Search Results (1,130)

Large-scale population surveys provide valuable information for studying child well-being, yet their structure often limits the direct application of machine-learning methods. The National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) is one of the most comprehensive datasets for monitoring children’s health and development in the United States, but the raw survey files contain logical skip patterns, categorical variables, and complex survey-design elements that require substantial preprocessing before predictive analysis can be performed. This study presents a curated machine-learning-ready benchmark dataset derived from the 2023 NSCH together with a fully reproducible computational pipeline for studying school-age child flourishing. The workflow constructs a binary flourishing outcome from four survey items related to curiosity, task persistence, emotional self-regulation, and interest in doing well in school. After restricting the sample to children aged 6–17 years and retaining only records with valid responses in all four outcome items, the final analytical dataset contained 32,934 observations. Feature selection based on mutual information computed on the training partition, combined with cross-validated subset-size selection, yielded a final benchmark subset of 150 predictors. Baseline experiments using logistic regression and random forest showed stable and reasonably strong predictive performance, with held-out ROC-AUC values around 0.84–0.85 and closely aligned cross-validation results. An exploratory comparison between weighted and unweighted learning further showed that survey weighting did not improve discriminative performance in this benchmark setting, although the magnitude of the effect was modest and model-dependent. By releasing both the curated benchmark dataset and the reproducible pipeline, this study provides a reusable resource for machine-learning research on child well-being and survey-based computational benchmarking. Full article

Coastal regions played a key role in the emergence of Early Neolithic cultures. Fluctuating sea levels shaped prehistoric human migration, settlement patterns, and adaptation strategies. The lower reaches of the Min River in Fujian were a major centre of activity. During the Middle to Late Neolithic, marine communities such as the Keqiutou (6500–5500 cal. a BP) and Tanshishan (5500–4300 cal. a BP) cultures flourished. However, the scarcity of earlier remains has limited understanding of Early Neolithic life before 8000 cal. a BP. We dated stratigraphic layers at the newly excavated Niutoushan site using radiocarbon dating and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). OSL results indicate the site’s Neolithic culture layer between 9.3 ± 0.7 ka and 8.1 ± 0.5 ka, with radiocarbon dates clustering around 8300–7000 cal. a BP. Based on the younger bounds of the dating results and kernel density estimation, the Neolithic remains at the site are dated to approximately 8000–7000 cal. a BP, identifying Niutoushan as one of the earliest Neolithic sites in the region. Combined with sea-level reconstructions, the findings suggest that the rapid Early Holocene sea-level rise drove human migration along China’s eastern coast before 8000 cal. a BP. The Niutoushan culture was influenced by Neolithic cultures from northern coastal regions and potentially by those located to its south across the exposed Taiwan Strait from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Early Holocene. This points to complex interactions among Early Neolithic cultures in both northern and southern coastal China, warranting further investigation for validation. Full article

Longmeizi 龍眉子 was an inheritor of the Southern Lineage of Daoism 道教南宗 under Weng Baoguang 翁葆光. By tracing the historical documentation of Longmeizi’s Daoist lineage, it becomes evident that the narrative details were continuously enriched through textual accumulation. By tracing and analyzing the formative history of documents related to Longmeizi’s Daoist lineage, it is evident that in the process of forming this Daoist lineage, lineage identity 宗派認同 was continuously solidified and even “labeled 標籤化” within these layered texts. The transmission genealogy between patriarchs across generations gradually became clear, definite, and verifiable. After Longmeizi compiled the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu 金液還丹印證圖 (Illustrations of the Return of the Liquified Gold to the Cinnabar Field) from the Jiading period (1208–1224) of the Southern Song Dynasty to the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, this book was initially transmitted within the Daoist lineage: Longmeizi → Bai Yuchan 白玉蟾 → Wang Jinchan 王金蟾. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a literatus named Yuanyangzi Lin Jing 元阳子林静 from Wuxing 吴兴 had also read this book. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the mode of transmission for the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu shifted from being primarily transmitted orally within Daoist circles to being primarily disseminated through the printing and circulation of books. This led to the emergence of many different versions and commentaries of the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu. Through the compilation and printing of book series, the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu gained broad circulation during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Its annotators, publishers, and readers spanned various identities and social classes, while its geographic reach extended to the Central Plains (Zhongyuan 中原), Southwest China, and Jiangnan regions. By examining the textual circulation history of the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu, it can be observed that the development of the book printing industry during the Ming and Qing periods, particularly the flourishing of series publications, facilitated a shift in the primary mode of transmission for Daoist texts and even in the nature of the texts themselves. On the other hand, the case study of the Jinye huandan yinzheng tu is an example that illustrates the diversity and richness in the methods of Daoist cultural transmission and their development during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Full article

This article examines the concept of the brain (mastiṣka) within the Indian intellectual tradition, tracing its development from the magico-religious medicine of the Atharvaveda (c. 1200–900 BCE) through the classical Āyurvedic texts—the Suśrutasaṃhitā, the Caraksaṃhitā, the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā, and the relatively neglected Bhelasaṃhitā—to the subtle-body physiology of Haṭha Yoga literature. Against the background of a comparative analysis with the brain–heart debate in ancient Greek medicine, the article argues that Indian medicine developed a distinctive ‘relational organ model’ in which brain and heart constitute complementary poles of a single vital-cognitive network mediated by the nāḍī (neural-energetic channel) system. This model is neither simply cardiocentric nor encephalocentrist but integrates both within a hierarchical framework. The Bhelasaṃhitā’s unique near-encephalocentrist statement (śiras tālvantare cetanādhiṣṭhānam) reveals a genuine internal debate within classical Indian medicine, while the Haṭhayogic synthesis—locating the ultimate seat of consciousness in the cranial Sahasrāra while preserving the heart as the integrative hub of all channels—represents a coherent integration of both tendencies. The Sāṃkhya philosophical framework provides the metaphysical key to this integration, distinguishing non-material consciousness (puruṣa) from the material cognitive apparatus (antaḥkaraṇa). The article brings into dialogue these historical findings with recent research in neurocardiology, neuroimaging, and prāṇāyāma science to illuminate areas of empirical convergence, contributing to the interdisciplinary dialogue among science, religion, and health on the nature of human flourishing. Full article

Choosing a future career represents a complex developmental task, often accompanied by multiple concerns and anxieties. The Social Cognitive Career Theory and Life Design paradigm emphasize the importance of supporting individuals in managing career-related challenges. However, global stressors—such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and increasing awareness of the climate emergency—have introduced new and multifaceted sources of uncertainty that are not adequately captured by existing instruments. This gap highlights the need for a psychometrically sound measure to assess emerging career-related concerns in the contemporary context. Accordingly, the study aimed to develop and validate the Career Concerns related to Perceived Environmental Challenges (CC-PEC Scale). Four studies were conducted. Study 1 employed exploratory factor analysis, supporting a three-factor structure (Career-related COVID-19 pandemic concern, Career-related war concern, and Career-related climate emergency concern). Study 2 confirmed this structure using confirmatory factor analysis and demonstrated measurement invariance across gender, supporting a hierarchical factorial model. Study 3 provided evidence of concurrent and discriminant validity through associations with related constructs. Study 4 offered preliminary evidence of stability and predictive validity using life satisfaction and flourishing as outcome variables. Overall, the findings support the CC-PEC Scale as a reliable and valid instrument for assessing career-related concerns linked to global environmental challenges. These results have important implications for research and career guidance interventions aimed at supporting young people’s career development in increasingly uncertain contexts. Full article

A cross-sectional study was conducted with student teachers from four Education Degree Colleges located in Upper and Lower Myanmar. Drawing on the positive psychology framework, the predictive role of character strengths in flourishing was examined by integrating strengths self-efficacy (SSE) and resilience as parallel mediators. Participants (n = 1251, M_age = 20.84 years, SD = 1.28) were selected using stratified random sampling and completed four validated measures: VIA-72, SSE Scale, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale 25, and Flourishing Scale. Correlational analyses revealed significant moderate positive associations between study variables. Using structural equation modeling, the results showed a direct predictive effect of character strengths on SSE, resilience, and flourishing. In addition, SSE and resilience partially mediated the relationship between character strengths and flourishing. Importantly, the indirect pathway through resilience was stronger than the SSE, indicating that the ability to adapt to challenges plays an essential role in linking character strengths with the flourishing of student teachers in the Myanmar Teacher Education setting, which practices a competency-based curriculum. Overall, supporting the strengths-based literature, the parallel mediational model of SSE and resilience contributes to a better understanding of how character strengths explain flourishing. The implications for Teacher Education and directions for future research are discussed. Full article

Background: Globally, rates of children with physical and mental health problems are increasing. Health issues in early childhood often persist into adulthood, highlighting the need to ensure children are supported to flourish from the start of life. Objectives: This protocol describes methods used to test the acceptability and feasibility of a novel digital Flourishing Intervention (designed to empower parents and promote child wellbeing), comprising a Flourishing Check (a newly developed online questionnaire) and a Pathway Tool (an online directory of high-quality, evidence-based programmes and resources). Methods: Using a randomised feasibility trial, participants (N = 600 parents of children aged 0–5 years) will complete the Flourishing Check. The intervention group (n = 400) will access the Flourishing Check and Pathway Tool, whereas a waitlist control group (n = 200) will access the Flourishing Check only. Results: The primary aim is to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention through a mixed-methods design incorporating quantitative data from pre- and post-intervention questionnaires and qualitative data from focus groups. This will be assessed using a traffic light system, which will inform if and how to proceed to a future effectiveness trial. Secondary aims are to assess changes in parent and child outcomes. Primary outcomes will be assessed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Secondary outcomes will be analysed using mixed-effects regression models. Conclusions: We anticipate that the Flourishing Intervention will be feasible and acceptable to parents. This trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12626000187347). Full article

This paper presents a literature review regarding the automatic extraction of meaningful information regarding suppliers’ ESG and sustainability compliance from textual sources. Assessing suppliers’ ESG compliance has become a key challenge for procurement managers. Given the large number of suppliers and required data points, traditional approaches such as questionnaires and audits are inefficient, ineffective and difficult to scale. To solve this problem, we investigate whether the required information can be automatically harvested from suppliers’ textual sources. Our structured literature review identified 82 papers on which we performed a descriptive analysis, finding a rich and flourishing body of literature produced by a heterogeneous scientific community. We further reduced our sample to 73 full-text articles that supported a more in-depth content-based analysis. We investigated which data sources can be used in particular, which technologies can be leveraged, and which types of outputs can be generated. Even though they could provide much of the required information, corporate websites are rarely utilized as data sources, partly due to the limited adoption of large language models (LLMs). LLMs are less diffused than traditional Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques due to their recent introduction and some gaps that still limit their performance. This represents both a constraint and an opportunity for future research. Full article

As AI-generated influencers increasingly dominate social media landscapes, their psychological impact on human users necessitates rigorous empirical investigation. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this study examines how AI influencers influence the satisfaction and frustration of users’ basic psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Utilizing a netnographic approach, the research identifies three pivotal psychological mechanisms. The findings reveal a fundamental paradox characterized by a dual-path process; while AI influencers can meaningfully fulfill psychological needs through consistent presence and customizable narratives, they simultaneously risk undermining these needs when perceived as instruments of algorithmic surveillance, commercial orchestration, or emotional inauthenticity. This duality underscores the complexity of AI-mediated engagement, where the same technological affordances can lead to either psychological flourishing or digital alienation. These insights emphasize the urgency for responsible AI design that prioritizes user well-being over mere commercial conversion, offering critical implications for developers, marketers, and policymakers in the evolving era of AI-driven social interaction. Full article

Background: Human wellbeing consists of dynamic interactions and feedback loops across multiple life domains, a perspective increasingly emphasised within positive psychology’s systemic and strengths-based approach to flourishing. This study develops a systemic framework to model these interdependencies and examines how cross-domain investment can optimise both domain-specific and integrated wellbeing across the lifespan. Methods: Using a Cobb–Douglas functional form with associated growth and resource constraints, we formalise the interaction between physical and financial wellbeing as an example and analyse their joint contribution to overall wellbeing. Results: The model demonstrates that improvements in one domain of wellbeing can enhance wellbeing in another, thereby shifting the optimisation frontier. While narrow domain-specific wellbeing strategies are subject to larger diminishing marginal returns, cross-domain investment generates reinforcing effects that elevate both domains simultaneously and increase integrated wellbeing. Conclusions: In line with positive psychology’s focus on leveraging strengths to support areas of relative weakness, the findings show how developing one domain of wellbeing can mitigate constraints in another. These findings align with positive psychology’s emphasis on multidimensional flourishing and resource-building processes, highlighting the importance of systemic resource allocation and suggesting that wellbeing optimisation requires coordinated, contextualised multi-domain strategies rather than siloed approaches. Full article

This study examines how religious and spiritual identities relate to depression and anxiety at baseline and longitudinally. Using data from the Family Foundations of Youth Development Project, which sampled parent–child dyads from the Western United States, we investigated how mental health relates to the conjunction of spirituality and religiosity (S/R), the lack of either, or one separate from the other. At baseline, children identifying as “Spiritual but not Religious” (SBNR) reported the highest levels of anxiety and depression, whereas children who identified as “Religious and Spiritual” (RAS) exhibited the lowest levels of depression. The difference between RAS identity and the SBNR identity was significant across all baseline scales, with SBNR individuals demonstrating greater pathology. Among parents, the “religious but not spiritual (RBNS) group” was more depressed than the RAS group, and both RBNS and SBNR parents were more anxious than the “not religious, nor spiritual” (NRNS) parents. Longitudinally, SBNR children uniquely showed significant decreases in their depression levels, and no increases in their anxiety levels, likely reflecting a ceiling effect given their initially high symptoms. Regarding adults, all groups except RBNS decreased in depressive symptoms over time. It is important to note that this study does not investigate the effects of spiritual or religious identity shift: i.e., conversion or deconversion. This study highlights the nuanced relationship between psychological well-being and S/R. It examines participants from the Western United States, in predominantly white, highly homogenous areas, with a large presence of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is not generalizable to world populations. It offers possible interpretations, intending to alleviate suffering and encourage flourishing by identifying risk and protective factors. Full article

Background: College students’ well-being is a critical determinant of academic success, and for Native American students, cultural strengths, resilience, and community support are key in fostering persistence in higher education. Alongside these assets, health behaviors are key contributors to psychological well-being (PWB) and academic performance. This study examined how modifiable health behaviors, such as physical activity (PA) and sleep duration, relate to PWB and academic performance among Native American college students. Methods: A secondary data analysis was conducted using a nationally representative sample of Native Americans (N = 1914) from the Spring 2023 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) survey. Independent variables include meeting PA guidelines (≥150 min moderate or ≥75 min vigorous/week) and sleep duration (categorized as poor or good). The Diener Flourishing Scale measured PWB. Academic performance was measured based on self-reported cumulative grade averages. Findings: Biological sex and PA were significantly associated, χ² = 40.60, p < 0.001, with a higher proportion of males meeting PA guidelines. Students with good sleep reported higher PWB than others, F(1, 1817) = 62.08, p < 0.001. Similarly, students who met PA guidelines reported higher PWB, F(1, 1817) = 35.71, p < 0.001. Poor sleep was associated with lower odds of higher academic performance (B = −0.33, p < 0.001). Contrarily, PA was not significant (p = 0.350). PWB was positively associated with academic performance (B = 0.031, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Sleep and PWB are key factors associated with both PWB and academic performance, while PA is associated with PWB. These findings highlight the importance of relevant interventions that promote these factors to support overall well-being, academic success, and retention among Native American college students. Full article

Parental identity, the extent to which individuals integrate parenting roles into their self-concept, is associated with subjective well-being (SWB). However, research has largely focused on current parents, with limited attention to those with alternative caregiving roles. Companion dogs often act as caregiving figures, but their role in shaping identity and well-being processes has not been fully explored. This cross-sectional, survey-based study examined whether parental identity is associated with SWB, regardless of parental status, and whether the human–dog bond moderates any association in older women. Women dog owners aged 40 years and over (N = 296, M age = 51.6) completed an online survey including the Parental Identity and Enjoyment Scale, the Dog Owner Relationship Scale, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the Flourishing Scale. Parental identity was positively associated with life satisfaction, r = 0.38, p < 0.001, and flourishing, r = 0.23, p < 0.001, and moderated regression models were significant for both (p < 0.001). However, interaction effects between parental identity and the human–dog bond were not significant. These findings extend identity theory, demonstrating that parental identity predicts SWB across diverse pathways and independently of parental status. The results contribute to emerging research on caregiving identities and highlight the importance of considering identity processes, rather than parental status alone, when examining well-being in older women. Full article

Substance use disorder (SUD) undermines social connection, identity, and well-being. While art therapy is formally incorporated into clinical treatment, far less is known about how informal, group-based creative activities contribute to recovery. This qualitative study examines whether and how participation in a creative arts group fosters social support and human flourishing among individuals with SUD. We conducted semi-structured, individual interviews of eight adults enrolled in SUD outpatient treatment at the Johns Hopkins Broadway Center for Addiction who voluntarily participated in a creative arts class. Recordings were transcribed and analyzed using an iterative, thematic approach. Analysis revealed four themes: (1) Social connectedness and support—artmaking fostered camaraderie, accountability, and peer encouragement; (2) Holistic and supportive environment—the group offered a safe, nonjudgmental space that affirmed participants beyond their addiction; (3) Emotional renewal through art—creative engagement reduced anxiety, promoted joy, and provided a constructive outlet for emotions; and (4) Reclaiming agency through artistic expression—participants experienced autonomy, skill development, and identity building, which fostered hope and personal growth. Overall, participants viewed artmaking as a catalyst for relational and personal transformation. These exploratory findings generate hypotheses for future research on the role of informal creative arts groups within recovery-oriented care settings. Full article