Publications

Recent increases in family homelessness place children at heightened risk for long-term health challenges. Research has shown that long-term rental subsidies reduce emotional-behavioral and sleep problems among children in homeless families, but the pathways driving these effects are not well understood. This study examined mediating pathways between assignment to housing assistance interventions and improvements in children’s emotional-behavioral and sleep outcomes three years later. We used data from the Family Options Study (FOS), a randomized controlled trial by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, which enrolled approximately 2,300 families that experienced an emergency shelter stay across 12 US sites. Findings from mediation models adjusting for baseline family and child characteristics to test five candidate mediators—homelessness, intimate partner violence, food insecurity, economic stress, psychological distress—as potential pathways linking housing interventions with children’s emotional-behavioral and sleep problems indicated that approximately half (50.7%) of the impact of priority access to long-term rental subsidies (versus usual care) on decreased child emotional-behavior problems operated indirectly through lowered parent stressors, specifically economic and psychological distress. Conversely, the impact of priority access to long-term rental subsidies on decreased child sleep problems was predominantly direct, with minimal evidence of mediation. These findings suggest that stabilizing housing is foundational for children, and its benefits extend to family well-being. Additional research is needed to identify other modifiable pathways to improved child health.

Objectives: Housing insecurity is increasingly prevalent among older adults in the US, yet the factors that contribute to housing-related distress in this population remain inadequately understood. This study examined how changes in a comprehensive set of physical health, health behaviors, psychosocial, and economic factors are associated with subsequent housing distress, and explored differences by military veteran status.

Methods: We analyzed three waves of prospective data from a national sample of US adults aged 50+ years (Health and Retirement Study, N = 13,771). Sixty-five candidate predictors spanning physical health, health behaviors, psychological well-being and distress, and social and economic domains were assessed for associations with housing distress four years later. Multivariable analyses were conducted adjusting for a range of potential confounders. Results were further stratified by military veteran status.

Results: Eleven of the candidate predictors were significantly associated with subsequent housing distress (after Bonferroni correction), with at least one significant predictor observed in the domains of psychological well-being (4/6; e.g., decreased life satisfaction), psychological distress (3/12; e.g., increased perceived constraints), and social (2/23; e.g., increased social strain from children) and economic (2/6; decrease financial mastery) factors. Stratified results by veteran status suggested differences in the strength associations in each subsample.

Discussion: Results identify a range of modifiable risk and protective factors associated with housing distress among older adults. These findings suggest several promising intervention targets to mitigate housing insecurity in this population, with consideration of potential differences by veteran status.

Housing insecurity is increasing among older adults in the U.S., yet the impact of housing-related distress on health and well-being in this population is understudied. This study uses three waves of prospective data from a national sample of U.S. adults aged 50+ years (Health and Retirement Study, N = 12,998) to examine associations between housing distress and 35 indicators of physical, behavioral, and psychosocial health and well-being four years later. We also assess differences by military veteran status in stratified analyses. After adjustment for a rich set of potential confounders, we found that housing distress was associated with most (7/12) indicators of psychological well-being and distress (e.g., lower life satisfaction, purpose; higher depressive symptoms, hopelessness), some (3/14) indicators of physical health (e.g., more chronic conditions, lower self-rated health), and higher loneliness, but was not associated with health behaviors after correction for multiple testing. Results stratified by veteran status indicated stronger associations among non-veterans. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to reduce housing insecurity among older adults and mitigate its psychological and physical health consequences.

Homelessness impacts entire families, with potential intergenerational consequences. Addressing family homelessness provides both immediate relief and long-term societal benefits. While various programs exist to mitigate homelessness, the United States (US) Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program offers a distinctive model for combating homelessness among veterans by supporting their families as well. We analyzed VA SSVF administrative data from 2014 to 2022, covering over 800,000 program entries from all SSVF beneficiaries in the US, to describe the sociodemographic profiles of SSVF veteran families—including children and adult family members of veterans. Families receiving SSVF assistance faced substantial economic and health-related challenges, including high unemployment, single-income dependency, and service-related disabilities. Children in these families represent a particularly vulnerable population, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to prevent long-term adverse outcomes. Our findings point to the role of SSVF in providing essential support for homeless veterans by also offering important services to their families. This broader approach offers lessons that may extend beyond the veteran community to address homelessness in individuals nationwide. Expanding coordinated, multi-agency approaches that build upon and modify the SSVF model could strengthen national efforts to reduce homelessness.

As homelessness remains an urgent public health crisis in the United States, specific programs in the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system may serve as a roadmap for addressing it. We examine lessons learned from the first decade (2012–2022) of the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, a cornerstone in the VA continuum of homeless services aimed at both preventing homelessness among those at risk and providing rapid rehousing for veterans and their families who are currently experiencing homelessness. Drawing on information from annual reports and other relevant literature, we have identified 3 themes of SSVF that emerged as features to comprehensively deliver support for homeless veterans and their families: (1) responsiveness and flexibility, (2) coordination and integration, and (3) social resource engagement. Using these strategies, SSVF reached nearly three quarters of a million veterans and their families in its first decade, thereby becoming one of the VA’s most substantial programmatic efforts designed to address homelessness. We discuss how each feature might apply to addressing homelessness in the general population as well as future research directions.

Although prior research suggests that residential instability during adolescence can have long-term impacts on health and wellbeing, few studies have identified a robust comparison group and considered a broad set of outcomes. To address these knowledge gaps, we examined the associations between residential instability during adolescence and a wide range of adult health and wellbeing outcomes using an outcome-wide design in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We defined residential instability as two or more moves between Waves I and II (ages 13–18 years). We assessed outcomes at ages 33–43 years (Wave V) in nine domains: biomarkers, physical health, health behaviors, psychological distress, psychological wellbeing, social behaviors, social wellbeing, trauma/victimization, and socioeconomic attainment. Results of doubly-robust targeted maximum likelihood estimation, adjusting for pre-exposure values of the outcome variables and cofounders (Wave I), showed little evidence of an association for certain outcomes, all of which disappeared after accounting for multiple comparisons. Our results suggest that residential instability in adolescence does not lead to worse health and wellbeing in adulthood, but rather, outcome differences between groups are due to pre-existing differences prior to residential instability in adolescence.

This study used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health, N = 11,054) to assess whether increases in screen-based leisure during adolescence (Wave II, from 1996) predicted adult well-being (Wave IV, from 2008-09), adjusting for a wide range of covariates (Wave I, from 1995). Using an outcome-wide analytic approach, we examined associations between screen time and 38 adult outcomes, adjusting for prior screen time, values of most outcomes, and confounders. Most associations were null. Modest evidence was found for links between screen time (continuous) and reduced sense of control, illicit drug use, and allostatic load. High screen time (14 h/week) or more also showed weak associations with lower depression and preventive care use. Because the data predate widespread internet use, the findings help establish a baseline for the long-term effects of non-internet screen activities, which appeared to behave had limited impact on adult health and well-being.

Concern is growing that social disconnection poses serious risks to health and well-being, especially for adolescents. Yet without clear evidence on which relational factors (e.g., parent-child, sibling, romantic, and friend relationships; connectedness to families, schools, and neighborhoods) matter most, designing effective, developmentally attuned interventions remains difficult. To address this question, we used data from a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents (Add Health) and an outcome-wide approach to prospectively test whether one-year changes (between Wave I: 1994–1995 and Wave II: 1996) in 15 social factors, spanning structural, functional, and quality domains, were associated with 34 indicators of health and well-being 11.37 years later (in Wave IV: 2008, N = 11,040) or 20.64 years later (in Wave V: 2016–2018, N = 9003), adjusting for an extensive set of covariates. The outcome-wide framework fits a series of regression models for the relationship between one predictor and a set of outcomes (one outcome analyzed at a time), adjusting for the same set of covariates in each regression model. Six factors (school connectedness, loneliness, emotional support, neighborhood cohesion, religious service attendance, and family cohesion) showed associations with at least one-quarter of outcomes. Associations were most consistent in psychological well-being, mental health, and civic/prosocial domains. Strengthening school connectedness and emotional support, and reducing loneliness, appear especially promising for fostering long-term health.

Transformative religious/spiritual experiences (RSE) represent a subset of extraordinary experiences that are both self-destabilizing and relational in nature. This double-edged quality positions transformative RSE as both a potential source of psychological vulnerability and a catalyst for enhanced social connectedness. This study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of transformative RSE using a nationally representative longitudinal sample of 10,529 young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health T0 (1994–1995), T1 (2001–2002), and T2 (2008). We examined associations of reporting a transformative RSE at T1 (late adolescence) on a broad range of physical, mental, behavioural, and social health and wellbeing indicators assessed at T2 (early adulthood). Primary analyses controlled for an extensive set of covariates assessed at T0 (early adolescence), with sensitivity analyses employing both liberal (T0 sociodemographic characteristics only) and conservative (contemporaneous covariates taken from T1) adjustment strategies. Antecedents (T0 correlates) of transformative RSE included adverse childhood environments, negative parental dynamics, and heightened religious involvement. Consistent T2 outcomes of transformative RSE involved some markers of mental and social vulnerability (i.e., PTSD diagnosis and loneliness), as well as increased prosocial engagement (i.e., volunteering and voting). These findings support the theorized double-edged sword effect of transformative RSE and suggest the potential role of meaning-making and integration in shaping long-term psychological and social outcomes.

Purpose: Intergovernmental organizations, such as the World Health Organization, policymakers, scientists, and the public alike are recognizing the importance of loneliness for health/well-being outcomes. However, it remains unclear if loneliness in adolescence shapes health/well-being in adulthood. We examined if increase in loneliness during adolescence was associated with worse health/well-being in adulthood, across 41 outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study using data from Add Health—a prospective and nationally representative cohort of community-dwelling U.S. adolescents. Using regression models, we evaluated if an increase in loneliness over 1 year (between Wave I, 1994–1995 and Wave II, 1996) was associated with worse health/well-being outcomes 11.37 years later (in Wave IV, 2008; N = 11,040) or 20.64 years later (in Wave V, 2016–2018; N = 9,003). Participants were aged 15.28 years at study onset and aged 28.17 or 37.20 years during the final assessment.

Results: Participants with the highest (vs. lowest) loneliness had worse outcomes on 4 (of 7) mental health outcomes (e.g., higher likelihood of depression (relative risk= 1.25, confidence interval

CI: = 1.06, 1.49, p = .010), 3 (of 4) psychological well-being outcomes (e.g., lower optimism

β = −0.12, 95% CI = −0.23, −0.01, p = .030: ), 2 (of 7) social outcomes (e.g., lower romantic relationship quality (β = −0.10, 95% CI = −0.19, 0.00, p = .043), one (of 13) physical health outcomes (e.g., higher likelihood of asthma (relative risk= 1.24, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.53, p = .041), and 0 (of 9) health behavior outcomes and 0 (of 2) civic/prosocial outcomes.

Discussion: These findings suggest the promise of testing scalable loneliness interventions and policies during adolescence to better determine their impact on various outcomes.

Purpose: To investigate whether changes in volunteering from adolescence to young adulthood are associated with subsequent health and well-being outcomes in adulthood.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

Subjects: U.S. adults from Wave IV (2008/2009; N = 12,234) and Wave V (2016-2018; N = 9,971).

Measures: Any volunteering and nine types of volunteering (independent variables) and 41 health and well-being outcomes (dependent variables) using an outcome-wide approach with multiple linear-, logistic-, and generalized linear regressions.

Results: Volunteering in young adulthood was associated with better health behaviors (e.g., 34% decreased risk of binge drinking, 95% CI

0.54, 0.81: ) and improved psychosocial and civic outcomes (e.g., lower depressive symptoms (β = −0.08, 95% CI

−0.14, −0.02: ) in adulthood. Volunteering showed little evidence of associations with other health and well-being outcomes (e.g., loneliness, (β = −0.04, 95% CI

−0.09, 0.01: )). Assessing volunteering by organization types showed a range of positive and negative outcomes. For example, volunteering in hospitals/nursing homes was associated with a 36% increased risk of high cholesterol (95% CI

1.06, 1.73: ) and volunteering with political clubs was associated with a 52% increased risk of an anxiety diagnosis (95% CI

1.13, 2.05: ).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest more work is needed to determine the conditions under which volunteering is health promoting and to minimize potential adverse effects associated with some types of volunteering.

Objective: This study investigates long-term associations between sibling love in adolescence and health and well-being in adulthood.

Background: Previous scholarship indicates that better sibling relationships have the potential to promote well-being during adolescence, yet little is known about whether greater love within sibling relationships leads to improved outcomes across life domains in adulthood.

Method: The study uses data from Add Health, a large national sample of U.S. adolescents and leverages the main study sample (N = 5,804) and sibling pairs subsample (N = 1,244) to examine longitudinal associations, using a series of regression models adjusting for a wide range of covariates, of one-year increases in love between siblings (love for siblings and love from siblings) with 32 indicators of physical health, health behavior, mental health, psychological well-being, social factors, and civic/prosocial behavior approximately 20 years later.

Results: Results indicated that greater love for siblings was associated with select outcomes in adulthood, specifically: better sleep health (reduced risk of sleep apnea and sleep disturbance) and psychological well-being (higher optimism) and civic behavior (higher likelihood of voting) in adulthood, and greater love from siblings was associated with reduced risk of anxiety and depression. Overall, greater sibling love (assessed in both directions) was not associated with the majority of outcomes assessed in adulthood.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that greater sibling love during adolescence is related to better outcomes for some important indicators of health and well-being. However, it did not show strong relationships across outcomes from domains of health and well-being. There is a need to better understand whether the associations between sibling love and long-term health are causal, and whether relevant interventions are feasible and effective.

Objective: This longitudinal study examined the associations of divine struggles with 25 psychological distress, psychological well-being, social well-being, prosociality, physical health, and health behavior outcomes assessed approximately nine years later.

Methods: We used three waves of data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (N = 4041): M1 (1995–1996), M2 (2004–2006), and M3 (2013–2014). Following the analytic template for outcome-wide longitudinal designs, our primary analysis employed a series of regression models to estimate the associations between a continuous measure of divine struggles assessed at M2 with each outcome assessed at M3. All models adjusted for a rich set of covariates, including prior values of all outcomes.

Results: There was modest evidence suggesting that divine struggles were associated with worse subsequent functioning on one or more outcomes for each domain except health behaviors (effect sizes were generally very small).

Conclusions: Divine struggles have the potential to degrade long-term functioning across multiple domains of life. Practitioners should attend to and address divine struggles in their clinical work.

Does higher perceived neighborhood social cohesion in adolescence lead to better health and well-being 10–12 years later? We evaluated this question using data from a large, prospective, and nationally representative sample of US adolescents (Add Health; N = 10,963), and an outcome-wide approach. Across 38 outcomes, perceived neighborhood social cohesion was associated with some: mental health outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, perceived stress), psychological well-being outcomes (i.e., happiness, optimism), social outcomes (i.e., loneliness, romantic relationship quality, satisfaction with parenting), and civic/prosocial outcomes (i.e., volunteering). However, it was not associated with health behaviors nor physical health outcomes. These results were maintained after robust control for a wide range of potential confounders.

Background: Several intergovernmental organizations, including the World Health Organization and United Nations, are urging countries to use well-being indicators for policymaking. This trend, coupled with increasing recognition that positive affect is beneficial for health/well-being, opens new avenues for intervening on positive affect to improve outcomes. However, it remains unclear if positive affect in adolescence shapes health/well-being in adulthood. We examined if increases in positive affect during adolescence were associated with better health/well-being in adulthood across 41 outcomes.

Methods and findings: We conducted a longitudinal cohort study using data from Add Health—a prospective and nationally representative cohort of community-dwelling U.S. adolescents. Using regression models, we evaluated if increases in positive affect over 1 year (between Wave I; 1994 to 1995 and Wave II; 1995 to 1996) were associated with better health/well-being 11.37 years later (in Wave IV; 2008; N = 11,040) or 20.64 years later (in Wave V; 2016 to 2018; N = 9,003). Participants were aged 15.28 years at study onset, and aged 28.17 or 37.20 years—during the final assessment. Participants with the highest (versus lowest) positive affect had better outcomes on 3 (of 13) physical health outcomes (e.g., higher cognition (β = 0·12, 95% CI = 0·05, 0·19, p = 0.002)), 3 (of 9) health behavior outcomes (e.g., lower physical inactivity (RR = 0·80, CI = 0·66, 0·98, p = 0.029)), 6 (of 7) mental health outcomes (e.g., lower anxiety (RR = 0·81, CI = 0·71, 0·93, p = 0.003)), 2 (of 3) psychological well-being (e.g., higher optimism (β = 0·20, 95% CI = 0·12, 0·28, p < 0.001)), 4 (of 7) social outcomes (e.g., lower loneliness (β = −0·09, 95% CI = −0·16, −0·02, p = 0.015)), and 1 (of 2) civic/prosocial outcomes (e.g., more voting (RR = 1·25, 95% CI = 1·16, 1·36, p < 0.001)). Study limitations include potential unmeasured confounding and reverse causality.

Conclusions: Enhanced positive affect during adolescence is linked with a range of improved health/well-being outcomes in adulthood. These findings suggest the promise of testing scalable positive affect interventions and policies to more definitively assess their impact on outcomes.

Background: A sense of hopelessness is rising at alarming levels among adolescents in the United States. There is urgent need to understand the potential implications of being hopeful on adolescents' future health and wellbeing.

Methods: This study utilized data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 11,038, mean age at baseline = 15 years) to prospectively examine the relationship between baseline hope and a wide range of outcomes 12 years later. Thirty-eight outcomes were examined in the domains of physical health, health behavior, mental health, psychological well-being, social factors, and civic and prosocial behavior. Regression models were used to regress each outcome on baseline hope separately. Models controlled for a wide range of factors as well as prior values of the exposure (hope) and outcomes.

Results: Having hope for the future in adolescence was associated with improvements in 11 subsequent outcomes after Bonferonni correction, including higher cognition and self-rated health, less physical inactivity, fewer depressive symptoms, lower perceived stress, and improvement on a number of psychological and social factors including greater happiness, more satisfaction with parenting, and increased voting and volunteering in adulthood. There were also a number of associations that were close to the null, which are equally important to explore and understand.

Implications: The results of the study may have important implications for hope-based efforts and programs aimed at improving the lives of young people and promoting their current and future well-being.

In the United States, “some college” is attained more frequently than a 4-year college degree. However, attainments below 4-year college vary considerably in terms of credentials and years of higher education, and gender differences in health disparities remain overlooked. Additionally, high school experiences may confound any estimated health gains. We draw on national longitudinal data (Add Health; Waves IV and V) to estimate associations between subbaccalaureate education and general health during young adulthood and again at early midlife. Relative to attaining no education past high school, women’s greater self-rated health with all levels of postsecondary attainment is robust to high school experiences, with the exception of vocational/technical training without a degree, in young adulthood and in early midlife. Greater health gains are linked to associate degrees compared to some college without a degree. For men, health benefits are found only among 4-year degree holders. For both genders, depressive symptom buffering linked to subbaccalaureate education is inconsistent and sometimes not robust to high school experiences. Overall, these findings offer a compelling case for recasting college health gains in terms of distinct postsecondary endpoints by gender.

Aims: Three factors converge to underscore the heightened importance of evaluating the potential health/well-being effects of friendships in older adulthood. First, policymakers, scientists, and the public alike are recognizing the importance of social relationships for health/well-being and creating national policies to promote social connection. Second, many populations are rapidly aging throughout the world. Third, we currently face what some call a ‘friendship recession’. Although, growing research documents associations between friendship with better health and well-being, friendship can also have a ‘dark side’ and can potentially promote negative outcomes. To better capture friendship’s potential heterogeneous effects, we took an outcome-wide analytic approach.

Methods: We analysed data from 12,998 participants in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) – a prospective and nationally representative cohort of U.S. adults aged >50, and, evaluated if increases in friendship strength (between t0; 2006/2008 and t1; 2010/2012) were associated with better health/well-being across 35 outcomes (in t2; 2014/2016). To assess friendship strength, we leveraged all available friendship items in HRS and created a composite ‘friendship score’ that assessed the following three domains: (1) friendship network size, (2) friendship network contact frequency and (3) friendship network quality.

Results: Stronger friendships were associated with better outcomes on some indicators of physical health (e.g. reduced risk of mortality), health behaviours (e.g. increased physical activity) and nearly all psychosocial indicators (e.g. higher positive affect and mastery, as well as lower negative affect and risk of depression). Friendship was also associated with increased likelihood of smoking and heavy drinking (although the latter association with heavy drinking did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance).

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that stronger friendships can have a dual impact on health and well-being. While stronger friendships appear to mainly promote a range of health and well-being outcomes, stronger friendships might also promote negative outcomes. Additional research is needed, and any future friendship interventions and policies that aim to enhance outcomes should focus on how to amplify positive outcomes while mitigating harmful ones.

Objective: Negative life events have the potential to undermine an individual's ability to function and thrive, but less is known about the implications of changes in subjective appraisals of those events for long-term well-being. This research examines how exposure to negative life events and subsequent changes in the perceived impact of those events are related to longer-term well-being in adulthood.

Method: Drawing on three waves of data from the Midlife in the United States study (M1: 1995–1996, M2: 2004–2006, M3: 2013–2014), we applied the analytic template for outcome-wide longitudinal designs to investigate associations of (a) negative life event exposure between M1 and M2 and (b) change in the perceived impact of negative life event exposure assessed at M2 with 25 outcomes across several domains of well-being assessed approximately 9 years later at M3: psychological distress, psychological well-being, social well-being, prosociality, physical health, and health behavior.

Results: Whereas negative life event exposure was associated with worse subsequent well-being on selected outcomes (5/25 in total) in some domains, positive change in the perceived impact of negative life event exposure was associated with better well-being on one or more outcomes in most domains (11/25 in total). Effect sizes in both sets of analyses were generally small, with more consistent associations found for psychological and social outcomes.

Conclusion: Subjective appraisals of negative life events (particularly positive changes in those appraisals over time) may be more closely related to individual well-being in the long run than mere exposure to negative life events themselves. The findings bring attention to the possibility that positive changes in a person's subjective appraisal of negative life events could have beneficial consequences for long-term well-being.

Social relationships contribute to well-being across the life course and may be especially vital resources for supporting healthy aging among older adults. This research examined associations between perceptions of social support and social strain from children assessed by older adult parents and 35 indicators of physical, behavioral, and psychosocial health and well-being. We utilized three waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; N = 11,609), a diverse, national sample of U.S. adults over age 50. We found that increases in social support were associated with better subsequent outcomes on all psychological indicators (higher positive affect, life satisfaction, optimism, purpose in life, mastery, health mastery, financial mastery; lower depression, depressive symptoms, hopelessness, negative affect, perceived constraints) and most social factors (lower loneliness, greater likelihood of contact with children and other family) over the four-year follow-up period. Results also showed that increases in social strain were subsequently related to worse functioning across all indicators of psychological well-being and select social factors (i.e., higher loneliness) and psychological distress outcomes (i.e., higher hopelessness, negative affect, and perceived constraints). However, we did not find evidence that changes in social support and social strain were associated with physical health or health behavior outcomes.

Educational inequalities in health behaviors change dynamically across the life course. Yet, how parental and personal education interactively shape age-specific behavioral inequalities across the transition to adulthood has yet to be understood. Drawing on national Add Health data (N = 12,605; 6,675 women and 5,930 men), we analyze age- and gender-specific trajectories of current smoking and binge drinking from adolescence to young adulthood. In line with previous work, we find that parental education associates with smoking and drinking disparities even after respondents’ own education is completed. Reciprocally, we also find that disparities by eventual educational attainment appear early. During the college years, higher parental education predicts higher—not lower—rates of binge drinking. We find that attaining higher education “against the odds” of an educationally disadvantaged family background circumscribes the lowest rates of smoking and drinking for men and women alike, and especially during the college years, while “falling from grace” by not attaining higher education at levels matching one’s parents predicts the highest levels of smoking and drinking for both genders during or after college. These results shed new light on the interactive socioeconomic processes that help to explain behavioral health gradients across adolescence and adulthood.

Rationale and objective: Guided by stress process theory, this study investigates the association between the economic downturn and chronic pain interference, as well as the role of two future-oriented buffering mechanisms (anticipated stressor duration and pre-recession financial optimism) in this relationship. This research integrates both an objective measure of the recession based on negative personal experiences, as well as subjective event-based appraisals of how the recession impacted people's lives.

Method: Drawing on longitudinal data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, linear lagged dependent variable models are used to estimate associations between recession-era stressors and chronic pain interference among 1113 adults. The analysis further examines the moderating influences of anticipated stressor duration and pre-recession financial optimism.

Results: Findings reveal that both an accumulation of adverse experiences and global appraisals of the economic recession have harmful associations with chronic pain interference; however, their magnitude varied according to future-oriented moderating factors. Specifically, people with high pre-recession financial optimism fared better when confronted with recession-related stressors than did those with low levels of financial optimism. Moreover, pain interference was greater among individuals who appraised the recession as having a negative impact on their lives, but only if they perceived the recession would extend into the future.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates distinctive links between two recession-related measures and pain interference. Findings suggest that positive future orientations can be protective during an economic crisis, whereas negative orientations heighten the pain.

Links between elevated mental well-being in adulthood and higher social and economic resources growing up are well established. However, the role of gender remains unclear, especially whether gender influences how social and economic resources interact to produce disparities in mental well-being across young adulthood. Drawing on nationally representative longitudinal data, we illuminate gender differences in mental well-being, finding that young adult mental health advantages based in adolescent socioeconomic status pivot on parent-child emotional bonds for young men only. That is, for young adult men, lessened depressive symptom frequency linked to higher parental education only appears when perceived parent-child bonds are at least moderately close. This holds even after adjusting for earlier adolescent mental well-being, suggesting a stable mechanism across the transition to adulthood. Overall, our results uphold the argument that familial social and economic resources predict mental well-being during young adulthood while revealing that relevant mechanisms may differ by gender.

Maternal religiosity is associated with children's religiosity even as they grow into adults. Yet, experiencing the death of one's mother during the transition to adulthood could modify the transmission of maternal religiosity across the life course. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), I find that the relationship between mother loss and religiosity is bidirectional. Results from longitudinal models of child religiosity across the transition from adolescence to adulthood show that mother loss is negatively associated with service attendance but is positively associated with salience. Further, mother loss predicted higher frequency of prayer among bereaved children at lower levels of maternal religiosity but lower prayer frequency at higher levels of mothers’ religiousness. Overall, these findings direct attention to differences in the associations between mother loss and indicators of religiosity and to the interplay between mother loss and maternal religiosity as important factors in the transmission of religiosity across generations.

In this preregistered longitudinal study with nationally representative samples from 23 countries in the Global Flourishing Study (N = 207,919), we examine associations between dispositional forgivingness and multidimensional well-being outcomes approximately one year later. Following the analytic template for outcome-wide designs, we conducted a series of country-specific weighted multivariate regression analyses where each Wave 2 outcome was regressed on Wave 1 forgivingness (controlling for Wave 1 sociodemographic and retrospectively recalled childhood variables). Random effects meta-analyses were used to pool country-specific estimates of association for the 56 main outcomes covering psychological, social, physical, volitional, and material dimensions of well-being. We found some evidence of association between forgivingness and higher well-being for both composite well-being indicators and numerous specific indicators across different domains of functioning (observed associations were mostly very small in magnitude). Associations were generally stronger and more consistent for some domains (e.g., psychological well-being) compared to others (e.g., physical health & health behavior). Meta-analyzed estimates of association generally attenuated after using a more conservative analytic approach that additionally adjusted for principal components extracted from the Wave 1 outcomes treated as covariates. Country-specific results showed some cross-national variation. Our findings contribute novel population-level evidence on the potential benefits of forgivingness for different aspects of well-being.

Background: Suffering is a distressing personal experience that may have important implications for well-being, but little is known about its population-level links with well-being. We use longitudinal survey data from the multinational Global Flourishing Study to examine prospective associations between suffering and multidimensional well-being assessed approximately 1 year later.

Methods: We analyzed two waves of nationally representative data from adults living in 23 countries and territories (N = 207,919). Following the analytic template for outcome-wide designs, we estimated a series of country-specific weighted regression analyses where each Wave 2 outcome was regressed on Wave 1 suffering (controlling for Wave 1 demographic and retrospectively recalled childhood variables). Random effects meta-analyses were used to pool country-specific estimates of associations for the 56 main outcomes encompassing psychological, social, physical, volitional, and material dimensions of well-being.

Results: We find some evidence of association between suffering and worse well-being for both composite indicators and most specific well-being indicators when country-specific estimates are pooled meta-analytically. Somewhat stronger and more consistent associations are observed for some domains (e.g., psychological well-being) than others (e.g., social participation). Pooled cross-national estimates of association generally attenuate after applying a more conservative analytic approach in which additional adjustment is made for principal components extracted from the Wave 1 outcomes. Country-specific estimates show some cross-national variation.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that suffering is associated with worse well-being across a wide range of outcomes in diverse national contexts. Suffering may be an important consideration in research, interventions, and policies aimed at supporting population well-being.

Objectives: This study examines food insecurity levels across cultures and demographics using uniform methods across 22 countries and one territory in the Global Flourishing Study. Our preregistered hypotheses posit that food insecurity levels differ across countries and sociodemographic groups, and meta-analytic pooled proportions of food insecurity vary across these groups.

Methods: The sample included respondents with Wave 1 “mid-year” survey data (N=131,487). Food insecurity was assessed with the following question: "In the last 12 months, how frequently did your household run out of food because of a lack of money or other resources? Often, sometimes, or never?". Meta-analyses and country-specific analyses described sociodemographic characteristics, ordered country-specific prevalences of food insecurity, and estimated pooled proportions for sociodemographic categories.

Results: Meta-analyzed proportions showed 61% (n=88,944; 95%CI: 0.53, 0.70) of participants reported “never” experiencing food insecurity, 28% (n=30,650; 95%CI: 0.21, 0.35) "sometimes", and 10% (n=11,462; 95%CI: 0.06, 0.14) "often" ran out of food. Country-specific prevalences of “sometime/often” food insecurity ranged from 8% in Sweden to 89% in Nigeria. Some upper-middle income countries, such as South Africa (80%), Egypt (65%), and Indonesia (65%), showed more prevalent food insecurity compared to lower-middle income countries, such as India (52%). Respondents with less than 9 years of education (48%), unemployment (50%) and homemaker status (45%), 18-50 years of age (41-42%), domestic partner, separated, and divorced marital status (41-42%), female (40%), and born in another country (40%) reported “sometimes/often” food insecurity rather than “never”.

Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive overview of the national prevalences and variation in food insecurity levels across demographic groups in a cross-national sample, furthering insights into food insecurity disparities in various parts of the world.

Showing love and care for other people is a vital aspect of human relationships. However, little is known about how levels of love/care expression differ across cultures and across sociodemographic groups within those different cultures, or about the potential childhood antecedents that are associated with love/care expression in adulthood. Based on nationally-representative data from 22 countries in six continents in the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898), we present ordered means of love/care expression across countries, observe its distributions across key sociodemographic characteristics, and evaluate the strength of its childhood predictors (with E-values as a robustness check), revealing the extent to which the distributions and associations are uniform throughout the world or differ by country. The mean levels of love/care expression (scaled 0–10) ranged from 9.05 in the Philippines to 5.96 in Japan and tended to be higher in countries in the Global South. Based on a random effects meta-analysis of means and a multivariate regression analysis of childhood predictors, we find evidence of both universal and country-specific influences. Age cohort, gender, self-rated health, and religious service attendance were the strongest childhood predictors. These findings enhance our understanding of the country-specific variations in love/care expression and early-life predictors of adult outcomes, providing a foundation for future investigations into sociocultural influences that might shape love/care expression.

While growing evidence suggests charitable giving is associated with improved well-being, little prior research makes cross-national comparisons and evaluates a wide range of outcomes simultaneously. We used data from the Global Flourishing Study (2022–2024; N = 207,919 across 22 countries and one territory) to examine associations of charitable giving in the past month at Wave 1 with 56 multidimensional well-being outcomes at Wave 2. In random effects meta-analyses adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, childhood factors, and baseline multidimensional well-being, charitable giving was prospectively associated with improved composite (Secure Flourishing Index), psychological (e.g., life satisfaction), social (e.g., social support), volitional (e.g., gratitude), and material (e.g., financial security) well-being, and more engagement in other prosocial behaviors (e.g., volunteering). Effect sizes were small and there was little evidence of associations with some other outcomes (e.g., psychological distress) in pooled analyses. In less conservative models without adjustment for baseline multidimensional well-being, charitable giving was associated with several other outcomes such as higher happiness and lower loneliness, and effect sizes were generally larger. Associations varied in magnitude and direction across countries (e.g., charitable giving was associated with higher Flourishing Index scores in Germany, India, Israel, Mexico, and the United States but lower Flourishing Index scores in Spain). Charitable giving was associated with more positive outcomes in some countries (e.g., the United States), more negative outcomes in others (e.g., China), and mostly mixed or null associations in others. Further research is needed to understand how charitable giving is associated with givers’ well-being in diverse social and cultural contexts.

In this article, we describe the analytic design of the coordinated set of outcome-wide analyses used for examining longitudinal associations using data from the Global Flourishing Study (GFS), involving a multinational and multidisciplinary group of scholars. We discuss the benefits of outcome-wide analyses and provide details on controlling for high-dimensional confounders using principal components, accounting for complex sampling designs, imputing missing data, conducting sensitivity analyses for unmeasured confounding, meta-analyzing estimates of associations from across countries, and reporting results. We provide a brief illustrative example of the outcome-wide approach by estimating the association of Wave 1 sense of mastery with a wide range of Wave 2 outcomes. The example illustrates how results can be sensitive to analytic decisions, such as different coding strategies for the predictor and the number of principal components included. We conclude by outlining the major strengths and limitations of the employed methodology.

Background: Traumatic distress is a major global public health concern requiring cross-cultural understanding.

Methods: Using nationally representative data from the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898; 22 countries), we estimated country-specific prevalence of traumatic distress and examined 9 sociodemographic and 13 childhood predictors. Random-effects meta-analyses assessed cross-country variation and associations.

Results: Here we show that the prevalence of traumatic distress ranges from 16% (Poland) to 53% (Egypt). Higher prevalence of distress is observed among younger individuals, gender-diverse groups, those separated from partners, unemployed, less educated, those born outside their country and those who attend religious services regularly. Several childhood experiences at age 12 are associated with a higher risk of traumatic distress, including abuse, family financial insecurity, feeling like an outsider, parental divorce, and poor health. Childhood abuse is a significant predictor in 21 countries.

Conclusions: Traumatic distress prevalence and predictors vary across countries and are shaped by both current sociodemographic and early-life factors.

Feeling excluded from one’s family during childhood can be distressing and may influence well-being into adulthood. This perception of being a family outsider is related to but distinct from constructs such as neglect, loneliness, and isolation, yet little research has examined feeling like a family outsider or its associations with adult outcomes across countries. Using Wave 1 data from the Global Flourishing Study, a sample of 202,898 individuals in 22 countries, this preregistered study examined retrospectively reported feeling like an outsider in one’s family while growing up and its associations with 48 multidimensional well-being indicators in adulthood. Outcome-wide regression analyses were estimated within each country, adjusting for sociodemographic and recalled childhood factors, and random-effects meta-analyses were used to pool estimates across countries. Meta-analyzed results showed that feeling like a family outsider while growing up was associated with worse adult psychological well-being, psychological distress, and social distress across most outcomes, as well as worse outcomes on several indicators of physical health, health behavior, and socioeconomic status. However, it was associated with better outcomes on select social and prosocial indicators. Meaningful differences were observed across countries, with stronger associations observed in many Western nations and weaker associations in several African countries.

While prior research has demonstrated that social relationships meaningfully shape health and well-being, less is known about how subjective evaluations of the quality of one’s relationships differ across national contexts and across sociodemographic groups within different countries. Using data from the Global Flourishing Study, a large international sample of 202,898 adults from 22 countries, we examined the average level and distributions of social relationship quality by sociodemographic characteristics across and within these countries. Our results showed variation in social relationship quality across nations, with averages in most countries between 7 and 8 (on a scale from 0 to 10). Higher average scores were observed in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Mexico, and lower averages were shown in Japan, Turkey, and Australia. The meta-analytic results showed variation in social relationship quality across most sociodemographic factors examined, most notably patterns of increasing social relationship quality by age and frequency of religious service attendance. For marital status, married and widowed adults reported higher social relationship quality, while separated and divorced adults reported comparatively lower social relationship quality. Variation was also observed by employment status, with retired adults reporting the highest social relationship quality and unemployed adults the lowest. These patterns varied across nations in country-specific, nationally representative analyses. Findings from this study provide insight into the population distributions of social relationship quality—a key social factor influencing well-being—and lay a foundation for future investigation into the sociocultural influences that contribute to social relationship quality around the world.

Prior research suggests associations between character involving an orientation to promote good (i.e., a disposition to take actions that contribute to the good of oneself and others) and improved well-being outcomes. However, less is known about childhood factors that may lead to a greater disposition to promote good. This study used data from 202,898 adults in 22 countries to evaluate childhood antecedents of an orientation to promote good. We examined the associations between retrospectively reported childhood experiences and adult disposition to promote good in each country individually, and cross-nationally by meta-analytically pooling results across countries. The pooled results suggest that childhood experiences including having positive relationships with parents, higher subjective financial status, better childhood self-rated health, frequent religious service attendance, an earlier year of birth, and being female were associated with a greater orientation to promote good in adulthood. Conversely, the childhood experiences of abuse and feeling like an outsider in the family were associated with lower levels of promoting good. In country-specific analyses, the direction and strength of these associations differed by country, indicating diverse societal influences. This study provides a valuable foundation for future investigations into the influence of childhood experiences on character across cultures and national contexts.

Prior research (mainly from Western industrialized countries) documents associations between greater dispositional optimism (a generalized expectation that good things will happen) and improved health and well-being. However, less is known about whether and how levels of optimism differ across countries and across sociodemographic groups within different countries. This study presents a cross-national exploration of optimism, and its variations across sociodemographic groups. Using a sample of 202,898 adults from 22 diverse countries, we examined the relationships between optimism and key sociodemographic factors in each country separately, and cross-nationally by pooling results across countries using meta-analytic techniques. Our results suggest that mean optimism levels vary substantially across countries. Optimism also varies significantly across most of the sociodemographic factors included in our analyses. In the pooled results across countries, individuals who are older, female, married, employed, highly educated, attending religious services frequently, and native-born reported higher mean optimism levels. In the country-specific analyses, the sociodemographic variation in optimism differs across countries, indicating diverse societal influences. The findings of this study provide novel insights into the population distribution of optimism and disparities in optimism by sociodemographic groups across countries. This study provides a valuable foundation for future investigations into sociocultural influences that shape optimism.

Little is known about early-life experiences that may lead to higher optimism levels in adulthood. Using data from 202,898 adults in 22 countries, we evaluated childhood candidate antecedents of optimism. We examined the associations between retrospectively reported childhood experiences and adult optimism levels in each country separately, and cross-nationally by pooling results across countries. Our pooled results suggest that higher adult optimism levels were associated with childhood experiences of having positive relationships with both parents, higher subjective financial status, better childhood self-rated health, frequent religious service attendance, an earlier year of birth, and being female. Conversely, lower adult optimism was associated with childhood experiences of parental divorce, abuse, financial hardship, and feeling like an outsider in the family. However, country-specific analyses showed substantial between-country variations in these associations, suggesting diverse societal influences. This study provides valuable insights into the association between early-life experiences and adult optimism levels across national contexts.

Background: Evidence suggests that suffering may degrade health and well-being. However, further research is needed to identify potential targets for addressing population-level suffering.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used nationally representative data from 22 countries in Wave 1 of the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898) to explore associations of 13 individual characteristics and retrospectively recalled childhood factors with suffering in adulthood. We conducted a modified Poisson regression by country in which suffering was regressed on all candidate predictors. Random effects meta-analyses were used to aggregate results for the 11 predictors that were common across all countries.

Results: Our meta-analytic results suggest that a combination of risk and protective factors during childhood may be associated with suffering in adulthood. Individuals whose parents were married (versus divorced) at age 12, had a very good/somewhat good paternal relationship (versus very bad/somewhat bad) when growing up, had excellent health (versus good) when growing up, and who reported their family lived comfortably (versus got by) financially when growing up are less likely to experience suffering in adulthood, whereas those who were abused during childhood (versus not), felt like an outsider in their family when growing up (versus not), attended religious services 1–3 times a month (versus never) around age 12, and are female (versus male) have a higher likelihood of suffering in adulthood. Associations are somewhat heterogeneous across the countries.

Conclusions: Childhood experiences, influences, and conditions may impact experiences of suffering in adulthood. Targeted early-life interventions could mitigate the burden of suffering later in life.

Background: Suffering has been identified as an important public health issue worthy of closer attention. This preregistered study takes an initial step toward developing an epidemiology of suffering by exploring the distribution of suffering in 22 countries and testing for sociodemographic disparities in suffering.

Methods: Using nationally representative data from the first wave of the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898), we estimated the proportion of people who endorsed some/a lot of suffering in each country. Variation in proportions of suffering across the categories of 9 sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, marital status, employment status, years of education, immigration status, frequency of religious service attendance, religious affiliation, racial/ethnic identity) were estimated separately for each country. We aggregated country-level estimates of suffering for specific sociodemographic categories using random effects meta-analyses.

Results: We find that the proportion of country-specific populations experiencing suffering varies considerably, ranging from 0.24 (Poland) to 0.60 (Türkiye). Country-level results provide evidence of cross-national heterogeneity in suffering for all sociodemographic categories, although variation is greater for some categories than others. Meta-analytic results support differences in suffering based on marital status, employment status, and years of education across the countries, with the highest suffering observed among those who have separated from their spouse, are either unemployed and looking for a job or endorse the none of these/other employment status category, and have completed 8 or fewer years of education.

Conclusions: Suffering varies across countries and sociodemographic categories. Our findings lay the foundation for population-level monitoring of suffering and a population health agenda to address suffering among vulnerable subpopulations.

How might we cultivate a life imbued with a sense of mastery? An expanding body of research demonstrates that a heightened sense of mastery improves health and well-being outcomes. Despite this, it remains unclear which childhood factors foster increased mastery in adulthood. Further, existing studies have examined this question only within single countries. We analyzed nationally representative data from 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898) and evaluated if 11 aspects of a child’s upbringing predict mastery in adulthood, and also whether these associations vary by country. Some childhood factors were associated with increased mastery in adulthood, including good health, good relationships with mothers and fathers, economic stability, and regular religious service attendance. Childhood factors associated with decreased mastery in adulthood included abuse, feeling like an outsider in one’s family, poor health, economic hardship, and being female. However, there was little evidence that parent marital status or immigration status in childhood were associated with mastery in adulthood. Our meta-analysis also revealed substantial heterogeneity in childhood pathways to adult mastery across 22 countries. With further research, these findings could inform the development of globally adaptable, yet locally nuanced, programs and policies designed to foster a mastery across the globe.

Are certain parts of the world home to people with a higher sense of mastery? Does mastery vary across key demographic factors in similar or different ways across national contexts? These questions have been underexplored, or not explored at all. We analyzed nationally representative data from 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898) and evaluated these questions. People with the highest mastery were found in countries from Latin America (e.g., #1 Mexico, #3 Argentina), the Middle East/North Africa (e.g., #2 Egypt), and in high-income societies across different regions (e.g., #4 Israel, #5 United States, #6 Spain, #7 Sweden, #8 Hong Kong, and #9 Australia). The results indicate that a high a sense of mastery is achievable in diverse geographical and cultural contexts. Meta-analytic results that pooled country-specific estimates showed a progressive increase in mastery with age. Higher mastery was reported by people who were self-employed or employed by an employer, married, highly educated, regular attendees of religious services, and men. We also observed substantial heterogeneity in these factors across countries. Our research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of global patterns of mastery, and also suggests pathways for fostering mastery within and across diverse national contexts.

The Global Flourishing Study is a longitudinal panel study of over 200,000 participants in 22 geographically and culturally diverse countries, spanning all six populated continents, with nationally representative sampling and intended annual survey data collection for 5 years to assess numerous aspects of flourishing and its possible determinants. The study is intended to expand our knowledge of the distribution and determinants of flourishing around the world. Relations between a composite flourishing index and numerous demographic characteristics are reported. Participants were also surveyed about their childhood experiences, which were analyzed to determine their associations with subsequent adult flourishing. Analyses are presented both across and within countries, and discussion is given as to how the demographic and childhood relationships vary by country and which patterns appear to be universal versus culturally specific. Brief comment is also given on the results of a whole series of papers in the Global Flourishing Study Special Collection, employing similar analyses, but with more-specific aspects of well-being. The Global Flourishing Study expands our knowledge of the distribution and determinants of well-being and provides foundational knowledge for the promotion of societal flourishing.

This study examines the prospective associations between subjective childhood financial conditions and adult well-being outcomes across 22 countries, with a specific focus on differences between WEIRD and less WEIRD contexts. Using nationally representative cross-sectional data from 202,898 individuals, we analyzed retrospective reports of childhood financial conditions – categorized as “lived comfortably,” “got by,” “found it difficult,” and “found it very difficult” – and their associations with 48 adult well-being indicators across psychological, social, physical health, character strengths, prosocial behaviors, and socioeconomic domains (adjusting for possible sociodemographic characteristics and other retrospectively recalled childhood factors). An outcome-wide analytic approach was used to estimate associations in each country, and meta-analytic methods were employed to pooled effect estimates across the countries. Our meta-analytical findings indicate that more advantageous financial conditions in childhood are associated with more favorable adult well-being outcomes across domains (in 43 out of 48 outcomes). Notably, less WEIRD countries exhibited stronger associations with indicators of life balance, mastery, and social support, whereas WEIRD nations showed more pronounced effects on individual-focused outcomes such as optimism and internal freedom. Additionally, in several less WEIRD settings, adverse financial conditions were paradoxically linked with favorable resilience-related outcomes, suggesting robust adaptive mechanisms in response to early economic adversity. These results confirm prior associations between childhood financial conditions and adult well-being indicators. However, the findings also highlight the need for culturally nuanced policy interventions. Our study contributes novel comparative evidence advocating for expanded research beyond WEIRD contexts to fully understand and address the multifaceted effects of early economic adversity.

Research has demonstrated strong associations between social relationships and health and well-being, but considerably less is known about the upstream factors–specifically, the childhood antecedents–that contribute to the quality of one’s social relationships in adulthood. We use data from the first wave of the Global Flourishing Study, a diverse, global sample of 202,898 individuals across 22 countries, to evaluate an array of social and economic factors, adverse events and experiences, health status, and sociodemographic characteristics from childhood as potential predictors of adult social relationship quality. Using multivariate regression analysis, random effects meta-analytic results indicated that during childhood, having higher subjective financial status, better self-rated health, frequent religious service attendance, good relationships with mother and father, and being female and born in an earlier birth cohort were associated with better social relationship quality in adulthood. In contrast, experiencing abuse and feeling like an outsider in one’s family growing up were associated with lower social relationship quality. Country-specific analyses showed substantial between-country variations in these associations. Our findings provide an empirical foundation for further investigation into variability and mechanisms in associations between childhood factors and adult social relationship quality, and cultural differences in these patterns.

Love of neighbor holds a prominent place in ethical and theological thinking across many cultures and world religious traditions. While arguably central to the promotion of societal wellbeing and human flourishing, little has been done on its empirical assessment. We present a measure of love of neighbor, grounded in a broader conceptual framework concerning interpersonal love, and examine its psychometric properties using cognitive interviews and analyses from datasets from numerous countries, cultures, and contexts. We present evidence for two distinct facets: unitive and contributory neighbor love. We discuss distinctions of unitive and contributory neighbor love from compassionate love, which might be conceived of as contributory neighbor love within the context of suffering. Psychometric properties of the measure concerning consistency, reliability, internal structure, relations between indicators, and measurement invariance are presented. The measure lays the foundation for future empirical study of the distribution, causes, and consequences of love of neighbor.

An individual’s flourishing is sustained by and dependent on their community’s well-being. We provide one of the first studies of a measure of communal subjective well-being, focusing on individuals’ relationships with their community. Using two samples from the Greater Columbus, Ohio region, we provide evidence of the reliability and validity of the Subjective Community Well-being (SCWB) assessment. The five domains of the SCWB are Good Relationships (α = .92), Proficient Leadership (α = .93), Healthy Practices (α = .92), Satisfying Community (α = .88), and Strong Mission (α = .81). A community-based sample (N = 1,435) and an online sample of Columbus residents (N = 692) were scored on the SCWB and compared across domains. We found evidence that the SCWB scores differentiate between active and less active community members. We discuss the appropriate uses of the SCWB as a measure of well-being and provide recommendations for research that could profitably utilize the SCWB measure to examine community well-being.

Measuring subjective well-being in a multidimensional, valid, reliable, and parsimonious way is important for both social science research and social policy. Here, we present an efficient measure of distinct domains of subjective well-being and overall flourishing. The Flourishing Index (FI) consists of five sub-domains: 1. happiness and life satisfaction, 2. physical and mental health, 3. meaning and purpose, 4. character and virtue, and 5. close social relationships. The Secure Flourishing Index (SFI) adds the sub-domain financial and material stability, which is thought to be necessary to sustain the other domains over time. We developed a German version of these measures in a multi-stage translation and scale testing process. The results of an exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 (N = 192) suggest a unidimensional structure of the FI and a two-dimensional structure of the SFI. Moreover, both indices (and most sub-domains) revealed acceptable to good reliability. The factor structures were confirmed in Study 2 (N = 13,268). We provide indications for measurement invariance of both indices with regard to gender and age. We furthermore examined inter-correlations with related constructs such as importance of health, self-efficacy, and social support. Study 3 (N = 317) finds evidence for high convergent validity of both the FI and the SFI with overall well-being as well as sub-scores of the PERMA-Profiler. These results suggest that the FI and the SFI are efficient measures of distinct domains of subjective well-being and overall flourishing. Our translation of the FI and SFI, along with the empirical relationships that we found among the measures that we reviewed, will help scholars in Germany (and beyond) explore an expanded range of domains of well-being, including the comparatively neglected domains of character and virtue, physical health, and financial and material stability.