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Background: A growing body of literature shows that psychological distress is not only a major threat to psychological well-being but can also have a significant impact on physical health. In cancer patients, it can negatively affect prognosis and posttreatment recovery processes. Since face-to-face psychological interventions are often inaccessible to cancer patients, researchers have recently been focusing on the effectiveness of eHealth adaptations of well-established approaches. In this context, there has been a call for high-quality randomised controlled trials that would allow for a direct comparison of different approaches, potentially addressing different needs and preferences of patients, and also for more systematic research focusing on how psychological interventions affect not only psychological but also biological markers of stress. Both of these questions are addressed in the present study. Methods: A randomised controlled trial will be carried out to test and compare the effectiveness of three eight-week eHealth programmes for the mental health support of cancer patients. All programmes will be delivered through the same application for mobile devices MOU MindCare. N = 440 of breast cancer survivors will be recruited at the end of their adjuvant treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or both) and randomly assigned to one of the three interventions – Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Cancer (MBCT-Ca), Positive Psychology (PP), or Autogenic Training (AT) – or the treatment-as-usual (TAU) control group. Psychological and biological markers of stress and adaptive functioning will be assessed at baseline (T0), post-treatment (T1), three-month follow-up (T2), and nine-month follow-up (T3). Primary outcomes will include heart-rate variability and self-report measures of depression, anxiety, perceived stress, general quality of life, and positive mental health. Secondary outcomes will include the levels of serum cortisol and immunomarkers, sleep quality, fatigue, common health symptoms, and several transdiagnostic psychological variables that are expected to be specifically affected by the MBCT-Ca and PP interventions, including dispositional mindfulness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, perceived hope, and gratitude. The data will be analysed using the mixed model repeated measures (MMRM) approach. Discussion: This trial is unique in comparing three different eHealth interventions for cancer patients based on three well-established approaches to mental health support delivered on the same platform. The study will allow us to examine whether different types of interventions affect different indicators of mental health. In addition, it will provide valuable data regarding the effects of stress-reducing psychological interventions on the biomarkers of stress playing an essential role in cancer recovery processes and general health.

University study can be a life period of heightened psychological distress for many students. The development of new preventive and intervention programs to support well-being in university students is a fundamental challenge for mental health professionals. We designed an 8-week online mindfulness-based program (eMBP) combining a face-to-face approach, text, audio, video components, and support psychotherapy principles with a unique intensive reminder system using the Facebook Messenger and Slack applications in two separate runs (N = 692). We assessed the program’s effect on mindful experiencing, perceived stress, emotion regulation strategies, self-compassion, negative affect, and quality of life. The results of the presented pilot study confirmed that eMBP is a feasible and effective tool in university students’ mental health support. The students who completed the eMBP reported a reduction of perceived stress with a large effect size (pη2 = 0.42) as well as a decrease of negative affect experience frequency and intensity (pη2 = 0.31), an increase of being mindful in their life (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire subscales:pη2 = 0.21, 0.27, 0.25, 0.28, 0.28), and a higher rate of self-compassion (pη2 = 0.28) with a medium effect size. A small effect size was found in the frequency of using a cognitive reappraisal strategy (pη2 = 0.073). One new result is the observation of an eMBP effect (pη2 = 0.27) on the decrease in attributed importance to the quality-of-life components replicated in two consecutive runs of the program. The study affirms that mindfulness-based interventions can be effectively delivered in an eHealth form to university students.

The concept of spiritual intelligence is highly discussed topic in the current field of psychology of religion. The big discussion of this concept was started by Emmons (2000). In this discussion, Gardner (2000) refuses the term spiritual intelligence, which in his view evokes too strong an inclination towards a specific religion. Instead of spiritual intelligence he therefore speaks of existential intelligence. King (2013) states that any intelligence must include mental abilities, and spiritual intelligence cannot be an exception. As a result, he speaks of four dimensions of spiritual intelligence (CET Critical existential thinking, PMP Personal meaning production, TA Transcendental awareness, and CSE Conscious state expansion). The research sample consisted of 502 respondents: 170 males, 305 females (27 respondents did not state their gender). The average age was 35 years (SD = 14.2; 33 respondents did not state their age). Together with examining reliability and confirmation factor analysis of the Czech version of the test Czech standardization was made. The data were collected from four different researches realized at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. The results were then compared to those originally presented by King (2009). The reliability (Cronbach ?) of the Czech version was higher than 0,7 in all four dimensions. The confirmation factor analysis demonstrated good results in four dimensions of spiritual intelligence, and indicated a need to reformulate one item of the inventory to reflect better Czech cultural environment. The relationship between spiritual intelligence and demographic variables (i.e. age, gender) was examined. By comparing the differences between respondents strong identified to Christianity and the rest of the respondents, significant differences were found in the dimensions Personal meaning production, and Transcendental awareness, where respondents strong identified to Christianity scored on average higher than the rest of the respondents. To explore the construct validity, correlations between dimensions of spiritual intelligence and personality traits measured by NEO-PI-III inventory were examined on the part of the respondents. The strongest correlations were founded in scale CET Critical existential thinking, which correlated positively to Neuroticism and Openness and negatively to Extraversion. The results showed the pertinence of detailed construct validity on scale on item level. One of the limitations of our study could be online data collection from two thirds of the respondents. Because of this, representativeness of the sample for the whole Czech population is not guaranteed. On the other hand, the relative size of the sample (N = 502) could partially compensate for this limitation. Another limitation is the lack of data concerning education level of the respondents, which could be an important intervening variable. Despite the aforementioned limitations to our study, we believe that SISRI could become useful instrument for spirituality research, and enrich the small number of spirituality inventories validated for Czech population.

The main goal of this study was to examine the subjective benefits of participating in the men’s groups in the Czech Republic. The research was completed between 2011 and 2012 with 200 members of these groups. A special questionnaire, “Men’s group inventory—MGI”, which has five open-ended questions, was used for the purpose of this research. The answers were processed qualitatively. The results show the main benefit of being a member of such a group is the chance to freely share inner feelings in a secure environment. Research also suggests the need for honest communication and positive relationships among men in terms of helping them to mature.

IntroductionThis study examines the relationships between perceived hope, posttraumatic growth, well-being, anxiety, and perceived threat of the Russian-Ukrainian War (RUW) in the Czech adult population. Drawing on the evidence of posttraumatic growth (PTG) amidst crisis, we hypothesized that perceived hope moderates the effects of perceived threat of war and anxiety on PTG.MethodsData were obtained from 1,000 Czech respondents via an online questionnaire ten months post-invasion. The form included measures of posttraumatic growth, perceived hope, well-being, anxiety and depression, and perceived threat of war.ResultsOur findings reveal that perceived hope acted as a moderator enhancing the positive effects of perceived threat and anxiety on PTG. However, perceived hope did not significantly moderate the direct effects of perceived threats and anxiety on well-being.DiscussionThis study highlights the significant role of hope amidst adversity and underscores its potential as a target for interventions aiming to foster PTG in populations who navigate traumatic experiences. Furthermore, it advocates for continued exploration of the factors interacting to enhance well-being and facilitate PTG in affected communities.

In our cross-cultural comparative study, we aimed to explore the level of subjective well-being and hierarchy of life values among Czech and Maltese university students. The links between life values and cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being were also investigated. The research sample (N = 280, aged 18 to 30 years, M = 21.9 years, SD = 2.5) consisted of 165 Czech and 115 Maltese university students, who completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Happiness Measure, and the Valued Living Questionnaire. The results showed that Czech and Maltese samples did not significantly differ in the levels of life satisfaction and happiness. Differences were revealed in the hierarchy of life values and in their relationship to subjective well-being in the two samples. Our study has shown that cultures might differ in the amount of importance they assign to various life values, and that cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being might be predicted by unique variables in different national samples.

IntroductionThis study explores the emotional impact of virtual forest therapy delivered through audio-visual recordings shown to patients in the oncology waiting rooms, focusing on whether simulated forest walks can positively influence patients’ emotional states compared to traditional waiting room stimuli.MethodsThe study involved 117 participants from a diverse group of oncology patients in the outpatient clinic waiting room at the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute. Using a partially randomized controlled trial design, the study assessed basic emotional dimensions—valence and arousal—as well as specific psychological states such as thought control, sadness, anxiety, and pain. This assessment used the Self-Assessment Manikin and the modified Emotional Thermometer before and after participants watched three video types (forest, sea, news). Baseline stress levels were measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6).ResultsParticipants exposed to forest and sea videos reported significant improvements in emotional valence and reduced arousal, suggesting a calming and uplifting effect. No significant changes were observed in the control and news groups. Secondary outcomes related to anxiety, sadness, and pain showed no significant interaction effects, though small but significant main effects of time on these variables were noted.DiscussionThe findings suggest that videos of forest and sea can be a beneficial intervention in the oncology waiting rooms by enhancing patients’ emotional well-being. This pilot study underscores the potential for integrating virtual mental health support elements into healthcare settings to improve patient care experience.