Self-Perceived Quality of Life in Spanish-Speaking Women with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Perceived personal wellbeing tends to be lower in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), especially in the case of women. To develop the present study, the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI-A) was administered to a Spanish-speaking sample of women with ASD (N = 401) and self-diagnosed ASD (N = 343), women without ASD (N = 373) and men with ASD (N = 65) to compare their self-perceptions. Women with ASD showed significantly lower wellbeing rates than women in the control group for the total PWI-A and across all the domains, and there were no significant differences when compared with self-diagnosed women with ASD and men with ASD. Autism explained between 24 and 26% of the decline in the PWI-A total score, with life achievement, future security, safety and relationships being the domains most highly correlated with the total. These findings are an effective contribution to improving diagnosis and professional intervention in women with ASD.

MATERIAL AND SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING OF MALAYSIAN HOUSEHOLD: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The concept of wellbeing has attracted many researchers in multi-disciplines. Objective wellbeing particularly focuses on quality of life indicators such as material resources (material wellbeing). While, subjective wellbeing emphasizes on subjective experiences and judgments of individuals in their lives in better ways. In fact, numerous studies have shown several determinants associated with material and subjective wellbeing. To gain better understanding, the purpose of this study is to explore the impact of demographic factors, including age, gender income, education and health status on both material and subjective wellbeing among households. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the district of Alor Gajah, Melaka which had the second highest score of Malaysian Wellbeing Index 2016. By using self-administered questionnaires, the present study employed non-proportionate random sampling involving households. The findings revealed that demographic factors are associated with material and subjective wellbeing.

The effect of gambling problems on the subjective wellbeing of gamblers’ family and friends: Evidence from large-scale population research in Australia and Canada

Background and Aims Excessive time and money spent on gambling can result in harms, not only to people experiencing a gambling problem but also to their close family and friends (“concerned significant others”; CSOs). The current study aimed to explore whether, and to what extent, CSOs experience decrements to their wellbeing due to another person’s gambling. Methods We analysed data from The Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA; N = 19,064) and the Canadian Quinte Longitudinal Study (QLS; N = 3,904). Participants either self-identified as CSOs (QLS) or were identified by living in a household with a person classified in the problem gambling category by the PGSI (HILDA). Subjective well-being was measured using the Personal Wellbeing Index and single-item questions on happiness and satisfaction with life. Results CSOs reported lower subjective wellbeing than non-CSOs across both countries and on all three wellbeing measures. CSO status remained a significant predictor of lower wellbeing after controlling for demographic and socio-economic factors, and own-gambling problems. There were no significant differences across various relationships to the gambler, by gender, or between household and non-household CSOs. Discussion and Conclusions Gambling-related harms experienced by CSOs was reliably associated with a decrease in wellbeing. This decrement to CSO’s wellbeing was not as strong as that experienced by the person with the first-order gambling problem. Nevertheless, wellbeing decrements to CSOs are not limited to those living with a person with gambling problems in the household and thus affect many people.

THE ROLE OF IMPULSIVITY IN PREDICTING THE SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING OF STUDENTS IN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION

<p>The primary purpose of this study was to investigate associations between attention impulsivity, motor impulsivity and non-planning impulsivity measured according to the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS) and indicators of subjective well-being (SWB) measured by the Flourishing Scale (FS) and Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) in students at selected private higher education institutions (N = 514, 52% women, 48% men). The aim of the current study was to explore the impact of gender on the aforementioned associations. Relationships between impulsivity and subjective well-being were examined taking into account the multifactoral structure of impulsiveness. The main findings of the study show that: (a) attention impulsivity predicted low prosperity and low levels of satisfaction with standard of living, health, personal achievements, safety and future security; (b) motor impulsivity showed bivariate but not unique relationships between prosperity and satisfaction with personal health, achievements and personal safety; (c) non-planning impulsivity was found to be uniquely associated with lower subjective prosperity and lower satisfaction with personal achievements and personal relationships; and (d) gender did not moderate the relationship between BIS components and SWB indexes. Impulsivity substrates explained between 4 and 17% of the variance in subjective well-being indexes. In sum, the results showed that the three components of impulsivity are distinct yet partially overlapping. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0998/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

A collaborative application of design thinking and Taguchi approach in restaurant service design for food wellbeing

PurposeInnovative restaurant service designs impart food wellbeing to diners. This research comprehends customer aspirations and concerns in a restaurant-dining experience to develop a service design that enhances the dining experience using the design thinking approach and evaluates its efficiency using the Taguchi method of robust design.Design/methodology/approachThe sequential incidence technique defines diners' needs, which, followed by brainstorming sessions, helped create multiple service designs with important attributes. Prototype narration, as a scenario, acted as the stimulus for evaluators to respond to the WHO-5 wellbeing index scale. Scenario-based Taguchi experiment with nine foodservice attributes in two levels and the wellbeing score as the response variable helped identify levels of critical factors that develop better FWB.FindingsThe study identified the best combination of factors and their preferred levels to maximize FWB in a restaurant. Food serving hygiene, followed by information about cuisine specification, and food movement in the restaurant, were important to FWB. The experiment revealed that hygiene perceptions are critical to FWB, and service designs have a significant role in it. Consumers prefer detailed information about the ingredients and recipe of the food they eat; being confident that there will be no unacceptable ingredients added to the food inspires their FWB.Research limitations/implicationsTheoretically, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on design thinking and transformative service research, especially in the food industry.Practical implicationsThis paper details a simple method to identify and evaluate important factors that optimize FWB in a restaurant. The proposed methodology will help service designers and technology experts devise settings that consider customer priorities and contribute to their experience.Originality/valueThis study helps to understand the application of design thinking and the Taguchi approach for creating robust service designs that optimize FWB.

507 - Stressful past events and emotional intelligence as predictors of Successful aging

ObjectivesIt has been widely demonstrated that recent stressful events could impact wellbeing, nevertheless it is not clear whether stressful situations experienced in the pastand the internal resources used to deal with them can also influence older adult’s well- being. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of stressful past events andemotional intelligence on negative affect, and to determine whether negative affect is related to older people’s wellbeing.MethodThe Aging in Spain Longitudinal Study, Pilot Survey (ELES-PS) database wasused. The sample comprised 1747 participants (55.9% women), with ages between 50 to98 years-old (M = 66.2, SD = 10.6). Stressful past events were evaluated with a list of tenstressful events developed by the project team. Three items of the Trait-Meta-Mood scalewere used to assess emotional intelligence. In order to evaluate negative emotions, the PANAS scale of negative experience was used. Finally, life satisfaction was assessed using the Personal Wellbeing Index.ResultsThe results of the SEM model indicated that emotional intelligence predicted negative affect, and this in turn was related to participants wellbeing. However past stressful events showed no effect on either the emotional intelligence or on participants’ negative affect. Age was used as a control variable and influenced negative affect but didnot impact stressful past events.DiscussionInternal resources such as emotional intelligence appears to be more important than stressful past events in predicting successful aging.