Relación entre optimismo y salud bajo la influencia de las creencias religiosas en dos muestras latinoamericanas / Relationship between optimism and health under the influence of religious beliefs in two Latin American population samples

Resumen El estudio del bienestar ha cobrado creciente relevancia dada su relación con estados psicológicos como la ansiedad, depresión, estrés y también la salud. Sin embargo, se cuenta con pocas propuestas explicativas del bienestar, así como validación empírica transcultural de estos. El presente estudio evaluó el efecto de la inclusión de una variable contextual cultural sobre un modelo explicativo de bienestar, específicamente si las creencias religiosas moderan el efecto mediador de los afectos positivos sobre la relación optimismo y salud. La muestra de este estudio consistió en 529 participantes de dos países latinoamericanos (285 de Chile y 244 de Colombia). Los resultados indican que en ambos países hay un efecto significativo del optimismo sobre la percepción de salud mediado por los afectos positivos. Sin embargo, las creencias religiosas no ejercen un efecto significativo sobre la intensidad de las relaciones entre las variables del modelo de base. La importancia de los factores culturales y de los estudios transculturales sobre el bienestar son presentados y discutidos.

Abstract The study of well-being has gained increasing relevance given its relationship with psychological states such as anxiety, depression, stress, as well as health. Nonetheless, there are few explanatory proposals on well-being, or any empirical cross-cultural validation of these. The present study evaluated the effect of the inclusion of a cultural contextual variable on an explanatory model of well-being, specifically on whether religious beliefs moderate the mediating effect of the positive affects on the relationship between optimism and health. The sample of this study consisted of 529 participants from two Latin American countries (285 from Chile and 244 from Colombia). The results indicate that, in both countries, there is a significant effect of optimism on the perception of health mediated by positive affects. However, religious beliefs do not exert a significant effect on the intensity of the relationships between the variables of the base model. The importance of cultural factors and cross-cultural studies on well-being are presented and discussed.

Perception of Safety and Liking Associated to the Colour Intervention of Bike Lanes: Contribution from the Behavioural Sciences to Urban Design and Wellbeing.

The perception of colour and its subjective effects are key issues to designing safe and enjoyable bike lanes. This paper addresses the relationship between the colours of bike lane interventions-in particular pavement painting and intersection design-and the subjective evaluation of liking, visual saliency, and perceived safety related to such an intervention. Utilising images of three real bike lane intersections modified by software to change their colour (five in total), this study recruited 538 participants to assess their perception of all fifteen colour-design combinations. A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with the Bonferroni post hoc test was performed to assess the effect of the main conditions (colour and design) on the dependent variables (liking towards the intervention, level of visual saliency of the intersection, and perceived safety of the bike lane). The results showed that the colour red was more positively associated to the outcome variables, followed by yellow and blue. Additionally, it was observed that the effect of colour widely outweighs the effect of design, suggesting that the right choice and use of colour would increase the effectiveness on bike-lanes pavement interventions. Limitations and future directions are discussed.