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