Ramsay, Jonathan E., Yang, Fang, Pang, Joyce S., Lai, Ching-Man, Ho, Roger C.M., and Mak, Kwok-Kei (2015) Divergent pathways to influence: cognition and behavior differentially mediate the effects of optimism on physical and mental quality of life in Chinese university students. Journal of Health Psychology, 20 (7). pp. 963-973.

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Abstract

Previous research has indicated that both cognitive and behavioral variables mediate the positive effect of optimism on quality of life (QOL), yet few attempts have been made to accommodate these constructs into a single explanatory framework. Adopting Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build perspective, we examined the relationships between optimism, self-rated health, resilience, exercise, and QOL in 365 Chinese university students using path analysis. For physical QOL, a two-stage model, in which the effects of optimism were sequentially mediated by cognitive and behavioral variables, provided the best fit. A one-stage model, with full mediation by cognitive variables, provided the best fit for mental QOL. This suggests that optimism influences physical and mental QOL via different pathways.

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