Search Results (1,257)

Background/Objectives: The postpartum period involves profound bodily, psychological, and relational changes that may challenge women’s well-being and couple functioning, yet the role of flows of compassion and positive body image in postpartum couple satisfaction remains largely unexplored. The present study examined whether body appreciation mediated the associations between different flows of compassion (self-compassion, compassion toward others, and compassion from others) and couple satisfaction in postpartum women. Methods: A total of 230 Italian postpartum women who had given birth in the previous six months (Mage = 33.65, SD = 4.43) completed online self-report measures assessing self-compassion, compassion toward others, compassion from others, body appreciation, and couple satisfaction. Direct and indirect associations among compassion flows, body appreciation, and couple satisfaction were examined using path analysis, controlling for breastfeeding status. Results: Self-compassion and compassion from others were positively associated with body appreciation, which in turn was positively associated with couple satisfaction; compassion from others also showed a direct positive association with couple satisfaction, and significant indirect effects of self-compassion and compassion from others on couple satisfaction through body appreciation were observed. Conclusions: Body appreciation may represent a key psychological mechanism through which compassion-based processes support relational well-being in the postpartum period. This study is the first to examine the mediating role of body appreciation in the relationship between compassion flows and couple satisfaction in postpartum women. Integrating compassion flows with positive body image advances understanding of how intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional resources contribute to couple satisfaction following childbirth and informs interventions aimed at supporting postpartum adjustment. Full article

Adolescence is marked by a heightened need for belonging, peer acceptance, and emotional validation, with disruptions linked to loneliness and psychological distress. This perspective integrates belongingness theory with emerging research on companion artificial intelligence (AI), reconceptualizing these systems as relational substitutes that simulate, but do not provide, genuine interpersonal connection. Designed to offer continuous, emotionally responsive interactions, companion AI may be particularly appealing to socially isolated youth. However, these features can foster perceived intimacy, emotional dependence, and misinterpretations of programmed responses as authentic care. Drawing on developmental research and recent case evidence, this manuscript examines how AI-mediated interactions may reinforce social withdrawal, shape expectations of relationships, and contribute to mental health risk. These findings stress the importance of understanding the developmental implications of artificial forms of connection during adolescence and describe potential policies to mitigate the likelihood of negative outcomes. Full article

Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent among university students, yet the psychosocial correlates linking exposure to potentially traumatic or severe adverse events with depressive symptoms remain incompletely understood. This study examined the association between traumatic event exposure and depressive symptoms among Chinese university freshmen, focusing on the mediating role of interpersonal difficulties and the moderating role of only-child status. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 8079 freshmen from three universities in Shandong Province, China. Depressive symptoms were measured using the PHQ-9, traumatic event exposure was assessed using the Severe Traumatic Events Questionnaire, and interpersonal difficulties were evaluated using the Comprehensive Diagnostic Scale of Interpersonal Relationships. Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were performed using Hayes’ PROCESS macro (Model 15), controlling for sex, age, and residence. Results showed that traumatic event exposure was positively associated with depressive symptoms (β = 0.194, 95% CI [0.169–0.221]). A statistically significant indirect association through interpersonal difficulties was observed (indirect effect = 0.110, 95% bootstrap CI [0.097–0.124]). Only-child status moderated both the direct association between traumatic event exposure and depressive symptoms and the association between interpersonal difficulties and depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that interpersonal difficulties may represent an important factor associated with the relationship between traumatic event exposure and depressive symptoms, and that only-child status may influence the strength of these associations among university students. Full article

Short-video addiction has emerged as a growing behavioral concern in the context of the widespread use of platforms such as Douyin and TikTok, posing potential risks to young adults’ psychological well-being. Psychological resilience and rejection sensitivity are considered important psychological characteristics that may function as protective and risk factors, respectively, in the development of addictive media use. However, the longitudinal interplay among these variables remains insufficiently understood. This study examined the longitudinal relationships among psychological resilience, rejection sensitivity, and short-video addiction over time among university students. A two-wave longitudinal design with a six-month interval was conducted among 1394 Chinese university students. Participants completed validated measures assessing short-video addiction, psychological resilience (CD-RISC-10), and rejection sensitivity (RSQ). Cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM) was employed to investigate the bidirectional predictive associations among these variables while controlling for autoregressive effects. All three constructs demonstrated substantial temporal stability across the two measurement waves. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that higher psychological resilience at Time 1 predicted lower rejection sensitivity and lower short-video addiction at Time 2, whereas higher rejection sensitivity at Time 1 predicted lower psychological resilience and higher short-video addiction over time. Although these longitudinal associations were statistically significant, their effect sizes were modest. These findings suggest that psychological resilience and rejection sensitivity may represent protective and vulnerability-related psychological characteristics associated with short-video addiction over time. The findings support the I-PACE model by highlighting the dynamic and longitudinal associations among psychological resources, interpersonal vulnerability, and addictive digital behaviors. Interventions aimed at strengthening psychological resilience and reducing rejection sensitivity may contribute to preventing short-video addiction and promoting healthier digital engagement among university students. Full article

The Michelangelo phenomenon describes an interpersonal model of personal growth in which romantic partners affirm each other’s ideal selves, thereby enhancing their relational and personal well-being. The present study examined how attachment security relates to this process. Based on cross-sectional data from N = 452 individuals in 258 couples, the results replicated prior work and provided new insights. Greater partner affirmation was associated with higher relationship quality, higher life satisfaction, and lower depression, but was not associated with general anxiety. Movement toward the ideal self mediated the links between partner affirmation and well-being outcomes. Importantly, attachment security (lower attachment anxiety and avoidance) was directly associated with greater partner affirmation and indirectly associated with greater well-being outcomes through partner affirmation and movement toward the ideal self. The effects were particularly robust for lower attachment anxiety, relative to lower attachment avoidance. The findings suggest that attachment security may allow individuals to better rely on close relationships to experience personal growth. Full article

Children whose primary caregivers experience mental illness and adverse psychosocial complexity are at increased risk of experiencing mental, physical, and relational challenges. Perinatal mental health services have commonly focused on treating the parental mental health problem; however, emerging evidence shows that parental mental health interventions alone are not sufficient to address the complex needs of both caregivers and their children. To address this gap in services, a new, highly specialised program—the Nurturing Connections Program—was implemented across three Australian local health districts within the State of New South Wales. The program is targeted to caregivers of young children referred to mental health services and aims to improve caregiver mental health and psychosocial adversity, child developmental outcomes, and the child–caregiver relationship. This study evaluated caregivers’ experiences with, and views of, the program. Twelve caregivers participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews. A reflexive thematic analysis approach guided data interpretation. Four themes and three subthemes emerged from the data: (1) motivation for attending the program; (2) program components received; (3) post-program outcomes (subthemes: Caregiver-related outcomes, Child-related outcomes, and interpersonal outcomes); and (4) areas for program improvement. This study’s findings highlight program benefits, program facilitators and areas for improvement. Full article

Background: Depression is a major public health concern and remains a challenge despite traditional care approaches. This study sought to answer the following research question: how do participants in a program based on Permission Theory describe their perceptions of change related to the depressive experience? Methods: This exploratory and descriptive study employed a quantitative and qualitative approach, grounded in Bardin’s Content Analysis to analyze 23 spontaneous accounts from participants who reported experiences related to depression. Data were collected through self-reports voluntarily submitted by program participants through a routine administrative electronic form, characterizing a convenience sample. After thematic screening and manual verification of eligibility criteria, 23 accounts mentioning experiences related to depression were included in the analysis corpus. The participants evaluated their lives before and during the program. Results: The quantitative analysis showed an increase in self-reported scores of overall life evaluation during the program. Consistently, the qualitative accounts indicated that participants subjectively perceived changes in emotional, relational, and functional aspects of their everyday lives, including perceived changes in their depressive experience. Conclusions: These findings emphasize how participants interpret and describe changes in their emotional, relational, and functional lives, aspects that are often less visible in conventional mental health outcome research. These perceptions do not allow for inference of clinical effects or a causal relationship with program participation, reinforcing the need for controlled studies to investigate potential impacts on mental health outcomes. Full article

Generative AI (GenAI) is widely used in learning and daily life, yet its associations with interpersonal trust remain unclear. Drawing on the Stereotype Content Model and social cognitive theory, this study (N = 406) examined whether perceived warmth and competence mediate the relationship between observers’ perceptions of a target individual’s GenAI use and interpersonal trust, and whether perceived AI literacy moderates this relationship. Results showed that GenAI use was negatively associated with interpersonal trust. Perceived warmth and competence statistically mediated this association: GenAI use was associated with lower perceived warmth and competence, which in turn were associated with lower interpersonal trust. Perceived AI literacy moderated the direct negative association. Specifically, this association was significant when perceived AI literacy was low but non-significant when high. However, perceived AI literacy did not moderate the indirect pathways. This study provides preliminary evidence for potential perceptual mechanisms and boundary conditions associated with GenAI use and interpersonal trust, offering insights for balancing efficiency and trust in human-AI collaboration. Full article

Background: Divorce and separation represent major life transitions involving substantial changes in family organization, interpersonal relationships, and individual functioning. Despite the end of the romantic relationship, parents often remain connected through ongoing coparenting responsibilities, making post-separation adjustment a continuing relational process. The aim of the study was to examine the associations between coparenting dimensions, psychological distress, and life satisfaction among Romanian parents who were divorced, separated, or in the process of separation. Methods: A convenience sample of 206 divorced or separated parents (83.5% women; Mage = 43.39) completed a self-report questionnaire collecting sociodemographic data and identifying scores for coparenting quality of relationship (Coparenting Relationship Scale), psychological distress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale—DASS-21), and life satisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale—SWLS). Results showed that positive coparenting dimensions were positively associated with life satisfaction, whereas conflictual dimensions and psychological distress were negatively associated with well-being indicators. Psychological distress was strongly negatively associated with life satisfaction. In the regression model, only higher coparenting closeness and lower psychological distress emerged as significant predictors of greater life satisfaction. Conclusions: These findings indicate that, when considered simultaneously, the emotional quality of coparenting—particularly closeness—and individual psychological distress are the most relevant predictors of life satisfaction in post-separation parents. The findings suggest that interventions aiming to strengthen coparenting relationships and address psychological distress may be associated with improved well-being among separated or divorced parents. However, these implications should be interpreted considering the cross-sectional design. Full article

This article examines developmental communication as one of the key factors influencing health and the overall functioning of the family. The aim of the study is to highlight the importance of interpersonal communication and religious values in fostering family bonds, shaping health-promoting attitudes, and enhancing the psychological, social, and spiritual well-being of family members. The article is theoretical and analytical in nature and is based on a literature review spanning family studies, pedagogy, sociology, psychology, and the psychology of religion. The findings indicate that open, dialogue-oriented communication supports the development of strong emotional bonds, a sense of security, and family resilience in the face of crisis situations. The importance of marital relationships, parent–child communication, and intergenerational relations for the psychosocial health of family members is emphasized. The study also highlights the role of religion and spiritual values as factors that strengthen family cohesion, foster a sense of meaning in life, and enhance coping with adversity. The conclusions suggest that developmental communication, supported by moral and spiritual values, is a key element in building a healthy and sustainable family system. Full article

Job crafting is viewed as a bottom-up practice that supports adaptability and sustainable work design. However, changes in tasks, routines, or relationships may also create tensions for supervisors. These tensions are relevant to workplace sustainability because supervisory territorial behavior may restrict collaboration, information sharing, and sustainable productivity. Drawing on the cognitive–affective system theory of personality (CAPS), this study investigates how subordinates’ job crafting is associated with supervisory territorial behavior through two psychological mechanisms with implications for sustainable work functioning, i.e., the status-related pathway through perceived control and the well-being-related pathway through psychological strain. We tested the model using two-wave, multi-source dyadic data from 81 supervisors and 399 subordinates. The results show that subordinates’ job crafting is indirectly associated with higher supervisory territorial behavior through lower perceived control and greater psychological strain. In addition, the results of conditional effects indicate that subordinates’ interpersonal influence weakens both indirect effects. These findings highlight the potential social costs of job crafting and offer practical implications for supporting individual initiatives while protecting collaboration, well-being, and sustainable work functioning. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is deeply integrated into daily life. Emerging evidence suggests AI may help change the dynamics of social relationships by influencing social interactions, connectivity, and interpersonal relationships, and by providing new avenues for communication and contributing to improved social well-being. Therefore, this review aims to explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies as a tool to enhance social health, focusing on current applications, advantages, challenges, and ethical considerations associated with their implementation, as well as opportunities for future development. The literature on the relationship between the connectedness of social health dimensions and AI as a tool to better understand how interactions with AI technologies may influence social well-being. In this current review, key terms such as “Artificial Intelligence”, “Social Health”, “social inequalities”, “AI algorithm”, “AI technology”, “social connection”, “digital communication”, “social participation”, “social support”, “social isolation”, “loneliness”, “mental wellbeing”, were used to search relevant literature on Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Sciences. In addition, relevant aspects of the multidimensional impacts of AI on social health dimensions are also discussed. The use of AI technologies by individuals within societies was found to hold profound potential to reshape social health through enhancing social relationships, bridging communication gaps in diverse populations, stimulating social dynamics, and understanding human emotions. It may contribute to reducing social inequalities, promoting equity, accommodating individual differences, and enhancing the effectiveness of many tasks in the social and health care systems through deep learning, natural language processing, and machine learning techniques. This reduces social exclusion and increases accessibility and quality of health and social services. However, AI has also posed distinguishable challenges to its adoption, specifically in terms of data quality, privacy and security, algorithmic bias, ethical issues, public trust and acceptance, and regulatory and policy gaps. Evidence suggests that building public trust in the future of AI in social health requires interdisciplinary collaboration among health providers and professionals, social scientists, community members, and policymakers. Such collaboration is crucial to ensure that AI platforms do not perpetuate social inequalities or biases by maintaining transparency, explainability, and demonstrated effectiveness. In conclusion, the integration of AI into social health dimensions holds promise for social health transformation. As we move forward, several key areas need to be addressed to develop a robust governance and regulatory framework, along with ethical guidelines to ensure privacy protection, respect for human rights, transparency, and the promotion of the common good. Full article

Background/Objectives: Social skills deficits are increasingly recognized as clinically relevant correlates of suicidal behavior in adolescents. Goldstein’s Aggression Replacement Training (ART) provides a structured framework for assessing discrete prosocial and emotional skills, but its relationship with suicidality in psychiatric inpatients has not been systematically examined. This paper investigated whether self-rated ART social skills items differentiate adolescents with and without a history of suicide attempt as well as whether machine learning (ML) models can identify interpersonal profiles associated with SA. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 162 psychiatric inpatients aged 11–17 years (72% female) were assessed at admission. Social skills were measured using the 50-item Skillstreaming component of ART, which is grouped into six domains (basic, advanced, emotional, alternatives to aggression, stress management, planning). Machine learning models (logistic regression, random forest, XGBoost, SVM, k-NN, Gaussian Naive Bayes) were trained on item-level features using repeated nested cross-validation with a held-out test set providing an unbiased estimate of generalization. Results: One item—Helping Others—remained significant after Holm correction (adjusted p = 0.042) with higher scores among adolescents with a history of SA. Seven additional prosocial items reached nominal significance (raw p < 0.05) but did not survive correction. Across ML models, discrimination was modest (cross-validated ROC-AUC 0.59–0.66) with Gaussian Naive Bayes performing best (ROC-AUC 0.66). Held-out test set performance was lower (ROC-AUC 0.46, 95% CI 0.26–0.69). SHAP analysis localized the model’s signal to a coherent cluster of prosocial and empathic communication items with higher self-reported prosociality paradoxically associated with SA history. Conclusions: In this inpatient cohort, self-rated social skills carried a small but coherent discriminative signal for prior suicide attempt, which was concentrated in outward-directed prosocial behaviors rather than global interpersonal functioning. The counterintuitive directionality—higher prosocial self-ratings among attempters—aligns with developmental frameworks describing compliant, hyper-responsible, or self-silencing interpersonal styles. While predictive performance was modest and sample size limits generalizability, item-level ART assessment may generate hypotheses about interpersonal risk phenotypes in this specific population of predominantly female adolescent inpatients. Only one item survived correction for multiple comparisons, and all findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis generating. Full article

The achievement of the sustainable development goal of fostering innovation is directly related to the successful commercialisation of technologies that deliver economic, environmental, and social value. The article presents the theoretical prerequisites for substantiating the relationship between competences and innovation and identifies key commercialisation competences on the basis of an extensive literature review and empirical investigation. The literature emphasises that the success of commercialisation depends on technological and organisational resources as well as the competences of those involved in commercialisation activities. However, to date, research has mainly focused on selected competences, with relatively few studies simultaneously analysing the perceived importance of competences and the extent to which employees of research organisations possess them. This article aims to identify the key commercialisation competences necessary for executing technology commercialisation in research network organisations and to evaluate the extent to which employees involved in commercialisation activities possess and recognise the importance of these competences. Many of these can be treated as core sustainability-oriented competences, understood as capabilities that enable sustainability-oriented commercialisation by integrating environmental and social considerations into innovation processes. An empirical investigation was conducted at the Łukasiewicz Research Network, one of the largest research networks in Europe. The CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing) method was employed. Eighty-nine respondents, employees involved in commercialisation processes, represented both research and commercialisation support departments. Statistical analyses included confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, scale reliability, measurement invariance analysis, and comparison tests. As a result, ten key commercialisation competences were identified, including both interpersonal competences and job-related commercialisation competences for research network organisations. The ten identified key competences constitute an integrated competence framework that enables research network organisations to effectively support sustainability-oriented innovation and commercialisation activities. Out of the 25 competences identified as a result of the literature review, these were regarded as the most essential and compulsory. Full article

This paper explores the development of authentic LGBTQ+ leadership through an identity-conscious leadership development programme for LGBTQ+ staff in UK higher education. Focus group data collected eighteen months after programme completion offered longitudinal perspectives into leadership outcomes and programme design. Reflexive data themes are synthesised into a conceptual framework that illustrates how LGBTQ+ authentic leadership developed. The framework shows that authentic mentoring relationships, supported by trust, hope, and positive emotions, reduced identity and minority stress whilst forming and sustaining leadership identities. Through these processes, participants enhanced their intrapersonal and interpersonal capabilities and constructed collective meaning, thereby enabling authentic LGBTQ+ leadership to flourish within the institution and the wider societal context. The findings underscore that authentic leadership for this minoritised group emerges through the dynamic interplay of individual, relational, organisational, and societal factors. The research emphasises the importance of identity-conscious leadership development programmes in supporting LGBTQ+ leaders, strengthening leadership capacity, and enhancing institutional effectiveness, resilience, and civic responsibility. Full article