Sense Of Mental Well-being Research Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic and international students: A mixed-methods approach to relationships between social media use, social support, and mental health

The COVID-19 pandemic has added significant stress to international students in the United States who already face myriad challenges in adjusting to their host country. We used a mixed-method approach combining survey and interview research to analyze how international students’ social media use and perceived social support/adjustment are associated with their sense of mental well-being when taking into account demographic and social psychological characteristics. Our findings show that international students spent an increased amount of time on social media during the pandemic for both networking and information seeking purposes. Those who use social media primarily for networking purposes reported better mental health, whereas social media use for information seeking was not significantly associated with their mental health. Social support was an important predictor of international students’ social media use. This study provides scholarly and policy implications for supporting international students during a public health crisis.

Positive Vibes are Not Always Easy: Examining the Association Between Covid-19 Stress and Mental Well-Being.

The virus known as Covid-19 caused a global pandemic in 2019 and was found to have a devastating impact on mental well-being. Individuals around the world had difficulty retaining positive emotions such as gratitude, mindfulness, and hope in the face of this disaster. These feelings diminished their sense of mental well-being. This study examined the mediational model of gratitude, mindfulness, and hope as parallel mediators of the relationship between Covid-19 stress and mental well-being. In total, 289 adults from the general population completed the scales of Covid stress, gratitude, mindfulness, hope, and mental well-being. Results indicated that Covid-19 stress was related to mental well-being, with mindfulness and hope acting as mediators. Gratitude, on the other hand, did not mediate the relationship. The study provides evidence that targeting gratitude, mindfulness, and hope may have a meaningful effect on Covid-19 stress as a related symptom and potentially have a negative impact on mental well-being during the pandemic.

Personality Traits, Strategies of Coping with Stress and Psychophysical Wellbeing of Surgical and Non-Surgical Doctors in Poland.

The aim of the study was to determine the personality traits, strategies of coping with stress and psychophysical wellbeing of surgical and non-surgical Polish doctors. The study used the following questionnaires and scales: the Resiliency Assessment Scale, the Type D Personality Scale, the Framingham Type A Scale, the Mini COPE—Coping Inventory and the Wellbeing Scale. Doctors performing surgical specialties were characterized by a significantly higher level of resilience components, a more frequent occurrence of the type B behaviour pattern and less frequent type D personality than doctors performing non-surgical specializations. The Mini COPE point values were comparable between surgical and non-surgical physicians. The sense of psychological wellbeing was higher in surgical specialists. The higher the values of the Optimistic approach to life and the ability to mobilize oneself in difficult situations, the lower the values of the Turning to religion domain and the higher the values of the Denial domain correlated with the performance of surgical specialization. Men performing surgical specializations were more often optimistic and inclined to consume alcohol, while women with non-surgical specialization more often coped with stress by turning to religion. We conclude that the personality traits of Polish doctors vary depending on their specialization. Physicians’ coping strategies do not differ depending on their specialization. The sense of mental wellbeing is higher in surgical specialists compared to non-surgical specialists. An optimistic approach to life and the ability to mobilize oneself in difficult situations, as well as coping with stress by denial are associated with the surgical specialization. Men performing surgical specialties more often declare optimism and a tendency to cope with stress by consuming alcohol or psychoactive substances, while women who perform non-surgical specializations more often cope with stress by turning to religion. Psychological screening tests and appropriate training, taking into account medical specialization, could be one way of improving resilience and coping with stress among doctors.

Developing an air guitar group for an inpatient psychiatry unit

The phenomenon of air guitar has become increasingly popular in mainstream society and recognised as a potential means of enhancing one’s sense of mental well-being. It allows for engagement with music that involves physical activation and can be conducted in groups allowing for non-verbal socialisation. To date, there has been limited examination of its potential usefulness in therapeutic settings, including in mental health services. We describe the development of an air guitar group in an inpatient psychiatry service including an iterative approach to the design of sessions and the impact in terms of patient engagement and feedback. The format of the group evolved over time according to feedback from participants and staff involved in patient care on the unit. We found that the group successfully engaged patients of varying age, gender and diagnostic profiles and was perceived as a valuable addition to the inpatient therapeutic programme. Based upon our observations during this pilot study, we outline a suggested format for air guitar sessions that includes our experiences around selection of music, duration of sessions, use of props, managing the physical demands of sessions and ensuring participant safety. Future work can investigate the impact of air-guitar as a therapeutic activity in other settings (including community-based) and exploring how it can be best applied in combination with other therapeutic modalities for use in patients with differing diagnostic and demographic profiles.

The intersubjectivity of spiritual experience in the art practice of people with histories of mental distress: a phenomenological study

The therapeutic outcomes gained through engaging with the art making process are well documented. Somewhat less probed are the auxiliary and sometimes enigmatic experiences of art making that impact on the sense of mental wellbeing; experiences which, by their nature, can be difficult to capture. This paper discusses such experiences, described by a group of art makers with histories of mental illness, as being spiritual in nature. A phenomenological approach using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology was used, with Heideggerian concepts of ‘Dasein’ (There-being) and ‘Mitsein’ (With-being) informing an interpretation of the intersubjective. Such experiences were felt to be profound, and were often claimed to be accessible exclusively through an art practice that was sustained over a number of years of regular activity. The paper concludes by pointing out the difficulty in capturing evidence of sustained, non-clinical strategies for wellbeing such as those developed as an inherent part of the experiences reported here, due to their nuanced nature and the reluctance with which they may be narrated.

Maximizing university students’ motor fitness by implementing a physical education program incorporating martial arts – implicational study

Martial arts are ancient forms of combat, modified for modern sport and exercise. Participation in martial arts classes is growing in popularity, particularly among young people of both sexes, which was confirmed by the research conducted over the last two decades [1,2,3]. Martial arts provide health-promoting and meaningful exercise for millions of practitioners. Training martial arts can increase self-reliance and lead to better overall health and balance as well as an improved sense of mental well-being and numerous benefits to the autonomic nervous and immune systems [4]. Martial arts do not promote aggression and may be used as a treatment modality for young people who are prone to violent behavior [3]. Skills gained when practicing martial arts are very useful in everyday life and should not be associated only with self-defense. Many aspects of combat sports are used in other forms of health training or as an indicator of an individual’s ability to survive in a given environment (such as the ability to fall when losing balance) [5,6]. There are only few studies that have been conducted to gain an understanding of why people participate in martial arts [7,8]. Findings indicate that practitioners of martial arts are motivated differently across the types of martial arts disciplines, competition orientation and past experiences [9]. Self-defense courses, which have been organized for students at the University of Warmia & Mazury in Olsztyn (UWM) since 2005 as a substitute of P.E. lessons, reflect the popularity of such a form of physical activity among young adults. The fact that these classes are of a recreational and voluntary kind attracts a large group of university students who, apart from fulfilling the physical education requirements, are given an opportunity to gain self-defense and combat skills. Although women have been known to train martial arts longer than commonly believed, in the case of the classes held at UWM men constituted an overwhelming majority, which

The contribution of self-help/mutual aid groups to mental well-being

This article explores the contribution of self-help/mutual aid groups to mental well-being. Self-help/mutual aid groups are self-organising groups where people come together to address a shared a health or social issue through mutual support. They are associated with a range of health and social benefits, but remain poorly understood. This article draws on data from stage one of ESTEEM, a project which runs from 2010 to 2013. Stage one ran from 2010 to 2011 and involved participatory, qualitative research carried out in two UK sites. Twenty-one groups were purposively selected to include a range of focal issues, longevity, structures and ethnic backgrounds. Researchers carried out 21 interviews with group coordinators and twenty group discussions with members to explore the groups' purpose, nature and development. Preliminary analysis of the data suggested that mental well-being was a common theme across the groups. Subsequently the data were re-analysed to explore the groups' contribution to mental well-being using a checklist of protective factors for mental well-being as a coding framework. The findings showed that groups made a strong contribution to members' mental well-being by enhancing a sense of control, increasing resilience and facilitating participation. Group members were uplifted by exchanging emotional and practical support; they gained self-esteem, knowledge and confidence, thereby increasing their control over their situation. For some groups, socio-economic factors limited their scope and threatened their future. The article provides an evidence-base which illustrates how self-help/mutual aid groups can enhance mental well-being. If supported within a strategy for social justice, these groups enable people with varied concerns to develop a tailored response to their specific needs. The authors suggest that policy-makers engage with local people, investing in support proportionate to the needs of different populations, enabling them to develop their own self-help/mutual aid groups to enhance their sense of mental well-being.

Supporting children’s mental health in schools: teacher views

Schools have increasingly been targeted as appropriate sites for mental health promotion and teachers are considered well placed to identify issues concerning students’ social and emotional well-being. Whilst teachers are now expected to be responsive to a wide range of student needs and circumstances, they receive little in their pre-service and subsequent teacher education to adequately prepare them for such realities. This paper reports the findings of a study that investigated teacher perspectives on student mental health and mental health education, including their sense of self-efficacy in relation to promoting and supporting children’s mental well-being in schools. These findings highlight a complex interplay between teachers’ constructions of ‘mental health’, the importance they place on mental health promotion in schools, issues of teacher confidence, role identity conflict and school culture, as well as teachers’ own sense of mental well-being. The discussion signals a need to pay close attention to the assumptions, values, beliefs and attitudes of teachers in relation to children’s mental health since these are integral to their confidence and skill in supporting children’s social and emotional well-being.