Journal of Happiness and Health

College students experience a wide range of academic, developmental, and societal stressors, placing them at increased risk for psychological distress and poor mental health. Mindfulness-based virtual reality (MBVR) interventions have shown growing promise in supporting student mental well-being. Recent research has called for a shift from solely reducing psychological symptoms toward promoting positive psychological outcomes. Therefore, this pilot study examined the effectiveness of an MBVR program in enhancing life satisfaction, happiness, and flourishing among college students. This study utilized TRIPP, a commercially available VR application. A total of 19 college students participated in eight 15-minute sessions over the course of one month. Survey instruments were administered at two time points: prior to the intervention (T1) and after its completion (T2). Paired samples t-tests revealed statistically significant improvements in participants’ life satisfaction, happiness, and flourishing levels following the intervention. The findings suggest that MBVR holds promise as a proactive and engaging tool for promoting mental well-being in non-clinical, preventive settings such as college campuses. Furthermore, while prior research has primarily focused on alleviating symptoms such as anxiety and depression, this study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that MBVR can also enhance positive psychological outcomes. Future research should utilize larger, more diverse samples to improve the generalizability of these findings. Several practical implications for educators and practitioners are discussed.

The CliftonStrengths® assessment has demonstrated merit across a variety of contexts. However, research involving the intersection of strengths and sport is sparse. This is the first study to examine the prevalence of strengths in athletes and coaches (N = 1,516) from college, high school/club, and Olympian/USA team/professional teams. Participants completed the standardized online CliftonStrengths® assessment independently, received their personalized reports identifying their top five signature strengths, and voluntarily shared their results with the researchers for database inclusion and future analysis. This study also compared the prevalence of each strength to a general public sample of 12.5+ million individuals. The top five signature strengths among athletes were: Restorative, Achiever, Adaptability, Competition, and Strategic. The top five signature strengths among coaches were: Achiever, Restorative, Learner, Relator, and Responsibility. It was notable to find Restorative as the highest-ranking strength among all types of athletes combined, and when comparing the combined athlete and coach sample to the general public sample, there was a much lower ranking of the Input strength (for athletes and coaches) and the Responsibility strength (specifically for athletes). These findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided.

This study set out to investigate the psychometric properties of the Hopelessness and Helplessness Scale (HHS), which was designed to measure an individual’s levels of hopelessness and helplessness. First, the structural validity of the scale was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. The results supported a two-factor model with an acceptable model fit. Convergent validity was investigated using correlations with the subscales of the Hopelessness, Helplessness, and Haplessness Scale; and criterion-related validity via correlations with depression and anxiety symptoms assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory. All correlations were positive and statistically significant at the p < .001 level.  The reliability findings of the scale indicate that the calculated Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega (ω) values demonstrate high internal consistency for both subdimensions. Furthermore, measurement invariance across gender and between student and non-student groups was examined using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. The results supported configural, metric, scalar, and strict invariance, indicating that the HHS is a psychometrically robust instrument suitable for comparative research across gender and academic status

Emotional suppression is a common emotion regulation strategy, including among individuals with chronic health conditions and within certain cultural or gendered norms. Although widely used as an emotional regulation strategy, research has consistently linked suppression to poorer wellbeing outcomes. In people with chronic health conditions in particular, evidence has strongly indicated that emotional suppression has detrimental effects on factors including physical health and disease progression. This study aimed to examine the relationship between emotional suppression and wellbeing, and to explore whether this relationship was moderated by the presence of a chronic health condition. A total of 64 participants completed measures of emotional suppression, wellbeing, and chronic health status. Correlational analyses revealed a significant negative association between emotional suppression and wellbeing. A multiple linear regression showed that emotional suppression significantly predicted lower wellbeing, and that the interaction between emotional suppression and chronic condition status was not statistically significant, though it trended in the expected direction. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence highlighting the emotional costs of suppression and may have implications for healthcare practices and societal norms surrounding emotional expression. Clinical implications of the findings include highlighting the need for healthcare providers to consider patients’ emotional regulation strategies when supporting individuals with chronic health conditions. The study’s limited sample size and lack of cultural diversity highlight the need for caution in generalising findings. Future research should explore whether the chronicity and severity of chronic health conditions influence any variance in emotional suppression and use more balanced group sizes.

The present mixed-methods study investigated the role of various predictors of meaning in life (MIL) in individuals with dysautonomia, a condition growing in prevalence with increasing reports of long-COVID (LC), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and similar manifestations. Specifically, this study examined total autonomic symptom count, duration of symptoms, religious practice status (yes/no while living with the condition), and age as predictors of Search for and Presence of MIL. In the sample, 50.8% reported LC or a similar post-viral syndrome as at least one contributing factor. Participants (N = 305), aged 18-68 years (M = 34.09, SD = 10.98), were members of online dysautonomia support groups internationally. Symptom duration and active religious practice were positively associated with Presence of MIL, whereas higher symptom count was negatively associated. This suggests that those who have lived with the condition longer and those who practiced a religion while living with dysautonomia may have a greater capacity to find MIL. Critically, higher symptom count was associated with less meaning. Age was the only significant predictor of Search for meaning, with older participants reporting a lesser need to search. Importantly, associations between the predictors and Presence of MIL did not differ significantly between etiological subgroups, indicating that these predictors relate to Presence of MIL similarly across groups with different etiological and symptomatic profiles. Qualitative responses were analyzed thematically to contextualize and enrich quantitative findings.