Measures Of Positive Functioning Research Articles

Cortisol Awakening Response as an Index of Mental Health and Well-Being in Adolescents

Physiological measures provide a useful complement to self-report indices of mental health and well-being. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) has been associated with mental distress, but less consistently so with positive functioning. In this study, the utility of two CAR indices as a measure of the full spectrum of mental health and well-being in a sample of healthy adolescents was explored. Forty-seven adolescents (14M, 33F; mean age 13.89, SD = .73) completed questionnaires on mental distress and positive functioning, and provided three saliva samples for cortisol analysis as well as demographic and life event information. Correlational analyses revealed that both absolute CAR (CARi) and area under the curve during awakening (CARAUC) indices correlated positively with measures of mental distress, and inversely with measures of positive functioning. When the significant life events score was controlled, moderate to strong effects were maintained with negative and positive affect, mental well-being, satisfaction with life and perceived social support from significant others. These findings provide the first data confirming that CAR is a reliable index of positive functioning in healthy adolescents.

Does baseline heart rate variability reflect stable positive emotionality?

Several recent studies have found significant correlations, medium in effect size, between baseline heart rate variability (HRV) and measures of positive functioning, such as extraversion, agreeableness, and trait positive affectivity. Other research, however, has suggested an optimal level of HRV and found non-linear effects. In the present study, a diverse sample of 239 young adults completed a wide range of measures that reflect positive psychological functioning, including personality traits, an array of positive emotions (measured with the Dispositional Positive Emotions Scale), and depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms (measured with the DASS and CESD). HRV was measured with a 6-min baseline period and quantified using many common HRV metrics (e.g., respiratory sinus arrhythmia, root mean square of successive differences, and others), and potentially confounding behavioral and lifestyle variables (e.g., BMI, caffeine and nicotine use, sleep quality) were assessed. Neither linear nor non-linear effects were found, and the effect sizes were small and near zero. The findings suggest that the cross-sectional relationship between HRV and positive experience deserves more attention and meta-analytic synthesis.

Examining Relationships Between Measures of Positive Behaviors and Negative Functioning for Elementary School Children

The positive psychology movement seeks to understand student strengths that may facilitate success or promote resilience. However, a positive psychology view is not intended to completely ignore negative factors that may be affecting children, so traditional assessments of mental illness remain important. As methods of assessment improve and enhance our understanding of student development, it is crucial to understand the interrelationship among strength-based and traditional — problem-based — measures. Utilizing a sample of third- and fourth-grade students, the current study examined the interrelationships between three measures of positive functioning, examining hope, life satisfaction, and school connectedness, and their relationship with a traditional, problem-based measure. Results demonstrated that the measures assessing positive constructs were significantly positively correlated with each other and negatively correlated with a measure of problem behaviors. Future directions for research, limitations, and implications for practice are discussed.