Helicopter parenting is a key factor associated with impaired attachment quality and adolescents’ depressive symptoms. However, whether reciprocal relations among helicopter parenting, parent–child attachment, and adolescents’ depressive symptoms differ by gender remains unclear. The present study used a two-wave cross-lagged design to examine gender differences in these associations. The final sample included 811 Chinese adolescents (Mage at baseline = 16.42 years, SD = 0.83; 381 boys and 430 girls) who participated in a two-wave study with a three-month interval. Multiple–group cross-lagged analyses indicated that several longitudinal paths differed between boys and girls. Helicopter parenting at T1 negatively predicted parent–child attachment at T2 among boys but not among girls. The path from helicopter parenting at T1 to depressive symptoms at T2 also differed by gender, although neither group-specific coefficient was statistically significant. Parent-child attachment at T1 positively predicted depressive symptoms at T2 among boys but negatively predicted depressive symptoms at T2 among girls. In addition, depressive symptoms showed greater temporal stability among boys than among girls. These findings reveal gender-specific patterns in cross-lagged relations among helicopter parenting, parent–child attachment, and adolescents’ depressive symptoms and underscore the importance of gender-sensitive approaches to family and mental health interventions.
To assess quality of life (QoL) and resilience among adults living in Quebec, Canada, during the COVID-19 health crisis. Secondary objectives were to compare QoL and resilience across sociodemographic and health-related groups and to examine their associations with individual characteristics. A cross-sectional study was conducted across several regions of Quebec. Adults aged 18 years and older completed the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and a sociodemographic and health questionnaire online, on paper or by telephone. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way ANOVAs, and forward stepwise multiple regression analyses were performed. A total of 1,088 participants (76.7
Drawing on Positivity Resonance Theory and dyadic approaches to close relationships, the present study examined how newlyweds’ positive and negative emotions were associated with marital quality at three analytically distinct levels: the actor effect, the partner effect, and emotional similarity. Four waves of dyadic data were collected from 245 newlywed couples at six-month intervals. Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were used to estimate actor and partner associations between emotions and marital quality, whereas Response Surface Analysis was used to examine how combinations of husbands’ and wives’ emotional experiences were associated with marital quality. Results showed that actor associations were more consistently observed than partner associations across waves. Individuals’ own positive emotions were positively associated with their own marital quality, whereas individuals’ own negative emotions were negatively associated with their own marital quality. Partner associations were weaker and less consistent, especially for negative emotions. Response surface results indicated that when both spouses reported higher positive emotions, marital quality tended to be higher, whereas when both spouses reported higher negative emotions, marital quality tended to be lower. Incongruence effects were also observed, suggesting that the direction of emotional incongruence between spouses was relevant to marital quality, particularly for wives. The present study revealed time‑varying and gender‑related patterns in the associations between emotions and marital quality, emphasized the centrality of emotional similarity in couples’ long‑term relationships, and provided a new theoretical framework and empirical support for exploring the mechanisms that sustain marital quality from an emotional perspective.
The present study examined heterogeneity in trajectories of positive and negative parent–child relationship quality (RQ) and their associations with older parents’ cognitive function. Data came from 7,217 older adults (M age = 73.57, SD = 9.38; 62
Emotional and behavioral problems are increasingly recognized as a major public health concern among Chinese adolescents due to their adverse effects on psychosocial adjustment and future well-being. This study examines the roles of family cultural capital, including objectified and institutionalized forms, in shaping adolescents’ emotional and behavioral problems in China, with a focus on the mediating effect of parental educational expectations and the moderating effect of parent-adolescent relationship quality. Using longitudinal data from the 2018 and 2022 waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) among adolescents aged 10–15, we examine how these two dimensions of family cultural capital are associated with adolescents’ emotional and behavioral adjustment over time. Results indicate that higher levels of family cultural capital are associated with fewer emotional and behavioral problems, partly through higher parental educational expectations. Moreover, supportive and emotionally close parent-adolescent relationships strengthen the negative association between parental educational expectations and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral problems. Overall, these findings underscore the significance of family resources and relational processes in shaping adolescents’ socio-emotional development.
This study aimed to examine the effects of a breathing meditation program on perceived stress, sense of coherence, and quality of life in older adults. This randomized controlled experimental study was conducted with 128 older adults between October 2024 and September 2025 (intervention group; 63; control group; 65). Data were collected using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC), and WHOQOL-OLD Quality of Life Scale. The intervention group participated in a 15-minute breathing meditation session once daily for ten consecutive days, while the control group received no intervention. Measurements were obtained at baseline and on day 15. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and independent and paired samples t-tests, with p < 0.05 considered statistically significant. The groups were comparable in terms of sociodemographic characteristics (p > 0.05). Post-intervention PSS scores were significantly lower in the intervention group compared to the control group (p = 0.020). Total SOC scores, particularly the manageability subdimension, increased significantly in the intervention group (p = 0.023; p = 0.001). Significant improvements were also observed in the autonomy and past–present–future activities subdimensions of WHOQOL-OLD. Breathing meditation reduced perceived stress, enhanced sense of coherence, and improved selected quality-of-life domains, indicating its usefulness as a feasible psychosocial intervention for older adults. Breathing meditation may be incorporated into geriatric nursing care to support stress management, coping, and psychosocial well-being.
Amid China’s rapid urbanization, a growing number of grandparents migrate to cities to care for grandchildren. However, the psychological mechanisms linking structural pressures to their well-being remain underexplored. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods with 432 survey respondents and 10 in-depth interviews, this study examines how caregiving intensity, role conflict, social integration constraints, and family normative pressure affect life satisfaction among migrant grandparents, with a focus on the mediating role of perceived autonomy. The results reveal that all four pressures are negatively associated with life satisfaction; social integration constraints exert the strongest total effect, and perceived autonomy significantly mediates each relationship. Qualitative findings uncover a “voluntary paradox”: although grandparents often describe their caregiving as voluntary, such normative consent does not translate into genuine decision-making autonomy. Erosion of perceived autonomy emerges as the core psychological pathway through which structural pressures undermine well-being. By distinguishing normative consent from psychological autonomy and identifying perceived autonomy as an actionable intervention target, this study challenges the assumption that family-oriented culture inherently protects older adults’ well-being. It offers concrete directions for community services to prioritize social integration support for migrant grandparents and for families to preserve their decision-making space in caregiving arrangements.
Well-being and quality of life are increasingly invoked as central promises of smart development, yet both concepts are used unevenly and without a shared analytical foundation. Policy narratives often assume that technological optimization naturally improves quality of life, while academic work offers a more diverse and sometimes contradictory set of interpretations. The main goal of this review is to clarify how well-being is conceptualised within smart development and to advance a socio-technical reframing that integrates infrastructural, institutional and experiential dimensions. To achieve this, the review examines 936 publications and identifies three recurrent orientations in the field: technocratic, socio-technical and human-centred. Technocratic approaches portray well-being as a secondary effect of optimisation. Socio-technical contributions emphasise the role of governance, institutional capacity and spatial conditions in shaping the social relevance of smart initiatives. Human-centred and affective perspectives place lived experience, inclusion and autonomy at the core of smart development. The review proposes a conceptual continuum that organises these orientations and supports a reconceptualisation of well-being as a socio-technical condition of flourishing sustained through the alignment of system performance, civic capability, institutional trust and everyday experience. This interpretation encourages a shift from technology-driven expectations towards a more integrated account of the socio-technical arrangements through which smart initiatives generate meaningful outcomes. The paper concludes with implications for quality-of-life research and for policymakers seeking to align smart development with socially grounded and context-sensitive forms of well-being.
Following China’s nominal eradication of absolute poverty, policy attention has turned to common prosperity. With this policy intended to “raise low-incomes and expand middle-incomes”, migrant workers, one quarter of China’s population, deserve to benefit. Responding to a notable omission in the literature, this study explores migrants’ understanding of common prosperity as revealed by focus groups and in-depth interviews. Constructs derived inductively through a structured, multistage coding process are elucidated by reference to the concept of civic agency as the assertion of rights, negotiation of exclusion, and construction of identities. Migrants conceptualize common prosperity as “living a good life”, extending beyond material improvement to encompass social rights, identity, familial belonging, and personal dignity, dimensions of well-being they feel they lack. Individualistic, albeit family-oriented, their aspirations, characterized by dignity, belonging, and hope, remain conditional on equal access to public services but neglect resource redistribution as a means of achieving this.
Depressive symptoms among Chinese middle-aged and older adults have risen substantially in recent years, yet how neighborhood and family factors relate to mental health remains insufficiently understood in China. Using survey data from 1,177 respondents in Chengdu, this study examines associations between neighborhood disadvantage and depressive symptoms, with attention to the mediating role of social support and moderating role of children’s marital status. Results indicate that neighborhood disadvantage is associated with higher depression, and instrumental and emotional support appear to mediate this association. Children’s marital status moderates the relationship: unmarried sons are linked with amplified negative effects of neighborhood disadvantage on parental mental health, reflecting unique cultural dynamics of filial piety in China. These findings suggest that community-level structural disadvantage intersects with family pressures to shape psychological well-being in aging populations.
The well-being consequences of artificial intelligence (AI) are neither automatic nor uniform across societies. This study asks whether the association between AI development and national quality of life (QOL) depends on the quality of a country’s governance. Using a panel of 138 countries observed from 2012 to 2023, we estimate two-way fixed-effects models that interact a measure of national AI development with a World Bank governance measure, drawing QOL from validated World Happiness Report indicators of life evaluation and emotional experience. Two patterns stand out. Taken on its own, AI development is weakly negatively associated with QOL across the panel. The association becomes more positive, however, as governance quality rises, turning from negative and statistically significant in weakly governed countries to positive in point estimates in the upper part of the governance distribution. This conditioning pattern is stable across lagged specifications, alternative constructions of the AI measure, and a randomisation check. Subsample analyses by income and period are exploratory and inconclusive. We interpret these results as observational evidence that governance quality may act as an enabling condition through which AI investment is translated into broad-based well-being, a finding with direct implications for how AI policy is developed across different institutional settings.
Psycho-emotional well-being is particularly vulnerable during public health crises, when economic disadvantages accumulate at the neighborhood, household, and individual levels. Despite growing recognition of this vulnerability, studies have paid limited attention to spatially structured neighborhood disadvantage arising from the relative position of neighborhoods within surrounding socio-spatial contexts, or to the variation in psycho-emotional status over different epidemiological phases. Drawing on three waves of the Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines how multi-level economic disadvantages, including household financial difficulties, workers’ perceived probability of job loss, and spatially structured neighborhood economic disadvantage, are associated with mental distress, future life expectations, and life satisfaction during the outbreak and containment phases. We find that although average levels of mental distress did not significantly differ between the outbreak and containment phases, residents were more pessimistic about their future during the outbreak period, with modest improvements during the containment phase. Living in neighborhoods marked by sustained spatially structured economic disadvantage, experiencing financial strain within the household, and facing a higher probability of job loss were all significantly associated with greater mental distress, more negative life expectations, and lower life satisfaction. Mediation analyses further reveal that mental distress and pessimistic future life expectations were key psycho-emotional pathways through which the multi-level disadvantages translated into lower life satisfaction during the containment phase. These findings highlight the importance of monitoring spatially structured neighborhood disadvantages, alleviating financial strain, and fostering confidence in the future through place- and time-sensitive interventions to support urban resilience during prolonged public health emergencies.
Bullying victimisation is increasingly recognised as profoundly detrimental to the healthy and balanced development of young people. However, research examining the dynamics of bullying simultaneously across home, school, and online environments remains limited, mainly in North African settings. This study investigated the prevalence and predictors of sibling, peer, and cyber victimisation among Algerian children aged 10 and 12 years (N = 1,841, 53.3
This study aims to reveal patterns of dual filial piety beliefs within Chinese parent-adult child dyads and examine how these family profiles are associated with parents’ and adult children’s perceived parent-child closeness and conflict, as well as adult children’s subjective well-being. We recruit 470 Chinese parent-child dyads, with adult children aged 18-29. Participants complete measures of dual filial piety beliefs (reciprocal and authoritarian), parent-child closeness and conflict, and subjective well-being. We use latent profile analysis to identify four congruent parent-child filial piety profiles: Low Dual Filial Piety, Low Reciprocal but High Authoritarian, High Dual Filial Piety, and High Reciprocal but Low Authoritarian. Dyads in the High Dual Filial Piety profile report the highest parent-child closeness and well-being, whereas the Low Dual Filial Piety profile suffer the least favorable outcomes. This study is one of the first studies to uncover the dual filial piety profiles within Chinese parent-adult child dyads, and to examine the potential associations with dyadic relationship quality and adult children’s subjective well-being. We further discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.
Drawing on panel data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS) spanning 2014–2023, this study investigates the impact of wealth on intergenerational intimacy among older adults in China. It further explores the underlying mechanisms and group-specific heterogeneities. The findings reveal: first, increasing wealth among older adults weakens intergenerational intimacy; second, wealth influences the foundation of traditional intergenerational interaction through a chain-mediating pathway involving enhanced downward intergenerational transfers and reduced dependence on children for future care; third, the frequency of intergenerational contact plays a significant moderating role in this relationship, as frequent interaction mitigates the negative impact of wealth on intimacy; fourth, the effect of older adults’ wealth on intergenerational intimacy exhibits significant heterogeneity across residential location, regional Confucian cultural intensity, and the gender of the older adult. This study systematically elucidates the influence and mechanisms through which older adults’ wealth affects intergenerational intimacy, expands the theoretical lens of intergenerational relationships, and offers new insights into the dynamics of family support and emotional cohesion in contemporary China.
This study examined the effectiveness of SES NXT, a digital intervention for adolescents affected by parental divorce, in improving quality of life (QoL) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), both of which are important markers of functioning and development across key domains of adolescent life. Using a randomized controlled, parallel-group superiority design, 294 adolescents aged 11–17 (Mage = 14 years; 51
Since the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion, Ukrainian educators have experienced traumatic changes in the ways they teach students, work with colleagues, and attempt to maintain wellbeing. Surprisingly, few studies have investigated the current state of Ukrainian educators’ wellbeing, and even fewer have investigated how their wellbeing can actively be improved. To address this critical literature gap, a primarily qualitative, cross-sectional survey was distributed to educators in non-occupied territories in central Ukraine in Fall 2024. Structured tabular thematic analysis indicated mind-body-spirit practices, connecting with others, and engaging with art were the most frequently endorsed self-care practices. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Ukrainian educators perceive self-care as an effective means to not only enhance their own wellbeing while navigating the recent traumatic changes to their educational infrastructure, but to enhance their interactions and relationships with students and colleagues as well. Three themes emerged illustrating how educators perceive self-care to influence their own wellbeing: maintains/improves wellbeing, improves productivity, and positive influence. Four shared themes emerged illustrating how educators perceive self-care to influence their interactions and/or relationships with students and colleagues: effective communication, improved relationships, positive influence, and improved ability to help others. Additionally, effective teaching was a theme unique as to how self-care influences interactions and/or relationships with students, and collaboration was a theme unique as to how self-care influences interactions and/or relationships with colleagues. We conclude by applying our findings to actionable steps so educators can begin to practice self-care or can enhance existing self-care routines, both in and out of warzones.
Drawing on cumulative disadvantage theory, this study examined whether pregnancy loss history is associated with differences in the long-term networks between depression and functional disability among middle-aged and older women. Data were drawn from the 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), linked with the 2014 Life History Survey. A total of 1,775 female participants aged 45 years and older were stratified into a pregnancy loss group (n = 507) and a no pregnancy loss group (n = 1,268). Cross-lagged panel network (CLPN) analysis was used to estimate symptom-level associations across three longitudinal intervals, and network comparison tests (NCT) were used to evaluate between-group differences. The results showed that no significant group differences were found in the contemporaneous networks at any wave. However, the CLPN structure of the pregnancy loss group differed significantly from that of the no pregnancy loss group in the 2015 to 2018 interval, with the pregnancy loss group also showing numerically higher global strength. Across all waves, DEP3 (“felt depressed”) held the highest strength centrality in both groups. In the CLPNs, symptoms related to functional disability were the primary bridge nodes in the pregnancy loss group, while DEP4 (“everything was an effort”) also remained the second highest bridge role. These findings are consistent with a cumulative disadvantage perspective and suggest that pregnancy loss history may be associated with differences in mental–functional health dynamics that emerge in later life.
This study investigates how residents of flood-prone slum areas of Indonesia construct and maintain wellbeing in the face of recurring environmental threats. Current wellbeing research often rests on component-based approaches that may under-represent the socially and culturally constituted nature of wellbeing in non-Western contexts. Drawing on White’s (2010, 2015) relational wellbeing framework, we adopt a sequential mixed-methods design combining a quantitative survey of 700 respondents across three flood-affected Indonesian cities, Bima (n = 200), Pontianak (n = 300), and Manado (n = 200), with 37 in-depth qualitative interviews in the same locations. Within an abductive analytical strategy, qualitative material is applied to contextualize, interpret, and at times complicate the quantitative patterns, producing a culturally grounded yet comparable account of wellbeing. Principal Component Analysis yields eight wellbeing dimensions – Conviviality, Economic Resilience, Local Support System, Religiosity, Self-Competence, Security, Empowerment, and Reference Dependence – of which conviviality, economic resilience, and religiosity carry the highest factor loadings. Despite physical vulnerabilities, residents often remain in flood-prone areas, where strong social bonds, place attachment, and mutual support sustain wellbeing. Assuming dimensions are synergetic, we identify the most limiting dimension, the ‘binding constraint,’ per location and socio-demographic group, treating this as a diagnostic heuristic for policy prioritization rather than a causal claim. Conviviality, empowerment, and security emerge as distinct binding constraints across the three cities, showing that no single policy template fits all. The findings offer entry points for context-sensitive interventions and underscore the inseparability of wellbeing and resilience in vulnerable urban communities.
