Positive social relations are known to have a beneficial impact on health, however, little is known about the links of health with online relationships. In this study, we compare face-to-face and virtual friendships in their association with health. By building on previous results of studies conducted on the well-being of college students, we expect to find stronger associations of face-to-face friendships with health than of those established through Facebook. Furthermore, we expect to test the mediating role of social capital variables in this process. Two large-scale studies conducted in community samples (Study 1 = 350 urban residents; Study 2 = 803 urban and rural residents) showed that the number and quality of face-to-face friendships were directly associated with self-reported health status, however, the same did not occur with Facebook friendships. Moreover, the association of face-to-face friendships with health was totally mediated by bonding (mostly) but also bridging social capital. These results, replicated in both studies, were found controlling for confounding variables such as age, gender, education, living alone, self-esteem, and socioeconomic status. This pattern of results emphasizes the gains of face-to-face over online friendships for individuals’ health status in community samples.

Título: A qué se refiere la gente cuando informa que son felices o que están satisfechos con la vida. Resumen: El estudio de la felicidad estuvo dominado con el modelo de bienestar subjetivo. Con la llegada de la psicología positiva entran en juego los modelos de felicidad hedónicos y eudaimónico, pero los principales estudios siguen utilizando medidas de un solo elemento de satisfacción con la vida o de felicidad. En este trabajo estudiamos la asociación entre la satisfacción con la vida y la felicidad, medida cada una de ellas con un solo ítem mediante una representación gráfica de una escalera y de un termómetro, y los tres modelos de felicidad: el bienestar subjetivo, la felicidad eudaimónica y la felicidad hedonista. Los resultados mostraron que el bienestar subjetivo fue el principal predictor de la satisfacción con la vida y el modelo hedónico también predijo en menor grado esa misma variable. Para el caso de la felicidad los predictores fueron los mismos, pero en orden inverso, el predictor principal fue el modelo hedónico y en un menor grado por el bienestar subjetivo. Contrariamente a nuestra hipótesis, la perspectiva de felicidad eudaimónica no es un predictor en ninguno de los modelos. Estos resultados subrayan la importancia de la interacción entre una perspectiva cognitiva o una hedónica en el estudio de la felicidad. Palabras clave: felicidad, satisfacción con la vida, bienestar subjetivo. Abstract:The study of happiness was dominated with the model of subjective well-being. With the advent of positive psychology the eudaimonic and hedonic models entered the field, but major surveys continue to use single-item measures of life satisfaction or happiness. We study the associations between life satisfaction and happiness, measured single-items with a graphic representation of a ladder and a thermometer, and three models of happiness: the subjective well-being, the eudaimonic and hedonic. The results showed that subjective well-being was the main predictor of life satisfaction and hedonic model also predicted a small amount of this variable. For happiness the predictors were the same but in reversed order, the main predictor was the hedonic model and a small variance was explained by subjective well-being. Contrary to our hypothesis the eudaimonic perspective of happiness was not a predictor in none of the models. These results underline the importance of the interaction between a cognitive or appraisal perspective and the hedonic perspectives for the study of happiness.

Recent wastewater analyses performed in care homes for the elderly showed high levels of water pollution resulting from pharmaceutical waste. The way people perceive the environmental risk of pharmaceuticals can contribute to reversing this problem, but the factors that influence risk perception remain relatively unknown. The aims of the study are two‐fold. We first focused on exploring the levels of knowledge regarding environment/water pollution due to pharmaceutical residues from the groups responsible for prescribing (health professionals), handling (staff), and consuming pharmaceuticals (residents) in care homes for the elderly. Second, we assessed the environmental risk perception of pharmaceuticals based on two main factors: prescription medication (nonprescribed versus prescribed) and disease severity (milder versus severe disease), accounting for their level of knowledge (deficit versus sufficiency of knowledge). The study was designed based on correlational research. Data were collected in homes for the elderly located in three Southwestern European countries (N = 300), using self‐report surveys. Current knowledge was perceived to be low and the need to know more was perceived to be high, across all groups. As hypothesized, results indicated that to assess the environmental risk, participants made use of information that was unrelated to pharmaceutical persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity (PBT). Prescribed pharmaceuticals and/or medication used to treat severe diseases were perceived as being more hazardous for the environment. Simple main effects analysis comparing between knowledge levels confirmed that this effect occurred mostly when participants had knowledge deficit for disease severity but not for prescription medication. These misconceptions might discourage taking an active role in reducing the impact of pharmaceutical residues in the environment.

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