purpose of this study was to explore teacher well-being and its influence on teacher burnout/attrition. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to analyze data collected from a 76-item survey completed by 131 early childhood teachers. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 13 teachers to confirm or identify discrepancies within the quantitative results. Findings from the survey data and interview data revealed three profiles of Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) teacher well-being, and qualitative interviews suggested that well-being related needs of these teachers varied. The results of this study address several gaps in the research and provide practical information for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.

Social egocentrism and experiences of the subjective well-being of modern student youth

Social egocentrism and experiences of the subjective well-being of modern student youth

What Do the Experts Say? Children's Perspectives on Wellbeing in Schools

Abstract: In this paper, we explore children's perspectives on wellbeing at school through a multimodal, qualitative research design. Forty-seven students from Years 2, 4 and 6 in a public school in Denmark shared their insights regarding their own wellbeing in school through written accounts and videos, as well as other articulations such as drawings, paintings and Lego models. The analysis makes use of an "extended" conceptualization of wellbeing at school, which integrates four entangled dimensions: being, belonging, becoming and agency, with aspects of the whole-school material and social environment. The analysis shows that children experience wellbeing as an embodied, multifaceted phenomenon embedded in the school context but also connected with their lives outside of school. Furthermore, the analysis points to the importance of relationships at school for wellbeing but also the significance of teacher guidance as well as the sense of safety and trust facilitated by the school staff. School facilities, workload, rhythms, time schedules and numerous transitions also play pivotal roles in student experiences of wellbeing. Finally, the findings demonstrate that in students' views, their involvement in and consequential influence on decision-making at school as a whole is decisive for their sense of wellbeing.