Robert W. Roeser

This sequential mixed-methods study describes the development and pilot validation of the Youth Compassion Measure (YCM), a scenario-based assessment designed to capture compassion as a context-sensitive, developmental process in adolescence. Grounded in a five-stage model (awareness, appraisal, affect and regulation, motivation, and action), the YCM was developed using youth-informed methods. Phase 1 focus groups identified common school-based forms of distress and key contextual factors shaping compassionate responding. Phase 2 cognitive interviews refined scenarios, prompts, and coding procedures to capture adolescents’ conditional reasoning and decision processes. This article focuses on Phase 3, which evaluated construct-to-design alignment, internal coherence, and preliminary relations to theoretically relevant constructs in a sample of 200 middle school students. Open-ended and Likert-type responses were used to derive indicators across compassion components. Correlations with validated measures were modest but theoretically consistent, with stronger associations observed for intrinsic prosocial motivation and goal-directed distress tolerance. Contextual analyses indicated that relational closeness and social-evaluative conditions significantly shaped compassionate intentions and action planning. Interrater reliability for coding was high (κ = .92). Findings provide initial validity evidence for a developmentally grounded, contextually sensitive measure and highlight the importance of regulatory and motivational processes in adolescent compassionate action. Rather than representing a final measure, this study served as an important first step in the iterative development and validation of the YCM. While correlations were modest, the findings generated critical insights into the processes underlying compassionate action and highlighted opportunities to strengthen the measure, guiding the next phase of refinement and validation.

This diachronic, cross-temporal study examined changes in adolescents’ identities, practices, and well-being during a period of globalization in India. Data were collected from two independent cohorts of primarily Hindu, middle-class adolescents attending the same city schools in 2005 (n = 1,363, Mage = 13.55 (0.95); 45% female) and 2017 (n = 1,052, Mage = 13.65 (0.96), 48% female). Over time, adolescents placed greater value on family and service and engaged in religion less and consumption more. Adolescents endorsed self-related aspirations more (e.g., hedonism), and girls identified more strongly with freedom and wealth in 2017 versus 2005. At both times, traditional identities predicted greater religiosity and well-being, whereas less traditional identities predicted greater consumption. Findings suggest the enduring role of traditional identities for well-being.

Research shows that skills for improving Psychological Well‐Being (PWB) may be learned through PWB interventions; however, the dynamic mechanisms underlying this learning process are not well understood. Using an Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI) design, we conducted an 8‐week Randomized Controlled Trial (N = 160; aged 18–22 years), implemented in a mobile Health (mHealth) platform to characterize these dynamical mechanisms. College‐attending early adults were randomized to three groups: an active control group (N = 55); an intervention group (N = 51) with positive practices intervention; and a second intervention group (N = 54) with positive practices and meditation intervention. The mHealth implementation allowed us to introduce the interventions in participants' daily lives while also assessing their PWB (in terms of positive emotions and relationship quality) several times a day. We used a Bayesian process model to analyze changes in PWB in terms of the underlying dynamical characteristics of change. Findings suggested that the mobile assessment tool itself may have longitudinally improved college‐attending early adults' PWB, as evidenced by instances of directional changes in dynamic characteristics (increased within‐person mean levels, decreased intra‐individual variability, and increased regulation) of PWB measures. Moderation analysis also revealed that people who were low on negative affect improved the most in terms of their mean levels of positive emotions and relationship quality.

Evaluate student effects of participating in an undergraduate academic course, Art and Science of Human Flourishing, that was offered in a synchronous, virtual format during the Fall 2020 semester at three universities. Three combined cohorts of undergraduate students from three universities (n = 168). A pre/post/5-month follow-up, propensity-score matched evaluation was conducted. Measures assessed attention skills, social-emotional skills, flourishing, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality. Relative to comparisons, students in the course reported significant improvements in proximal outcomes related to mindfulness, compassion, and common humanity, as well as decreases in depressive symptoms. Improvements in distal outcomes of flourishing and depressive symptoms were significant at post-course but did not maintain significance at five-month follow-up. The academic study of human flourishing and contemplative education offers a promising and unique approach to supporting undergraduate mental health and well-being, even in virtual settings.

We introduce a theoretical framework for conceptualizing Psychological Well‐Being (PWB) as a process that unfolds over short and longer time‐scales. We argue that this framework can be especially useful for studying the change mechanisms in PWB within the context of mobile Health (mHealth) interventions. Four lines of research are considered within this framework to inform the scientific exploration of PWB in the context of mHealth interventions. First, we explore key dynamic characteristics of change in PWB functioning. Second, we discuss PWB intervention response as a learning process (i.e., meaningful and transformational changes in state), reflected as change in key dynamic characteristics of PWB. Third, we explain mechanisms of change in PWB intervention practices through an underlying process of skill development. Fourth, we discuss intervention response heterogeneity within this framework. The approach we outline is intended to articulate currently unanswered, process‐oriented research questions about PWB interventions, how they work, and a methodological path forward for exploring them.

Evaluate COVID-19 pandemic impacts on college student mental health.Three cohorts of college students (2018 n = 466; 2019 n = 459; 2020, n = 563; N = 1488) from three American universities. Partici...

Research shows that skills for improving Psychological Well-Being (PWB) may be learned through PWB interventions; however, the dynamical mechanisms underlying this learning process are not well understood. Using an Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI) design, we conducted an 8-week Randomized Controlled Trial (N=160; aged 18-22 years), implemented in a mobile Health (mHealth) platform to characterize these dynamical mechanisms. College-attending early adults were randomized to three groups: an active control group (N=55); an intervention group (N=51) with positive practices intervention; and a second intervention group (N=54) with positive practices and meditation intervention. The mHealth implementation allowed us to introduce the interventions in participants’ daily lives while also assessing their PWB several times a day. We used a Bayesian process-oriented modeling approach to analyze changes in PWB in terms of dynamical processes of change. Findings suggested that the mobile assessment tool itself may have longitudinally improved college-attending early adults’ PWB, as evidenced by instances of directional changes in dynamic characteristics (increased within-person mean levels, decreased intra-individual variability, and increased regulation) of PWB measures. Moreover, although the EMIs did not add benefit over mobile assessments at the group level, they improved PWB for those who had low baseline negative affect levels.