Belonging has been shown to have a significant impact on a range of factors associated with wellbeing. These areas include life satisfaction, general wellbeing, clinical depression, cognitive performance, academic outcomes, and physical health. Belonging is an important aspect of psychological functioning. Schools offer unique opportunities for…

Time pressure is a familiar phenomenon. The quantity of spare time people have clearly effects their satisfaction with their leisure and with their life as a whole. But so too, we show, does how much control people have over how much spare time they have. We measure this through an indicator of "discretionary time", which proves to be equally or…

There is an unspoken myth in the field of early care and education: the people in the field are needed to nurture children and keep on giving without needing anything in return--ever. Such a myth has contributed to the burnout of so many potentials. If adults do not refuel, renew, take care of themselves, they cannot expect to do anything but…

There are few psychometrically sound measures of life satisfaction suitable for children and adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to describe the rationale, development, and psychometric properties of a brief multidimensional life satisfaction scale appropriate for use with children of ages 8-18. The paper summarizes extant studies of its…

The basic premise of positive psychology is that the happiness and fulfillment of children and youth entail more than the identification and treatment of their problems. This article provides an overview of positive psychology and the Values in Action (VIA) project that classifies and measures 24 widely recognized character strengths. Good…

Based on the constructionist point of view applied to Subjective Well-Being (SWB), five hypotheses were advanced about the predictive power of the top-down effects and bottom-up processes over a five years period. The sample consisted of 297 respondents, which represent the Italian sample of a European longitudinal survey; the first phase was…

Contradictory findings characterize the literature on the efficacy of intergenerational programs that bring children and older persons together for joint activities to promote more positive attitudes and stereotypes. Nor is it clear whether cross-generational attitudes are negative to begin with. The research reported in this paper operationalized…

Demonstrates a significant positive relationship between frequency of personal prayer and perceived purpose in life among adolescents in the United Kingdom. The study surveyed male and female adolescents who never attended church, and those who attended church regularly. Includes statistical tables for both groups. (MJP)