Solitude among contemplative cloistered nuns and monks: conceptualisation,coping and benefits of spiritually motivated solitude

There are rising perceptions and concerns about social isolation and the prevalence of loneliness in Western societies and their negative impact on people’s psychological well-being. We report on an ethnographic study conducted in two Catholic contemplative monasteries in Spain, focusing on the nuns’ and monks' voluntary search for solitude. Through in-depth interviews we aimed to explore their conceptualisation and experiences of solitude, the motivations behind their spiritual quest for it, and the benefits and challenges that this choice entailed. An extraordinary human template of searching for solitude emerged: although they lived communally (they were not alone), they actively avoided intimacy and closeness with other members of the community (they strove to feel alone out of their own volition). Human solitude was seen as the necessary condition for achieving perfect closeness with God and was interpreted not as leading to isolation but as a channel to communicate more intimately with God.     

Study on a Christian Chinese sample: sense of self-worth,well-being and locus of control

The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese Christians’ sense of self-worth, well-being, locus of control and the correlations between these variables. One hundred and two Chinese Christians with a range of 18–40 years old were surveyed by the Scale of Self-worth, Chinese version of General Well-Being Scale and internal–external Locus of Control Scale. A control group of 134 Chinese non-Christians participated in the same survey. Christians scored lower on locus of control and higher on self-worth than the non-Christians. No significant general well-being difference was between the Christian and non-Christian samples. The correlations were significant between locus of control and self-worth/general well-being (negative) and between self-worth and general well-being (positive). Results suggest that Christians experience better self-worth and tend to be internals on locus of control.     

Reliability of measures of work engagement and psychological well-being among South African state security forces

This study reports on the psychometric properties of measures of work engagement and psychological well-being in the South African state security forces. The research sample consisted of a combined sample of 178 soldiers and 57 police officers (34% females). They completed a battery of measures of work engagement and psychological well-being. Results following exploratory and reliability analysis suggest the scores from the measures to be reliable for research use with the South African security services.     

Coping self-efficacy and psychosocial well-being of marginalised South African youth

The aim of this study was to investigate coping self-efficacy and aspects of psychosocial well-being amongst youth from marginalised backgrounds. A total of 794 black South African marginalised youth (males = 54%, females = 46%, age range between 18 and 30 years) voluntarily participated in this cross-sectional study. The participants completed surveys of coping self-efficacy, mental health, and mood disorder. Structural equation modelling was applied to construct an explanatory model for coping self-efficacy and psychosocial well-being among the marginalised youth. The resulting structural model showed that coping self-efficacy significantly and positively predicted the emotional and psychological dimensions of psychosocial well-being among the youth. Psychosocial well-being was associated with of a lower risk for symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in these marginalised young people.     

The role of religion when crisis looms: A church community at a crossroads

The present study examined the relationship between religion and well-being in older adults during a time of financial difficulty within their religious community. Focus-group and one-on-one interviews were carried out with 39 participants sampled from three Anglican parishes in eastern Canada during a financial crisis that was likely to lead to the closing of two churches. Three main themes emerged from the analyses: Crisis, Transition, and Status Quo. The financial situation was discussed as a crisis; other issues were viewed as opportunities for transition, and personal faith was perceived as being stable and constant. The results of the present study suggest that for older adults, the more internal and faith-based aspects of religiosity have a stronger impact on well-being than do changes that revolve around the external or religious aspects of church participation.     

大学生人格特质与主观幸福感的关系:儒家心理资产的中介作用

以308名大学生为被试,以《大五人格问卷》、《儒家心理资产问卷》、《生活满意度量表》和《积极消极情感量表》为工具,考察人格特质、儒家心理资产与主观幸福感的关系。结果表明:(1)五种人格特质与儒家心理资产的八个维度存在不同程度的相关;(2)儒家心理资产八个维度与主观幸福感的不同指标相关不同;(3)爱人、务民、崇德、学等儒家心理资产维度在人格特质与主观幸福感总分之间起部分中介作用。本研究是对《论语》管理智慧实证化的创新性尝试。     

Post-traumatic growth as positive personality change: Developing a measure to assess within-person variability

Earlier work has defined post-traumatic growth (PTG) as positive personality change, but measurement of this construct has relied almost exclusively on cross-sectional and retrospective assessments. The aim of this study was to use an experience-sampling procedure to measure the extent to which PTG manifested in individuals’ everyday lives after a recent highly stressful or traumatic adverse event (compared to a control group). In doing so, we developed a state measure of PTG. The factor structure of state PTG was comparable to trait PTG, there was significant variability in individuals’ PTG from moment-to-moment, but individuals’ trait PTG was unrelated to their state PTG. Moreover, individuals who had experienced a recent adversity did not differ from control participants on state PTG.     

Parents’ adjustment following the death of their child: Resilience is multidimensional and differs across outcomes examined

We examine whether the previously reported commonness of resilience to significant adversity extends to parents’ death of a child. To examine our research questions, we apply growth mixture models to longitudinal data from 461 parents in the HILDA study who had experienced child loss. The proportion of parents manifesting resilience were 44%, 56%, 21%, 32%, and 16% for life satisfaction, negative affect, positive affect, general health, and physical functioning, respectively. Only 5% were resilient across all five indices, whereas 28% did not show a resilient trajectory across all outcomes. Social connectedness, anticipating comfort when distressed, and everyday role functioning were the strongest predictors of resilient adaptation. Findings underscore that resilience is not a unidimensional construct.Words: 115.     

The effectiveness of a peer-helping programme that increases subjective well-being

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a peer-helping programme in increasing the subjective well-being of a group of university students compared with a control group with the same characteristics who did not receive the intervention. The intervention recipients consisted of 13 male and 17 female participants. The peer helpers were 22 female and 8 male participants. The peer-helping programme consisted of three stages: training in helping skills, implementation and facilitating supervision sessions. The short-term effects of the programme were investigated using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale. The programme's long-term effects were evaluated using the Life Satisfaction Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. The results indicated that the short-term subjective well-being effects of the intervention activities were statistically significant. Additionally, the results revealed statistically significant increases in positive affect and life satisfaction and significant decreases in negative affect in the intervention group compared with that in the control group. Peer-helping programme may be used to increase individuals’ subjective well-being.     

幸福者更适应,还是适应者更幸福?——基于大学新生的追踪研究

本研究对122名大学新生进行了半年追踪,采用交叉滞后分析法考察适应性与幸福感之间的关系。入学三个月时初次测试（T1）,初测半年之后后测（T2）。结果发现：（1）幸福感和适应性之间显著正相关,同时预测的效果高于继时预测;（2）交叉滞后相关分析表明,适应性T1对幸福感T2的预测（r=0.50）高于幸福感T1对适应性T2的预测（r=0.32）;（3）学习适应性T1（18%）和人际适应性T1（11%）共同预测主观幸福感T1中29%的变异;（4）控制初测总体适应性T1（31%）,对大学的认可度T2（21%）和个人情绪适应性T2（3%）还可以解释幸福感T2中24%的变异。因此,本研究发现大学生适应者更幸福,而不是幸福者更适应。该结果对于提升大学生的幸福感具有一定的教育启示意义。