August 4, 2023
by Elizabeth Pratt
Children who read for pleasure experience better mental health during adolescence as well as superior performance in cognitive tests.
Research published in Psychological Medicine found that roughly 12 hours of reading per week was the perfect amount associated with an improvement in brain structure.
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July 31, 2023
by Elizabeth Pratt
Ever heard that laughter is the best medicine? Now science backs it up.
Researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK have found that both laughter and humor are important tools that can impact wellbeing, particularly in the workplace and in health related settings.
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February 27, 2023
by Elizabeth Pratt
Enjoying time in nature close to home is associated with a greater sense of wellbeing compared with longer and more intense nature excursions.
Research published in People and Nature found that nearby nature engagement had greater positive outcomes overall compared to experiencing nature second hand through media or through more strenuous excursions in nature.
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November 1, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology looked at the mechanisms underlying childhood exposure to blue spaces and adult subjective well-being. “Our study is about the benefits of childhood contact with blue spaces, a collective name to indicate all the areas with waterbodies or watercourses, such as the sea, lakes and rivers,” study author Valeria Vitale told us. “We were hoping to find a positive link between the exposure to blue spaces during childhood and adult well-being and explore potential pathways that may explain this relationship.”
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July 13, 2021
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in JAMA looked at exposure to family member incarceration and adult wellbeing in the United States. “Our study investigated how the incarceration of a family member is associated with wellbeing and life expectancy,” study author Dr. Ram Sundaresh told us. “We suspected that having a family member incarcerated would be associated with lower wellbeing and life expectancy.”
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March 19, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
Lab based studies of emotional and wellbeing may be missing real world anxiety.
A study from Duke published in PLOS One found that the background level of anxiety a person may normally experience could change how they behave in a lab setting. This could have important implications for research into wellbeing and emotional health.
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November 24, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
When it comes to overall wellbeing, how a person uses social media could have a significant impact.
In a study from The University of British Columbia, Derrick Wirtz, an associate professor of teaching in psychology examined the use of three popular social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to see how the use of the platforms impacted the overall wellbeing of a person.
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September 30, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
Doing good deeds and being kind to others can be good for health and wellbeing.
Research published by the American Psychological Association found pro-social behavior like acts of kindness and helping others could be beneficial, but not all good deeds could provide equal benefits.
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December 6, 2019
by Tina Arnoldi
A recent study by Barna, an evangelical Christian polling firm, asked 15,000 people aged 18 to 35 across 25 countries about their mental health and how it relates to churchgoing habits. The findings suggest that there are connections between practicing faith and overall well-being.
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September 6, 2019
by Tina Arnoldi
New Zealand has a $1 billion well-being budget with five priorities for the happiness of its citizens (mental health, family violence, clean energy, digital innovation, and supporting indigenous people). Supporters of the budget feel happiness is a better metric for wellbeing than economic measures. Critics feel it’s a marketing campaign that minimizes the importance of GDP and the government’s role is to focus on economics metrics rather than individual happiness.
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