The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant interruptions to life certainty, and there has been a lack of research on the influence of uncertainty. The present research aimed to explore how intolerance of uncertainty, maladaptive coping strategies, and fear of missing out affect social media use in a Chinese community sample (N = 311) during the pandemic. Serial mediation analysis was applied, integrating the mediating role of maladaptive coping strategy and fear of missing out. Intolerance of uncertainty, maladaptive coping strategies, and fear of missing out was positively related to PSMU. Based on the mediation analysis, when age and gender were controlled, the direct effect of intolerance of uncertainty on PSMU was significant. The total indirect effect was also significant. The effect of intolerance of uncertainty on PSMU was mediated by maladaptive coping strategies and fear of missing out. Taken together, maladaptive coping strategies and fear of missing out played a serial mediating role between intolerance of uncertainty and PSMU. The findings imply that strategies to improve the tolerance of uncertainty, reduce fear of missing out, and relevant coping strategies could be potentially helpful in mitigating problematic social media use, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children's inhibitory control, which refers to the capability to recognize social and task demands by suppressing inappropriate behavior, is a key element closely related to both external and internal issues in preschoolers. The protective roles of parenting factors and social and moral functions, such as gratitude, remain unknown in the mechanism of inhibitory control. The present study employed a general cross-lagged panel model to explore the relationships between positive parenting, child gratitude, and inhibitory control. The research design involved repeated measurements based on parents' reports on 373 Chinese preschoolers in Hong Kong (179 males, 182 females; M_age = 4.51, SD = 0.60). The cross-lagged panel model revealed that positive parenting at Time 1 (T1) was significantly associated with preschool children's gratitude but not with inhibitory control at Time 2 (T2). Conversely, child gratitude at T1 was positively associated with inhibitory control at T2. These findings underscore the impact of positive parenting on gratitude and the predictive role of gratitude on inhibitory control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Character Strength Intervention is designed to cultivate and enhance positive traits and virtues in individuals. We sought to explore whether severely mentally ill adult participants who attended sixteen 40-min sessions of the intervention and treatment as usual (TAU) would report higher purpose in life, life satisfaction, recovery, and happiness composite scores than participants in TAU only. Thirty-nine participants received Intervention + TAU, and 50 received TAU-only. The participants filled in the evaluations at baseline, two mid-point assessments during the intervention, and one after the intervention. The ANCOVA models show a significant intervention effect on recovery and happiness at T3 but diminished at T4 after the intervention wrapped up. The intervention group has significantly less deterioration in recovery than the control group. No significant intervention effect emerged in purpose in life and life satisfaction. It should be noted that the intervention outcome is also negatively impacted by the baseline condition. The slope analysis indicates that for intervention recipients whose happiness scores are lower than 14.16, the predicted intervention outcome is even lower than that of the control group. Future severe mental illness interventions could consider incorporating CSI to enhance recovery and happiness while also being mindful of the baseline conditions to enhance intervention efficacy.

This study examined the longitudinal reliability and validity of the bifactor (S–1) model of mental health among 371 Chinese university students, refining the dual-factor model that views mental health as encompassing both flourishing and psychopathology. Using depression as the reference factor, participants completed measures of depressive symptoms (CES-D), flourishing (MHC-SF), and well-being (PERMA Profiler) at two time points. Factor analyses showed that the bifactor (S–1) model achieved excellent fit and interpretability, outperforming the symmetrical bifactor model by yielding fewer anomalous loadings and clearer separation of general and specific factors. Structural equation modeling further demonstrated that both the general reference factor and the flourishing-specific factor at baseline independently predicted multiple well-being domains at follow-up, controlling for demographics and baseline levels. These findings support the model’s criterion validity and temporal stability, confirming its effectiveness in capturing shared and unique aspects of mental health. Conceptually, the bifactor (S–1) approach provides evidence of the independence of flourishing with respect to depressive symptoms, meaning that people with mental illness are able to flourish despite their psychological issues. A practical implication is that notions such as “mental illness prevents people from attaining well-being may be invalid.” Many factors mitigate the impact of mental illness. With sufficient social support and psychoeducation, it is possible that people with psychological issues can thrive in society.