scholarly journals Under which conditions can introverts achieve happiness? Mediation and moderation effects of the quality of social relationships and emotion regulation ability on happiness

PeerJ ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e1300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosario Cabello ◽  
Pablo Fernandez-Berrocal

Personality traits have been directly associated with happiness. One consistent finding is a strong link between extraversion and happiness: extraverts are happier than introverts. Although happy introverts exist, it is currently unclear under what conditions they can achieve happiness. The present study analyzes, generally, how the quality of social relationships and emotion regulation ability influence happiness and, specifically, how these factors can lead introverts to be happy. In the present study, 1,006 participants aged 18–80 (42% males) completed measures of extraversion, neuroticism, quality of social relationships, emotion regulation ability, and happiness. We found that extraverts had significantly higher happiness, quality of social relationships and emotion regulation ability scores than introverts. In addition, people with high quality social relationships or high emotion regulation ability were happier. Serial mediation analyses indicated that greater levels of extraversion were associated with greater happiness, with small effect size, via two indirect mechanisms: (a) higher quality of social relationships, and (b) higher quality of social relationships followed serially by higher emotion regulation ability. We also found a moderating effect due to the three-way interaction of extraversion, quality of social relationships, and emotion regulation ability: introverts were happier when they had high scores for these two variables, though the effect size was small. These results suggest that the quality of social relationships and emotion regulation ability are relevant to our understanding of complex associations between extraversion and happiness.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Barton ◽  
Joanne Kemp ◽  
Ewa Roos ◽  
Soren Skou ◽  
Karen Dundules ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundThe Good Life with osteoArthritis from Denmark (GLA:D®) program incorporates guideline-based patient education and exercise-therapy for osteoarthritis to implement guidelines into practice. We evaluated the implementation of GLA:D® for knee osteoarthritis within Australian physiotherapy practice using the RE-AIM QuEST (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance Qualitative Evaluation for Systematic Translation) framework.MethodsAustralian physiotherapists were trained and supported to deliver GLA:D® (2017-2019) and completed surveys before and after training to assess practices, beliefs about capabilities and confidence, and barriers and enablers to implementation. Patients participating in GLA:D® completed online baseline, 3-month (immediately post-treatment) and 12-month patient reported outcomes. Effective implementation was defined as within-subject moderate effect size (ES, ≥0.50) for average pain (100mm visual analogue scale) and knee osteoarthritis outcome score quality of life scores (KOOS-QoL), and small effect size (≥0.20) for health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-5L).ResultsReach: 1,064 physiotherapists (73% private) and 1,945 (79% private) from all states and territories consented to participation. Key barriers included out-of-pocket cost to patients, and program suitability for culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Effectiveness: Following training, more physiotherapists discussed treatment goals and the importance of weight management, and prescribed supervised, neuromuscular exercise. Patient outcomes at 3- and 12 months (n = 1,044 [54%] and 927 [48%]) reflected effective implementation, including reduced pain intensity (ES, 95%CI = 0.72, 0.62-0.84; and 0.65, 0.54-0.77), improved KOOS-QoL scores (0.79, 0.69-0.90; and 0.93, 0.81-1.04), and improved EQ-5D-5L scores (0.43, 0.31-0.54; and 0.46, 0.35-0.58). Seventy-three percent of participants reported minimal important changes for at least one of pain severity (≥ 15 mm), KOOS-QoL (≥ 15 points) or EQ-5D-5L (≥ 0.07 points). Adoption: GLA:D® was implemented at 297 sites (264 private, 33 public). Implementation: Most patients completed at least one education (90%), and 10 exercise-therapy (78%) sessions. Adequate staffing to support program delivery was a key enabler. Maintenance: Ninety-nine percent of sites (293/297) continued to offer the program in July 2020.ConclusionsTraining was associated with practice changes and widespread implementation of GLA:D® in Australia. Effective implementation, and clinically meaningful improvements in pain and quality of life for most participant, supports further work to scale up GLA:D® in Australia.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariba Zahedifar ◽  
Zahra Nejatifar ◽  
Sima Rafiei ◽  
Fariba Hashemi

Educational interventions are helpful strategies to empower communities encountering the threat of pandemics like Covid-19. This study was carried out to examine the effect of educational intervention on anxiety control and improvement in public quality of life. A quasi-experimental study. The study was conducted among individuals referred to healthcare centers of Qazvin province, Iran, in 2020. Given that Qazvin consists of nine urban healthcare centers, two centers were selected by a simple random selection method. After considering inclusion and exclusion mentioned criteria, 240 individuals were selected to participate in the research and were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control. Following the educational intervention, all study variables, including knowledge score, anxiety level, and quality of life, improved significantly in the experimental group compared to the pre-intervention phase (P<0.05). The most significant change was in knowledge score with a nearly large effect size (0.63), presenting an increase of 40.09% from 11.1 to 18.8 exactly after intervention and 12.2 after passing one month from the date of educational intervention; while the quality of life presented a 3.2% increase with a small effect size (0.28). Our findings have implications for the development and implementation of psychological interventions, particularly educational programs. During the outbreak, such strategies can empower the public and diminish the negative emotional effects of the pandemic, helping people to cope with the current situation, and decrease the risk of suffering future psychological disorders.  


10.2196/12967 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. e12967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhone Myint Kyaw ◽  
Pawel Posadzki ◽  
Sophie Paddock ◽  
Josip Car ◽  
James Campbell ◽  
...  

Background Effective communication skills are essential in diagnosis and treatment processes and in building the doctor-patient relationship. Objective Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of digital education in medical students for communication skills development. Broadly, we assessed whether digital education could improve the quality of future doctors’ communication skills. Methods We performed a systematic review and searched seven electronic databases and two trial registries for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs (cRCTs) published between January 1990 and September 2018. Two reviewers independently screened the citations, extracted data from the included studies, and assessed the risk of bias. We also assessed the quality of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations assessment (GRADE). Results We included 12 studies with 2101 medical students, of which 10 were RCTs and two were cRCTs. The digital education included online modules, virtual patient simulations, and video-assisted oral feedback. The control groups included didactic lectures, oral feedback, standard curriculum, role play, and no intervention as well as less interactive forms of digital education. The overall risk of bias was high, and the quality of evidence ranged from moderate to very low. For skills outcome, meta-analysis of three studies comparing digital education to traditional learning showed no statistically significant difference in postintervention skills scores between the groups (standardized mean difference [SMD]=–0.19; 95% CI –0.9 to 0.52; I2=86%, N=3 studies [304 students]; small effect size; low-quality evidence). Similarly, a meta-analysis of four studies comparing the effectiveness of blended digital education (ie, online or offline digital education plus traditional learning) and traditional learning showed no statistically significant difference in postintervention skills between the groups (SMD=0.15; 95% CI –0.26 to 0.56; I2=86%; N=4 studies [762 students]; small effect size; low-quality evidence). The additional meta-analysis of four studies comparing more interactive and less interactive forms of digital education also showed little or no difference in postintervention skills scores between the two groups (SMD=0.12; 95% CI: –0.09 to 0.33; I2=40%; N=4 studies [893 students]; small effect size; moderate-quality evidence). For knowledge outcome, two studies comparing the effectiveness of blended online digital education and traditional learning reported no difference in postintervention knowledge scores between the groups (SMD=0.18; 95% CI: –0.2 to 0.55; I2=61%; N=2 studies [292 students]; small effect size; low-quality evidence). The findings on attitudes, satisfaction, and patient-related outcomes were limited or mixed. None of the included studies reported adverse outcomes or economic evaluation of the interventions. Conclusions We found low-quality evidence showing that digital education is as effective as traditional learning in medical students’ communication skills training. Blended digital education seems to be at least as effective as and potentially more effective than traditional learning for communication skills and knowledge. We also found no difference in postintervention skills between more and less interactive forms of digital education. There is a need for further research to evaluate the effectiveness of other forms of digital education such as virtual reality, serious gaming, and mobile learning on medical students’ attitude, satisfaction, and patient-related outcomes as well as the adverse effects and cost-effectiveness of digital education.


2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Cuijpers ◽  
A. van Straten ◽  
E. Bohlmeijer ◽  
S. D. Hollon ◽  
G. Andersson

BackgroundNo meta-analytical study has examined whether the quality of the studies examining psychotherapy for adult depression is associated with the effect sizes found. This study assesses this association.MethodWe used a database of 115 randomized controlled trials in which 178 psychotherapies for adult depression were compared to a control condition. Eight quality criteria were assessed by two independent coders: participants met diagnostic criteria for a depressive disorder, a treatment manual was used, the therapists were trained, treatment integrity was checked, intention-to-treat analyses were used, N⩾50, randomization was conducted by an independent party, and assessors of outcome were blinded.ResultsOnly 11 studies (16 comparisons) met the eight quality criteria. The standardized mean effect size found for the high-quality studies (d=0.22) was significantly smaller than in the other studies (d=0.74, p<0.001), even after restricting the sample to the subset of other studies that used the kind of care-as-usual or non-specific controls that tended to be used in the high-quality studies. Heterogeneity was zero in the group of high-quality studies. The numbers needed to be treated in the high-quality studies was 8, while it was 2 in the lower-quality studies.ConclusionsWe found strong evidence that the effects of psychotherapy for adult depression have been overestimated in meta-analytical studies. Although the effects of psychotherapy are significant, they are much smaller than was assumed until now, even after controlling for the type of control condition used.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Asherson ◽  
S. Stes ◽  
M. Nilsson Markhed ◽  
L. Berggren ◽  
P. Svanborg ◽  
...  

AbstractPurpose:To investigate the effects of atomoxetine on emotional control in adults with ADHD.Methods:We performed an integrated analysis using individual patient data pooled from three Eli Lilly-sponsored studies. An integrated analysis can be viewed as a meta-analysis of individual patient-level data, rather than study-level summary data.Results:Two populations were identified: a large sample of patients with pre-treatment baseline data (the “overall population”; n = 2846); and a subset of these patients with placebo-controlled efficacy data from baseline to 10 or 12 weeks after initiating treatment (the “placebo-controlled population”; n = 829). At baseline, in the overall population, ∼50% of ADHD patients had BRIEF-AS (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version Self-Report) Emotional control subscores between 21 and 30, compared with ∼10% of normative subjects in the BRIEF-A manual. At endpoint, in the placebo-controlled population, atomoxetine led to a small (effect size 0.19) but significant (P = 0.013) treatment effect for emotional control. The effect size was 0.32 in patients with BRIEF-AS Emotional control scores > 20 at baseline. Improvements in emotional control correlated with improvements in the core ADHD symptoms and quality-of-life.Discussion:As deficient emotional control is associated with impaired social, educational and occupational functioning over and above that explained by core ADHD symptoms alone, improvements in emotional control may be clinically relevant.Conclusion:At baseline, adults with ADHD were more likely to have impaired emotional control than normative subjects. In the adult ADHD patients, atomoxetine treatment was associated with improvements in emotional control, as well as in core ADHD symptoms and quality-of-life.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Hans Belau ◽  
Heiko Becher ◽  
Alexander Kraemer

Abstract Background Since 2015, more than one million people fled to Germany – mainly from war-affected countries. Nevertheless, little is known about social determinants in refugees located in Germany. This study aims to test the mediation effect of loneliness between social relationships, comprising social integration and social support, and health-related quality of life among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Methods The investigation utilizes data from the FlueGe Health Study (N=326), a cross-sectional study conducted by Bielefeld University. The data was collected between February and November 2018 and included interviews and examinations. Participants were recruited from shared and private accommodation in several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. We first analyzed correlations between social integration, social support, loneliness, and physical and mental component of health-related quality of life. We then conducted mediation analyses using structural equation modeling. Results The majority of respondents were socially isolated, perceiving a moderate degree of loneliness and social support. In addition, the physical and mental components of health-related quality of life indicate that participants predominantly experienced mental rather than physical impairments. Results from mediation analyses showed indirect effects of loneliness on the association between social integration and mental health (ß = 0.495, 95% bias-corrected and accelerated confidence interval (BCa CI) = [0.018, 0.972]), and between social support and both physical (ß = 0.022, 95% BCa CI = [0.004, 0.040]) and mental health (ß = 0.067, 95% BCa CI = [0.037, 0.097]). Conclusions Loneliness played a mediating role in the association between social relationships and health-related quality of life among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The results provide implications for both, health policy and the host society.


Author(s):  
Thomas L. Boehm ◽  
Erik W. Carter

AbstractAll families, including those impacted by disability, desire and deserve opportunities for high quality of life. This study focused on family quality of life (FQOL) among 529 parents with children or adults with intellectual disability (ID). Parents reported moderate to high levels of FQOL satisfaction, with some variability across domains. We conducted hierarchical linear regression analyses to examine associations among FQOL and: (1) individual and family demographic factors, (2) religiosity/spirituality factors, and (3) relationship factors. Findings highlighted the significance of both informal (i.e., family, friends) and formal (i.e., professional) social relationships, as well as the relevance of spirituality/religiosity, as factors contributing to FQOL. We offer recommendations for research and practice aimed at enhancing FQOL of parents with children and adults who have ID.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Razia Sahi ◽  
Emilia Ninova ◽  
Jennifer A Silvers

Decades of research has pointed to emotion regulation (ER) as a critical ingredient for health, well-being, and social functioning. However, the vast majority of this research has examined emotion regulation in a social vacuum, despite the fact that in everyday life individuals frequently regulate their emotions with help from other people. The present collection of pre-registered studies examined whether social help increases the efficacy of reappraisal, a widely-studied ER strategy that involves changing how one thinks about emotional stimuli. In Study 1 (N = 40 friend pairs), we compared the efficacy of reinterpreting the content of negative stimuli alone (solo ER) to listening to a friend reinterpret the stimuli (social ER). We found that social ER was more effective than solo ER, and that the efficacy of these strategies was correlated within individuals. In Studies 2 and 3, we replicated effects from Study 1, and additionally tested alternate explanations for our findings. In Study 2 (N = 40 individuals), we failed to find evidence that social ER was more effective than solo ER due to a difference in the quality of reinterpretations, and in Study 3 (N = 40 friend pairs), we found that social help did not significantly attenuate negative affect in the absence of reappraisal. In sum, we found that social help selectively potentiates the efficacy of reappraisal, and that this effect was not merely the outcome of social buffering. Together, these results provide insight into how social relationships can directly lend a hand in implementing ER strategies.


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