Abstract:The present study brought together and examined two related, but distinct, concepts rooted in positive psychology, namely subjective wellbeing (SWB) and character strengths. It sought to assess the impact of a number of demographic and other sociological and psychological factors, including physical and mental health, on emerging adults' outlook on life. This study also set out to validate and investigate the levels of wellbeing and character strengths in the context of a more collective, Mediterranean culture; that of Greece. Three hundred and twelve male and female students from two Greek Universities participated in the study, which consisted of a questionnaire battery, including measures of subjective wellbeing, character strengths and mental and physical health. Youths were found to have a positive outlook on life. Wisdom, courage and transcendence appeared to be the most salient among their character strengths, since character strengths were each highly and positively correlated with the wellbeing subscales of environmental mastery, purpose in life and self-acceptance. Good physical and mental health were positively related to, and reliably predicted different aspects of, both wellbeing and character strengths; nevertheless, mental health appeared to affect and predict more aspects of wellbeing and character strengths than physical health. The significance of the above findings for the field of positive psychology is discussed.

This study investigated emerging adulthood and transition to adulthood in Greece, a highly underresearched issue in this country. Participants were 784 university students aged 17.5-27.5 years. Criteria for the transition to adulthood, developmental features of emerging adulthood, perceived adult status, views of the future (optimism), and sociodemographic variables were assessed. The results support the existence of emerging adulthood as a distinct life period in Greece. More than two thirds of the sample were self-perceived emerging adults. Most prevalent criteria were Norm compliance and Family capacities. Developmental features of emerging adulthood ranked high, especially Identity exploration, Experimentation/possibilities, and Feeling “in-between”. Statistically significant variations emerged as a function of gender, age, living arrangement, job experience, and perceived adult status. Views of the future were cautiously optimistic. Similarities with existing data and differences related to the specific characteristics of the Southern European context are discussed.

The aims of this exploratory study were two-fold: a. to identify any relations between children's altruism and a set of demographic and other personal and social characteristics of Greek children, such as empathy, resilience and classroom climate; and b. to examine the psychometric properties of a newly-developed measure of altruistic behavior in children, namely the Altruistic Behavior Questionnaire (ABQ). 232 male and female students of the 5 th and 6 th class of Primary School in Northern Greece participated in this study. The ABQ was found to have adequate internal consistency and concurrent and construct validity. Using a hierarchical regression analysis, altruism in children was found to be reliably predicted by participants' gender and academic performance, by empathy and also by resilience; nevertheless, the more socially determined variable of classroom climate only marginally predicted altruism. The importance of including training in the development and manifestation of altruism in emotional education programmes and resilience interventions at school is highlighted.

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