Citizenship activity in emerging adults: the role of self-esteem, social skills, and well-being.

BACKGROUND: The paper considers the broad model of citizenship activity by Zalewska and Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz, including the passive (national identity and patriotism), semi-active (loyalty and voting), and active (social, political, change-oriented, and personal activity) forms of citizenship among emerging adults who already have civil rights. The study examines the profile of citizenship activity and psychological factors - personality constructs (self-esteem and social skills in intimate, social exposure, and demanding assertiveness situations) and personal experiences (emotional, social, and psychological well-being) - as correlates and predictors of civic behaviour dimensions. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: A set of questionnaires (Multidimensional Self-esteem Inventory, Social Skills Inventory, Mental Health Continuum - Short Form, and Citizenship Behaviour Questionnaire-30 - general version) were completed by 140 Polish emerging adults (50% women) aged 19 to 25. RESULTS: Results of Student's t-tests showed that emerging adults (like adolescents) manifested the highest level of personal activity, lower level of passive and then semi-active citizenship, even less involvement in socio-political activities, and the lowest in political activity. Particular dimensions of civic behaviours were positively but differently correlated with personality constructs and well-being - only personal activity was associated with all psychological factors. They were also differently predicted by the set of psychological variables (regression analyses), but self-esteem, social exposure skills, and social well-being were particularly important predictors. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that policies promoting the citizenship activity of emerging adults need to recognise, support, and strengthen these psychological variables, as they can be modified by deliberate influences and interventions that may be the subject of further research.

Personality Traits, Personal Values, and Life Satisfaction among Polish Nurses.

Nurses' life satisfaction (LS) predicts their health and the level of care they provide to patients, thus policies for promoting quality of nurses' work require actions to increase their LS. The aim of this study was to examine relations between LS and two levels of personality (traits and values) among Polish nurses, including joint effects of traits and values in a model integrating all variables to check whether meta-values can mediate trait-LS relationships. Nurses (N = 155) aged 23-64 completed the NEO-FFI, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and PVQ40. LS correlated with all traits, with openness higher than usual (0.34), and positively associated with meta-values: openness to change (0.23), self-transcendence (0.30), and ('unhealthy') conservation (0.19). Trait-value consistency was insufficient to explain some trait-value associations. In the SEM analysis, 23.3% of LS variance was explained. LS was related directly to neuroticism negatively and positively not only to extraversion, but also to openness, and self-transcendence meta-value (that increased value-environment congruence), and indirectly positively (through self-transcendence) to openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and even neuroticism. These results indicate that promoting nurses' health and quality of work by enhancing their LS requires supporting and increasing their identification with self-transcendence values and encourage research on factors that can increase it.

[Work-family and family-work conflicts and health: the protective role of work engagement and job-related subjective well-being]. / Konflikty praca−rodzina i rodzina−praca a zdrowie: ochronna rola zaangazowania i zadowolenia z pracy.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC) and mental health, considering variables that can regulate (mediate or moderate) these relationships: work engagement and job-related subjective well-being (job satisfaction, positive - PA and negative - NA affects at work). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 114 employees (31.6% of whom were men), aged 25-55 (M = 35.39, SD = 7.42), completed a set of questionnaires in the Polish version: Work-Family Conflict and Family-Work Conflict, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17), Job Affect Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, and General Health Questionnaire GHQ-28. RESULTS: Relations between all variables were consistent with expectations, besides an insignificant FWC-health correlation. The models of relationships (designed separately for WFC and FWC) tested in SEM analyses were very well-fitted to data. Each conflict positively predicted NA and, through NA, it also indirectly predicted health troubles. Each conflict also predicted negatively work engagement and, through it, it indirectly affected job satisfaction and PA, then indirectly NA and health troubles. However, the beneficial indirect effect of engagement on health was stronger than the indirect WFC/FWC effect - higher work engagement predicted higher job satisfaction and PA, which in turn predicted negatively NA and health troubles. Mental health was directly predicted by PA (it decreased problems, i.e., enhanced health) and NA (it increased problems, i.e., weakened health), and additionally by the WFC and work engagement interplay. CONCLUSIONS: The obtained results confirm that FWC/ WFC-health relationships are complex and mediated by work engagement and job-related SWB dimensions. They also show that higher work engagement increases job-related SWB and indirectly enhances mental health. Additionally, its high level is a buffer of direct adverse effects of WFC on health. Increasing work engagement in the context of high FWC, and especially WFC, can be helpful in preventing their negative effects on health. Med Pr. 2020;71(1):33-46.

Within-Person Relationships Between Recreational Running and Psychological Well-Being.

Participants in the study were recreational runners (N = 244) who maintained online diaries. Once a week for approximately 3 months they indicated how far they had run each day that week, and at the end of the week, they provided measures of their psychological well-being. A series of multilevel modeling analyses (weeks nested within persons) found that well-being, measured in terms of self-esteem, life satisfaction, self-efficacy, meaning in life, and affect, was positively related to how many days people ran each week and how far they ran each week. Satisfaction with one's progress mediated relationships between well-being and the amount of running, suggesting that increases in running lead to increases in satisfaction with progress, which lead to increased well-being. These results complement and extend existing research on the psychological benefits of exercise.

Temperamental predictors of subjective well-being from early adolescence to mid-life: The role of temporal and energetic regulation.

We investigated links between temperament traits described in Strelau's Regulative Theory of Temperament (Emotional Reactivity, Briskness, Activity, Endurance, Perseveration and Sensory Sensitivity) and subjective well-being (SWB)-Positive Affect, Negative Affect and Life Satisfaction as conceptualised by Diener. Participants representing early (n = 166) and late adolescence (n = 199), early (n = 195) and mid-adulthood (n = 156) filled out Formal Characteristics of Behaviour-Temperament Inventory, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and Satisfaction with Life Scale. Results showed that higher Briskness, Endurance, Activity, lower Perseveration and Emotional Reactivity corresponded with higher SWB. They predicted 16% of affective components' and 7% of satisfaction variance. Each well-being component had a unique set of predictors; however, predictors of affective components varied across age groups. Higher Positive Affect was predicted by traits responsible for energetic regulation (higher Endurance and Activity and lower Emotional Reactivity) and by higher Perseveration, but their role (excluding Emotional Reactivity) was age-dependent. Higher Negative Affect was predicted by higher Emotional Reactivity and dimensions expressing temporal characteristics, lower Briskness and higher Perseveration (Perseveration was not significant among younger adolescents). Higher Satisfaction was steadily predicted by lower Emotional Reactivity and higher Activity. To conclude, the functions of temperament traits are mostly in line with theoretical expectations, but more complex than indicated by previous research.

Adaptation to a New Workplace According to Reactivity and Values-Motives Coherence at Work.

A new workplace is a result of changing a work post or undertaking a new job. Direct indices of adaptation to this situation (average mood at the workplace and job satisfaction) and the indirect ones (costs like health complaints and the level of depressing or facilitating anxiety) are analysed with regard to reactivity and values-motives coherence at work. Sixty bank workers were investigated. The obtained results confirm that mood and costs depend on reactivity, but satisfaction with work depends on coherence. Only achievement values-motives coherence at work differentiates direct and indirect indicators of adaptation. Considering both kinds of variables modifies dependencies. Some theoretical and practical conclusions resulting from the research are included.