Wellness and Mental Health Research | Engineering Wellness Program

There is a plethora of mental health, wellbeing, and resilience related research currently being conducted. New findings and discoveries are being made daily. It is difficult to stay current with the latest findings. Anyone who has completed a literature review knows how challenging and time-consuming process it can be. As a result, this section will grow slowly, but steadily. We will feature new research every month, so check back regularly.

We will also use this area to feature some of the incredible research being completed at the University of Waterloo. If you have an article you'd like to recommend for inclusion, please use the feedback form below to share it with us.

Mental Health Literacy

Jorm, A. (2012). Mental health literacy. Empowering the Community to Take Action for Better Mental Health. American Psychologist, 231-243.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 43(2), 207-222.
Keyes C. L. M. (2005). Mental illness and/or mental health? Investigating axioms of the complete state model of health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(3), 539-548.
Kutcher, S., Wei, Y., & Coniglio, C. (2016). Mental health literacy: past, present, and future. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 61(3), 154-158.
Westerhof, G. J., & Keyes, C. L. (2010). Mental illness and mental health: the two continua model across the lifespan. Journal of adult development, 17(2), 110–119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-009-9082-y

Defining Wellbeing

Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: An introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 1-11.
Diener, E. (2006). Guidelines for national indicators of subjective well-being and ill-being. Applied Research in Quality of Life 1(2), 151-157.
Durayappah, A. (2011). The 3p model: a general theory of subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies. 12(4), 681 -716.
Griffin, J. (1986). Well-being: Its meaning, measurement and moral importance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hall, A. (2016). Making good choices: toward a theory of well-being in medicine. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. 37(5), 383-400.
Howell, A. J., Passmore, H-A. & Holder, M.D. (2016). Implicit theories of well-being predict well-being and the endorsement of therapeutic lifestyle changes. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17(6), 2347-2363.
Keyes. C. L. M (1998). Social well-being. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61(2), 121-140.https://dio.org/10.2307/2787065
Keyes, C. L. M. (2014). Mental health as a complete state. In G.F. Bauer and O. Hämmig, eds. How the Salutogenic Perspective Completes the Picture in Bridging Occupational, Organizational and Public Health: A Transdisciplinary Approach. Dordrecht , Netherlands: Springer.
Keyes, C. L. M., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing well-being: the empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 1007.
Larson, J. (1993). The measurement of social well-being. Social Indicators Research, 28(3), 285-296. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/27522675
Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Wood, A. M., Osborne, G., Hurling, R. (2009). Measuring happiness: The higher order factor structure of subjective and psychological well-being measures. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(8), 878-884.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2011). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology 52(1):141-66. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11148302/
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069-108.
Ryff, C. D., Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719-727.

Factors that Improve Wellbeing

Balance: Dodge, R, Daly, A. P., Huyton, J., & Sanders, L. D. (2012). The challenge of defining wellbeing.. International Journal of Wellbeing, 2(3), 222-235. 
Character Strengths: Niemiec, R. M. (2019). Six functions of character strengths for thriving at times of adversity and opportunity: a theoretical perspective. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 15, 551-572.
Character Strengths: Worsley, L. (2015). The resilience doughnut: Combining strengths to survive. In M. C. Patron & S. S. Holden (Eds.), Victim Victorious. Nova Science Publishers.
Creative Expression: Wang, S., Mak, H., & Fancourt, D. (2020). Arts, mental distress, mental health functioning & life satisfaction: fixed-effects analyses of a nationally-representative panel study. BMC Public Health.
Gratitude: Lai, S. W., & O’Carroll, R. E.. (2017). ‘The Three Good Things’ - The effects of gratitude practice on wellbeing: A randomised controlled trial. Health Psychology Update, 26(1), 10-18.
Mindfulness: Carmody, J. F. (2014). Eastern and Western Approaches to Mindfulness: Similarities, Differences, and Clinical Implications. Preventive and Behavioral Medicine Publications.
Nature: Bratman, G. N., Daily, G. C., Levy, B. J., & Gross, J. J. (2015). The benefits of nature experience: Improved affect and cognition. Landscape and Urban Planning, 138, 41-50.
Nutrition: Jessiman-Perrault, G., & McIntyre, L. (2017). The household food insecurity gradient and potential reductions in adverse population mental health outcomes in Canadian adults. SSM-Population Health, 464-472.
PERMA: Seligman, M. (2018). PERMA and the building blocks of well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(4), 333-335.
Physical Activity: Tyson, R. Wilson, K., Crone, D., Brailsford, R., & Laws, K. (2010). Physical activity and mental health in a student population. Journal of Mental Health, 19(6), 492-499.
Positive Emotions: Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions. The American Psychologist, 56(3), 218-226.
Sleep: Makin, S. (2019, November 1). Deep sleep gives your brain a deep clean. Scientific American.

Factors the Decrease Wellbeing

Barriers to Care: Gulliver, A., Griffiths, K. M., & Christensen, H. (2010). Perceived barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young people: A systematic review. BMC Psychiatry, 10, 113, 1-9
Loneliness: Hombrados-Mendieta, I., Garcia-Martin, M. A., & Gomez-Jacinto, L. (2012). The relationship between social support, loneliness, and subjective well-being in a Spanish sample from a multidimensional perspective. Social Indicators Research. 114(3), 1013–1034.
Racism: Nixon, S. A. (2019). The coin model of privilege and critical allyship: Implications for health. BMC Public Health, 19, 1637. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7884-9. (Course Reserves)
Stigma: Corrigan, P. W., & Rao, D. (2012). On the self-stigma of mental illness: Stages, disclosure, and strategies for change. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 57(8), 464-469.
Stigma: Corrigan, P. W. (2016). Resolving mental illness stigma: Should we seek normalcy or solidarity? The British Journal of Psychiatry, 314-315.

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