Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-160).

Människor har i alla tider funderat kring vad livskvalitet innebär och begreppets innebörd har varierat över tid. Levnadsstandard har länge varit ett mått på livskvalitet, men denna syn har kritiserats allt mer för att inte ta hänsyn till mänskliga värden. I och med en förbättrad levnadsstandard har samhället blivit mer individualistiskt som innebär stora valmöjligheter för individen att bestämma hur den vill leva sitt liv. Detta väckte vårt intresse att studera vad människor i vår tid värderar i sina liv och varför? Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur människor i dagens samhälle uppfattar fenomenet livskvalitet. Vi har använt oss av ostrukturerade intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod. Urvalet består av fem informanter mellan 22 till 83 år som befinner sig i olika livssituationer. Resultatet visar att informanternas uppfattning av fenomenet livskvalitet karaktäriseras av mänskliga värden som att känna gemenskap, uppleva frihet och att utvecklas som människa. Informanterna uppfattar även att livskvalitet är något som skapas i vardagen och påverkas av deras olika förhållningssätt till livet. Dessa delar samverkar och bidrar till en upplevelse av välbefinnande och tillfredställelse med livet som helhet.

Befolkningens fysiska aktivitet har minskat och psykiskt nedsatt välbefinnande har blivit ett folkhälsoproblem. Därför är denna uppsats intresserad och undersöka skillnader i välmående för grupper med olika träningsvanor. Detta för att om det finns någon träningsform som är högre associerad med högt välmående så kunde den rekommenderas för dem som vill öka och befästa välmående. Grupperna som valdes var de som tränar styrka, kondition eller båda två. Undersökningen var också intresserad av att se om det var någon skillnad på dem som utövade idrott i förening eller inte samt de som tränade styrketräning eller kondition med andra eller inte. För att undersöka detta så fick personer fylla i en enkät om deras träningsvanor samt ett formulär som mäter välmående. Resultaten bearbetades i spss och visade att det flesta hade relativt högt välmående och inga stora skillnader mellan olika träningsformer kunde studeras. De som var högaktiva i konditonsträning, som tränade i förening och som alltid tränade med tillsammans med andra hade ett mycket högt medelvärde på välmående. Slutsats: för att höja välmående med träning bör den form som man är motiverad att träna rekommenderas men om man inte har så mycket tid att disponera till träning och målet endast är välmående så kan konditionsträning rekommenderas då den träningen var associerat med högst välmående med mindre träningstid för dem som var högaktiva i någon träningsform. Att idrotta i förening eller träna med vän eller i grupp kan också rekommenderas. / The physical activity in the population has reduced and low mental well-being has become a big problem in the country. This paper is therefore interested in study differences in wellbeing in groups with different training habits. Groups that trains either strength, endurance or both was chosen. This because if someone of these forms is stronger associated with wellbeing it could be recommended for those who would like to make their well-being higher. This paper was also interested to see if sport in organized form or training with a friend or group was associated with higher well-being than those who did not. To find this out a survey about forms of training and well-being was used to collect data. The results was analyzed in spss and it was shown that the most groups in this study hade a relatively high well-being and only small differences between the groups could be found. The groups who were highly active in endurance training, was member in organized sport and those who trained with a friend or in a group had the highest well-being. Conclusion: to get a higher well-being with training that form which the person is motivated is recommended but if that persons only goal is to achieve ha higher well-being and not so much time would like to be spent on training endurance training can be recommended because to be highly active in that was associated with better well-being than strength training. To be part of organized sport and to train with a friend or in group can also be recommended.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a commonly diagnosed mental health condition among children and adolescents, with studies suggesting that OCD has the potential for significant disruption of academic and social performance. Subjective well-being (SWB) represents a non-traditional conceptualization of mental health within the dual factor model, wherein SWB and measures of psychopathology (e.g., problematic levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors) provide a more comprehensive picture of mental wellness. The current study examined the nature of the relationship between clinical characteristics of pediatric OCD and SWB within school-age youth (N=65) seeking treatment from an outpatient pediatric neuropsychiatric clinic. Additionally, the potential for moderation of this relationship by various symptom-related and demographic variables was examined, as was the potential for SWB to moderate the relationship between clinical characteristics of pediatric OCD and associated impairments in academic and general functioning. Results indicated that a majority of the sample (n=58; 89.2%) met or exceeded the clinically significant threshold for OCD symptoms, while roughly half of the sample (n=33; 50.8%) endorsed significant levels of academic impairment associated with symptom onset. Subjective well being varied among participants, with levels of SWB showing a statistically significant negative relationship with obsessive thoughts, but little to no relationship with compulsive behaviors. Finally, results of multiple regression analyses failed to identify variables that effectively moderated the relationship between clinical characteristics of pediatric OCD and SWB. Similarly, SWB was not indicated as a moderator of the relationship between clinical characteristics of pediatric OCD and academic functioning. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

The goal of this dissertation is to contribute to the new field of happiness economics which over the past several decades has substantially enhanced our understanding of cognitive judgment, human behavior, and the nature of happiness. Chapter 1 starts with a discussion of the subjective approach to measuring well-being and lays the foundation for the empirical work that follows in chapters 2 and 3. This approach has a strong appeal because ancient and modern cultures, and a long tradition in philosophy, view achieving happiness as the ultimate goal of human existence. It also recognizes that humans are the best judges of their own condition. In this first chapter, I discuss some common ambiguities related to the term happiness and outline some of the most common ways in which subjective well-being (SWB)data is measured. Next, I discuss how reliable subjective well-being data is and what are some of its strengths and weaknesses in the context of economic research. Some major insights from the growing literature on happiness economics are also provided and alternative approaches to measuring quality of life (and well-being) are suggested in the last section. One puzzle in the happiness economics literature has been that although real incomes have substantially improved over the past 40 years, happiness levels in the United States have stagnated. In chapter 2, I show that the rising level of income inequality in the United States since the 1970s can explain the stagnating happiness levels of Americans. First, using subjective well-being data from the General Social Survey, I estimate the concavity of the utility function within a neo-utilitarian framework of welfare analysis and calculate the Atkinson index of inequality. Although the estimates suggests that Americans have become increasingly more inequality-averse over time, the results suggest that the concavity of the utility function alone cannot explain the happiness patterns observed in the past several decades. Once I account for the negative external cost from economic inequality, however, the empirical analysis implies that economic growth has not been sufficient to compensate for the loss of subjective well-being associated with the rising level of inequality. This is consistent with the findings of several different surveys on subjective well-being. Finally, I evaluate the equality-efficiency trade-off in the US, and discover a small and positive trade-off. Chapter 3 considers another important policy topic in recent years -- the increasing cost of college tuition and the scrutinized value of higher education. Using subjective well-being data, I show that higher education has a large non-monetary (happiness) return that goes beyond the benefit of finding a better paid and more satisfying job. A person with a high school degree, for instance, would have to earn \$41,683 more per year to be equally as happy as somebody with a college degree that has a similar socio-economic background. This large non-monetary return is associated with better marriage, health, and parenting choices, and stronger social networks that translate into higher levels of interpersonal trust. The lion's share of this non-monetary return is earned in college while the majority of the returns from graduate school are associated with higher salary. This return varies among the different subgroups of the population. Women, for example, benefit twice as much from a college education as men, and this non-monetary return has slightly increased over time. This may explain, at least partially, the increase in demand for college education over the past 30 years, and the unprecedented rise in the price of college tuition. It is hypothesized that one way in which education works is to change the attitudes, values, and behavior of students. Higher education, for example, makes students more open-minded, tolerant, and risk-averse. Evidence in support of this hypothesis is found by estimating the coefficient of risk (and inequality) aversion. Finally, using subjective well-being data from the European Value Study, the average non-monetary return from higher education is also calculated for Europeans and compared to that in the United States. Although higher education is also found to have a positive effect on happiness in Europe, the non-monetary returns are much larger in the United States. Furthermore, contrary to the United States, the direct effect of education on happiness in Europe is substantial, while the indirect effect is negligible.

Planners often invoke wellbeing, sustainability, and related concepts when discussing planning initiatives, all of which are contested within their own separate literatures. Some of these planners, however, have begun drawing connections between the disciplines, a connection that very few in the planning academic literature are recognizing and studying. Using the Greater Victoria Happiness Index Partnership (HIP) in British Columbia as its primary case study, this thesis draws upon HIP’s experience in creating regional wellbeing indicators to better understand this relationship. It will investigate the efficacy of their efforts in affecting regional policy, explore their as well as the academic understandings of the wellbeing/sustainable development relationship, and draw recommendations that ultimately suggest a new means of applying this relationship in planning and other realms of public policy. / text

published_or_final_version / Gerontology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The author examined the effect of personality traits and the buffering effect of social support on psychological well-being of primary school teachers in inclusive education in Hong Kong. A sample of 200 Chinese teachers was surveyed. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that neuroticism was highly correlated with and accounted for depression, anxiety, and burnout in our sample. Family support was found to have significant main effect on depression (R² = 48%, ΔR² = 3%), and anxiety (R² = 63%, ΔR² = 2%) when the main effects of neuroticism were partialled out. Significant moderating effect of family support on the relationship between neuroticism and depression was found. To further investigate the effect of marital status on this buffering model, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted with teachers who were married and those who were single, respectively. The analyses revealed significant main effects of neuroticism regardless of teachers’ marital status. Significant main effect of family support and interaction Neuroticism x Family Support were only found for married teachers. These findings have implications that family support was an important factor in mitigating psychological distress particularly for teachers who were married and reported high level of neuroticism. Interventions of enhancing family support and school support were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Research suggests that the deployment cycle is associated with decreased psychological well-being in military spouses, yet not all individuals married to military service members experience psychopathology. It may be that spouses who do not experience reduced well-being possess personal resources, such as positive emotions, that protect them against the stresses of military life. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to determine the effect of deployment on the well-being of military spouses and examine whether personal resources protected military spouses and enhanced their wellbeing throughout the deployment cycle. A synthesis of the existing literature was performed in order to determine the direction and magnitude of the effect of deployment on the psychological well-being of military spouses. For the primary analyses, participants were drawn from a convenience sample of military spouses stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. Meta-analysis, hierarchical linear regression, and structural equation modeling were used to test study hypotheses. In the first study, a meta-analytic review, deployment was found to have a moderate effect on psychological well-being, such that spouses experienced greater psychological problems during deployment. Two studies were conducted as part of the primary analyses. In the first, positivity was found to moderate the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms during deployment. Specifically, the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms was stronger for spouses with low levels of positivity. Finally, the third study found that adaptive coping, maladaptive coping, and resilience completely mediated the relationship between positive emotions and depressive symptoms. Of the three mediators, adaptive coping was found to be the most influential. Together, the results of these three studies illuminate the detrimental effect of deployment on the psychological well-being of military spouses, while providing support for the broaden-and-build theory's proposed roles of positive emotions -- broadening, building, and undoing -- in a unique population. Study limitations, implications for military spouses, and suggestions for future directions in research are discussed.

Research has shown that caregivers are confronted with a number of stressors such as burnout, compassion fatigue, and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of being in direct or close contact with the people suffering from chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS. However, relevant and professional training, and effective self-care strategies could prevent such stressors. Using the “Individual Interviews with Formal Caregivers” dataset, this study looked at the experiences of seventeen caregivers who provided care to stigmatized and low income people of living with HIV/AIDS. The study sought to understand how the well-being of caregivers was impacted by providing care to stigmatized and low income people living with HIV/AIDS in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Also, it examined how formal caregivers perceived their relationship with people living with HIV/AIDS at their care. The findings suggested that caregivers were confronted with and experienced stressors such as burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress due to having direct and close relationships with people living with HIV/AIDS in their care. Medical caregivers treating HIV/AIDS patients perceived these as formal professional relationships; however, most caregivers working in community support, community outreach, and education sectors understood their caregiving relationships with people living with HIV/AIDS as that of supporter and helper. There was not much research on how caregivers in HIV/AIDS sector perceived their relationships with people living with HIV in their care, so further research is needed to explore the nature of the relationship between the caregiver and care recipients. Finally, this study enriched the existing research on this topic by providing an insight on how caregivers in HIV sector perceive their relationships with individuals living with HIV/ AIDS in their care. / October 2015