Higher Well-being Research Articles

Neural Processing of Odors with Different Well-Being Associations-Findings from Two Consecutive Neuroimaging Studies.

Much is known about the effect of odors on mood, cognition and behavior, but little is known about the relationship between odors and well-being. We investigated the neural processing of odors with different degrees of association with well-being (WB) through two large independent datasets. The study encompassed pre-testing and fMRI. During pre-testing, 100 and 80 (studies 1 and 2) young, healthy subjects participated, rating intensity, valence, and WB association for 14 (study 1) and 8 (study 2) different odors. Pre-testing resulted in the selection of two odors with high WB association (WB-associated) and two odors with lower WB association (neutral odors) for each study. Odors were delivered intranasally to the subjects who underwent fMRI scanning (44 and 41 subjects, respectively, for studies 1 and 2). We assessed brain activity for subjects when they experienced WB-associated versus neutral odors. In study 1, WB-associated odors showed increased activation in the right angular gyrus whereas in study 2, increased activity in the left angular gyrus existed, together with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and posterior orbitofrontal cortex. The increased activity of higher-order cognitive and emotional regions during the processing of WB-associated odors in the two independent studies suggests a role of odors in influencing individual well-being. Moreover, the consistent activation of the angular gyrus might suggest its key role in shifting attention toward relevant emotional stimuli.

Self and Perceived Others' Views of Aging and Their Association with Mental Health in the Second Half of Life.

This study focuses on the concepts of subjective age and subjective nearness-to-death (views-of-aging) and examines the association between individuals' chronological age, self, and others' perceptions of these variables and mental health. A total of 267 participants aged 40-95 M = 64.33 provided sociodemographic information and filled out scales assessing self and others' views-of-aging, depressive symptoms, and their well-being. After controlling for covariates, age was not related to the dependent variables, whereas young/far from death self, and perceived others' views-of-aging was related to better mental health. The interaction between young age and young/far from death perceived others', but not self, views-of-aging was associated with lower depressive symptoms and higher well-being. Finally, the interaction between young/far from death self and perceived others' views-of-aging was associated with lower depressive symptoms but not with well-being. These findings provide an initial glance at the complex relations between two types of personal views-of-aging and emphasize the importance of how individuals appraise others' perceptions of their own aging process and life expectancy.

Sterilized and Satisfied: Outcomes of Childfree Sterilization Obtainment and Denials

As more women choose to forgo motherhood, childfree women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB) are important to study, particularly given pronatalist ideals that can make the choice not to have children difficult to exercise. Although temporary contraception prevents motherhood, physicians sometimes discourage or deny women access to more permanent options, including sterilization, due to their belief that childfree women and those AFAB will regret their decision. From a reproductive justice framework, we examined psychological outcomes of sterilization approval and denials among a sample of 154 childfree women and nonbinary people AFAB who sought and either obtained or were denied sterilization. Participants completed measures of psychological well-being, self-esteem, and sexual quality of life. Childfree participants who obtained sterilization reported higher self-esteem, better sexual quality, and higher well-being than childfree individuals who were denied the procedure. Neither age nor time since making the sterilization request accounted for the differences between the groups in terms of sexual quality of life and psychological well-being. Collectively, these findings offer the first empirical evidence of the potential outcomes among childfree women seeking sterilization.

A Study to assess the impact of Pandemic Restrictions on Psychosocial well being among school going children in Pediatric ward and outpatient department of JMMC and RI, Thrissur

The descriptive study to assess the impact of pandemic restrictions on psychosocial well-being among school going children and find the association between selected socio-demographic variables and impact of pandemic restrictions on psychosocial well-being among school going children. Methodology: The study was conducted among 100 school going children in pediatric ward and outpatient department of JMMC & RI, Thrissur. The research design used was descriptive design and sampling technique was purposive sampling. Data collected through questionnaires. Tool was divided in to two sections, section A – sociodemographic and clinical data questionnaire and section B- Modified Multi-dimensional student life satisfaction scale. Result: It shows that 1. Socio-demographic data: Out of the 100 samples Majority of 53(53%) children belongs to the age group of 10-12 years, 60(60%) were males, 41(41%) belongs to Muslim community, Half of them are studying in Vth standard, 57(57%) are studying in state syllabus. Majority of fathers, 49(49%) belongs to the age group of 31-40 years, 27(27%) have educational status of both primary and secondary education, 96(96%) are working. Majority of mothers, 61(61%) belongs to the age group of 31-40 years, 33(33%) have educational status of degree, 75(75%) are not working. Majority of family income, 52(52%) are having the income between 15,000-25, 000 rupees. Majority of their family's, 76(76%) belongs to nuclear family, 55(55%) have the presence of grandparents, 63(63%) has no COVID-19 history, 57(57%) has knowledge about COVID-19 and 95(95%) has no significant history of mental/social illness. The overall distribution of samples showed 55(55%) has moderate psychosocial well-beings, 45(45%) has high psychosocial well-being and 0(0%) has low psychosocial well-being. There is significant association (p<0.05) between socio demographic variable sex (χ2= 5.093, p <0.023) with psychosocial Well-being of school going children. As out of the 100 samples there were 574 (14.35%) has given the response as ‘Never’, 357(8.92%) has given the response as ‘Sometimes’, 595(14.88%) has given the response ‘Often’, 2474(61.85%) has given the response as ‘Almost often’ to the questionnaire given in the modified multidimensional students life satisfaction scale. From the scoring, we found that 55(55%) has moderate psychosocial well-being and 45(45%) has high psychosocial well-being. Moreover, we found that there is no evidence of low psychosocial Well-being among school going children during the pandemic restriction time period. As compared to the male children, female children have high psychosocial well-being.

Modeling teachers' and students’ attitudes, emotions, and perceptions in blended education: Towards post-pandemic education

Literature on post-pandemic education suggests blended learning as a new balanced education approach. However, little is known about teachers' and students' attitudes, emotions, and perceptions of blended education. This study aims to first explore teachers' and students' attitudes and emotions (workload, stress, well-being, and motivation) related to blended education and then model these attitudes and emotions, and online tools satisfaction with perceived teaching and learning performance by considering satisfaction with teaching and learning activities as a mediating variable. To do this, in total, 327 teachers and 547 students from a Dutch university participated. Of these, 307 teachers and 534 students filled out a survey, and 20 teachers and 13 students were interviewed to get more in-depth data. Quantitative data was analyzed by using structural equation modeling and multiple linear regression and qualitative data was analyzed via Atlas.ti 9 software. The main results showed that both teachers and students perceived high workload, low well-being, and high motivation in blended education. In addition, while a significant relationship between teachers' and students’ attitudes and emotions and their perceived teaching and learning performance were found, no significant mediating role was reported for satisfaction with teaching and learning activities. We discuss these results and provide recommendations for future research, policy, and practice.

Effects of Teaching Efficacy, Advocacy, and Knowledge on Coping and Well-Being of Dual Language Immersion Teachers

ABSTRACT In the United States, there is a nationwide shortage of bilingual teachers, but limited research on factors that contribute to their burnout and attrition. This exploratory multiple case study aimed to identify stressors unique to Spanish-English bilingual teachers and how they cope with these stressors. Interviews with two dual language immersion teachers over the course of four months revealed multiple, significant stressors including instructional demands unique to the students they serve, workplace bullying, and lack of administrative support. Although teachers adopted palliative coping strategies, their high sense of teaching efficacy and advocacy for their students were major mitigating factors to burnout. In addition to teaching efficacy, competence in pedagogy and workplace engagement were mitigating factors to well-being. Teachers avoided burnout because of their high eudaimonic well-being (the subjective experiences associated with living a life of virtue in pursuit of human excellence) coupled with direct cognitive and behavioral coping strategies leading to an increase in job-related well-being and retention. That is, their coping strategies moderated the impact of a district culture that was perceived as negative.

Nature experience from yards provide an important space for mental health during Covid-19

Urban dwellers’ use of public and private green spaces may have changed during the early years of the Covid-19 pandemic due to movement restriction. A survey was deployed in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia 1 year after the start of Covid-19 restrictions (April 2021) to explore relationships of mental health and wellbeing to different patterns of private yard versus public green space visitation. More frequent yard use during the initial year of Covid-19 was correlated with lower stress, depression, and anxiety and higher wellbeing. However, greater duration of yard visits (week prior to survey) was associated with higher stress, anxiety, and depression scores, potentially because individuals may seek to use nature spaces immediately available for emotional regulation during difficult times. The results highlight the importance of yards for mental health and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic and that relationships between nature interaction and mental health may be context and timeframe dependent.

COVID-19 pandemic effects on college student mental health: A cross-sectional cohort comparison study

Objective Evaluate COVID-19 pandemic impacts on college student mental health. Participants Three cohorts of college students (2018 n = 466; 2019 n = 459; 2020, n = 563; N = 1488) from three American universities. Participants were 71.4% female, 67.5% White, and 85.9% first-year students. Methods Multivariable regression models and bivariate correlations were used to compare anxiety, depression, well-being, and search for meaning before and during the pandemic, and the relationships between pandemic health-compliance behaviors and mental health. Results Anxiety, depression, and well-being did not significantly worsen during compared to before (2019) the pandemic (ps = .329–.837). During the pandemic, more frequent in-person social interactions were correlated with lower anxiety (r = –0.17, p < .001) and depressive symptoms (r=-0.12, p = .008), and higher well-being (r = 0.16, p < .001), but also less handwashing (r = –0.11, p = .016) and face mask-wearing (r = –0.12, p = .008). Conclusions We observed little evidence for pandemic impacts on college student mental health. Lower compliance with pandemic health guidelines was associated with better mental health.

The mental wellbeing of prison staff in England during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

COVID-19 is likely to have had an impact on the mental wellbeing of prison staff because of the high risk for infectious disease outbreaks in prisons and the pre-existing high burden of mental health issues among staff. A cross-sectional study of staff within 26 prisons in England was carried out between 20th July 2020 and 2nd October 2020. Mental wellbeing was measured using the Short-version of Warwick-Edinburgh Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS). Staff wellbeing was compared to that of the English population using indirectly standardised data from the Health Survey for England 2010-13 and a one-sample t-test. Multivariate linear regression modelling explored associations with mental wellbeing score. Two thousand five hundred and thirty-four individuals were included (response rate 22.2%). The mean age was 44 years, 53% were female, and 93% were white. The sample mean SWEMWBS score was 23.84 and the standardised population mean score was 23.57. The difference in means was statistically significant (95% CI 0.09-0.46), but not of a clinically meaningful level. The multivariate linear regression model was adjusted for age category, sex, ethnicity, smoking status, occupation, and prison service region. Higher wellbeing was significantly associated with older age, male sex, Black/Black British ethnicity, never having smoked, working within the health staff team, and working in certain prison regions. Unexpectedly, prison staff wellbeing as measured by SWEMWBS was similar to that of the general population. Reasons for this are unclear but could include the reduction in violence within prisons since the start of the pandemic. Qualitative research across a diverse sample of prison settings would enrich understanding of staff wellbeing within the pandemic.

Maternal mental well-being and recent child illnesses-A cross-sectional survey analysis from Jigawa State, Nigeria.

Child health indicators in Northern Nigeria remain low. The bidirectional association between child health and maternal well-being is also poorly understood. We aim to describe the association between recent child illness, socio-demographic factors and maternal mental well-being in Jigawa State, Nigeria. We analysed a cross-sectional household survey conducted in Kiyawa local government area, Jigawa State, from January 2020 to March 2020 amongst women aged 16-49 with at least one child under-5 years. We used two-stage random sampling. First, we used systematic random sampling of compounds, with the number of compounds based on the size of the community. The second stage used simple random sampling to select one eligible woman per compound. Mental well-being was assessed using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Score (SWEMWBS). We used linear regression to estimate associations between recent child illness, care-seeking and socio-demographic factors, and mental well-being. Overall 1,661 eligible women were surveyed, and 8.5% had high mental well-being (metric score of 25.0-35.0) and 29.5% had low mental well-being (metric score of 7.0-17.9). Increasing wealth quintile (adj coeff: 1.53; 95% CI: 0.91-2.15) not being a subsistence farmer (highest adj coeff: 3.23; 95% CI: 2.31-4.15) and having a sick child in the last 2-weeks (adj coeff: 1.25; 95% CI: 0.73-1.77) were significantly associated with higher mental well-being. Higher levels of education and increasing woman's age were significantly associated with lower mental well-being. Findings contradicted our working hypothesis that a recently sick child would be associated with lower mental well-being. We were surprised that education and late marriage, which are commonly attributed to women's empowerment and autonomy, were not linked to better well-being here. Future work could focus on locally defined tools to measure well-being reflecting the norms and values of communities, ensuring solutions that are culturally acceptable and desirable to women with low mental well-being are initiated.

Latent profiles for mental health in older people from Concepción, Chile.

IntroductionAging is a demographic global trend and a challenge for public mental health; however, gaps persist for a comprehensive definition of mental health, risk, protective factors, and processes involved, which represent a greater problem in middle-income countries, where evidence is scarce.ObjectivesTo identify combined mental health profiles in older adults, based on self-report of anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and perception of well-being, and to identify risk and protective variables for each of the groups, based on a sample of older adults attending primary health care (PHC) centers in the Province of Concepción, Chile.MethodsA convenience sample of 573 adults of both sexes, over 65 years, autonomous, attending PHC centers in the Province of Concepción, Chile, answered a set of instruments assessing anxiety symptoms (SCL-90), depressive symptoms (PHQ-9) and perception of well-being (Pemberton Happiness Index) and eventually associated variables that included sociodemographic and living arrangements, social participation, threatening life events (LTE), loneliness (ULS-3), and social support (MSPSS). Latent profile mixture analysis was used to identify groups of adults with similar mental health, and pertinence in each group was explained using random forests. The relationship between predictors and latent profiles were analyzed with multinomial regression.ResultsA solution of 4 groups with distinctive mental health profiles was determined: Group 1 (28%) with high depressive symptoms, high anxiety, and low well-being; Group 2 (32%) with moderate depressive symptoms, high anxiety and moderate well-being; Group 3 (24%) with moderate depressive symptoms, low anxiety and moderate well-being and; Group 4 (15%) characterized by individuals with low anxious or depressive symptoms, high well-being, and absence of mental disorder.Using random forests, this model predicts 63% variance between groups. A large number of variables were found to significantly predict membership in one of the 4 groups. Specifically: gender, satisfaction with living arrangement, economic crisis, own disease, and death or illness of friend, perception of general health, intimate, relational and collective loneliness, social support from family and significant others, and social support from friends.ConclusionsThe 4-group classification is a parsimonious solution where group 1 characterize people with poor mental health; groups 2 and 3 languishing with high and low anxiety respectively; and group 4 healthy and flourishing. Overall, these groups highlight the role of close interpersonal relationships or primary ties, both in terms of intimacy versus loneliness/isolation and in satisfaction with living arrangements for the elderly. The importance of these psychosocial predictors on combined mental health in the elderly further the need to understand their role and mechanisms to design promotion and prevention strategies.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Promoting the well-being of rural elderly people for longevity among different birth generations: A healthy lifestyle perspective.

Wellbeing may have a protective role in health maintenance. However, no specific study clarified the particular protective effect of the subjective wellbeing of rural elderly people on survival probability. Few studies have examined the effect of the lifestyle of rural elderly people on their subjective wellbeing from different perspectives. We investigated whether improving subjective wellbeing increased the probability of longevity of rural elderly people and the effects of lifestyle behaviors on the subjective wellbeing of rural elderly people in different birth generations. Data were derived from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), which is an ongoing open cohort study that adopts a multistage, random clustered sampling process. We used the data of elderly people who were aged 65 or over during 2006-2015 for analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test found that the survival probability of rural elderly people was significantly lower than urban elderly people. Based on a sample of rural elderly people, Cox regression and generalized estimating equations were performed as further analyses. A total of 892 rural elderly people aged 65 or over were included in the sample in 2006. High subjective wellbeing was a protective factor against death. The subjective wellbeing of rural elderly people born in the 1940s/1930s/1908-1920s birth generations first decreased then increased. For rural elderly people born in the 1940s, there were significant positive effects of a preference for eating vegetables and walking/Tai Chi on subjective wellbeing. For rural elderly people born in the 1930s, preferences for eating vegetables, reading, and watching TV all had significant positive effects on subjective wellbeing. Rural elderly people born in the 1908-1920s who preferred watching TV had more subjective wellbeing. Improving subjective wellbeing extended the life span and reduced mortality risk in rural elderly people and may be achieved by the shaping of a healthy lifestyle, such as preferences for eating vegetables, walking/Tai Chi, and reading.

Health Psychology Services for People in Disadvantaged Regions of Hungary: Experiences from the Primary Health Care Development Model Program.

The importance of community health psychology in providing complex bio-psycho-social care is well documented. We present a mixed-method outcome-monitoring study of health psychology services in the public-health-focused Primary Health Care Development Model Program (2012-2017) in four disadvantaged micro-regions in northeast Hungary. Study 1 assessed the availability of the services using a sample of 17,003 respondents. Study 2 applied a follow-up design to measure the mental health outcomes of the health psychology services on a sample of 132 clients. In Study 3, we conducted focus-group interviews to assess clients' lived experiences. More mental health issues and higher education predicted a higher probability of service use. Follow-up showed that individual and group-based psychological interventions resulted in less depression and (marginally) higher well-being. Thematic analysis of the focus-group interviews indicated that participants deemed topics such as psychoeducation, greater acceptance of psychological support, and heightened awareness of individual and community support important. The results of the monitoring study demonstrate the important role health psychology services can play in primary healthcare in disadvantaged regions in Hungary. Community health psychology can improve well-being, reduce inequality, raise the population's health awareness, and address unmet social needs in disadvantaged regions.

DESCRIPTION OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING OF YOUNG ADULTS WHO RAISE PETS AND PLANTS AMID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

During the Covid-19 pandemic, people experienced many changes in their daily lives. These changes trigger stress and lead to depression in the community, especially among young adults, which is the main axis that leads to low subjective well-being. Various studies have shown that raising pets (dogs and cats) and plants (gardening) can improve an individual's subjective well-being. The study used a qualitative descriptive method with 10 subjects divided into three groups, namely the group of pets, the group of plants (gardening), and the group of pets and plants (gardening). All subjects in the three groups showed high subjective well-being through raising pets and plants (gardening) during the Covid-19 pandemic. All subjects show positive emotions and enjoyed raising pets and plants (gardening). In addition, most of the subjects also felt satisfied with their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic with the presence of pets and plants (gardening). All subjects felt the presence of pets as entertainers to provide motivation. For the subjects, plants (gardening) play a similar role, through the beauty and growth of the plants.

Experience of Wondering Awe and Perception of Nature as a Resource during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Findings from a Cross Sectional Survey of Participants in Jerusalem

During the COVID-19 pandemic most people had to cope with the negative implications of the lockdowns, and perceived times of social isolation and loneliness, and thus low wellbeing. Among the best predictors of positive changes of pandemic related attitudes and behaviors was the experience of pausing in wondering awe with subsequent feelings of gratitude. As these observations came from a secular society with a Christian background, we now aimed to analyzed to what extend Jewish people from Israel were experiencing such moments of wondering awe during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how these perceptions are related to their psychological wellbeing. For that purpose, between June and July 2021 a cross-sectional survey with standardized questionnaires was applied among 147 participants from Jerusalem. Those with high wellbeing and those who can rely on their faith as a resource to cope with the pandemic were more intensively perceiving moments of Awe/Gratitude. Awe/Gratitude and a low perception of COVID-19 related stressors were the best predictors of participants’ psychological wellbeing. Against our expectation, Awe/Gratitude was not significantly associated with the experience of nature and enjoying reflective times of silence. Both resources, Awe/Gratitude as a an experiential aspect of spirituality and Nature/Silence as a source to encounter the sacred in one’s life, are relevant and should be supported.

Visiting Urban Green Space and Orientation to Nature Is Associated with Better Wellbeing during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely challenged mental health and wellbeing. However, research has consistently reinforced the value of spending time in green space for better health and wellbeing outcomes. Factors such as an individual's nature orientation, used to describe one's affinity to nature, may influence an individual's green space visitation behaviour, and thus influence the wellbeing benefits gained. An online survey in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia (n = 2084), deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2021), explores if nature experiences and nature orientation are positively associated with personal wellbeing and if increased amounts of nature experiences are associated with improvement in wellbeing in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that both yard and public green space visitation, as well as nature orientation scores, were correlated with high personal wellbeing scores, and individuals who spent more time in green space compared to the previous year also experienced a positive change in their health and wellbeing. Consistently, people with stronger nature orientations are also more likely to experience positive change. We also found that age was positively correlated to a perceived improvement in wellbeing over the year, and income was negatively correlated with a decreased change in wellbeing over the year, supporting other COVID-19 research that has shown that the effects of COVID-19 lifestyle changes were structurally unequal, with financially more established individuals experiencing better wellbeing. Such results highlight that spending time in nature and having high nature orientation are important for gaining those important health and wellbeing benefits and may provide a buffer for wellbeing during stressful periods of life that go beyond sociodemographic factors.

Analysis of Protective Factors in Schoolchildren in England Using the Dual-factor Model of Mental Health.

The dual-factor approach to mental health was employed to explore levels and interrelations of protective factors associated with resilience in a dataset of 30,841 schoolchildren aged 11-14 in England. ANOVA was used to contrast levels of protective factors between groups (combinations of higher/lower psychopathology and higher/lower wellbeing) and network analysis to explore protective factor interrelations. Levels of protective factors tended to be highest for those who had higher wellbeing and lower psychopathology (termed 'complete mental health'). Those with lower levels of protective factors were split between two subpopulations: having lower wellbeing and higher psychopathology (termed 'troubled'), and having lower wellbeing and lower psychopathology (termed 'vulnerable'). Analysis of the protective factor networks revealed that the four subpopulations of the model were distinguished by both their overall structure and individual node connectivity (the 'complete mental health' subpopulation demonstrated the greatest connectivity), though two were similar: those with higher wellbeing and higher psychopathology (termed 'symptomatic but content') and lower wellbeing and higher psychopathology ('troubled'). The results indicate that while 'vulnerable' and 'symptomatic but content' may be hard to discriminate conceptually, the former may reflect a lower capacity to cope during periods of adversity (i.e., show resilience). Overall, the results encourage a holistic approach to mental health screening, particularly as children with lower wellbeing had lower levels of the protective factors, regardless of their level of psychopathology. Moreover, interventions to improve protective factors associated with positive development in stressed environments may therefore have a greater impact on improving wellbeing than decreasing symptoms of psychopathology.

Responsiveness in the Face of Sexual Challenges: The Role of Sexual Growth and Destiny Beliefs

ABSTRACT Implicit––or lay––sexual beliefs have been associated with how people respond to sexual challenges in romantic relationships. People who endorse sexual destiny beliefs view a satisfying sex life as the result of finding the right partner and report poorer sexual, relationship, and personal well-being when there are sexual challenges. In comparison, people who endorse sexual growth beliefs view satisfying sexual relationships as requiring hard work and effort to maintain and tend to report high sexual, relationship, and personal well-being even when facing sexual challenges. High sexual responsiveness – being motivated to meet a partner’s sexual needs – is associated with maintaining high sexual satisfaction, even when couples face sexual challenges in a relationship. In the current research, we tested whether sexual growth and destiny beliefs are associated with general and sexual responsiveness and whether the associations are moderated by the presence of sexual challenges. Across three (clinical and non-clinical) samples (N = 820) facing different types of sexual challenges (Study 1 (Mage = 31.64, SD = 8.53), clinically low sexual desire; Studies 2 (Mage = 32.63, SD = 10.19) and 3 (Mage = 32.40, SD = 9.31), unmet sexual ideals; Study 3, changes in sex since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic), we found that sexual growth beliefs were associated with higher sexual responsiveness and perceived partner sexual and general responsiveness, even when couples were coping with sexual challenges, whereas sexual destiny beliefs were not associated with responsiveness, and at times were associated with lower sexual responsiveness and perceived partner sexual and general responsiveness. This research provides initial evidence about how implicit sexual beliefs are associated with sexual and general responsiveness when couples are coping with sexual challenges in a romantic relationship.

Well-being in social interactions: Examining personality-situation dynamics in face-to-face and computer-mediated communication.

Decades of research show that people's social lives are linked to their well-being. Yet, research on the relationship between social interactions and well-being has been largely inconclusive with regard to the effects of person-situation interactions, such as the interplay between contextual factors (e.g., interactions occurring in physical vs. digital contexts, different interaction partners) and dispositional tendencies (e.g., Big Five personality traits). Here, we report on exploratory and confirmatory findings from three large studies of college students (Study 1: N = 1,360; Study 2: N = 851; Study 3: N = 864) who completed a total of 139,363 experience sampling surveys (reporting on 87,976 social interactions). We focus on the effects of different modes of communication (face-to-face [FtF] interactions, computer-mediated communication [CMC], and mixed episodes [FtF + CMC]), and types of interaction partners (close peers, family members, and weak ties). Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found that FtF interactions and mixed episodes were associated with highest well-being on the within-person level, and that these effects were particularly pronounced for individuals with high levels of neuroticism. CMC was related to lower well-being than FtF interactions, but higher well-being than not socializing at all. Regarding the type of interaction partner, individuals reported higher well-being after interactions with close peers than after interactions with family members and weak ties, and the difference between close peers and weak ties was larger for FtF interactions than for CMC. We discuss these findings with regard to theories of person-situation interactions and research on well-being and social interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Greater Ecologically Assessed Positive Experiences Predict Heightened Sex Hormone Concentrations Across Two Weeks in Older Adults.

Sex hormones are important components of healthy aging, with beneficial effects on physical and mental health. Positive experiences such as elevated mood, lowered stress, and higher well-being also contribute to health outcomes and, in younger adults, may be associated with elevated sex hormone levels. However, little is known about the association between positive experiences and sex hormones in older adults. In this study, older men and women (N = 224, 70+ years of age) provided blood samples before and after a 2-week period of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of positive and negative experiences (assessed based on self-reporting items related to affect, stress, and well-being). Concentrations of a panel of steroid sex hormones and glucocorticoids were determined in blood. Higher levels of positive experiences reported in daily life across 2 weeks were associated with increases in free (biologically active) levels of testosterone (B = 0.353 [0.106, 0.601], t(221.3) = 2.801, p = .006), estradiol (B = 0.373 [0.097, 0.649], t(225.1) = 2.645, p = .009), and estrone (B = 0.468 [0.208, 0.727], t(224.3) = 3.535, p < .001) between the start and the end of the 2-week EMA period. These findings suggest that sex hormones may be a pathway linking positive experiences to health in older adults.