Work-Life Balance (WLB) and happiness are critical in nursing management, given the complexity of the work environment. Hence, achieving WLB and happiness would produce desirable outcomes for nurses and patients. Based on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study 1) described the levels of WLB and Happiness among nurses. 2) examined the positive correlation between WLB and Happiness. 3) investigated the variation of WLB and happiness in response to nurses' Socio-demographic and professional characteristics. This research used a descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional design with a convenience sample of 238 nurses in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire included self-administered versions of the Hayman Work-Life Balance Scale and the Oxford Happiness Scale. SPSS version 26 was used to analyze the study data collected between May and July 2024. The nurses achieved an average level of WLB and reported a moderate level of happiness. A Pearson's test showed a significant positive correlation between nurses' WLB and happiness (r =0.500, p<0.001). Factors such as age, nationality, living with family, educational background, and years of experience led to significant differences in both WLB and happiness. WLB remains a major challenge for many healthcare systems, as work-related interests increasingly dominate nurses' lives. Human resources regulations are needed to encourage family-friendly policy and implement a well-being program to address the issues nurses face regarding their WLB and happiness. Additional research is recommended to deepen our understanding of the mechanism linking WLB to other work outcomes in the healthcare professions. Such insights are vital for informing policy, enhancing job satisfaction, and ultimately improving patient care outcomes.
Childhood loneliness has emerged as a pressing concern, undermining children's psychological well-being and social functioning. Although fear of happiness has been linked to poorer psychological functioning, little is known about how parental fear of happiness influences children's loneliness. The present study is the first, integrating variable-oriented and person-oriented approaches, to investigate the associations and mechanisms between parental fear of happiness and children's loneliness. This study employed a two-wave prospective design with a 6-month interval. A total of 337 parent-child dyads (Mage = 10.39 ± 1.06 years at T1, 180 boys, age range = 9-13 years) were recruited. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the hypothesized indirect effects. Furthermore, latent profile analysis (LPA) and SEM were utilized to investigate the associations among various constructs. The results showed that (1) parent-child attachment and peer attachment served as mediators in the association between parental fear of happiness and children's loneliness. A significant sequential indirect association was found: higher parental fear of happiness was associated with lower parent-child attachment, which was further associated with lower peer attachment and higher children's loneliness. (2) LPA identified a three-class solution for parental fear of happiness: the low (52.2%), moderate (37.4%), and high (10.4%) groups. (3) For the high versus the low PFOH group contrast, relative mediation effects via both parent-child attachment and peer attachment were significant. The relative sequential mediation effect involving parent-child attachment and peer attachment remained significant. For the moderate versus the low PFOH group contrast, parent-child attachment remained a significant mediator, and the sequential indirect effect was also significant. The relative mediation effect via peer attachment was not significant. These findings suggest that parental fear of happiness is associated with greater loneliness both directly and indirectly through attachment-related mechanisms, having implications for the prevention and intervention of children's loneliness.
Previous studies have shown that parenthood is associated with happiness; however, few studies have explored the associations between offspring composition (including the number of children and the gender composition of offspring) and happiness. This study explores these associations using six waves of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) 2012-2021. The results show that, after controlling for all covariates, parents report higher happiness than non-parents. Among parents, a larger number of children is positively associated with happiness only among those aged 60 and above. Regarding gender composition, all-female offspring are positively associated with parental happiness, with the strongest association observed among middle-aged parents and in the two-daughters combination. These associations vary systematically by life-course stage, urban/rural residence, and gender. This study incorporates the number of children and gender composition of offspring into a unified analytical framework in the Chinese context, providing new empirical evidence on how offspring composition is differentially associated with parental happiness across different groups in the context of low fertility and aging.
Although marriage generally supports psychological wellbeing, individuals can still experience profound loneliness within intimate relationships, which may increase susceptibility to adverse mental health outcomes. This study employed a cross-sectional, dyadic research design to investigate whether the belief that happiness is fragile mediates the relationship between marital loneliness and depression sensitivity. Self-report data were collected from 307 married couples (N = 614; husbands' mean age = 35.71, wives' mean age = 33.24) in Türkiye. Both intrapersonal (actor) and interpersonal (partner) pathways were examined by adopting the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model (APIMeM) via structural equation modeling. Results revealed significant actor and partner mediation effects for both husbands and wives (e.g., actor effect: β = 0.39, p < 0.01; partner effect: β = 0.27, p < 0.01). Specifically, an individual's marital loneliness predicted their own depression sensitivity through their personal belief that happiness is fragile (actor effect). Furthermore, cross-partner effects showed that one spouse's loneliness predicted the other's depression sensitivity through the partner's heightened perception of fragile happiness. These findings illustrate how cognitive appraisals of happiness transmit relational loneliness into depressive vulnerabilities. Addressing maladaptive beliefs about the fragility of happiness in couple therapy may help prevent marital loneliness from exacerbating depressive symptoms for both partners.
To evaluate the effect of a mindfulness-based yoga program on psychological well-being and happiness in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. This randomized controlled trial was conducted between February and August 2024 in two Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) located in Malatya, Türkiye. Ninety-six individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either a mindfulness-based yoga group (n = 48) or a control group (n = 48). The intervention group participated in a 6-week mindfulness-based yoga program consisting of 12 sessions, while the control group received routine CMHC care only. Outcome measures included the Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB) and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire Short Form (OHQ-SF). Three participants in the intervention group withdrew consent during follow-up, and two participants in the control group were lost to follow-up. The final analyses included 45 participants in the mindfulness-based yoga group and 46 participants in the control group. No statistically significant differences were observed between the groups at baseline (p > 0.05). Following the intervention, participants in the mindfulness-based yoga group demonstrated significantly higher psychological well-being scores (36.50 ± 4.57 vs. 12.86 ± 3.69, p < 0.001) and happiness scores (21.44 ± 3.55 vs. 10.58 ± 5.64, p < 0.001) compared with the control group. Within-group analyses also showed significant improvements in psychological well-being and happiness in the intervention group (p < 0.001), whereas no significant changes were observed in the control group. No intervention-related adverse events or safety concerns were reported during the study period. Mindfulness-based yoga appears to be a promising complementary intervention for improving psychological well-being and happiness among individuals with schizophrenia. Further multicenter randomized controlled trials with larger samples and longer follow-up periods are needed to confirm these findings.
In the year of America's semi quincentennial, many are reflecting on our nation's proclaimed right to happiness. What would our Founding Fathers make of our acrimonious and divisive politics, of the role of social media in the diminished self-images of our youth, or of the steady rise in depression and suicidal ideation over the past decade? This editorial joins debates about what conditions are contributing to declines in happiness and challenges health promotion professionals to focus on the proven role that common health practices play in bolstering emotional well-being.
By 2050, diabetes care should transform into a human-centered, technology-augmented ecosystem focused on well-being. In this work, we first present a deliberately idealistic, forward-looking scenario in which advanced treatments, artificial intelligence, and integrated care delivery significantly reduce the burden on individuals with diabetes and enable person-centered health care. In this utopian vision, success in diabetes care is measured not only by glycemic metrics such as time in range but also by time in happiness, i.e., the quality time people spend unencumbered by their condition. Second, while such idealistic progress may be unlikely by 2050 due to socioeconomic and public health constraints, we build on existing gaps to outline a road map of co-designed solutions, health system reforms, and ethical innovations to move closer to it. This work serves as a "North Star" document that articulates the key values and next steps for achieving an ideal diabetes prevention and care ecosystem.
Understanding inter-city disparities in urban expressed happiness (EH) and the key predictors for these differences is critical for advancing socially sustainable urban development. However, the key predictors for EH remain poorly understood, and existing studies have largely overlooked the potential association with future climate change. In this study, we analyzed 5,118,772 geotagged Weibo posts from 50 Chinese cities using SnowNLP for sentiment analysis, machine learning models, and LDA topic modeling to investigate the inter-city differences in EH, its underlying predictors, and the potential association with further climate change. Sentiment analysis revealed pronounced variations in EH across Chinese cities, with more positive emotions observed during weekends and holidays. Incorporating 17 potential predictors, we developed ten machine learning models. A random forest model achieved the best performance, with an R² that exceeded all other models by 1.05%-60.00% and an RMSE that was 7.41%-60.95% lower than the alternatives. SHAP analysis showed that landscape, socioeconomic, environmental, and geographic factors accounted for 24.58%-38.97%, 20.64%-40.12%, 11.96%-29.33%, and 11.47%-23.71% of the total feature importance in the EH prediction models, respectively. Among individual variables, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) exhibited the highest feature importance, accounting for 18.56%-32.16% of the total importance, followed by per capita GDP, PM2.5 concentration, AQI, and temperature. Scenario-based projections suggest an association between projected climate warming and potential changes in urbanites' EH. Overall, this study identifies the key predictors associated with urbanites' EH and highlights the potential association of future climate warming with EH, providing valuable evidence for urban planning and policy interventions.
Smells linked to joyful childhood events trigger vivid memories in adulthood, yet the mechanism behind their formation has remained elusive. A new PLOS Biology study shows that neurons generated around birth play a key role in encoding these olfactory memories.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) is characterized by transient regional systolic dysfunction without obstructive coronary artery disease. A rare subtype, happy heart syndrome (HHS), is triggered by positive emotional events. A 65-year-old woman with hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia presented with typical anginal chest pain for three days, beginning after attending a wedding party. Initial clinic ECG showed anterolateral ST-segment elevation, prompting referral to the Emergency Department. On arrival, her chest pain had resolved, and repeated ECG demonstrated normalization of ST changes with QT prolongation and T-wave inversion. Troponin was elevated at 717 ng/l. Echocardiography showed an EF of 35% (baseline 58%) with apical and LAD-territory akinesia and ballooning. Coronary angiography revealed normal coronaries, while left ventricular angiography demonstrated findings consistent with TCM. Cardiac MRI excluded infarction or fibrosis. With guideline-directed therapy, EF recovered to 56% on follow-up.
Medical student well-being is an important consideration, given the levels of distress reported during training. There are a variety of studies that explore medical students' well-being, but few focus on positive indicators. This study aimed to investigate the subjective well-being of medical students rotating through clinical clerkship anatomy sessions during the third and fourth years of medical school through basic psychological needs theory. The mixed-methods design followed a QUAN + qual procedural design, in which data were collected and analyzed concurrently, emphasizing the quantitative aspect. Participants voluntarily completed a pre- and post-survey during clinical clerkship anatomy sessions over 2 months in the 2024-2025 academic year. The pre-survey included items on subjective well-being and demographic information, while the post-survey repeated the subjective well-being items and included open-ended qualitative questions. Using a single-group, within-subjects design, dependent t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare means of pre- and post-survey responses, and thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data. Among medical students rotating through clinical clerkships at a Southeastern institution in 2024, participants reported increased subjective well-being during anatomy sessions, as measured by scores on the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the Satisfaction With Life Scale. Themes consistent with basic psychological needs theory, subjective well-being, and situated learning were identified in the qualitative feedback about the clinical clerkship anatomy sessions. The findings suggest that incorporating an educational program into the medical school curriculum can be positively associated with medical students' well-being outcomes.
IntroductionHemophilia A and B, which are characterized by the deficiency of blood clotting factors VIII and IX, progress with bleeding and related complications. In our study, we aimed to investigate the emotional state and appearance anxiety of these patients and the emotional state of their spouses who are responsible for their care.Materyal methodWe included 44 adult patients (age 18-57) with severe hemophilia A or B and 28 spouses. Psychological assessments were performed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS), and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ). Cutoff values were applied: BDI >20 indicates depression; SAAS higher scores reflect greater anxiety; OHQ scores >140 indicate high happiness, 100-139 moderate, and <100 low happiness. Correlation analyses between annual bleeding frequency and psychological outcomes were conducted using Spearman's rho.ResultsPatients had a mean BDI score of 23.7 (depression range), mean SAAS score of 42, and spouses had a mean BDI score of 21.6 (depression range) with OHQ mean of 120 (moderate happiness). Annual bleeding frequency was positively correlated with patient BDI (r=0.662, p<0.001) and SAAS (r=0.480, p=0.001), and negatively correlated with spouse OHQ (r=-0.435, p=0.018).DiscussionBleeding complications significantly affect patients' emotional state and appearance anxiety, and in our cohort appearance anxiety was negatively correlated with age; however, subgroup analyses were not performed. Spouses also experience reduced happiness. These findings highlight hemophilia as a family-wide burden requiring integrated psychosocial support. Future longitudinal and interventional studies are needed to confirm these findings and guide comprehensive care models.
Anxiety disorders, including phobias, are a growing public health concern, profoundly affecting quality of life. While existing research utilizes text-based and physiological data for detection, a multimodal, ecologically valid understanding of how anxiety is expressed and regulated in natural social contexts remains limited. Social media offers a unique setting for studying spontaneous emotional disclosure and collective coping mechanisms. A text-mining study was conducted on 28,349 social media comments related to phobia/anxiety from three Chinese platforms (XiaoHongShu, Zhihu, and Weibo) using convenience sampling of publicly available posts up to November 1, 2025. Social media comments related to phobia discussions were collected and analysed using the Dalian University of Technology Chinese Sentiment Vocabulary Ontology lexicon-based methods. Demographic variables were analysed using Independent Samples t-test and One-way ANOVA. The most frequent emotion categories were happiness (31.6%) and surprise (15.3%), followed by fear (18.4%), sadness (14.7%), anger (12.1%), and disgust (7.9%). Gender differences based on complete-case analysis (n = 12,845) showed that female users expressed significantly more happiness- and sadness-related language than male users (p = 0.005 and p = 0.034, respectively). The sentiment classifier achieved moderate performance (F1 = 0.72). The emotional discourse surrounding phobia on Chinese social media reflects co-occurring linguistic patterns of fear alongside happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, and low-frequency disgust, rather than fear amplification alone. These findings suggest that online communication may shape how anxiety-related emotions are collectively expressed and interpreted, although causal inferences cannot be drawn from cross-sectional text data. This study addressed the limited understanding of anxiety-related emotional expression on Chinese social media. The findings showed that anxiety discourse involved not only fear, but also supportive, empathetic, and coping-oriented emotions. These results may help nurses and mental health professionals better understand digital emotional communication, improve psychosocial support, and inform AI-assisted emotional monitoring and online mental health interventions. This study was reported in accordance with the STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) Statement for cross-sectional observational studies. No patients or members of the public were directly involved in the design, conduct, analysis, or manuscript preparation of this study. The research was based on secondary analysis of publicly available and anonymized social media data.
 The medical curriculum is demanding and often associated with significant stress among students. This study aimed to assess life satisfaction among undergraduate medical students in Northern India and explore factors associated with life satisfaction, including sociodemographic and psychological factors.  This cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students from selected medical colleges in Northern India. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select institutions and participants. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire administered through confidential face-to-face interviews after obtaining informed consent. Postinterview deidentification procedures were implemented. No names or direct identifiers were recorded on the questionnaire forms, and each participant was assigned a unique study code.  A total of 415 students participated, of whom 64.1% were male participants. Overall, 64.6% reported being satisfied with their lives. Life satisfaction showed a significant negative correlation with perceived stress (r = -0.331, p < 0.001) and moderate positive correlations with subjective happiness (r = 0.477, p < 0.001) and self-confidence (r = 0.411, p < 0.001). Weak positive correlations were observed between life satisfaction and meditation practice (r = 0.181), spirituality (r = 0.189), gratitude (r = 0.184), and appreciation of beauty (r = 0.227), indicating small effect sizes despite statistical significance (all p < 0.001). In multiple linear regression analysis, subjective happiness (β = 0.328, p < 0.001), self-confidence (β = 0.191, p < 0.001), and perceived stress (β = -0.170, p < 0.001) emerged as significant independent predictors of life satisfaction.  Subjective happiness and self-confidence were independently associated with higher life satisfaction, whereas perceived stress was independently associated with lower life satisfaction. Although coping practices such as meditation and gratitude showed weaker associations, the findings highlight the potential relevance of psychological well-being and coping-related factors in understanding life satisfaction among medical students.
Poor sleep quality is related to difficulties in regulating emotions and to mental health issues in emerging adults. While prior research has confirmed this link, the role of daily fluctuations in sleep quality and emotions, which may require different regulation strategies, has rarely been examined in previous research. This study used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) for seven consecutive days using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap), with four smartphone-based assessments per day administered in the morning after waking, at midday, at 4 p.m., and 1 h before bedtime, to examine how daily average levels (within-person) and average weekly levels (between-person) of emotional processes (affect, perceived stress, and emotion regulation difficulties) are related to sleep quality in a convenience sample of 166 emerging adults recruited from a university student population (Mage = 20.36 years, 80.1% female). Linear mixed-effects models showed that, at the within-person level, higher daily average levels of anger, anxiety, sadness and perceived stress predicted lower sleep quality, whereas higher daily mean levels of happiness predicted higher sleep quality the subsequent night. At the between-person level, higher weekly mean levels of anger, anxiety, sadness and perceived stress, as well as more frequent use of rumination, predicted lower sleep quality, while higher mean levels of happiness predicted better sleep quality. To sum up, both daily average and weekly average levels of emotional processes are associated with sleep quality in emerging adults, with mostly negative emotional processes acting as vulnerability factors and happiness emerging as a protective factor.
Pleasant facial expressions, like happiness, are recognised faster than negative expressions such as anger or fear. The size of this happy face advantage depends on facial social category cues (larger for female, young or ethnic ingroup faces), facial attractiveness (larger for attractive faces), and person knowledge (larger for persons believed to be of good character). These findings are best explained by the evaluative congruence account, which holds that positive expressions are recognised faster when shown by relatively more positively evaluated posers. Experiment 1 showed that happiness is recognised faster than anger for posers who made positive statements about the participant or another person, but not for posers who made negative statements. Experiments 2-3 assessed whether these findings were due to evaluative conditioning (EC), which can shift poser evaluations by pairing poser images with positive or negative pictures or words. Although Experiments 2 and 3 successfully altered poser evaluations, there was no effect on expression recognition. These findings are not consistent with the evaluative congruence account and suggest that different types of knowledge about a person (what someone did, said or likes/hates), which all alter poser evaluation, differ in their effect on socially relevant processes such as expression perception.
In social settings, emotion expressions can be a response to events befalling others. Expressed emotions are empathic when they are congruent (i.e. happiness for a positive event [happy-for-ness]; sadness for a negative event [sympathy]), and counter-empathic when they are incongruent with the event valence (i.e. happiness for a negative event [schadenfreude]; sadness for a positive event [glückschmerz]). In five studies, we assessed the evaluative consequences - perceived appropriateness of the emotion expression (Study 1), perceived morality, warmth, and competence of expressers (Studies 2 and 3), and the behavioural implications - inferred prosociality and willingness to interact with the expresser (Studies 4 and 5). Across studies, empathic expressions elicited more positive reactions than counter-empathic expressions. In addition, the studies revealed some differences within these categories. For counter-empathic expressions, schadenfreude generally elicited more negative evaluations and inferences than glückschmerz. For empathic expressions, happy-for-ness was in some cases evaluated more positively than sympathy, though this pattern was less consistent across studies. The findings also provided mixed evidence regarding the moderating roles of event magnitude and participant gender. The findings are discussed in terms of the social functional approach of emotions.
The prevalence and burden of depression are increasing among young people. Despite this, relatively few treatments specifically target this critical developmental period, and under-addressed mental health difficulties in youth often have lifelong consequences. Social isolation is commonly reported by young adults and is both a risk and maintenance factor for depression. There is a need for accessible, engaging interventions that can reduce depressive symptoms and improve social connectedness. Building on evidence of the therapeutic potential of social dance-based activities for depression, this randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of an 8-week salsa dance intervention for young adults (aged 18-24 years) with mild to moderately severe depressive symptoms. 121 participants were randomly assigned to either a salsa intervention or a waitlist control. Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), a validated measure of depressive symptoms, and additional mental health measures at baseline, during, and after the intervention. Participants in the salsa dance condition showed a significantly greater reduction in depressive symptoms than the waitlist control, with a -2.45 PHQ-9 point between-group difference, exceeding the criterion for clinical significance. Both groups reported improvements in social anxiety, generalized anxiety, loneliness, and daily happiness, but salsa participants had significantly greater reductions in social anxiety and greater improvements in daily happiness. These findings support the value of social dance as a novel, accessible intervention for reducing depressive symptoms. Implementing such programs within a suite of wellbeing-oriented interventions for young people could provide cost-effective mental health benefits.
This paper examines researchers' use of visual methods and arts-based activities, when researching with children who have rare diseases, about their experiences of happiness, fulfilment, and resilience. Their perspectives were sought in order that a tailored 'Bank of Happiness' intervention be tested to investigate whether this approach could promote children's wellbeing and resilience in this setting and applied more widely in the future. In this reflection article, we focus on methods rather than findings, to examine more closely children's participation in research, on the advantages and challenges of techniques we selected that included collaborative arts-based activities, photography, and photo-elicitation. We want this paper to contribute to the ongoing dialogue about working with children in the context of research. We offer an exploration of the '5Cs', 'Connection', 'Creativity', 'Collaboration', 'Consideration', and 'Congruence', that has helped us to reflect on our study, to reinforce what worked well and what must feature in our ongoing studies, as well as other elements that need more work, more reflection, to be tested and evaluated in future studies.
People have the basic need to experiment control over the most important aspects of their environment. Even though the Sense of Control Scale is one of the most used instruments to measure sense of control, its psychometric properties have not been thoroughly assessed in a Spanish-speaking context. This preregistered study adapts the Sense of Control Scale into Spanish. To achieve this, 605 adults (Mage = 33.09, SD = 14.18) filled out an online questionnaire containing the relevant measurements. Evidence of the structure of two first-order dimensions and a second-order dimension was obtained (CFI = .960; TLI = .949; RMSEA = .044; RMSR = .039). The measure showed measurement invariance across gender at the configural, metric, and scalar levels. The perceived constraints and personal mastery dimensions, as well as the overall score of the Spanish Sense of Control Scale (SP-SCS) showed good reliability. Moreover, lower levels of sense of control, whether considering scores on its two dimensions (i.e., perceived constraints and personal mastery) or the overall score, were indicative of worse subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and happiness), greater psychological distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, and stress), and higher perceived financial threat. The findings of this study reveal that the SP-SCS is a promising instrument to assess sense of control in the Spanish-speaking population.