A Salutogenic Perspective on Adverse Experiences

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Höltge ◽  
Shauna L. Mc Gee ◽  
Andreas Maercker ◽  
Myriam V. Thoma

Abstract. Research has predominantly focused on the negative effects of adversity on health and well-being. However, the salutogenic perspective suggests that adversity may not always be detrimental ( Antonovsky, 1996 ). In fact, under certain circumstances, adversity may have the potential for positive outcomes, such as increased resilience and thriving ( Carver, 1998 ; Rutter, 1987 ). The “steeling effect” suggests that past experiences of adversity may increase resistance to later adversities. It proposes that moderate adversity may facilitate more adaptive functioning than no adversity or high levels of adversity ( Rutter, 2006 , 2012 ). The relationship between adversity and health may be optimally assessed using curvilinear models, yet the majority of previous studies have examined linear associations ( Masten & Cicchetti, 2016 ). It is therefore the aim of this review to determine whether moderate adversity is associated with more adaptive functioning when compared to no and high levels of adversity. Practical implications and future research are also discussed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Min-Sun Kim ◽  
Atsushi Oshio ◽  
Eun-Joo Kim ◽  
Satoshi Akutsu ◽  
Ayano Yamaguchi

While dispositional mindfulness is a popular construct in the field of positive psychology, its nomological network in the context of health and well-being is not well established. Our study addresses this limitation by examining the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and various health-related psychological constructs, including personality, social well-being, and affective states. Data for this study were gathered from the national longitudinal studies of health and well-being called Midlife in the United States (MIDUS-II and MIDUS-III). The nomological network analysis of dispositional mindfulness showed positive associations with both religiosity and overall well-being measures (e.g., Social Well-Being, Sympathy, Optimism, and Generativity) and negative associations with maladaptive tendencies (e.g., Pessimism, Aggression, Neuroticism, and Personal Constraints). Finally, test-retest validity was positively verified by significant correlations among the variables, spanning over ten years. Articulating a nomological network of dispositional mindfulness has important implications for future research and practice.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 129-138
Author(s):  
Abdullah MERT ◽  
Gökmen ARSLAN ◽  
Özlem TAGAY

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether meaning in life and hope mediate the association between coronavirus stress and resilience in university students. The participants were 376 (68% female) undergraduate students attending a public university in Turkey. The age of the students ranged from 18 to 38 years (Mage = 20.67, SD = 3.62). The results of the present study suggest that the meaning of life and hope attenuate the negative effects of stress on hope and resilience. Specifically, hope emerged as an important mechanism for the relationship between meaning in life and resilience. These findings provide insights into the relationships between coronavirus stress, hope, sense of life, and resilience in young adults during the period COVID -19. Hope and sense of life may function as protective factors to promote mental health and well-being by increasing an individual's ability to recover from stressful situations with high motivation and in creative ways. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether meaning in life and hope mediate the relationship between coronavirus stress and resilience in university students. The participants were 376 (68% female) students attending a public university in Turkey. The age of the students ranged from 18 to 38 years (Mage = 20.67, SD = 3.62). The results of the study showed that the meaning of life and hope mitigated the negative effects of stress on hope and resilience. Specifically, hope was found to be an important mechanism for the relationship between meaning in life and resilience. These findings shed light on the relationships between coronavirus stress, hope, sense of life, and resilience in young adults during COVID -19. Hope and sense of life may act as protective factors to promote mental health and well-being by increasing individuals' ability to recover from stressful situations with high motivation and in creative ways.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110484
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Kondracki ◽  
Michael C. Riedel ◽  
Katharine Crooks ◽  
Patricio Viera Perez ◽  
Jessica S. Flannery ◽  
...  

Neuroticism has been linked to an increased likelihood of cognitive failures, including episodes of inattentiveness, forgetfulness, or accidents causing difficulties in successfully executing everyday tasks and impacting health and quality of life. Cognitive failures associated with trait neuroticism can prompt some negative psychological outcomes and risky behaviors. Accumulating evidence shows that augmenting mindfulness can benefit cognitive health and general well-being. However, little is known regarding potential cognitive-behavioral pathways through which individual differences in trait neuroticism could influence the propensity to cognitive failures. Using a sample of 1003 undergraduate college students (females: n = 779) consisting of self-reported questionnaire data, we conducted correlational and mediational analyses to investigate the interrelationship between neuroticism, mindfulness, and cognitive failures. Higher neuroticism scores (females: r = −0.388, males: r = −0.390) and higher cognitive failures scores (females: r = −0.339, males: r = −0.407, p < .001) were significantly correlated with lower self-reported mindfulness scores. Mindfulness significantly mediated the relationship between neuroticism and cognitive failures (β = 0.50, 95%, CI: 0.37, 0.65). These findings indicate that higher mindfulness may help ameliorate negative effects of neuroticism on everyday cognitive failures. Future research will determine how college students may benefit from positive impact of mindfulness to improve their psychological and physical health.


Author(s):  
Stoney Brooks ◽  
Phil Longstreet

Social networking has become commonplace in today’s always-connected world. Due to this ubiquity, researchers have sought to explore the positive and negative effects that can result from usage of social networking. This research has shown many effects on an individual's psychological well-being, with one of the most concerning being mixed results of how usage relates to depression. In this study, we further examine the relationship between usage and depression for social networking users. In addition, we posit that aspects of cognitive absorption, namely temporal dissonance, focused immersion, and heightened enjoyment, have a direct effect on the amount of usage. A survey of 251 social networking users reveals that temporal dissociation and heightened enjoyment are associated with increased usage, and usage was found to be associated with greater levels of depression. Further, prior research has shown a significant difference between genders in Internet usage and social networking. Therefore, we report our findings as an overall analysis and as a gender-based between-groups analysis. This analysis shows that more variance is explained for females than males in most relationships. Implications for research and society are discussed along with future research directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 1316-1334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elzabé Nel ◽  
Melinde Coetzee

Flourishing in the workplace can bring about various positive outcomes for individual and organizational well-being. This study explored the interactional effect of workplace bullying on the relationship between job demands–resources and flourishing. A convenience sample of 1102 employees was selected, and these employees completed an online survey that explored this relationship. Mediation analysis revealed that low job demands were linked to lower levels of workplace bullying, which in turn correlated with higher levels of flourishing. Workplace bullying partially mediated the job demands–flourishing relationship, but not the job resources–flourishing relation. The results were interpreted based on the job demands–resources theory, followed by recommendations for practice and future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Cai ◽  
Shengming Liu ◽  
Jia Liu ◽  
Li Yao ◽  
Xingze Jia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of mentoring on newcomer well-being, as mediated by newcomer socialization and moderated by proactive personality.Design/methodology/approachData were collected at four time points in a sample of 227 newcomers. Regression analysis and bootstrapping method were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsMentoring had a positive and indirect effect on newcomer well-being through socialization. The moderated mediation analysis also revealed that proactive personality augmented the direct effect of mentoring on socialization and its indirect effect on well-being.Research limitations/implicationsOur data were collected in China, thereby limiting the generalization of the research findings. Future research can test our model in different cultural contexts.Practical implicationsOrganizations should consider establishing a mentoring program to foster newcomer socialization and achieve well-being. Within the mentoring context, cultivating newcomers to become more proactive can predict higher socialization levels, resulting in higher well-being.Originality/valuePrevious research largely focused on the development of the well-being of tenured employees. Drawing on socialization resources theory, this study focuses on the newcomer well-being and proposes the influential mechanism and boundary condition of the relationship between mentoring and newcomer well-being. It sheds light on exploring the well-being development for newcomers.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina H. Di Cara ◽  
Lizzy Winstone ◽  
Luke Sloan ◽  
Oliver Davis ◽  
CMA Haworth

The relationship between mental health and social media has received significant research and policy attention. However, there is little population representative data about who social media users are which limits understanding of confounding in associations between mental health and social media. Here we profile users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children population cohort (N=4,083). We provide estimates of demographics and mental health and well-being outcomes by platform. We find that users of different platforms and frequencies are not homogenous. User groups differ primarily by sex and YouTube users are the most likely to have poorer mental health outcomes. Instagram and Snapchat users tend to have higher well-being. Relationships between use-frequency and well-being differ depending on the specific well-being construct measured. The reproducibility of future research may be improved by stratifying by sex and being specific about the well-being constructs used.


2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veljko Jovanovic ◽  
Ivan Jerkovic

The results of numerous studies indicate that besides intellectual abilities, personality features figure as the strongest predictors of academic achievement. This research is aimed at exploring the relationship between personality features and academic achievement in secondary school students, as well as at testing whether academic achievement is one of the mechanisms suitable for explaining the relationship between personality features and the subjective well-being of students. The research included 408 students, with the average age of 16 years and 6 months. The results indicate that in both girls and boys a significant predictor of academic achievement is only the feature of conscientiousness. However, in conscientious students, higher academic achievement does not yield higher satisfaction with school and life, nor more frequent experiencing of pleasant emotions. Academic achievement is neither connected with openness towards experience nor with curiosity. The paper discusses practical implications of these findings and offers suggestions for future research.


Author(s):  
Zhen Liu ◽  
Zulan Yang ◽  
Mohamed Osmani

At present, a smart city from the perspective of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasizes the importance of providing citizens with promising health and well-being. However, with the continuous impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the increase of city population, the health of citizens is facing new challenges. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the relationship between building, environment, landscape design, art therapy (AT), and therapeutic design (TD) in promoting health within the context of sustainable development. It also summarizes the existing applied research areas and potential value of TD that informs future research. This paper adopts the macro-quantitative and micro-qualitative research methods of bibliometric analysis. The results show that: the built environment and AT are related to sustainable development, and closely associated with health and well-being; the application of TD in the environment, architecture, space, and landscape fields promotes the realization of SDGs and lays the foundation for integrating digital technologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) into the design process to potentially solve the challenges of TD; and the principle of TD can consider design elements and characteristics from based on people’s health needs to better promote human health and well-being.


Author(s):  
Jaana-Piia Mäkiniemi ◽  
Atte Oksanen ◽  
Anne Mäkikangas

The aim of this study is to investigate whether personal, social and organizational level resources can buffer against the negative effects of perceived loneliness on stress and exhaustion. The data was collected from Finnish university employees (n = 1463) in autumn 2020 via an electronic survey. Of the respondents, about 78% were working remotely, and 64% were female. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the main and moderating (i.e., buffering) effects. The results indicated that perceived loneliness was directly and positively associated with stress and exhaustion. Further, as hypothesized, personal resilience moderated the relationship between loneliness and stress and exhaustion, and organizational support moderated the relationship between loneliness and stress. Unexpectedly, organizational support did not moderate the loneliness–exhaustion relationship. Moreover, a sense of social belonging was not associated with stress and exhaustion, nor did it moderate loneliness and well-being relationships. The results demonstrate the importance of personal resilience and organizational support in enhancing well-being in organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research directions and practical ways to promote resilience and to increase organizational support are discussed.


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