1,720,998 research outputs found
A Peaceful Mind: How Dispositional Mindfulness is Related to Emotional Stability Over Time and Across Events. A peaceful mind: come la mindfulness disposizionale si associa a stabilità emotiva nel tempo e attraverso gli eventi
No full textEmotional stability is an essential ingredient of long-term mental health. Building on the well-known link between dispositional mindfulness and well-being, this project investigated the role of diverse aspects of dispositional mindfulness in emotional stability. We hypothesized that people higher in dispositional mindfulness would display more stable emotions, as reflected by lower emotional reactivity to self-relevant events, flatter emotion trajectories, smaller effects of negative and positive events on negative and positive affect respectively, and lower emotional variability and instability. We systematically tested these hypotheses through one cross-sectional, three longitudinal, and one experience sampling studies, analyzing data with simple linear, multilevel, and multilevel growth regression models. Results supported our hypotheses, especially for negative emotions. Dispositional mindfulness was associated with lower negative emotions felt when thinking about a self-relevant negative or positive event, flatter negative affect trajectories, weaker relationships between intra-individual variations in negative events and negative affect, and lower emotional variability and instability for negative emotions. Analyses of specific facets of mindfulness revealed that these effects were due mostly to differences in awareness, nonjudgment, and nonreactivity to inner experience, and that nonjudgment and nonreactivity also moderated the effect of intra-individual variations in positive events on positive affect. Moreover, the relationship between these three aspects of dispositional mindfulness and life satisfaction was partly mediated by lower emotional variability. These findings provide a novel perspective on the link between dispositional mindfulness and well-being, suggesting that a fundamental benefit of dispositional mindfulness is living a life imbued with greater equanimity and emotional stability
I padri coinvolti e i mariti egalitari: per scelta o per vincoli? Uno sguardo alle coppie italiane con figli piccoli
No full textThere is a large debate on new models of fatherhood. By drawing from the 2003 Italian survey "Family and Social Subjects", we explore how many and who are these “new” fathers, whether they are “undoing gender” through an equal share of housework, and whether this occurs more out of choice or constraints. Results show that Italian fathers daily involved in childcare are a minority and male partners sharing equally housework are even less. Besides, they present specific profiles: they belong to well educated, dual-earner and homogamous couples (in terms of working time, occupational position and sector), living in North or Center Italy. Gender role attitudes matter less, affecting only the probability of being involved fathers and only in couples where both partners are traditional. In the other types of couples, where a traditional division is not "taken for granted", gender practices appear to respond more to resources and constraints
Desperate Housework: Relative Resources, Time Availability, Economic Dependency, and Gender Ideology Across Europe
No full textThis article investigates cross-national patterns in the gender division of housework in coresident couples. By using Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) data, we assess four key hypotheses proposed in the literature: namely, the relative resources approach (the partner who earns less does more housework), the time availability perspective (the partner who spends less time doing paid work does more housework), the economic dependency model (the partner who contributes proportionally less to the household income does more housework), and the gender ideology perspective (the beliefs on gender roles influence housework sharing in a couple), thereby verifying the presence of gender display. Our results reaffirm the significance of gender ideology, though with important differences across countries. Time availability and relative resources matter in the most egalitarian countries, whereas economic dependency matters in countries where partners contribute more unevenly to the household income
Factorial validity and item response theory analysis of the Gratitude Questionnaire in an Italian sample
No full textThe aim of this paper is to assess the diversified behaviors of the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6) items. After providing evidence on the monofactorial structure of the GQ-6 in the Italian context (pilot study), we examined the performance of the questionnaire (main study) relying on item response theory (IRT). Results prove that the sixth item produces a lower discrimination parameter and scarcer infor-mation compared to the other items, while the opposite happens for the first two items. The test infor-mation function shows that the GQ-6 better captures respondents’ gratitude when they are in low to median positions of the trait, compared to higher values of the latent trait. Our findings suggest that the sixth item may be discarded from the GQ-6 in case of time constraints in the research design, and that there might be a response tendency toward the upper response options
Relating Mindfulness, Heartfulness, and Psychological Well-Being: the Role of Self-Compassion and Gratitude
No full textThe aim of this paper is to shed light on the heartfulness-related aspects of mindfulness, explaining their relationship with optimal human functioning. In particular, we investigated the role of self-compassion and gratitude, two variables linked to mindfulness that we considered as indicators of heartfulness towards the self, and towards others, respectively. We tested the mediation of self-compassion and gratitude in the relationship between mindfulness and the six psychological well-being dimensions of autonomy, self-acceptance, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, and purpose in life. Based on the literature, we hypothesized that self-compassion would mediate the association between mindfulness and self-acceptance, autonomy, environmental mastery, and positive relations, and that gratitude would mediate the association between mindfulness and all the above dimensions, except for autonomy. Across two studies, involving both meditators and non-meditators, and two different assessment tools for dispositional mindfulness, our hypotheses were supported, even after controlling for two concurrent variables (social support and resilience). These findings suggest that heartfulness is an important underlying mechanism of mindfulness: it seems to foster higher levels of psychological well-being, or optimal human functioning, through a warm and aware attitude towards the self and others
A Mindful Path Toward Prejudice Reduction: Key Mindfulness Facets and Mediators for Promoting Positive Intergroup Relations
Full text linkObjectives. Mindfulness might promote an open, accepting, less stereotypical view of people belonging to other social groups. We hypothesized positive cross-sectional (H1) and longitudinal (H2) associations between dispositional mindfulness - especially the Observing facet - and positive intergroup outcomes (i.e., better intergroup attitudes and contact experiences, lower intergroup prejudice, higher deprovincialization), and that those associations would be mediated by dispositional curiosity and reflection (H3). Method. We tested H1 in Study 1 (two waves, 1-month interval, n = 102) and Study 2 (cross-sectional, n = 679), with linear models in which attitudes and prejudice toward immigrants, contact with immigrants (only in Study 2), and deprovincialization were predicted by mindfulness facets. We tested H2 in Study 1, with cross-lagged path models replicating the cross-sectional analyses, and H3 in Study 2, with structural equation models in which Reflection, Joyous Exploration, Stress Tolerance, and Social Curiosity mediated the relationships between facets of dispositional mindfulness and intergroup outcomes. Results. Results largely supported hypotheses. Consistent with H1, in Studies 1 and 2, Observing was associated with all intergroup outcomes; in Study 2, Describing was associated with higher deprovincialization, better attitudes, and lower prejudice, and Nonjudging with higher deprovincialization and positive contact. As for H2, we found a unidirectional association from Observing to attitudes. Concerning H3, we found mediating paths between some mindfulness facets and intergroup outcomes through Reflection, Joyous Exploration, Stress Tolerance, and Social Curiosity. Conclusions. Results support the possibility to build prejudice reduction interventions grounded on mindfulness, to increase awareness of negative stereotypes and openness to differences among people. Preregistration. The study was not preregistered
Factors affecting women's well-being during the experience of acute myocardial infarction: a literature review
No full textBACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK: Many factors influence the experience of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and the well-being of affected patients; gender differences emerge in the patterns of influence, and women's specificity is frequently highlighted. The purpose of this literature review is exploring in depth the experience of AMI in women.
METHODS: We selected and analyzed 44 articles on five factors strongly affecting women's well-being after AMI: the delay in seeking treatment for symptoms, medical treatment, therapeutic adherence, social support and coping strategies.
RESULTS: The studies have attributed gender differences in the delay in seeking care for symptoms partly to a lack of information, but especially to socially built factors, such as the stereotypic belief of cardiac diseases as "male diseases". Studies on the medical treatment show that women are less likely to undergo diagnostic tests and clinical treatment compared to men, but women's older age may counterbalance the gender effect. Compared to men, therapeutic adherence appears lower in women, who find lifestyle changes more difficult to achieve; however, women rely more on social support, affecting positively their well-being. Also, women use more emotion-focused, evasive or fatalistic coping strategies; they are likely to minimize the severity of symptoms, to try to control the disease and to protect the significant others from the negative consequences of the infarction.
CONCLUSIONS: Most studies highlight gender differences in the experience of AMI and in the patterns of influence of the factors we analyzed
Inglorious sufferers: Motivational factors and moral foundations shape compassionate and helping reactions toward suffering norm transgressors
Full text linkWhile previous research shows that people's reactions to others' suffering can vary, it remains unclear how these responses differ for targets who have previously transgressed, and which factors drive these changes. In two studies (total N = 899), this paper experimentally investigates how compassionate and helping reactions toward a suffering transgressor change depending upon: (a) the target’s motivation (altruistic vs egoistic vs control) for the transgression (Study 1); (b) the nature of the transgression in terms of moral foundation (Care vs Fairness) of the disrespected (vs respected) norm (Study 2). Study 1 supported the role of motivational factors: transgressing for altruistic purposes increased compassionate emotions toward the suffering target, compared to when the target’s motivation was egoistic or when no explanation for the target’s actions was provided. Study 2 showed that the Fairness (vs Care) norm, generated more extreme reactions: more negative when a target person violated the norm, more positive when they behaved in line with the norm. Additionally, in both studies, we also found evidence of a moderating effect of dispositional compassion, while analyses performed in a subsample of Study 2 including additional measures also shed light on the mediating cognitive and affective mechanisms of the effect of the kind of norm transgressed on compassionate and helping reactions. Overall, this paper delves into the intricate dynamic underlying individuals’ responses to the suffering of negatively behaving others, providing insights on how and why people react differently to norm violations
Affective generalization from intergroup contact: Associations between contact-related and outgroup-related empathy, anxiety, and trust
No full textThis paper studied affective generalization from intergroup contact, namely when and how affective empathy, anxiety, and trust-related feelings towards specific outgroup members (contact-related affective variables) generalize to the whole outgroup (outgroup-related affective variables). We analysed affective generalization using multilevel models, with items of each affective variable nested within the individual, to avoid aggregation bias due to averaging across items, hence false positives. As hypothesized, we found strong associations, but not perfect correspondence, between contact-related and outgroup-related affective variables. Moreover, we found that category salience facilitated the affective generalization of affective empathy and trust, whereas the quantity of intimate contact facilitated the generalization of anxiety. These findings suggest that affective intergroup climate hinges upon specific contact interactions, and that it is vital to promote positive affective reactions during contact and the formation of more intimate relationships with outgroup members
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