Air Quality and Europeans' Subjective Well-being

[EN]Happiness economics deals with self-reported subjective well-being, or life satisfaction, and its relationship to a wide variety of other variables. On the study of these other factors, this line of research has helped demonstrate that higher levels of environmental quality increase people’s subjective well-being. This paper focuses on analyzing the relationship between subjective well-being and air quality. On the one hand, the life satisfaction approach to environmental valuation is cautiously described, and on the other hand, the method is implemented in an empirical analysis that seeks to assess how an increase in the level of air pollution at a regional level affects individual-level subjective well-being in Europe. We use a dataset that merges the third wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) with a dataset that includes regional air pollution (including CO, PM10, NO2, SO2 and Benzene) and other regional variables. We find a robust negative impact for CO, a positive impact for SO2, and no conclusive evidence of any effect on subjective well-being for the remaining three pollutants.

Self-reported sitting time and physical activity: interactive associations with mental well-being and productivity in office employees

Background: Little is known about how sitting time, alone or in combination with markers of physical activity (PA), influences mental well-being and work productivity. Given the need to develop workplace PA interventions that target employees' health related efficiency outcomes; this study examined the associations between self-reported sitting time, PA, mental well-being and work productivity in office employees. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Spanish university office employees (n = 557) completed a survey measuring socio-demographics, total and domain specific (work and travel) self-reported sitting time, PA (International Physical Activity Questionnaire short version), mental well-being (Warwick-Edinburg Mental Well-Being Scale) and work productivity (Work Limitations Questionnaire). Multivariate linear regression analyses determined associations between the main variables adjusted for gender, age, body mass index and occupation. PA levels (low, moderate and high) were introduced into the model to examine interactive associations. Results: Higher volumes of PA were related to higher mental well-being, work productivity and spending less time sitting at work, throughout the working day and travelling during the week, including the weekends (p < 0.05). Greater levels of sitting during weekends was associated with lower mental well-being (p < 0.05). Similarly, more sitting while travelling at weekends was linked to lower work productivity (p < 0.05). In highly active employees, higher sitting times on work days and occupational sitting were associated with decreased mental well-being (p < 0.05). Higher sitting times while travelling on weekend days was also linked to lower work productivity in the highly active (p < 0.05). No significant associations were observed in low active employees. Conclusions: Employees' PA levels exerts different influences on the associations between sitting time, mental well-being and work productivity. The specific associations and the broad sweep of evidence in the current study suggest that workplace PA strategies to improve the mental well-being and productivity of all employees should focus on reducing sitting time alongside efforts to increase PA.

Quantifying the limits of HANPP and carbon emissions which prolong total species well-being

Anthropogenic climate and land-use change are leading to irreversible losses of global biodiversity, upon which ecosystem functioning depends. Since total species' well-being depends on ecosystem goods and services, man must determine how much net primary productivity (NPP) may be appropriated and carbon emitted so as to not adversely impact this and future generations. In 2005, man ought to have only appropriated 9.72 Pg C of NPP, representing a factor 2.50, or 59.93%, reduction in human-appropriated NPP in that year. Concurrently, the carbon cycle would have been balanced with a factor 1.26, or 20.84%, reduction from 7.60 Gt C/year to 5.70 Gt C/year, representing a return to the 1986 levels. This limit is in keeping with the category III stabilization scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change. Projecting population growth to 2030 and its associated basic food requirements, the maximum HANPP remains at 9.74 ± 0.02 Pg C/year. This time-invariant HANPP may only provide for the current global population of 6.51 billion equitably at the current average consumption of 1.49 t C per capita, calling into question the sustainability of developing countries striving for high-consuming country levels of 5.85 t C per capita and its impacts on equitable resource distribution. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.

Prioritizing county-level well-being: Moving toward assessment of Gulf Coast counties impacted by the Deepwater Horizon Industrial Disaster

To develop a portfolio of indicators and measures that could best measure changes in the social, economic, environmental and health dimensions of well-being in coastal counties we convened a group of experts March 8-9, 2011 in Charleston, SC, U.S.A. The region of interest was of the northern Gulf of Mexico, specifically, those coastal counties most impacted during the explosion and subsequent oil spill from the Macondo Prospect wellhead during the summer of 2010. Over the course of the two-day workshop participants moved through presentations and facilitated sessions to identify and prioritize potential indicators and measures deemed most valuable for capturing changes in well-being related to changes in or disruption of ecosystem services. The experts reached consensus on a list of indicators that are now being operationalized by NOAA researchers. The ultimate goal of this research project is to determine whether a meaningful set of social and economic indicators can be developed to document changes in well-being that occur as a result of changes in ecosystem services. The outcomes and outputs from the workshop that is the subject of this report helped us to identify high-quality indicators useful for measuring well-being.

Monitoring well-being and changing environmental conditions in coastal communities: development of an assessment method

The intersection of social and environmental forces is complex in coastal communities. The well-being of a coastal community is caught up in the health of its environment, the stability of its economy, the provision of services to its residents, and a multitude of other factors. With this in mind, the project investigators sought to develop an approach that would enable researchers to measure these social and environmental interactions. The concept of well-being proved extremely useful for this purpose. Using the Gulf of Mexico as a regional case study, the research team developed a set of composite indicators to be used for monitoring well-being at the county-level. The indicators selected for the study were: Social Connectedness, Economic Security, Basic Needs, Health, Access to Social Services, Education, Safety, Governance, and Environmental Condition. For each of the 37 sample counties included in the study region, investigators collected and consolidated existing, secondary data representing multiple aspects of objective well-being. To conduct a longitudinal assessment of changing wellbeing and environmental conditions, data were collected for the period of 2000 to 2010. The team focused on the Gulf of Mexico because the development of a baseline of well-being would allow NOAA and other agencies to better understand progress made toward recovery in communities affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. However, the broader purpose of the project was to conceptualize and develop an approach that could be adapted to monitor how coastal communities are doing in relation to a variety of ecosystem disruptions and associated interventions across all coastal regions in the U.S. and its Territories. The method and models developed provide substantial insight into the structure and significance of relationships between community well-being and environmental conditions. Further, this project has laid the groundwork for future investigation, providing a clear path forward for integrated monitoring of our nation’s coasts. The research and monitoring capability described in this document will substantially help counties, local organizations, as well state and federal agencies that are striving to improve all facets of community well-being.

Investigating the link between well-being and energy use; an explorative case study between passive and active domestic energy management systems

The aim of this study was to explore how the remote control of appliances/lights (active energy management system) affected household well-being, compared to in-home displays (passive energy management system). A six-week exploratory study was conducted with 14 participants divided into the following three groups: active; passive; and no equipment. The effect on well-being was measured through thematic analysis of two semi-structured interviews for each participant, administered at the start and end of the study. The well-being themes were based on existing measures of Satisfaction and Affect. The energy demand for each participant was also measured for two weeks without intervention, and then compared after four weeks with either the passive or active energy management systems. These measurements were used to complement the well-being analysis. Overall, the measure of Affect increased in the passive group but Satisfaction decreased; however, all three measures on average decreased in the active group. The measured energy demand also highlighted a disconnect between well-being and domestic energy consumption. The results point to a need for further investigation in this field; otherwise, there is a risk that nationally implemented energy management solutions may negatively affect our happiness and well-being. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

The effects of prayer on Muslim patients' well-being

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Islamic prayer (du’a, dhikr, and Qur’anic recitation) on Muslim patients. Relying on the Qur’an and sunnah, Islamic scholars state that prayer has positive effects on patients’ psychological and physical well-being. To examine this, the principal investigator recruited 60 adult in-patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Patients completed questionnaires that were used to assess the respondents’ psychological/emotional well being as well as determine the level of religiosity or spirituality (from an Islamic perspective). Vital sign recordings and self-report surveys were used before and after prayer sessions to measure effects of prayer. A non-religious text served as a control. Results support the hypothesis of the positive effects of prayer. A greater degree of religiosity/spirituality was associated with better psychological health. Physical changes were clinically insignificant but statistically meaningful.

Research into the potential of short interventions in promoting well-being among adolescents

The present research examines the issue of universal interventions designed to enhance wellbeing among a community-based adolescent population. The first phase saw a cross-sectional survey conducted among Transition Year students in 13 secondary schools in Cork city and county, Republic of Ireland, with a view towards identifying dimensions linked with wellbeing (operationalised as subjective happiness, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms) and which might prove effective in informing intervention approaches. Arising from this, mindfulness, gratitude, and cognitive-behavioural dimensions emerged as predictors of wellbeing, and short interventions (four sessions/four weeks) informed by each were conducted with participant groups in three secondary schools, one intervention in each school. Results from statistical analysis showed that the mindfulness and cognitive-behavioural interventions facilitated significant reductions in depressive symptoms among active condition participants at post-test, but that these benefits were not sustained over time, while no statistically significant changes were detected on subjective happiness and life satisfaction. The gratitude intervention was found to have had no effect on the three outcome variables. The findings are discussed in the context of theory and past research, while limitations, implications, and possible future directions are also addressed.

Psychosocial well-being of African migrant children in Ireland: a cultural orientation

This thesis explores the psychosocial wellbeing of sub-Saharan African migrant children in Ireland. A sociocultural ecological (Psychosocial Working Group, 2003) and resilience lens (Masten & Obradovic, 2008; Ungar, 2011) is used to analyse the experiences of African migrant children in Ireland. The research strategy employs a mixed-methods design, combining both an etic and emic perspective. Grounded theory inquiry (Strauss and Corbin, 1994) explores the experiences of African migrant children in Ireland by drawing on multi-sited observations over a period of six months in 2009, and on interviews and focus group discussions conducted with African children (aged 13-18), mothers and fathers. An emically derived ‘African Migrant Child Psychosocial Well-being’ scale was developed by drawing on data gathered through rapid ethnographic (RAE) free listing exercises carried out in Cork, Dublin and Dundalk with sixty-one participants (N=21 adults, N=28 15-18-year-olds, N=12 12-14-year-olds) and three African community key informants to elicit local understandings of psychosocial well-being. This newly developed scale was used alongside standardised measures of well-being to quantitatively measure the psychosocial adjustment of 233 African migrant children in Cork, Dublin and Dundalk aged 11-18. Findings indicate that the psychosocial wellbeing of the study population is satisfactory when benchmarked against the psychosocial health profile of Irish youth (Dooley & Fitzgerald, 2012). These findings are similar to trends reported in international literature in this field (Georgiades et al., 2006; Gonneke, Stevens, Vollebergh, 2008; Sampson et al., 2005). Study findings have implications for advancing psychosocial research methods with non-Western populations and on informing the practice of Irish professionals, mainly in the areas of teaching, psychology and community work.

The effect of positive psychological interventions on psychological and physical well-being during pregnancy

Prenatal well-being can have significant effects on the mother and developing foetus. Positive psychological interventions, including gratitude and mindfulness, consistently demonstrate benefits for well-being in diverse populations. No research has been conducted on gratitude during pregnancy; the few studies of prenatal mindfulness interventions have demonstrated well-being benefits. The current study examined the effects of gratitude and mindfulness interventions on prenatal maternal well-being, cortisol and birth outcomes. Five studies were conducted. Study 1 was a systematic review of mindfulness intervention effects on cortisol; this highlighted potential benefits of mindfulness but the need for rigorous protocols in future research. In Study 2 a gratitude and a mindfulness intervention were developed and evaluated; findings indicate usefulness of two 3 week interventions. Study 3 examined the effects of these interventions in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of non-pregnant women, before examining a pregnant group. No significant intervention effects were found in this study, potentially due to insufficient power and poor protocol adherence. Changes in expected directions were observed for most outcomes and the potential utility of a combined gratitude and mindfulness intervention was noted. In Study 4 a gratitude during pregnancy (GDP) scale was developed and the reliability of an existing mindfulness measure (MAAS) was examined in a pregnant group. Both scales were found to be suitable and reliable measures in pregnancy. Study 5 incorporated the findings of the previous four studies to examine of the effect of a combined mindfulness and gratitude intervention with a group of pregnant women. Forty-six participants took part in a 5-week RCT that examined intervention effects on prenatal gratitude, mindfulness, happiness, satisfaction with life, social support, prenatal stress, depression and sleep. Findings indicated that the intervention improved sleep quality and that effects for prenatal distress were approaching significance. Issues of attrition and non-compliance to study protocols were problematic and are discussed. In summary, the current thesis highlights the need for robust measurement, and intervention and cortisol sampling protocols in future research, particularly with pregnant groups. Findings also demonstrate tentative benefits of a gratitude and mindfulness intervention during pregnancy.

The Golden Rule Ethic, its Measurement, and Relationships with Well-Being and Prosocial Values Across Four Religions in India

As a psychological principle, the golden rule represents an ethic of universal empathic concern. It is, surprisingly, present in the sacred texts of virtually all religions, and in philosophical works across eras and continents. Building on the literature demonstrating a positive impact of prosocial behavior on well-being, the present study investigates the psychological function of universal empathic concern in Indian Hindus, Christians, Muslims and Sikhs.

I develop a measure of the centrality of the golden rule-based ethic, within an individual’s understanding of his or her religion, that is applicable to all theistic religions. I then explore the consistency of its relationships with psychological well-being and other variables across religious groups.

Results indicate that this construct, named Moral Concern Religious Focus, can be reliably measured in disparate religious groups, and consistently predicts well-being across them. With measures of Intrinsic, Extrinsic and Quest religious orientations in the model, only Moral Concern and religiosity predict well-being. Moral Concern alone mediates the relationship between religiosity and well-being, and explains more variance in well-being than religiosity alone. The relationship between Moral Concern and well-being is mediated by increased preference for prosocial values, more satisfying interpersonal relationships, and greater meaning in life. In addition, across religious groups Moral Concern is associated with better self-reported physical and mental health, and more compassionate attitudes toward oneself and others.

Two additional types of religious focus are identified: Personal Gain, representing the motive to use religion to improve one’s life, and Relationship with God. Personal Gain is found to predict reduced preference for prosocial values, less meaning in life, and lower quality of relationships. It is associated with greater interference of pain and physical or mental health problems with daily activities, and lower self-compassion. Relationship with God is found to be associated primarily with religious variables and greater meaning in life.

I conclude that individual differences in the centrality of the golden rule and its associated ethic of universal empathic concern may play an important role in explaining the variability in associations between religion, prosocial behavior and well-being noted in the literature.

Influences of the Oceans on Human Health and Well-Being

Human health and well-being are tied to the vitality of the global ocean and coastal systems on which so many live and rely. We engage with these extraordinary environments to enhance both our health and our well-being. But, we need to recognize that introducing contaminants and otherwise altering these ocean systems can harm human health and well-being in significant and substantial ways. These are complex, challenging, and critically important themes. How the human relationship to the oceans evolves in coming decades may be one of the most important connections in understanding our personal and social well-being. Yet, our understanding of this relationship is far too limited. This remarkable volume brings experts from diverse disciplines and builds a workable understanding of breadth and depth of the processes – both social and environmental – that will help us to limit future costs and enhance the benefits of sustainable marine systems. In particular, the authors have developed a shared view that the global coastal environment is under threat through intensified natural resource utilization, as well as changes to global climate and other environmental systems. All these changes contribute individually, but more importantly cumulatively, to higher risks for public health and to the global burden of disease. This pioneering book will be of value to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in public health, environmental, economic, and policy fields. Additionally, the treatment of these complex systems is of essential value to the policy community responsible for these questions and to the broader audience for whom these issues are more directly connected to their own health and well-being.