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This research examined affect and health behaviours over four weeks during consecutive COVID-19 lockdowns in the United Kingdom (UK), and the impact of expressing gratitude (EG) and visualising one's best possible self (BPS) on these outcomes compared to a control condition. Participants (N = 145) took part in a 4-week intervention during lockdown and completed an EG, BPS, or control exercise and measures of affect and health behaviours once per week for four weeks. Results showed that participants reported increased positive affect and decreased negative affect, reduced food consumption, and lower levels of moderate and vigorous exercise, but no change in alcohol consumption and walking. There were, however, no significant effects of the interventions vs. control condition on any of the outcomes; these findings were also supported by Bayes factors. This research suggests that people changed their health behaviours and affect during the COVID-19 lockdown, but that BPS and EG interventions may not be viable interventions to promote these outcomes during intense crises such as COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed at examining assumptions from Frankl's (1946/1998) logotherapy and existential analysis. Using an online questionnaire with N = 891 U.K. residents, meaning in life was associated with higher life satisfaction, even when controlling for positive and negative affect. Furthermore, meaning in life intensified the positive effects of family role importance and work role importance on life satisfaction. Lastly, meaning in life neutralised the combined effect of high family strain and high family role importance on lower life satisfaction, but lack of meaning in life aggravated the combined effect of high work strain and high work role importance on lower life satisfaction. This study provides evidence of meaning in life as a source, a contributing factor, and a protective factor of life satisfaction. Helping people to find meaning through fulfilling creative, experiential, and attitudinal values (Frankl, 1950/1996), in personal and/or professional life, is likely to improve life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the association between positive emotion expression in children's writing at age 11, as indicated by objective raters, and age 50 self-reported well-being outcomes—positive emotions, optimism, life satisfaction, meaning in life, social well-being, and physical health. Using a representative sample (N = 436) from the United Kingdom who participated in the National Child Development Study (NCDS), we found that positive emotion expression at age 11 was related to greater optimism, life satisfaction, meaning in life, and social well-being, but not positive emotions or physical health, at age 50 after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) in adulthood. The associations between positive emotion expression in childhood and well-being in adulthood remained significant when accounting for age 11 academic ability and SES. By using an observational measure of positive emotion during childhood and accounting for relationships among well-being outcomes in adulthood, our findings offer important insights regarding the long-term correlates of children's positive emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]