Journal of Happiness Studies

Bounds, Elizabeth M.; Ratchford, Juliette L.; Schnitker, Sarah A.

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00758-3pmid: N/A

Historically, researchers have conceptualized self-esteem as global self-evaluation; recently, others have suggested that people are selective about what affects their self-worth. Two studies (N = 1,032) used a person-centered approach to examine how six domains of self-worth contingency associate with well-being, virtue, and value outcomes. Latent profile analyses indicated five distinct profiles. Non-contingents (lowest contingency in all domains) reported good well-being outcomes, low self-transcendence and self-enhancement values, and gave the least in a behavioral measure of generosity. Moral Contingents (high contingency in a moral domain; low contingency in other domains) reported the greatest well-being, purpose/meaning, performance virtues, and prosocial virtues, and high self-transcendence and low self-enhancement values. High Contingents (highest contingency in all domains) reported the worst well-being, second-highest others-focused compassion, and high self-transcendence and self-enhancement values. Medium Contingents (moderate contingency in all domains) reported the second-worst ill-being, second-highest purpose, second-highest performance and prosocial virtues, and high self-transcendent and self-enhancement values. Low Contingents (low contingency in all domains) reported the lowest purpose and basic needs satisfaction, and high self-enhancement and low self-transcendent values. Implications for optimal self-esteem and values are discussed.

Archer Lee, Yeeun; Guo, Yingchi; Li, Gu; Chen, Frances S.

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00742-xpmid: N/A

There is an urgent need for effective and easily accessible interventions targeting young adults’ social connection. This study tests whether engaging in prosocial behavior can mitigate social disconnection using an acts of kindness intervention that can be easily integrated into people’s daily routine. University students were randomly assigned to one of two kinds of 14-day kindness exercises (regular or anonymous) or an active control activity. 388 participants completed diary assessments of social contact and loneliness before and after the intervention. Results showed that the intervention promoting prosocial engagement increased social contact (especially with close others) and reduced daily loneliness for lonely participants. Anonymous kindness did not yield these outcomes, suggesting that direct contact with recipients may be an active ingredient driving such effects. This research provides a self-delivered and low-cost intervention that holds promise to reduce both objective social isolation and subjective feelings of loneliness among young adults.

Raghunathan, Rajagopal; Izadi, Anoosha

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00750-xpmid: N/A

The present research proposes a novel emotion regulation strategy called “realizing growth potential” (RGP) strategy. The strategy involves realizing that negative events hold the potential for psychological growth and thus, to the extent that psychological growth is a cherished goal, we expect the affect-intensities associated with negative events to be mitigated when one employs the RGP strategy. We first differentiate RGP strategy from other emotion-regulation strategies (including benefit-finding). Then, across two pilot and two main studies, we test for the effectiveness of the RGP strategy in reducing the intensity of emotions associated with non-traumatic but serious negative events (such as, job loss). Pilot studies 1 and 2 reveal that, with distant-past (vs. recent-past) negative events, the drop-off in affect-intensity occurs naturally and is mediated by psychological growth. Study 1 investigates the impact of prompting individuals to recognize the potential for psychological growth arising from a recent-past negative event and suggests that this intervention can effectively mitigate the affect-intensities associated with such negative events. Study 2 illustrates that contemplating the psychological growth stemming from a distant-past incident, and even mere exposure to the notion that negative events foster psychological growth, can reduce emotional negativity linked to recent-past negative events. Our findings suggest the potential of the RGP strategy as a valuable tool for practitioners and therapists to address significant negativity.

Nguyen, Simone P.; Gordon, Cameron L.

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00743-wpmid: N/A

This naturalistic study examines how broad societal events like the COVID-19 pandemic affect children’s gratitude expressions for general and specific categories of needs. Gratitude expressions (N = 6908) written by children in the United States (N = 3613, Mage = 6.96 years) before the pandemic (November 2018, 2019) and during the pandemic (November 2020, 2021) were collected from online newspapers. The gratitude expressions were coded for general and specific categories based on Maslow’s Theory of Motivation. Between time periods, there was no difference in prevalence of gratitude for the fulfillment of the general categories of deficiency needs (physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem) and growth needs (cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and transcendence) as well as the specific sub-categories that they subsume. However, within time periods, there was a greater prevalence for the fulfillment of deficiency than growth needs, especially the specific category of love and belongingness. Together these results highlight the enduring nature of particular categories in the face of a broad societal event and have implications for public policies and services aimed at protecting children and meeting their needs.

Wang, Rong; Li, Ying; Zheng, Yuan; Zhang, Yang; Oei, Tian P. S.; Zeng, Xianglong

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00745-8pmid: N/A

Studies in psychology and sociology have documented that anti-rich mentality is a threat to the stability of society and harms personal mental health, but few studies have investigated ways to intervene in anti-rich mentality. In the current work, we took an initial step to explore whether anti-rich mentality can be reduced by appreciative joy, a positive psychological concept that refers to feeling happy for others with an appreciative and unenvious attitude. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey in Study 1 (n = 632) first established a negative association between appreciative joy and anti-rich mentality. In Study 2, a randomized controlled trial further evaluated the effects of appreciative joy intervention (n = 499). The results showed that the intervention increased appreciative joy and decreased anti-rich mentality. Moreover, two concepts closely related to anti-rich mentality (i.e., perceived fairness in allocation and envy) were influenced by appreciative joy intervention. Our findings not only confirm the possibility of a positive psychology intervention to relieve anti-rich mentality but also highlight the effectiveness of appreciative joy in changing attitudes toward social groups. Implications for practices and prospects for future research are discussed.

Li, Kongqi; Wang, Huatian; Siu, Oi-Ling; Yu, Hong

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00749-4pmid: N/A

Resilience has been found to have positive impacts on college students’ well-being and mental health. However, we still lack knowledge on how and under what conditions resilience can help to facilitate college students’ academic performance. Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study investigated how resilience could be positively linked to college students’ academic performance through increasing self-regulation behaviors, and to what extent this indirect effect could be strengthened by individual grit and social support. Using 74 Chinese college students with a four-week longitudinal survey (296 observations in total), we confirmed our hypotheses. The results of multilevel moderated mediation showed that weekly self-regulation behaviors mediated the positive relationship between weekly resilience and college students’ weekly academic performance and that this positive indirect effect became stronger for those who had a higher level of grit and perceived a higher level of social support. Further, we found that weekly resilience was also positively related to the next week’s self-regulation behaviors, which in turn, increased next week’s academic performance. Social support can strengthen such a carry-over impact of resilience on next week’s self-regulation behaviors (but not for grit). To conclude, our study uncovered the short-term fluctuations of resilience and its impacts on students’ study outcomes. We highlight the important roles of personal resources (grit) and social resources (social support) that can leverage the positive effects of resilience on students’ weekly basis.

Huang, Youqin; Li, Yuyao; Clark, William A. V.

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00744-9pmid: N/A

This study investigates inter-generational connections between adult children and elderly parents in China during a period of profound socioeconomic transformations and examine their impact on subjective wellbeing. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey, we examine whether adult children experience greater happiness when they maintain close connections with their aging parents. In addition to considering the well-established factors of age, health, homeownership, and financial resources, we specifically focus on living arrangements between adult children and aging parents and find living apart but in proximity has replaced co-residence as the dominant living arrangement in China and has a significant positive effect on wellbeing. Furthermore, we observe that strong intergenerational connections, encompassing emotional and material support, also significantly enhance wellbeing. This suggests that despite ongoing modernization and market transition in China, the enduring influence of Confucian values on family bonds persists, albeit with some contemporary adaptations, thereby promoting wellbeing. By examining inter-generational connections within extended families and their intersectionality with SWB, this study contributes to the literature on wellbeing by providing a familial perspective and studying a unique meso-level local contexts defined by family relations rather than spatial or administrative boundaries.

Ma, Mingming; Wang, Shun; Wu, Fengyu

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00752-9pmid: N/A

This paper exploits data from Sina Weibo posts to study the effect of the Wuhan lockdown on expressed happiness during the initial COVID-19 outbreak. By applying the difference-in-differences method to a city-level expressed happiness index generated by Weibo posts, we find that the announcement regarding human-to-human transmission significantly lowered expressed happiness in Wuhan relative to Chinese cities outside Hubei province, while the subsequent Wuhan lockdown had protective effects during the first 12 days. The effects on expressed happiness remained significant in the medium run toward the end of Wuhan lockdown. However, our results also suggest that the protective effects of the Wuhan lockdown declined as the lockdown continued and the risk of infection became lower. Our findings are robust to the use of alternative control groups and sample periods, different expressed happiness measures, and the potential censorship of Weibo.

Casali, Nicole; Filippi, Silvia; Feraco, Tommaso

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00751-wpmid: N/A

Environmental factors are crucial in shaping individual characteristics. One key contextual factor is economic inequality, which is increasing in most OECD countries and negatively impacting individuals and societies, including personality traits. To date, no studies examined the relationship between economic inequality and positive personality traits such as character strengths. In a large cross-cultural study (N = 980,807, 68 countries) we investigated the relationship between country-level economic inequality and the level of the 24 character strengths. Across countries, we found consistent, robust evidence that economic inequality is positively linked to 22 character strengths, even after controlling for the Human Development Index, population density, urbanization, and climate of each country. On average, inequality explained 34% of the between-country variance in character strengths. Different alternative explanations for such unexpected effects, including increased competitiveness or resilience in the face of adversity, are discussed. Our research provides novel insights into the importance of environmental factors in shaping human character.

Wu, Wenfeng; Wu, Hongxiang; Wu, Xiaoqing; Gu, Jiao; Qi, Xin

doi: 10.1007/s10902-024-00753-8pmid: N/A

This meta-analysis aims to clarify the correlations between cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and life satisfaction. We searched the literature using eight databases and set a deadline of April 19, 2021. A total of 33 studies (66 effect sizes) were obtained, and random-effect models were also used to evaluate the relationships between the two strategies and life satisfaction. Additionally, the moderating effects of age, gender, and regional cultural values of participants were analyzed. The results showed that cognitive reappraisal was moderately positively correlated with life satisfaction, whereas expression suppression was not. The relationships between the two strategies and life satisfaction were not affected by age and gender, and only the regional cultural values of the participants moderated the relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction. The relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction in Western cultural values is significantly negative, while the relationship in Eastern cultural values is non-significant. We examined the relationships between cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and life satisfaction, and demonstrated that regional cultural values had a moderating effect on the relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction.