How traditional undergraduate college students define and perceive wellness: A qualitative phenomenological study

OBJECTIVE

To understand college students' perceptions and understanding of wellness.

PARTICIPANTS

A convenience sample of 20 undergraduate students (age 20.6 ± 2.2 years) at a private liberal arts university in Southern California who recently completed a general education health and wellness course.

METHOD

Five focus group sessions were conducted to explore perceptions of wellness among undergraduate college students. Data was analyzed, themed, and coded.

RESULTS

A thematic analysis of the descriptions of wellness revealed 2 higher-ordered themes as whole-person and wellbeing, and 3 lower-ordered themes of balance, interconnectedness, and personalized in relation to participants' understanding of wellness.

CONCLUSIONS

The importance of balance between wellness dimensions and the acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of wellness dimensions are related to quality of life and life satisfaction. A deeper insight is needed to better understand the perceptions of wellness in this population to provide more effective interventions. This can be achieved through the development of enhanced pedagogy, which may improve student health.

Health and happiness: cross-sectional household surveys in Finland, Poland and Spain

Objective

To explore the associations between health and how people evaluate and experience their lives.

Methods

We analysed data from nationally-representative household surveys originally conducted in 2011–2012 in Finland, Poland and Spain. These surveys provided information on 10 800 adults, for whom experienced well-being was measured using the Day Reconstruction Method and evaluative well-being was measured with the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. Health status was assessed by questions in eight domains including mobility and self-care. We used multiple linear regression, structural equation models and multiple indicators/multiple causes models to explore factors associated with experienced and evaluative well-being.

Findings

The multiple indicator/multiple causes model conducted over the pooled sample showed that respondents with younger age (effect size, β = 0.19), with higher levels of education (β = −0.12), a history of depression (β = −0.17), poor health status (β = 0.29) or poor cognitive functioning (β = 0.09) reported worse experienced well-being. Additional factors associated with worse evaluative well-being were male sex (β = −0.03), not living with a partner (β = 0.07), and lower occupational (β = −0.07) or income levels (β = 0.08). Health status was the factor most strongly correlated with both experienced and evaluative well-being, even after controlling for a history of depression, age, income and other sociodemographic variables.

Conclusion

Health status is an important correlate of well-being. Therefore, strategies to improve population health would also improve people’s well-being.

Psychological Predictors of Attitude towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help in a Nigerian University Student Population

Although research on the relationship between psychological factors and attitude towards seeking professional psychological help has been conducted in a wide range of settings, some psychological factors remained unexplored, especially among Nigerian university students. Therefore this study investigated predictive powers of psychological factors (health locus of control, mindfulness, openness to experience, personal growth initiative, and sense of coherence) on atitude towards seeking professional psychological help among 452 students in a Nigerian university. The study was comprised of 234 (51.77%) males and 218 (48.23%) females with mean age of 22 years ( SD = 2.16). Participants completed measures of health locus of control, mindfulness, openness to experience, personal growth initiative, sense of coherence, and attitude towards seeking professional psychological help. Results reveal significant independent and joint influence of health locus of control, mindfulness, openness to experience, personal growth initiative, and sense of coherence on attitude towards seeking professional psychological help. Findings from this study suggest that professionals in the areas of mental health and psychological well-being might improve students' engagement in psychological counseling through changing their attitudes toward seeking professional help by modifying their unfulfilled psychological, emotional, and social needs.

Academic Psychobiography in South Africa: Past, Present and Future

Our aim is to highlight the past, present and future state of affairs of South African psychobiography. Particular attention is given to the trends and the challenges faced by academic psycho-biographers in South Africa. Over the past decade psychobiography has evolved into an established research genre and has become a methodology used by various academics and post-graduate research scholars at South African universities. Psychobiography entails the study of historically significant and extraordinary individuals over their entire life spans with the aim to uncover and reconstruct their lives psychologically. These longitudinal case studies include the psychological study of personalities in diverse occupational fields such as architecture, arts and literature, business and entrepreneur-ship, politics, religion and spirituality, sport, science, as well as the popular biographies of celebrities. Psycho-biographical studies in South Africa have been nurtured in the departments of psychology at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Rhodes University, the University of Johannesburg, and the University of the Free State. Most of these biographical studies have been completed as postgraduate r research endeavours in master's and doctoral degree programmes in psychology where academic staff have initiated and grown psychobiography as a strategic research focus area within their faculties. Psycho-biographical research has considerable logistical and administrative value for postgraduate research and the supervision process, and is also of academic benefit to the theoretical development of South African psychology. In South Africa an array of exemplary personalities constitute a ‘hall of fame’. Their legendary lives are ideal case studies which may be used to develop and/or refute aspects of psychological theory and its applicability to human development over the span of an individual's life.

Strangers, Patients, Monsters, Jailers, or Children: How South African Caregivers View Their Partners with Manganese Poisoning

Manganese poisoning (MP) is one of many chronic, degenerative conditions that result in spousal caregiver stress. Partners who were once fully functioning become strangers to those who love them. In time, spousal caregivers may come to view their erstwhile partners as patients, jailers, monsters, or bratty children. We explore spousal caregiver perceptions of loved ones with MP, based on the narrated experiences of five full-time South African carers and develop a typology of carer experiences, which contributes to an understanding of manganese poisoning, in particular, and to caregiving theory, in general. The findings contribute to practice by providing service providers with a rich understanding of carer stress and coping, in general, and the stress of those caring for partners with MP, in particular. Such richer understanding should extend service provider empathy and encourage appropriate, supportive intervention.