Optimism, a bias to overestimate positive and underestimate negative outcomes, may shape how children learn, confront challenges, and overcome setbacks. Although approximately 80% of adults are optimistic, childhood optimism is understudied. A racially and socioeconomically diverse community sample of 152 three- to six-year-old children participated in two experiments (one story-based, one numeric probability-based) that assessed expectations of event outcomes when the likelihood of the outcome occurring either matched or conflicted with the most desirable outcome. The results systematically demonstrate that children are optimistic, even more optimistic for themselves than others, and increasingly integrate probabilistic information into their predictions with age. Differences in optimism were found in children from different socioeconomic backgrounds and those with different levels of depressive symptoms. These findings provide insight into how children reason about the future and elucidate key factors that impact optimistic predictions in childhood.

UNASSIGNED: During the COVID-19 pandemic, young adults worldwide showed signs of distress as they were affected in their specific developmental tasks, including the construction of personal and professional futures.
UNASSIGNED: The present study aimed to assess the situational future time perspective of Italian university students during the second pandemic wave, as measured by an ad hoc constructed instrument, to explore its interaction with some dispositional traits relevant in future construction, such as optimism, sense of life, aggression, and dispositional future time perspective, and to test their effect on psychological well-being. The total sample consisted of 389 subjects (18-35 years, M = 23.5, SD = 4.4).
UNASSIGNED: The results indicated that the pandemic experience, assessed by surveying specific indicators, negatively affected the future time perspective of students, particularly those dispositionally optimistic and convinced that life has meaning. However, awareness of the negative impact that the pandemic brought to the vision of the future seems to have dampened the levels of depression and stress, while anxiety was found to be related only to dispositional traits. The results also suggested the need for educational and economic policies that help young adults develop confidence in the future and in their ability to build it.

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of psychological capital on college students\' entrepreneurial intentions. Through a combination of relevant analysis and linear regression, the primary focus is on exploring the relationship between psychological capital and its four dimensions with entrepreneurial intentions. Firstly, the items in the psychological capital questionnaire were revised to align more closely with entrepreneurial contexts. Subsequently, the average deviations and standard deviations of each dimension of psychological capital were analyzed. Then, the correlation between psychological capital and entrepreneurial intentions was examined to explore the extent of their relationship. Finally, regression analysis was conducted on both psychological capital and entrepreneurial intentions, and utilizing a recurrent neural network model, the covariant relationship between entrepreneurial psychological capital and intentions was explored. The results indicated that the average scores for entrepreneurial self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience were 3.91, 4.27, 4.19, and 4.15, respectively. The average value of psychological capital was 4.13, indicating a moderately high level. The correlation analysis between psychological capital and entrepreneurial intentions yielded a result of 0.562, indicating a moderate degree of correlation. The correlation coefficients of the four dimensions with entrepreneurial intentions were 0.390, 0.494, 0.531, and 0.467, respectively. The standardized coefficients for psychological capital and its four dimensions were 0.564, 0.382, 0.510, 0.536, and 0.468, all of which were statistically significant. Overall, psychological capital exhibited better predictive power for entrepreneurial intentions than its individual dimensions. The results from the deep learning model similarly demonstrated the positive role of psychological capital in entrepreneurial intentions, though the influence of ideological and political education (IPE) factors was relatively weaker. In conclusion, both psychological capital and IPE have a promotive effect on entrepreneurial intentions. This study provides a reference for the accurate evaluation of college students\' entrepreneurial intentions.

UNASSIGNED: College students showed a high prevalence of stress, anxiety, and depression, with medical and nursing students experiencing particularly elevated levels of mental health challenges.Optimism significantly influences overall well-being by promoting a healthy lifestyle and cognitive responses. However, the association of optimism with sleep quality, stress, and mental health in college students remains unexplored. This study aimed to (1) explore the associations of optimism with sleep quality, stress, and mental health and (2) ascertain whether sleep quality and stress mediate the association between optimism and mental health among college students.
UNASSIGNED: A cross-sectional study was conducted using online surveys with students from health science majors at a public university in the northeast United States from September to December 2022. A total of 222 students participated in the study, providing data on sociodemographics, optimism, sleep quality, stress, anxiety, and depression. Parallel and serial mediation models were utilized to examine the potential mediating roles of sleep quality and stress in the association between optimism and mental health.
UNASSIGNED: The study found that optimism influences anxiety and depression through both direct and indirect pathways. In line with predictions, the parallel mediation analysis revealed that the impact of optimism on anxiety (βtotal = -0.598, 95% confident interval [CI]: -0.778 to -0.392) and depression (βtotal = -0.724, 95% CI: -0.919 to -0.519) was mediated by stress and sleep quality. Furthermore, the serial mediation models revealed that stress and sleep quality co-mediated the relationship betweenoptimism and anxiety (indirect effect [IE] = -0.074, 95% CI: -0.135 to -0.029) or depression (IE = -0.084, 95% CI: -0.142 to -0.036) in a sequential manner.
UNASSIGNED: Optimism was negatively correlated with poor sleep quality, stress, anxiety, and depression. Enhanced optimism was linked to high sleep quality and less stress, anxiety, and depression. These insights emphasize the potential for school-based optimism interventions to improve sleep quality, ameliorate stress-related concerns, and alleviate mental health challenges in college students.

Supporting early-stage nurses to adapt to the field and become proficient in nursing is important to improve the quality of patient care. This study aimed to determine the effects of the nursing work environment, nursing practice readiness, and optimism on the field adaptation of early-stage nurses. A descriptive survey was conducted among 209 early-stage nurses with ≤3 years of work experience at hospitals. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the t-test, ANOVA, Pearson\'s correlation coefficients, and regression analysis with the SPSS Program. The participating nurses\' mean field adaptation score was 2.90 ± 0.40 (total score = 5) and a significant positive correlation was found between nursing work environment (r = 0.61, p < 0.001), nursing practice readiness (r = 0.41, p < 0.001), and optimism (r = 0.26, p < 0.001). The regression analysis revealed that the nursing work environment (β = 0.38, p < 0.001), job satisfaction (β = 0.33, p < 0.001), nursing practice readiness (β = 0.24, p < 0.001), and turnover intention (β = 0.17, p = 0.001) significantly affect the field adaptation of early stage nurses; the explanatory power was 56.1% (F = 27.55, p < 0.001). The results suggest that to facilitate the field adaptation of early-stage nurses, the nursing work environment, job satisfaction, and nursing practice readiness should be improved. Improvement in the nursing work environment and the development of additional training for field adaptation would enhance the ability of early-stage nurses to adapt to the field and, consequently, improve the quality of nursing care.

BACKGROUND: Social constraints are perceived as unsupportive behaviors, leading to inadequate psychosocial adjustment, while optimism can help people recover from distress and reduce any negative effects of chronic disease. The aim of this study was to investigate social constraints, psychosocial adjustment and optimism among patients on dialysis.
METHODS: In this study, 402 patients undergoing dialysis in Greece completed the following questionnaires: (i) the Social Constraints Scale (SCS) for the assessment of social constrains, (ii) the Psychosocial adjustment to illness scale (PAIS-SR) for the assessment of psychosocial adjustment, and (iii) the LOT-R scale for the assessment of optimism. A Mann-Whitney test was used for the comparison of continuous variables between two groups. Spearman correlation coefficients (rho) were used to explore the association of two continuous variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was used with the SCS scale.
RESULTS: Greater difficulty in psychosocial adjustment in the domestic, vocational, extended family and social environments, sexual relationships, and health care as well as greater psychological distress were significantly associated with a greater occurrence of social constraints (p < 0.001). Additionally, greater optimism was significantly associated with fewer social constraints and lower difficulty in adjusting to their disease (p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Greater difficulty in all dimensions of psychosocial adjustment is associated with more social constraints, while optimism is associated with fewer social constraints and better disease adjustment.

There is scarce evidence of a relationship between positive and psychosomatic characteristics. This study aimed to examine the associations of somatic burden with psychological resources such as optimism, resilience, and general self-efficacy. Russian participants (n = 1020) completed measures of psychological resources at Time 1 and somatic symptoms at Time 2. The results showed that somatic burden decreased with greater levels of optimism, resilience, and general self-efficacy. Regarding health and sociodemographic characteristics, female sex increased somatic burden in the model with optimism scores, university education decreased somatic burden in the model with resilience scores, and history of COVID-19 disease increased somatic burden in the models with optimism, resilience, and general self-efficacy scores. This study has theoretical and practical contributions. It combines positive psychology and psychosomatic medicine and highlights the value of psychological resource interventions in the treatment and prevention of somatic burden. These findings may be useful for scientists, clinicians, and practitioners.

UNASSIGNED: The aims of this study were to examine changes in habitual optimism over a six-year period and to analyze the relationship between changes in optimism and changes in other quality of life-related variables.
UNASSIGNED: A randomly selected community sample of the German adult general population (N = 4,965) was surveyed twice, with a time interval of 6.04 years.
UNASSIGNED: During the course of the 6 years, the mean score of the LOT-R total scale improved (effect size d = 0.11). The temporal stability in terms of the test-retest correlation was r = 0.61 for the total sample. There were only marginal gender differences in this temporal stability, however, the stability in the oldest age group ≥70 years (r = 0.50) was lower than the stability of the other age groups. The cross-sectional correlations showed clear relationships between optimism on the one hand and quality of life, life satisfaction, social support, and low levels of anxiety and physical complaints on the other. The corresponding longitudinal correlations between changes in optimism and changes in the other variables were less pronounced, but in the same direction.
UNASSIGNED: The study confirmed the applicability of the LOT-R in longitudinal studies. In samples with participants of 70 years and above, the limited stability in the optimism assessments needs to be considered in clinical practice and epidemiologic research.

Voluntary participation is a central yet understudied aspect of collaboration. Here, we model collaboration as people\'s voluntary choices between joining an uncertain public goods provisioning in groups and pursuing a less profitable but certain individual option. First, we find that voluntariness in collaboration increases the likelihood of group success via two pathways, both contributing to form more optimistic groups: pessimistic defectors are filtered out from groups, and some individuals update their beliefs to become cooperative. Second, we reconcile these findings with existing literature that highlights the detrimental effects of an individual option. We argue that the impact of an outside individual option on collaboration depends on the \"externality\" of loners - the influence that those leaving the group still exert on group endeavors. Theoretically and experimentally, we show that if collaboration allows for flexible group formation, the negative externality of loners remains limited, and the presence of an individual option robustly aids collaborative success.

In the Netherlands, one out of two people will be confronted with the diagnosis of cancer sometime in their life. Against this increased number of patients, a large proportion luckily can be cured. Today, a rather high proportion of people receive treatment to control cancer growth or stabilize the disease, sometimes, for the rest of their lives. If such long-standing treatment is administered for more than 10-20 years, the stage of cancer is presently often not referred to as \"palliative\" anymore, but much more often as \"chronic.\" It could be argued that regardless of the cancer disease stage you are in and whether you are or can be cured, your cancer diagnosis nevertheless has become part of your life, including the experience of chronicity. Discussions surrounding the chronicity of cancer in the context of cancer are still ongoing. This is especially the case because \"experiencing chronicity\" is dependent on the type of cancer and is less applicable in cancers where the prognosis is often less than one year, such as is more frequently the case with lung or pancreatic cancer. In all situations, experiencing chronicity nevertheless brings along uncertainty, either with or without chronic stress. Combatting stress by choosing the right wording, maintaining an optimistic stance along with physical activity and/or psychosocial education seems important to optimize well-being and to stabilize tumor growth or remove the tumor. In conclusion, chronicity in the context of treating and caring for cancer seems a somewhat gray area. However, regardless in how we, as medical professionals, speak about cancer with long-standing disease trajectories (that sometimes even can be cured), it first of all seems important to approach, take care, and treat patients well. This can facilitate discussions with patients about their disease and disease experiences. Moreover, it can stimulate patients themselves to take responsibility for their own health, which can be of added value to the entire disease trajectory.