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In this paper, we examined the psychometric properties of the English and French versions of the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory short form (MPFI-24). Study 1 was conducted in the United States among the general population (N = 2668) to assess the reliability and factorial validity of the English version. In Study 2, the MPFI-24 was translated in French and tested among a population of French-speaking university students (N = 728) from Canada and France to assess its reliability as well as its factorial and convergent validity. Study 3 was conducted among French-speaking employees (N = 450) from Canada, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg to test the concurrent validity of the French version and explore its pattern of correlations with various mental health indicators (burnout, psychological wellbeing, psychological distress and work satisfaction). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that both versions rely on a 2 s-order factors structure encompassing six first-order factors of flexibility and six first-order factors of inflexibility. Both versions have good internal consistency, convergent and concurrent validity. Taken together, these findings suggest that the MPFI-24 is a short, reliable and valid measure of psychological flexibility and inflexibility.

Background: Cancer and its treatments may affect the sexual quality of life (SQoL) of cancer patients, but the use of onco-sexology support (OSS) is relatively rare; it is therefore important to identify the intrinsic factors associated with health behaviours. Aim: To evaluate the role of self-compassion (SC) on the desire of cancer patients to use onco-sexology support (DUOSS), according to their SQoL. Methods: Five hundred patients were contacted by mail and asked to complete questionnaires on their SQoL, SC and DUOSS.Outcomes The primary outcome was the role of SC on DUOSS as a function of SQoL, and the secondary outcome was the relationship between SC, SQoL and DUOSSResults: Five hundred patients were contacted and 96 (19.2%) took part in the study (mean age 54.2 years, 93.7% female). The participants were divided into two groups: Group 1, patients reporting a satisfactory SQoL (n=41); and Group 2, patients reporting an unsatisfactory SQoL (n=55). Significant differences were observed in SC and DUOSS, and in several demographic (marital status) and clinical (type of treatment) characteristics between G1 and G2. A positive association was found between SQoL and SC, and between SQoL and DUOSS, and there was an indirect link between SC, SQoL and DUOSS. Clinical implications SC has an important role in SQoL and interventions should be developed to target SC over the course of care of cancer patients. Strengths and Limitations The strengths of the study are the large number of participants and the fact that this is the first study on SC and its possible role in DUOSS. The study is limited by the sample composition, which consisted mainly of women, limiting the external validity of the results. In addition, the body image of the patient or the sexual satisfaction of the partner were not evaluated.Conclusion: SC is a contributing factor to DUOSS in cancer patients with a poor SQoL and interventions should focus on SC from the start of anti-cancer treatment to improve SQoL and encourage the use of OSS.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is related to difficulties in emotion regulation, including a deficit in interoceptive awareness. The lack of interoceptive awareness is considered a vulnerability involved in the development and maintenance of anorexic symptoms. Surprisingly, no study has been conducted that focuses on these associations in an emotional context. This study measures the interoceptive awareness-using heartbeat self-counting and a sphygmomanometer-of 25 subjects suffering from AN and 25 control subjects, first at rest and then in an emotional situation. The results show that a deficit in interoceptive awareness was observed for the subjects suffering from AN at rest as well as when an emotional context was induced. This study encourages future investigations to focus on the impact of interoceptive deficit in AN to develop as efficient a care regimen as possible for these subjects.

Satisfaction with life as a judgmental cognitive process can be negatively influenced by appraisals of daily events such as hassles. Trait-gratitude—a tendency to appraise, recognize and respond to life events through being grateful—is a determinant of mental health and well-being, and has been shown to be related to the positive appraisal of life. The aim of the current study was to investigate the moderating role of trait-gratitude in the relationship between daily hassles and satisfaction with life. In the process of carrying out this study, the French version of the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6) was validated. A total of 328 French undergraduates completed questionnaires measuring gratitude, satisfaction with life, and daily hassles to test the main hypothesis. They also completed optimism, coping strategies, depression, and anxiety questionnaires in order to assess the convergent validity of the French version of the GQ-6. First, the results showed satisfactory psychometric properties of the Gratitude Questionnaire. Second, the results indicated the moderating role of trait-gratitude in the relationship between daily hassles disturbance and satisfaction with life. This study further documents the role of gratitude as a determinant of well-being and provides French-speaking clinicians and researchers with a useful tool to measure grateful disposition.

The COVID-19 lockdown increased the day-to-day challenges faced by parents, and thereby may have increased parental burnout risk. Therefore, identifying parental burnout protection factors is essential. This study aimed to assess the protective role of the following factors which can be increased through mindfulness practice: trait mindfulness, self-compassion, and concrete vs. abstract ruminations. A total of 459 parents (Mage = 40, 98.7% female) completed self-reported questionnaires at two-time points to assess the predictive role of mindfulness on parental burnout, self-compassion and rumination type, and the mediating role of self-compassion and rumination type in the relation between mindfulness and parental burnout. Results showed that trait mindfulness, self-compassion, and rumination type at Time 1 predicted levels of parental burnout at Time 2. Self-compassion (indirect effects: b = − 22, 95% CI = [−38, −05], p &lt, 0.01), concrete ruminations (indirect effects: b = −20, 95% CI = [−32, −09], p &lt, 0.001), and abstract ruminations (indirect effects: b = −0.54, 95% CI = [−71, −37], p &lt, 0.001) partially mediated the relation between trait-mindfulness and parental burnout. These findings showed that trait mindfulness, self-compassion, and concrete (vs. abstract) ruminations may help prevent parental burnout in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results contribute to the field of research on parental burnout prevention and will allow for the development of effective approaches to mental health promotion in parents.

A major underlying assumption of positive psychology is that we can influence our well-being through our own behavior. It remains an open question as to whether the general public shares this perception, and how this is related to their actual level of well-being. Do they feel a sense of control over their well-being or do they see it more as subject to external influences? There is currently no defined scientific construct to describe this phenomenon. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to define a concept of a locus of control specific to well-being (WB-LOC) and develop a multidimensional scale with which to measure it (WB-LOC12). To examine the psychometric properties of the WB-LOC scale, we conducted three studies with the following analyses: an exploratory analysis in Study 1 (n = 349), a confirmatory analysis with validity and reliability evaluations in Study 2 (n = 341), and a third study (n = 586), in which we translated the scale from French into English and evaluated the factorial structure and internal consistency in diverse cultural samples. Results indicated a solid reliability and validity. Moreover, exploratory and confirmatory analyses supported the three-factor structure in both the French and English versions. In conclusion, the WB-LOC12 scale shows robust psychometric properties and can be used in further research.

Past research has suggested that mindfulness training reduces automaticity while processing socio-emotional stimuli. The present study aimed to analyze how mindfulness practice may reduce the use of prior knowledge during the recognition of emotional facial expressions. Based on a predictive brain model, we hypothesized that mindfulness practice would reduce the top-down processing of low spatial frequency information. This experiment compared the performance of a mindfulness group (n = 32) and a waitlist control group (n = 30) in an emotional Stroop task before and after an 8-week training course. The emotional Stroop task comprised two emotional facial expressions (joy or anger) topped with a congruent or incongruent word, and was primed by facial expressions filtered in two spatial frequency bands: high spatial frequency (HSF) or low spatial frequency (LSF). Having measured the reaction time, the results showed a significant interaction between group (mindfulness vs. control) and session (before vs. after training; p = 0.04; R2 = 0.001), irrespective of spatial frequency channels. Breaking down the interaction showed that mindfulness-trained participants responded significantly faster than the controls to any type of information. The interaction Group by Session by Priming was not significant. These results are in line with research underlining the effects of mindfulness-based interventions on global attentional control. More precisely, the global reduced reaction time did not support lower top-down predictive coding abilities specifically driven by low spatial frequency channels, but indicated a better general sensitivity to the perceptual environment.

Introduction The long-term consequences of divorce on adult children's mental health appear to be under-investigated. Specifically, the respective roles of parental separation and the level of perceived parental conflict are still controversial. Objective This paper considers a model between depression and anxiety disorders (DAD) during the adulthood of children of divorced/married parents via the perceived level of parental conflict. We predicted that the level of perceived parental conflict that would account for the influence of divorce on the level of DAD during adulthood. Method A sample of 121 adults (MAge = 26.14, SD = 1.74, 91 women), consisting of 55 children of divorced parents, 66 children of parents who are still cohabiting, completed a questionnaire assessing DAD, and perceived level of parental conflict. Results Although results do not provide evidence of differences between the two groups, the level of perceived conflict significantly predicted DAD during adulthood in both groups although with a small effect size. Conclusion This could imply that it is not separation per se that predicts the long-term effects of divorce but rather the exposure to parental conflict. Moreover, consistently with previous findings, participants’ perceived level of conflict in the family was not a significant predictor of divorce between the parents. Limitations of the study and its clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Au cours des dernières années, bon nombre d’interventions ont été implantées dans les organisations afin d’aider les employés à cultiver leur pleine conscience. Dans cet article, nous mettons en lumière les dangers liés à l’instrumentalisation de la pleine conscience en milieu de travail et déplorons le fait que les interventions soient souvent mises en place, non pas pour favoriser l’épanouissement et la qualité de vie des employés, mais plutôt pour optimiser le rendement et la motivation de ces derniers. Nous proposons également certaines pistes d’intervention afin que ces interventions prometteuses soient enseignées dans les organisations de manière plus conséquentes avec leurs objectifs.

Emotional intelligence (EI) can be defined as the ability to identify, express, understand, manage, and use emotions. EI has been shown to have an important impact on health, relationships, and work/academic performance. In this article, we present a systematic review of 46 EI intervention studies on adult populations in order to assess their outcomes. Overall, these findings provide some support for the efficacy of EI programs. However, important limitations in most of the studies restrict the generalizability of their results. We discuss the contributions and limitations of these studies and make recommendations for the development and implementation of future interventions.

In this paper, we discuss various issues related to the concept of resilience, which is conventionally defined as a dynamic process allowing for a positive adaptation in a context of significant adversity. First, we try to draw the reader's attention to the importance of the concept of resilience in terms of public health. Second, we address the difficulty of measuring resilience in a relevant and operational manner. Third, we then address the question of whether resilience can be conceived only in the context of a confrontation with trauma, or whether its application can be relevant to the everyday nontraumatic adversity. In this regard, we introduce and define another coping strategy which is the Sense of Coherence (SOC). Fourth, we discuss the nature of resilience, that is to say, whether it should be considered as a personality trait or as an aptitude. We try to show that this problem arises from the difficulty to specify the emotional processes involved in resilience. Finally, we propose future research perspectives that should allow us to better understand the concept of resilience.Dans cet article, nous abordons différentes questions relatives au concept de résilience, classiquement définie comme un processus dynamique permettant une adaptation positive dans un contexte d’adversité significative. Premièrement, nous tentons d’attirer l’attention du lecteur sur l’importance du concept de résilience en termes de santé publique. Deuxièmement, nous abordons la question de la difficulté à mesurer la résilience de façon pertinente et opérationnelle. Troisièmement, nous abordons ensuite la question de savoir si la résilience ne peut se concevoir que dans le contexte d’une confrontation à un traumatisme ou si son application peut être pertinente par rapport à l’adversité quotidienne, non traumatique, mais que chacun rencontre au cours de son existence. A ce propos, nous introduisons et définissons une autre stratégie de coping qui est le Sens de la Cohérence (Sense of Coherence/ SOC). Quatrièmement, nous traitons ensuite de la nature-même de la résilience, c’est-à-dire le fait de déterminer si elle doit être considérée soit comme un trait de personnalité, soit comme une aptitude. Nous tentons de montrer que cette problématique provient de la difficulté à préciser les processus émotionnels en jeu dans la résilience. Enfin, nous proposons des perspectives de recherches futures qui devraient permettre d’appréhender de manière plus fine le concept de résilience.

Emotional competence, emotion regulation, mindfulness and acceptance have all been strongly associated to emotional disorders and psychological well-being in multiple studies. However little research has compared the unique predictive ability of these different constructs. We hypothesised that they will all share a large proportion of common variance and that when compared to the broader constructs emotional competence, emotion regulation and mindfulness, acceptance alone would predict a larger proportion of unique variance Methods 228 participants from a community sample completed anonymously measures of anxiety, depression, happiness, acceptance, mindfulness, emotional competence and emotion regulation. We then ran multiple regressions to assess and compare the predictive ability of these different constructs. Results For measures of psychological distress, the acceptance measure uniquely accounted for between 4 and 30 times the variance that the emotional competence, emotion regulation and mindfulness measures did. Limitations These results are based on cross-sectional designs and non-clinical samples, longitudinal and experimental studies as clinical samples may be useful in order to assess the potential protective power of acceptance over time. Another limitation is the use of self-report questionnaires. Conclusions Results confirmed our hypothesis, supporting the research on the importance of acceptance as a central factor in the understanding of the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders.

Introduction Organizations which engage in the promotion of well-being are likely to prevent mental health issues in workers. Mindfulness-based interventions offer new perspectives to increase well-being at work. However, the issue of finding time and framework to practice at work is important. Recent studies suggested that informal mindfulness practices could be useful in reducing stress and increasing well-being. Objective The present study aimed to study how the duration and type of mindfulness practice may enhance employees’ well-being. Method A multi-method (qualitative and quantitative), controlled pre/post design study (N = 72) was conducted to collect data about the type of preferred mindfulness practices used during an 8-week MBSR program, and to analyse the effects of the program on employees’ well-being. Number of sessions, number of days of practice, and practice time per day were used as moderators. Results Participants reported a preferential use of brief, informal practices. Employees who followed the MBSR program reported higher levels of well-being compared to the wait-list control group (η2 = .194). Those who preferentially used informal practices showed the same increase in well-being as those who reported preferentially using formal practices. The number of days of practice did not moderate the effect of the intervention on well-being. Conclusion Brief and informal mindfulness practices appear to be a promising means of increasing well-being in everyday life. Further research is needed to compare an 8-week mainly informal mindfulness-based program to a classical MBSR program to identify whether informal practices may be sufficient to increasing employees’ well-being.

The objective of this research is to test a mediation model between family dynamics and eating disorders (ED) through resilience skills. A non-clinical sample of 143 young women (Mage D 19.9 years, SD D 4.2) was recruited. All participants completed three valid questionnaires: The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT 26), the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale III (FACES III), and the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA). The results are consistent with this mediation model: resilience increases with balanced family dynamics. Resilience mediates the link between family dynamics and occurrence of ED.

In the field of positive psychology, the subjective happiness scale (SHS) is one of the most widely used measures of happiness. While the scale has been translated into many languages, there is still no valid French version. The goal of this article is to inves-tigate the psychometric properties of the French translation of SHS and to establish a standard for the French population. Exploratory and confirmatory studies confirm the unifactorial dimension of the scale. Psychometric properties were judged satisfactory, and the French version of the subjective happiness scale (SHS-F) displays good reliability. Significant correlations with life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, depression, mindfulness and self-compassion demonstrate its convergent validity. These results suggest that the French version of the SHS is a valid tool for Francophone researchers and clinicians who want to measure happiness.

According to objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), being treated as an object leads women to engage in self-objectification, which in turn increases body surveillance and body shame as well as impairs mental health. However, very little is known about what factors could act as buffers against the detrimental consequences of self-objectification. This paper seeks to understand the role of self-compassion (the ability to kindly accept oneself or show self-directed kindness while suffering) in the perception that women have of their own bodies. Results indicate that self-compassion moderated the effect of body surveillance on depression and happiness separately among women. More specifically, for women low in self-compassion, body surveillance was negatively associated with happiness, which was explained by increased depression. In sum, our results indicate that self-compassion protects against the detrimental consequences of body surveillance., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

This study examined the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) using secondary data drawn from 20 samples (N = 11,685)-7 English and 13 non-English-including 10 community, 6 student, 1 mixed community/student, 1 meditator, and 2 clinical samples. Self-compassion is theorized to represent a system with 6 constituent components: self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness and reduced self-judgment, isolation and overidentification. There has been controversy as to whether a total score on the SCS or if separate scores representing compassionate versus uncompassionate self-responding should be used. The current study examined the factor structure of the SCS using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) to examine 5 distinct models: 1-factor, 2-factor correlated, 6-factor correlated, single-bifactor (1 general self-compassion factor and 6 group factors), and 2-bifactor models (2 correlated general factors each with 3 group factors representing compassionate or uncompassionate self-responding). Results indicated that a 1- and 2-factor solution to the SCS had inadequate fit in every sample examined using both CFA and ESEM, whereas fit was excellent using ESEM for the 6-factor correlated, single-bifactor and correlated 2-bifactor models. However, factor loadings for the correlated 2-bifactor models indicated that 2 separate factors were not well specified. A general factor explained 95% of the reliable item variance in the single-bifactor model. Results support use of the SCS to examine 6 subscale scores (representing the constituent components of self-compassion) or a total score (representing overall self-compassion), but not separate scores representing compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

In this paper, we will discuss various issues related to the concept of resilience, which we conventionally defined as a dynamic process allowing for positive adaptation in a context of significant adversity. First, we will try to draw the reader's attention to the importance of the concept of resilience in terms of public health. Second, we will address the difficulties of measuring resilience in a relevant and operational manner. Third, we will then address the question of whether resilience can be conceived only in the context of confronting trauma, or whether its application can be relevant to everyday non-traumatic adversity. In this regard, we will introduce and define another coping strategy, the Sense of Coherence. Fourth, we will discuss the nature of resilience, that is to say, whether it should be considered as a personality trait or as a skill. We will try to show that this problem arises from the difficulty of specifying the emotional processes involved in resilience. Finally, we will propose future research perspectives that could allow us to better understand the concept of resilience.

In 2014 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, we reported 2 studies demonstrating that the diversity of emotions that people experience-as measured by the Shannon-Wiener entropy index-was an independent predictor of mental and physical health, over and above the effect of mean levels of emotion. Brown and Coyne (2017) questioned both our use of Shannon's entropy and our analytic approach. We thank Brown and Coyne for their interest in our research; however, both their theoretical and empirical critiques do not undermine the central theoretical tenets and empirical findings of our research. We present an in-depth examination that reveals that our findings are statistically robust, replicable, and reflect a theoretically grounded phenomenon with real-world implications. (PsycINFO Database Record

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 143(6) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (see record 2014-49316-001). There is a color coding error in Figure 2. The correct color coding is explained in the erratum.] Bridging psychological research exploring emotional complexity and research in the natural sciences on the measurement of biodiversity, we introduce--and demonstrate the benefits of--emodiversity: the variety and relative abundance of the emotions that humans experience. Two cross-sectional studies across more than 37,000 respondents demonstrate that emodiversity is an independent predictor of mental and physical health--such as decreased depression and doctor's visits--over and above mean levels of positive and negative emotion. These results remained robust after controlling for gender, age, and the 5 main dimensions of personality. Emodiversity is a practically important and previously unidentified metric for assessing the health of the human emotional ecosystem.

Biases are numerous in the literature on subjective well-being. This is true for measures of life satisfaction as well as for measures related to it, for instance mindfulness . Reviewing the literature on mindfulness measures, we identified eleven self-report questionnaires measuring trait mindfulness and three measuring state mindfulness . However, several limitations of these measures have been recently highlighted. First of all, these scales aim at capturing different constructs although they use the same name (mindfulness). Second, among the scales that aim at measuring the same construct (following the same definition of mindfulness), most of them measure a selection of dimensions of mindfulness, thereby limiting the relevance of comparisons between studies. Third, there are concerns about the vocabulary used. Because they were initially conceived to measure effects of mindfulness practices on state or trait mindfulness, these tools are composed of items which participants may find strange or hard to understand before knowing what mindfulness is (i.e., during preprogram measures). While the CHIME was designed to help reduce these vocabulary problems, it does not address a third major limitation of all these measures, namely the difference in insight between participants who have never undertaken any form of mindfulness practice, compared to those who already have some experience. When participants complete questionnaires before taking part in a mindfulness-based intervention, they may have a biased (over-optimistic) vision of their attentional competences and their automatic behaviors, precisely because these are mainly unconscious in nature. This chapter presents current mindfulness measurement tools and further research perspectives in this field.

Are emotionally intelligent people sentimental? Does their greater sensitivity handicap them or are they able, as theory would expect, to experience and regulate emotions flexibly, depending on their goals? We examined this issue in organizational settings. Good managers are indeed expected to be both attuned to feelings (theirs as well as their subordinates’) and able to put them aside when needed to take tough (but necessary) decisions. Our results show that emotionally intelligent managers do make better managers, as reflected by greater managerial competencies, higher team efficiency and less stressed subordinates. Moreover, and most importantly, emotionally intelligent managers are not just nicer managers. As our results show, emotional intelligence has nothing to do with sentimentality. Actually, it is managers with low EI who have the greatest difficulties to put their emotions aside and not let them interfere when inappropriate.

This study builds on earlier work showing that adult emotional competencies (EC) could be improved through a relatively brief training. In a set of 2 controlled experimental studies, the authors investigated whether developing EC could lead to improved emotional functioning; long-term personality changes; and important positive implications for physical, psychological, social, and work adjustment. Results of Study 1 showed that 18 hr of training with e-mail follow-up was sufficient to significantly improve emotion regulation, emotion understanding, and overall EC. These changes led in turn to long-term significant increases in extraversion and agreeableness as well as a decrease in neuroticism. Results of Study 2 showed that the development of EC brought about positive changes in psychological well-being, subjective health, quality of social relationships, and employability. The effect sizes were sufficiently large for the changes to be considered as meaningful in people's lives.