Positive mental health across the life span
Cross-cultural mental health research
Despite the fact that social factors and cultural background are widely recognized as potentially highly relevant influences on mental health, cross-cultural comparative studies remain rare. Psychological, biological, and even sociological theories of mental health typically strive for universal validity and claim to be transcultural. Yet, most of our theories and studies are formed and conducted intraculturally (within a single culture, typically North American or Western European). For them to be truly transcultural, they must first be examined cross-culturally.
A major problem of comparative cultural research is that it mostly uses data from different studies collected with heterogeneous methods at different times. Because of the large variance in, for example, diagnostic criteria and practices and the poor testing of transcultural measurement invariance, these comparisons are very inaccurate. Also, the relationship among the various positive constructs such as optimism, life satisfaction, resilience, and happiness, as well as the nature of positive mental health, is unclear. These are questions that we investigate within the framework of the BOOM project. Our investigations take place in representative and student samples in countries including China, Germany, France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.
The research program “Bochum Optimism and Mental Health (BOOM)” started in 2011. It is supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
The main aim of BOOM is the identification of causal protective and risk factors of positive mental health as well as depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. It contains intercultural and transcultural cross- and longitudinal studies in which potentially causally significant combinations of epidemiological, experimental psychological and intervention approaches are investigated. The dual-factor model of mental health which describes mental health and mental illness as two interrelated but separate unipolar dimensions is the theoretical basis of BOOM.
Since 2011, cross-sectional and longitudinal data of student (Germany, Russia, China) and representative (Germany, Russia, USA) samples are continuously collected and analyzed (total N ≈ 40,000). Various methodological approaches are used to clarify the influence of different research methods and to provide insights into the transcultural measurement invariance of the investigated constructs and instruments.
First results show that life satisfaction, resilience, optimism, subjective happiness and social support have a salutogenic effect cross-culturally, and at the same time act as a buffer against negative effects of stress and psychopathological symptoms.
Predictive power of positive mental health
Positive mental health (PMH) is more than the absence of mental disorder: Elements of both can coexist – they are correlated, but partially independent. Combining cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, we investigated the predictive power of PMH as well as depression, anxiety and stress in a transcultural research program (China, Germany, Russia, USA, total N≈40,000). Across cultures, PMH is a major buffer against the pathogenic effects of daily stress and negative social influences and a strong predictor of the remission of emotional disorders and suicidal behavior above and beyond all other variables. Substantial transcultural differences point to divergent trajectories of mental health across the life-span (e.g., increasing in Germany, decreasing in Russia). Moreover, differences in personal values are related to mental health in meaningful ways. Overall, longitudinal analyses show that salutogenic factors (overall PMH as well as resilience, optimism, happiness, social support, self-efficacy) positively influence both overall well-being and mental problems.
Positive mental health in children and adolescents
In this working group, we develop measurement instruments for age-sensitive assessment of mental health. The development of mental health is particularly studied in the context of parental health. The aim is to provide interventions to promote mental health.
Principal Investigator and Team
Prof. Dr. Silvia Schneider
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Margraf
M.Sc. Michael W. Lippert
M.Sc. Johanna Schoppmann
M.Sc. Anna-Luisa Kranhold
Funding
Internal
Duration
Started in November 2020
Description
Positive mental health is expressed through general emotional, psychological, and social well-being (Keyes et al., 2002). Previous research has also shown that positive mental health is much more than the mere absence of mental illness. For example, research with adults has shown that positive mental health is a predictor of remission (Brailovskaia et al., 2018).
To measure the construct in adults, the Positive Mental Health Scale (Lukat et al., 2016) was developed, which shows excellent psychometric properties. In childhood and adolescence, comparable findings have been lacking, as only individual facets (e.g., self-efficacy, life satisfaction), but not the overall construct, can be measured. To close this gap, the Positive Mental Health Scale for Children (PMH-Kids) is developed using the adult version. In the process, the 14 original items were adapted to the new target group. The new questionnaire will be validated in an online study. It is planned to survey at least 200 children aged 8 to 14 years. In addition to the PMH-Kids, self-efficacy, life satisfaction, anxiety and depression symptoms, and externalizing symptoms will be surveyed to examine convergent and divergent validity. Item analyses, as well as internal consistency and factor structure analysis will also be conducted.
Positive mental imagery
Simon Blackwell´s research in this area has three main foci: understanding the role of positive mental imagery in everyday life, for example in anticipating upcoming events; investigating how deficits in positive mental imagery can cause problems, for example in the context of depression; and developing new treatment approaches that make use of positive mental imagery's potentially powerful effects.
Research to date has only just scratched the surface in terms of understanding the importance of positive mental imagery in everyday life, and in how we can use positive mental imagery in our treatments – this seems to be an area of huge untapped potential.
Promoting positive mental health
In the history of psychotherapy, interventions mainly focus on the reduction of symptoms, negative feelings, and negative cognitions. This research group aims at broadening the scope of treatment by developing methods and interventions directly addressing positive mental health. Results of our loving-kindness meditation study have already shown that it has the potential to decrease depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, and to increase positive mental health factors in college students. Christina Totzeck and her research group are dedicated to develop, apply, and evaluate interventions enhancing positive mental health in both clinical and non-clinical populations.