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Derailment is the sense of being "off‐course" in life. But what could this mean for adolescents, who are often establishing identity and self‐direction for the first time? We examined the structure and correlates of the Derailment Scale and its short form, the Derailment Scale‐6 (DS‐6), among middle‐to‐late adolescents (N = 452). Both scales exhibited unidimensionality, but the DS‐6 demonstrated superior fit and correlated with cross‐sectional distress markers (e.g., greater depression, lower life satisfaction, strained sense of purpose). Breaking from adult‐based research, we failed to find evidence that derailment related to adolescent identity exploration and commitment. In extending assessment of derailment to adolescence, this study invites exploration of this experience during a time characterized by substantial transition and the emergence of stable self‐views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High positive affect and low negative affect have been repeatedly tied to better individual and interpersonal well-being. However, research has focused on mean levels whereas the day-to-day unfolding of affect and its impact on romantic relationships remain largely understudied. Here, we examined the links between mean levels and variability in affect and changes in perceptions of partner regard —the extent to which people believe that their partners value and accept them. One hundred twenty-five African American couples (N = 250 individuals) reported how positively they thought their partners viewed them across two sessions (T1 and T2), separated by a 3-week daily diary study in which participants reported on their positive and negative affect each day for 21 consecutive days. Using dyadic analysis, we found that higher actor negative affect variability was associated with lower perceived regard at T2 controlling for perceived regard at T1. This finding held when controlling for mean levels of actor and partner negative affect. By contrast, PA variability was curvilinearly associated with perceived regard, with moderate levels of variability associated with higher subsequent perceived regard. These results highlight the importance of accounting for mean levels and curvilinear effects when examining links between affect dynamics and relational well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous scholarship has illustrated the pernicious role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in self-reported mental health, namely depressive and anxiety-related symptoms. Given these insights, highlighting protective factors that may diminish the magnitude of this relationship is important. The present study explored the moderating role of perceived control on the relationship between ACEs and depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively. Participants consisted of a US-based non-clinical sample of 567 undergraduate students who completed a battery of surveys related to psychological wellbeing and individual differences. A series of hierarchical linear regression analyses were utilized for hypothesis testing. Consistent with our main hypotheses, perceived control moderated the relationship between ACEs and both anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively. Namely, at low levels of perceived control, ACEs were associated with significantly greater levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively. However, for those reporting high levels of perceived control, we found no association between ACEs and self-reported symptoms. We offer evidence that perceived control may serve as a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing against the influence of adverse childhood experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Sense of purpose has been associated with greater health and well-being, even in daily contexts. However, it is unclear whether effects would hold in daily life during COVID-19, when people may have difficulty seeing a path towards their life goals. Design: The current study investigated whether purposefulness predicted daily positive affect, negative affect, and physical symptoms. Participants (n = 831) reported on these variables during the first weeks of the COVID-19 response in North America. Main outcome measures: Participants completed daily surveys asking them for daily positive events, stressors, positive affect, negative affect, physical symptoms, and purposefulness. Results: Purposefulness at between- and within-person levels predicted less negative affect and physical symptoms, but more positive affect at the daily level. Between-person purposefulness interacted with positive events when predicting negative and positive affect, suggesting that purposeful people may be less reactive to positive events. However, between-person purposefulness also interacted with daily stressors, insofar that stressors predicted greater declines in positive affect for purposeful people. Conclusion: Being a purposeful person holds positive implications for daily health and well-being, even during the pandemic context. However, purposefulness may hold some consequences unique to the COVID-19 context, which merit attention in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sense of purpose is a robust predictor of well-being, little work has considered whether the associations vary based on future time perspective. Exploring this possibility is important given that the extent to which one may pursue their life aims could be dependent upon how much time they feel that they have remaining. Using three samples (total n = 2333), the current study considered the association between sense of purpose and future time perspective. Moderation tests also examined whether the associations between sense of purpose and three well-being components (positive affect, negative affect, life satisfaction) differed as a function of future time perspective. Across all three studies, people with a broader time perspective reported a higher sense of purpose. Both constructs predicted greater well-being, even after accounting for chronological age. Future time perspective moderated the associations between sense of purpose and well-being, such that the negative association between sense of purpose and negative affect was stronger for those with a broader time perspective and the positive association between sense of purpose and life satisfaction was stronger for those with a limited time perspective. The well-being benefits associated with sense of purpose in adulthood may depend on future time perspective. Findings are discussed in the context of how purpose can be harnessed to enhance well-being even when older adults feel that their time left is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Sense of purpose consistently promotes health, wellbeing, and adaptation. • We propose homeostasis as a mechanistic account for these findings. • Homeostasis provides insights into how purpose influences the stress process. • Future research should consider how purpose helps one to recenter in daily life. The accumulation of evidence that having a sense of purpose contributes to greater health and well-being has vastly outpaced investigations into why this is so. Here, we offer a novel functional account for the demonstrated benefits of purpose by characterizing it as a resource that maintains psychological homeostasis. We posit that a sense of purpose recenters conscious attention toward prospective and overarching aims, thereby limiting the magnitude of disruption to well-being caused by the proximal stimuli. By attenuating reactivity to proximal events both stressful and uplifting, a sense of purpose facilitates greater stability in health and functioning over time. We leverage this mechanistic account with specific examples found across areas of psychological science and outline questions to guide future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have called for gerontologists to spend greater attention on promoting happiness in older adulthood, a point aligned with the general public's interest in finding the keys to being happy later in life. However, targeting and even defining happiness comes with several caveats and challenges, leaving researchers to make difficult decisions regarding measurement and intervention strategies. Instead, the current commentary suggests that gerontology interventions may fare better if researchers focus on specific components of positive psychological functioning. We present sense of purpose and life enjoyment as examples of two such components, and note the potential merit in developing these more focussed intervention programmes. As such, the commentary suggests the value of moving beyond targeting happiness when developing intervention programmes for older adult participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Having a sense of purpose in life has been consistently demonstrated as a predictor of positive health outcomes, including less perceived stress, yet, little is known about the role of sense of purpose on stressful days.Purpose: The current study investigated the sense of purpose as a moderator of stressor-related changes in daily physical symptoms, positive affect, and negative affect.Methods: A subset of the Midlife in the United States study (n = 1949, mage: 56.4 years) reported their sense of purpose, along with up to eight daily assessments of stressors, affect, and physical symptoms. Multilevel models evaluated whether sense of purpose was associated with deviations in affect or physical symptom reporting on days when participants reported a stressor versus days when stressors did not occur.Results: Sense of purpose was associated with higher daily positive affect, lower daily negative affect, and fewer daily physical symptoms. Compared with individuals who reported lower levels of purpose, those reporting higher levels encountered the same number of daily stressors, yet showed less of an increase in negative affect and physical symptoms on stressor days than on stressor-free days. Purpose did not predict changes in positive affect in response to daily stressors.Conclusions: Findings provide evidence that a purposeful life may be characterized by lower negative affect and physical symptom reporting on stressful days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although finding a purpose is almost universally accepted as a developmental achievement, relatively little research has sought to understand the potential means by which individuals do so. Using a newly developed measure, the current studies examined the personality and well-being profiles of individuals who reported following any of three different pathways to purpose: (1) proactive engagement, (2) reaction to significant life events, or (3) social learning. Across both emerging adult (n = 179) and adult (n = 307) samples, we demonstrated that individuals along these three pathways differ in theoretically meaningful ways. For instance, proactively engaged individuals report greater agency and openness to experience, while individuals who found a purpose primarily through reactive means are less likely to be exploring their life aims. Engagement with any pathway though coincided with greater well-being, due to the fact that following these paths may lead to a sense of purpose in life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although epidemiological studies and community surveys of Asian Americans have found that lifetime occurrences of racial discrimination are associated with increased risk for psychological morbidity, little is known about how exposure to racial discrimination is patterned in everyday life. Extrapolating from previous qualitative research (Sue, Bucceri, Lin, Nadal, & Torino, 2007), this study presents data on the prevalence and psychological correlates of everyday racial microaggressions that reflect the Asian American experience. Measures of positive affect, negative affect, somatic symptoms, and racial microaggressions were completed by 152 Asian Americans each day for up to 14 consecutive days. Approximately 78% of participants reported some form of racial microaggression within the 2-week study period. Multilevel analyses indicated that elevations in daily microaggressions, as well as greater microaggressions on average, predicted increases in somatic symptoms and negative affect. Implications of these findings for racial microaggression research and clinical practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One theme in Erik Erikson's work is the importance of finding a purpose for life. This article discusses the role of purpose in Erikson's writings and uses this review as a foundation for investigating Erikson's claims. Using a longitudinal sample of adolescents, Study 1 shows that identity and purpose development are intertwined processes insofar as increased commitment on one dimension corresponds to increased commitment on the other. Study 2 demonstrates that, although identity and purpose commitment are correlated, purpose commitment uniquely predicts Big Five personality trait levels, particularly for those traits related to maturity. Results are discussed as an impetus for future purpose development research and as support for largely unexamined Eriksonian claims. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Having a sense of purpose has been discussed as a developmental asset for youth and as an outgrowth of establishing a sense of identity. Using the identity capital model as a theoretical framework, 3 studies examined purpose as a mediator in the relationship between identity and well-being among adolescents and emerging adults. In Study 1A. (« = 110). purpose commitment was positively associated with positive affect, hope, happiness among adolescents, and fully mediated associations between identity commitment and these indices of well-being. These findings were replicated in Study IB (n = 398), with a sample of emerging adults and using different measures of well-being. In Study 2, multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses examined the role of identity and purpose in the daily lives of adolescents (n = 135). Results showed that purpose commitment fully mediated the relationship between identity and changes in daily positive and negative affect. Overall, findings suggest that cultivating a sense of purpose in life may be an important mechanism through which a stable identity contributes to well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While having a purpose in life has been theorized as a developmental asset, the extent to which adolescents cultivate a meaningful sense of direction is not well understood. In the present study, cluster analysis was used to classify adolescents by levels of purpose exploration and commitment. The sample ( N = 318; 55% female) consisted of youth aged 14–18 and was predominantly White/non-Hispanic (76.3%). Results supported four meaningful yet distinguishable profiles of youth purpose that are largely consistent with theories on identity formation: Achieved, Foreclosed, Uncommitted, and Diffused. Hypothesized linkages with affect and hope were established across the profiles such that positive emotions and goal-directed thinking were most apparent among Achieved and Foreclosed youth and least apparent among Diffused and Uncommitted youth. Overall, findings demonstrate the inherent complexity in adolescents’ engagement with purpose and suggest a correspondence between stronger commitments to purpose and youths’ sense of personal agency and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the clear public health significance of herd immunity to COVID-19, a host of individual differences influence willingness to get vaccinated. One factor likely to motivate individuals is the extent they have a sense of purpose in life, based on the health correlates of purpose and purposeful individuals' desire to return to their pre-pandemic environments. The current study examined sense of purpose as a predictor of COVID-19 vaccination willingness in the United States immediately following the initial approval of a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States in 2020. A nationwide sample of U. S. adults (N = 2009) completed a poll including information on their sense of purpose in life, demographic factors, and depressive symptoms, immediately following the initial approval of a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States in 2020. In addition, they reported on how willing they would be to get the vaccine, assuming that the costs would be covered, as well as their motivations to get the vaccine. Multiple regression analyses found that sense of purpose predicted greater willingness to get vaccinated, even when accounting for demographic factors, political affiliation, and psychological wellbeing. Adults higher on sense of purpose reported greater importance of getting the vaccine for personal health, the health of others, and to return to regular activities. Exploratory analyses also suggest that purpose may provide a stronger impetus to vaccinate among those in age groups associated with lower risk for severe COVID-19 complications. Conclusions : Although cross-sectional in nature, the current findings suggest sense of purpose in life may be an important factor in encouraging vaccination. Implications are discussed regarding how purposeful messaging may yield greater vaccination rates among individuals who otherwise may be less motivated due to health concerns. • Leaders have invoked purpose and common purpose in efforts to increase vaccination. • Results suggest purposeful adults indeed are more willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. • Findings held when controlling for predictors of vaccine willingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of positive psychology has sparked significant interest for researchers, in part given the apparent potential for individuals higher on "positive" dispositions to experience better health and well‐being. However, as the field has grown, so too have the number of conceptually similar dispositions identified by researchers as important to study. As such, there is an increasing need for researchers to understand whether and how conceptually similar "positive" dispositions are actually unique, an issue that may not be unique to positive psychology but has worsened with the field's prominence. The current manuscript provides a roadmap for one approach to differentiating conceptually close constructs in psychology, with examples couched within positive psychology. We will discuss the importance of combining quantitative and qualitative inquiries, as well as the adoption of techniques from multiple psychology disciplines, in order to better distinguish characteristics frequently studied in positive psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses meaning and purpose in life. Topics discussed include psychology research, life assessments and pursuing goals. Other topics which includes self worth, values and efficacy are also discussed. Self organization, meaningful pursuits and conceptions regarding meaning and purpose are also mentioned.