Year of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Clinical Psychology

Department or School/College

Psychology

Committee Chair

Dr. Jennifer Waltz

Commitee Members

Dr. Craig Ravesloot, Dr. Bryce Ward

Keywords

persons with disabilities (PWD), subjective well-being (SWB), meaningful activity, social closeness

Subject Categories

Health Psychology

Abstract

Persons with disabilities (PWD) constitute close to one fifth of the U.S. population and tend to experience both mental and physical health disparities when compared to the general populace. Improving well-being is paramount to enhancing the health status of these individuals. Two areas that have demonstrated promise in facilitating increases in global well-being in the general population are 1) engagement in meaningful activity and 2) experiences of social closeness. Although previous research has examined the global assessment of meaningful activity and social closeness on well-being over longer time frames, few studies have investigated the direct and short-term influence of these two experiences on subjective well-being (SWB) for PWD. To fill this gap in the research, this study uses daily reconstruction data from the Well-Being Module of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which includes a large and representative sample of the U.S. population. The within-subjects, within-day nature of this study allows for each participant to serve as their own control, eliminating potential between-subjects confounds inherent in many large-scale, representative studies. Using this data to advance knowledge concerning the direct and short-term impact of meaningful activity and socially-close experiences on SWB for PWD may advance the development of interventions that enhance well-being for PWD.

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© Copyright 2018 Ari B. Silverman