Learning for well being : Studies using the International Adult Literacy Survey

This thesis is a collection of five independent but closely related studies. The overall purpose is to approach the analysis of learning outcomes from a perspective that combines three major elements, namely lifelonglifewide learning, human capital, and the benefits of learning. The approach is based on an interdisciplinary perspective of the human capital paradigm. It considers the multiple learning contexts that are responsible for the development of embodied potential – including formal, nonformal and informal learning – and the multiple outcomes – including knowledge, skills, economic, social and others– that result from learning. The studies also seek to examine the extent and relative influence of learning in different contexts on the formation of embodied potential and how in turn that affects economic and social well being. The first study combines the three major elements, lifelonglifewide learning, human capital, and the benefits of learning into one common conceptual framework. This study forms a common basis for the four empirical studies that follow. All four empirical studies use data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) to investigate the relationships among the major elements of the conceptual framework presented in the first study. Study I. A conceptual framework for the analysis of learning outcomes This study brings together some key concepts and theories that are relevant for the analysis of learning outcomes. Many of the concepts and theories have emerged from varied disciplines including economics, educational psychology, cognitive science and sociology, to name only a few. Accordingly, some of the research questions inherent in the framework relate to different disciplinary perspectives. The primary purpose is to create a common basis for formulating and testing hypotheses as well as to interpret the findings in the empirical studies that follow. In particular, the framework facilitates the process of theorizing and hypothesizing on the relationships and processes concerning lifelong learning as well as their antecedents and consequences. Study II. Determinants of literacy proficiency: A lifelong-lifewide learning perspective This study investigates lifelong and lifewide processes of skill formation. In particular, it seeks to estimate the substitutability and complementarity effects of learning in multiple settings over the lifespan on literacy skill formation. This is done by investigating the predictive capacity of major determinants of literacy proficiency that are associated with a variety of learning contexts including school, home, work, community and leisure. An identical structural model based on previous research is fitted to the IALS data for 18 countries. The results show that even after accounting for all factors, education remains the most important predictor of literacy proficiency. In all countries, however, the total effect of education is significantly mediated through further learning occurring at work, at home and in the community. Therefore, the job and other literacy related factors complement education in predicting literacy proficiency. This result points to a virtual cycle of lifelong learning, particularly to how educational attainment influences other learning behaviours throughout life. In addition, results show that home background as measured by parents’ education is also a strong predictor of literacy proficiency, but in many countries this occurs only if a favourable home background is complemented with some post-secondary education. Study III. The effect of literacy proficiency on earnings: An aggregated occupational approach using the Canadian IALS data This study uses data from the Canadian Adult Literacy Survey to estimate the earnings return to literacy skills. The approach adapts a labour segmented view of the labour market by aggregating occupations into seven types, enabling the estimation of the variable impact of literacy proficiency on earnings, both within and between different types of occupations. This is done using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The method used to construct the aggregated occupational classification is based on analysis that considers the role of cognitive and other skills in relation to the nature of occupational tasks. Substantial premiums are found to be associated with some occupational types even after adjusting for within occupational differences in individual characteristics such as schooling, literacy proficiency, labour force experience and gender. Average years of schooling and average levels of literacy proficiency at the between level account for over two-thirds of the premiums. Within occupations, there are significant returns to schooling but they vary depending on the type of occupations. In contrast, the within occupational return of literacy proficiency is not necessarily significant. The latter depends on the type of occupation. Study IV: Determinants of economic and social outcomes from a lifewide learning perspective in Canada In this study the relationship between learning in different contexts, which span the lifewide learning dimension, and individual earnings on the one hand and community participation on the other are examined in separate but comparable models. Data from the Canadian Adult Literacy Survey are used to estimate structural models, which correspond closely to the common conceptual framework outlined in Study I. The findings suggest that the relationship between formal education and economic and social outcomes is complex with confounding effects. The results indicate that learning occurring in different contexts and for different reasons leads to different kinds of benefits. The latter finding suggests a potential trade-off between realizing economic and social benefits through learning that are taken for either job-related or personal-interest related reasons. Study V: The effects of learning on economic and social well being: A comparative analysis Using the same structural model as in Study IV, hypotheses are comparatively examined using the International Adult Literacy Survey data for Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The main finding from Study IV is confirmed for an additional five countries, namely that the effect of initial schooling on well being is more complex than a direct one and it is significantly mediated by subsequent learning. Additionally, findings suggest that people who devote more time to learning for job-related reasons than learning for personal-interest related reasons experience higher levels of economic well being. Moreover, devoting too much time to learning for personal-interest related reasons has a negative effect on earnings except in Denmark. But the more time people devote to learning for personal-interest related reasons tends to contribute to higher levels of social well being. These results again suggest a trade-off in learning for different reasons and in different contexts.

Well-being, distress and health status in a population of adolescent students

The present work explores the psychosocial issues emerging from a large cross-sectional study aimed to assess the prevalence, clinical manifestations, and psychosocial correlates of hyperandrogenism in a population of Italian high school students. Participants were 1804 adolescents, aged between 15 and 19 years, who volunteered to fill in a package of self-report questionnaires (including the Psychosocial Index, the Symptom Questionnaire and Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being scales for the assessment of psychological aspects) and undergo a comprehensive physical examination. Significant gender differences were found with regard to psychological distress, with females reporting higher scores compared with males, but not on well-being dimensions. The relationships of well-being to distress were found to be complex. Although inversely associated, well-being and ill-being appeared to be distinct domains of mental functioning. The evaluation of the moderating effects of well-being in the association between stress and psychological distress indicated that well-being may act as a protective factor, contributing to less pronounced psychological distress as stress levels increased. Higher rates of somatic complaints were found among current smokers. However, substance use (i.e., smoking and drug use) was also found to be positively associated with some well-being dimensions. A considerable number of participants were found to present with disordered eating symptoms, particularly females, and associated higher stress levels and lower quality of life. Sport activities were found to favourably affect psychological health. As to clinical signs of hyperandrogenism, a significant impairment in psychosocial functioning was found among females, whereas no effects on psychological measures could be detected among males. Subgroups of adolescents with distinct clinical and psychological characteristics could be identified by means of cluster analysis. The present study provides new insights into better understanding of the complex relationships between well-being, distress and health status in the adolescent population, with important clinical implications.

The application of a new psychotherapeutic strategy for enhancing eudaimonic well-being in children with mood and anxiety disorders

The aim of the dissertation was to test the feasibility of a new psychotherapeutic protocol for treating children and adolescents with mood and anxiety disorders: Child-Well-Being Therapy (CWBT). It originates from adult Well-Being Therapy protocol (WBT) and represents a conceptual innovation for treating affective disorders. WBT is based on the multidimensional model of well-being postulated by Ryff (eudaimonic perspective), in sequential combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Results showed that eudaimonic well-being was impaired in children with affective disorders in comparison with matched healthy students. A first open investigation aimed at exploring the feasibility of a 8-session CWBT protocol in a group of children with emotional and behavioural disorders has been implemented. Data showed how CWBT resulted associated to symptoms reduction, together with the decrease of externalizing problems, maintained at 1-year follow-up. CWBT triggered also an improvement in psychological well-being as well as an increasing flourishing trajectory over time. Subsequently, a modified and extended version of CWBT (12-sessions) has been developed and then tested in a controlled study with 34 patients (8 to 16 years) affected by mood and anxiety disorders. They were consecutively randomized into 3 different groups: CWBT, CBT, 6-month waiting list (WL). Both treatments resulted effective in decreasing distress and in improving well-being. Moreover, CWBT was associated with higher improvement in anxiety and showed a greater recovery rate (83%) than CBT (54%). Both groups maintained beneficial effects and CWBT group displayed a lower level of distress as well as a higher positive trend in well-being scores over time. Findings need to be interpret with caution, because of study limitations, however important clinical implications emerged. Further investigations should determine whether the sequential integration of well-being and symptom-oriented strategies could play an important role in children and adolescents’ psychotherapeutic options, fostering a successful adaptation to adversities during the growth process.

The role of proactive coping strategies and perceived health status for Social well-being and life-project in old age.

The latter part of the 20th century was a period characterized by a fundamental demographic transition of western society. This substantial and structural demographic change proposes several challenges to contemporary society and fosters the emergence of new issues and challenges. Among these, none is more crucial than the comprehension of the mechanisms and the processes that lead people to positive aging. Rowe and Kahn’s model of successful aging highlights the interplay between social engagement with life, health, and functioning for a positive aging experience. Other systemic models of successful aging (Kahana et al., 1996; 2003; Stevernik et al., 2006) emphasize the role of internal and external resources for attaining positive aging. Among these, the proactive coping strategies are indicated as important active strategies for avoiding the depletion of resources, counterbalancing the declines and maintaining social and civic involvement. The study has analyzed the role of proactive coping strategies for two facets of positive aging, the experience of a high social well-being and the presence of personal projects in fundamental life domains. As expected, the proactive coping strategies, referred to as the active management of the environment, the accumulation of resources and the actualization of human potentials are confirmed as positive predictors of high level of social well-being and of many personal projects focused on family, culture, leisure time, civic and social participation. Perceived health status give a significant contribution only to the possession of many personal projects. Gender and level of school education give also a significant contribution to these two dimensions of positive aging, highlighting how positive aging is rooted not only in the possession of personal resources, but also in historical models of education and in positive longitudinal chains related to early development.

Enhancing Workers’ Well-Being. Scientific and social relevance of managing stress in the workplace

Purpose. Despite work-related stress is one of the most studied topic in organizational psychology, many aspects as for example the use of different measures (e.g. subjective and objective, qualitative and quantitative) are still under debate. According to this, in order to enhance knowledge concerning which factors and processes contribute to create healthy workplaces, this thesis is composed by four different studies aiming to understand: a) the role of relevant antecedents (e.g. leadership, job demands, work-family conflict, social support etc.) and outcomes (e.g. workplace phobia, absenteeism etc.) of work-related stress; and b) how to manage psychosocial risk factors in the workplace. The studies. The first study focused on how disagreement between supervisors and their employees on leadership style (transformational and transactional) could affect workers well-being and work team variables. The second and third study used both subjective and objective data in order to increase the quality of the reliability of the results gained. Particularly, the second study focused on job demand and its relationship with objective sickness leave. Findings showed that despite there is no direct relationship between these two variables, job demand affects work-family conflict, which in turn affect exhaustion, which leads to absenteeism. The third study analysed the role of a new concept never studied before in organizational settings (workplace phobia), as a health outcome in the JD-R model, demonstrating also its relationship with absenteeism. The last study highlighted the added value of using the mixed methods research approach in order to detect and analyse context-specific job demands which could affects workers’ health. Conclusion. The findings of this thesis answered both to open questions in the scientific literature and to the social request of managing psychosocial risk factors in the workplace in order to enhance workers well-being.

Landscape and well-being: a scoping study on the health-promoting impact of outdoor environments

OBJECTIVES: The present literature review conceptualises landscape as a health resource that promotes physical, mental, and social well-being. Different health-promoting landscape characteristics are discussed. METHODS: This article is based on a scoping study which represents a special kind of qualitative literature review. Over 120 studies have been reviewed in a five-step-procedure, resulting in a heuristic device. RESULTS: A set of meaningful pathways that link landscape and health have been identified. Landscapes have the potential to promote mental well-being through attention restoration, stress reduction, and the evocation of positive emotions; physical well-being through the promotion of physical activity in daily life as well as leisure time and through walkable environments; and social well-being through social integration, social engagement and participation, and through social support and security. CONCLUSION: This scoping study allows us to systematically describe the potential of landscape as a resource for physical, mental and social well-being. A heuristic framework is presented that can be applied in future studies, facilitating systematic and focused research approaches and informing practical public health interventions.

Reliability, construct and criterion validity of the KIDSCREEN-10 score: a short measure for children and adolescents' well-being and health-related quality of life

Background To assess the criterion and construct validity of the KIDSCREEN-10 well-being and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) score, a short version of the KIDSCREEN-52 and KIDSCREEN-27 instruments. Methods The child self-report and parent report versions of the KIDSCREEN-10 were tested in a sample of 22,830 European children and adolescents aged 8–18 and their parents (n = 16,237). Correlation with the KIDSCREEN-52 and associations with other generic HRQoL measures, physical and mental health, and socioeconomic status were examined. Score differences by age, gender, and country were investigated. Results Correlations between the 10-item KIDSCREEN score and KIDSCREEN-52 scales ranged from r = 0.24 to 0.72 (r = 0.27–0.72) for the self-report version (proxy-report version). Coefficients below r = 0.5 were observed for the KIDSCREEN-52 dimensions Financial Resources and Being Bullied only. Cronbach alpha was 0.82 (0.78), test–retest reliability was ICC = 0.70 (0.67) for the self- (proxy-)report version. Correlations between other children self-completed HRQoL questionnaires and KIDSCREEN-10 ranged from r = 0.43 to r = 0.63 for the KIDSCREEN children self-report and r = 0.22–0.40 for the KIDSCREEN parent proxy report. Known group differences in HRQoL between physically/mentally healthy and ill children were observed in the KIDSCREEN-10 self and proxy scores. Associations with self-reported psychosomatic complaints were r = −0.52 (−0.36) for the KIDSCREEN-10 self-report (proxy-report). Statistically significant differences in KIDSCREEN-10 self and proxy scores were found by socioeconomic status, age, and gender. Conclusions Our results indicate that the KIDSCREEN-10 provides a valid measure of a general HRQoL factor in children and adolescents, but the instrument does not represent well most of the single dimensions of the original KIDSCREEN-52. Test–retest reliability was slightly below a priori defined thresholds.

Differential 3-year effects of first- versus second-generation antipsychotics on subjective well-being in schizophrenia using marginal structural models

This study examined the differential effects of first- (FGAs) versus second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) on subjective well-being in patients with schizophrenia.