Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness
The mission of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness is to build a rigorous and interdisciplinary science of positive health, happiness, and well-being with a focus on health equity, and to translate the science to influence practice and policy.
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Location
Kresge Building 6th Floor
677 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Publications
Center scholars and affiliate scientists are continuously investigating the complex interrelationships between physical, social, and mental health and designing and evaluating interventions for the improvement of overall well-being across the globe. Besides the connections between these three realms of health, key areas of focus include health equity, social media, and loneliness and social connection.
Research by Center Scholars and Affiliates in 2026
- Patel, V., et al. (2026). From innovation to implementation: Artificial intelligence in cognitive behaviour therapy training and supervision. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 197, 104945
- VanderWeele, T. J., & Teubner, J. D. (2026). Flourishing considerations for AI. Information, 17(1), 88
- Lomas, T., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Contributions towards a positive epidemiology of compassion: Exploring the transmission dynamics of acts of microkindness. International Journal of Wellbeing, 16(2)
- Nakamura, J. S., Lee, M. T., Padgett, R. N., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Echoes of compassion in the Global Flourishing Study: Cross-national distributions and predictors of prosociality and loving care. International Journal of Wellbeing, 16(2)
- VanderWeele, T. J., et al. (2026). Love of neighbor assessment: Validity, reliability, and a template for measurement. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1575175
- VanderWeele, T. J., Kim, E. S., et al. (2026). Love of Enemy Assessment: Initial evidence for reliability and validity. SSRN preprint
- Joss, D., et al. (2026). A randomized controlled trial of an online group-based internal family systems treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: The Program for Alleviating and Resolving Trauma and Stress (PARTS) study.Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advance online publication
- James, P., et al. (2026). Midlife exposure to neighborhood greenness and later-life cognitive decline: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 1–11
- Farmer, J. G., Tang, I. W., James, P., Kubzansky, L. D., Mukherjee, R., Hickman, R., Kessler, W., Germine, L. T., & Weisskopf, M. G. (2026). Early-life neighborhood resources and later-life cognitive function. Environmental Research, 298, 124257
- James, P., et al. (2026). Assessing greenspace and cardiovascular disease risk through deep learning analysis of street-view imagery in the US-based nationwide Nurses’ Health Study. Environmental Epidemiology, 10(1), e442
- James, P., et al. (2026). Long-term temperature exposure and depression incidence in the Nurses’ Health Study II, a U.S.-based prospective cohort. Environment International, 209, 110160
- Brooks, A. C. (2026). Leadership, happiness, and your start‑up life.Leader to Leader, 2026(119), 16–21
- VanderWeele, T. J., et al. (2026). Where hope thrives: Demographic variation in hope across 22 countries. Journal of Happiness Studies, 27(1), 5
- Cowden, R. G., Worthington, E. L., Jr., Padgett, R. N., Felton, C., Bradshaw, M., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Longitudinal associations of dispositional forgivingness with multidimensional well-being: A two-wave outcome-wide analysis in the Global Flourishing Study. Mental Health Research, 5(1), 3
- de la Rosa, P. A., Jang, S. J., Paltzer, J., Okafor, C. N., Bradshaw, M., Padgett, R. N., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Demographic variation in weekly alcohol use across countries in the Global Flourishing Study. Communications Medicine, 6, 1346
- Fadiji, A., Padgett, R. N., Le Pertel, N., Cowden, R., Johnson, B., & VanderWeele, T. (2026). Outcome-wide study on the relationship between education and well-being: The Global Flourishing Study. OSF preprint
- Jang, S. J., de la Rosa, P. A., Padgett, R. N., Felton, C., Bradshaw, M., VanderWeele, T. J., & Johnson, B. R. (2026). An outcome-wide study of the associations of daily smoking with subsequent well-being and other outcomes in the Global Flourishing Study. Research Square preprint
- Lennon, M. J., Symons, X., Ratheesh, A., Suttie, J., Mitchell, P. B., Loo, C., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Human flourishing and suicide: A national-level analysis with 22 countries. npj Mental Health Research (advance online publication)
- Lomas, T., Felton, C., Padgett, R. N., Chen, Z. J., Case, B., Makridis, C., Cowden, R. G., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). People almost universally value having good character, happiness, health, meaning, and relationships, followed by religion/spirituality and money: Commonalities but also variation in priorities across 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study. Research Square preprint
- Lomas, T., Koga, H. K., Padgett, R. N., Pawelski, J. O., Kim, E. S., Makridis, C. A., Lee, M. T., Dandurand, L., Berenbaum, S., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Exploring associations of three evaluative subjective wellbeing measures (Cantril’s ladder, life satisfaction, happiness) with 15 childhood and demographic factors across 22 countries. Scientific Reports, 16, 12345
- Lomas, T., Niemiec, R., Diego-Rosell, P., Lai, A. Y., Lee, M. T., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). The complex relationship between inner and outer peace: New global insights from the Gallup World Poll. Journal of Happiness Studies, 27(2), 21
- Lomas, T., Nilsson, A. H., Kjell, O., Niemiec, R., Pawelski, J. O., Padgett, R. N., Case, B., Cowden, R. G., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Differentiating balance and harmony through natural language analysis: A cross-national exploration of two understudied wellbeing-related concepts. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 21(1), 173–191
- Lomas, T., Padgett, R. N., Eichstaedt, J., Pawelski, J. O., Battle, K. E., Felton, C., Cowden, R. G., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Towards a data-driven and globally-informed framework of flourishing: A seven-factor model derived from factor-analysis of 38 indicators in the Gallup World Poll. Social Indicators Research, 181(2), 61–88
- Lomas, T., Padgett, R. N., Pawelski, J. O., Makridis, C. A., Lee, M. T., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). The prevalence and predictors of experiences of beauty in 22 countries: An international assessment of aesthetic appreciation in the Global Flourishing Study. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 21(2), 469–504
- Lomas, T., Padgett, R. N., Ritchie-Dunham, J. L., Cowden, R. G., Chung, C. A., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). The Global Flourishing Study national report card: A case study in comparative wellbeing assessment across 22 countries. Working paper
- Lomas, T., Padgett, R. N., Warren, M. A., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). A cross-sectional analysis of male versus female flourishing among 202,898 participants across 22 countries on 73 variables in the Global Flourishing Study. Scientific Reports, 16(1), 10166
- Vanney, C. E., Mesurado, B., Fitz Herbert, A. L., Lomas, T., Padgett, R. N., Case, B., Cowden, R. G., Chen, Y., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Flourishing in Argentina: Evidence from the Global Flourishing Study (GFS) across socioeconomic groups and levels of religiosity. International Journal of Wellbeing, 15(3), 22–45
- Kikut-Stein, A., Jesch, E., Dhawan, D., McCloud, R., & Viswanath, K. (2026). Does misinformation have spillover effects on unrelated health behaviors? Promising null results from a longitudinal study of US adults. Journal of Health Communication, 31(2–3), 77–89
- Cruz, J. L., Rosas, S. R., & Ramanadhan, S. (2026). Development of a practice-based skills measure for community-based organizations implementing evidence-based interventions to advance equity.Implementation Science Communications, 7(1), 6
- Kawachi, I., et al. (2026). Neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage from childhood to midlife and atherosclerotic SES. International Journal of Cardiology, 412, 134216
- Kawachi, I., et al. (2026). Participation in the House-Ball community as a social determinant of HIV care and prevention outcomes among transgender women of color. Social Science & Medicine, 347, 119035Koenen, K.C., et al. (2026). Neighborhood disadvantage and accelerated epigenetic aging in the early aftermath of trauma: The moderating role of individual psychological resources. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 199, 78–89
- Viswanath, K., et al. (2026). Organizational theory for hospital interventions. Pediatrics, 157(1), e2025071590
- Wilkinson, R., Shiba, K., Gibson, C. B., Okafor, C. N., Chen, Y., Padgett, R. N., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Strangers, friends, and everything between: Sociodemographic variation in social relationship quality across 22 countries. Social Indicators Research, 181(1), 11
- Yoshida, K., Goto, A., & Kawachi, I. (2026). Differences in assessing loneliness among Japanese older adults: A comparison of family physicians and nurses. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 15(6), 2255.
- Bonfim, C. B., Alves, F., Barreto, M. L., Patel, V., & Machado, D. B. (2026). Cash transfers and psychiatric hospitalization for at-risk populations in Brazil. JAMA Network Open, 9(4), e266571
- Bradshaw, M., Shiba, K., Jang, S. J., Kent, B. V., Bonhag, R., Johnson, B. R., Padgett, R. N., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Demographic variation in symptoms of depression and anxiety across 22 Global Flourishing Study countries. Communications Medicine, 6, 191
- Iyengar, S., Velleman, R., Singla, D. R., & Patel, V. (2026). Interventions to improve mental health help-seeking attitudes, intentions and behaviors: A systematic review of recent advances. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, 13, e183
- Patel, A., Cristofalo, D., Purgato, M., Singla, D. R., Barbui, C., & Patel, V. (2026). Treatment-specific elements of psychosocial interventions delivered by non-specialist providers for the treatment of common mental disorders: A three-tiered framework. Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy
- Patel, V., VanderWeele, T. J., et al. (2026). Development of a baseline battery to optimize depression treatment assignment in primary care: Balancing breadth and brevity. Journal of Affective Disorders, 405, 1–17, Article 121674
- Ratanatharathorn, A., Bryant, R. A., Kessler, R. C., Keyes, K. M., Matsuoka, Y., Neylan, T. C., Schnurr, P. P., Stein, M. B., Ursano, R. J., Yehuda, R., & Koenen, K. C. (2026). Individual participant data meta-analysis identifies risk factors for acute and persistent posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms following trauma. Depression and Anxiety, 43(1), e9859948
- VanderWeele, T. J., Johnson, B. R., Bradshaw, M., Goodman, D. M., Kubzansky, L. D., Lomas, T., Moreira-Almeida, A., Okafor, C. N., Ouyang, S. T., & Patel, V. (2026). Mental illness, mental health, and mental well-being. npj Mental Health Research, 5(11)
- Zhu, Y., Sampson, L., Farmer, J. G., Jha, S. C., Basu, A., Koenen, K. C., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2026). Caregiving responsibilities, living alone, and mental health among older women during a time of collective stress. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 81(5), gbag036
- Patel, V., et al.(2026). Assessing the effectiveness of a depression-integrated model in adult HIV care in Uganda (the HIV+D trial): A cluster-randomised controlled trial.The Lancet HIV, 13(2), e104–e115
- Blevins, E. J., Slopen, N., Koenen, K. C., Mikesell, C., & Basu, A. (2026). Perspectives on integrating biological assessments to address the health effects of childhood adversities. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 34(1), 44–5
- Bradshaw, M., Kent, B. V., Wortham, J. S., Le Pertel, N., VanderWeele, T. J., & Johnson, B. R. (2026). Childhood experiences and adult self-rated physical health in 22 countries. BMC Global and Public Health, 4(1), 22
- Jaen, J., Lamar, M., Lange-Maia, B. S., & Grodstein, F. (2026). Association of adverse childhood experiences and cognitive health in older adults: Rush Memory and Aging Project. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: Open Science, Education, and Practice (advance online publication)
- Jakubowski, K., Thomas, H. N., Gibson, C. J., Koenen, K. C., Maki, P. M., & Thurston, R. C. (2026). Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and sexual function among midlife women. Maturitas, 206, 108839
- Kim, E. S., Komura, T., & Shiba, K. (2026). Estimating the heterogeneous effect of life satisfaction on mortality: A causal machine-learning approach. Health Psychology, 45(6), 647–657
- Koenen, K.C., et al. (2026). Longitudinal microRNA expression changes associated with chronic musculoskeletal pain recovery following traumatic stress exposure are enriched in predicted regulation of axon guidance transcripts. The Journal of Pain, 41(Suppl.), article 105936
- Koenen, K.C., et al. (2026). Mapping the genetic landscape across 14 psychiatric disorders. Nature, 649, 406–415
- Koenen, K.C., et al. (2026). Post-traumatic stress disorder and adverse pregnancy outcomes: Sexual orientation disparities in a prospective cohort study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 26, 378
- Koenen, K.C., et al. (2026). Trans-ancestry GWAS of hot flashes reveals potent treatment target and overlap with psychiatric disorders. Communications Medicine, 6, 77
- Maukel, L. M., Tulloch, H., & Trudel-Fitzgerald, C. (2026). Affect regulation and cardiac rehabilitation: Common strategies, their impact on cardiovascular health, and opportunities for intervention. Cardiology Clinics, 44(2), 221–232
- Podber, N., & Gruenewald, T. L. (2026). Positive life experiences and physical health: Associations and mediating pathways. Journal of Health Psychology, 31(1), 131–154
- Soh, Y., Jones, R. N., Aris, I. M., Kawachi, I., & Tiemeier, H. (2026). Dyadic associations of depressive symptoms and cardiovascular health trajectories in middle-aged and older couples. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (advance online publication)
- Stevenson, A., Nguyen, C. M., Bortz, M., Hosking, C. R., Kitafuna, B. K., Sheehan, D. A., Smith, A., Whitman, A., Zingela, Z., & Koenen, K. C. (2026). Centering lived experience within psychiatric genetic and genomic research at the National Institute of Mental Health. Nature Mental Health, 4, 313–315
- Todd, B., Foldes-Busque, G., Way, K. L., Le, K. D. R., Alvarenga, M., Celano, C. M., Huffman, J. C., & Tully, P. J. (2026). The prevalence of panic disorder in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression. Systematic Reviews, 15, 93
- Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., Chen, L., McGrath, C. B., Qureshi, F., Huang, T., Jackson, C. L., Sofer, T., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2026). Emotion regulation and favorable cardiovascular health among women. Biopsychosocial Medicine, 88(1), 71–82
- Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., Smith, S. G., Zhang, S., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2026). Disrupting the path to cardiovascular disease: Stress-related coping and onset of hypertension and obesity. Social Science & Medicine, 349, 119213
- Wang, C., Uddin, M., Wani, A., Graham, Z., Ratanatharathorn, A., Aiello, A. E., Koenen, K., Maggio, M., & Wildman, D. E. (2026). The relationship between social adversity, micro-RNA expression and post-traumatic stress in a prospective, community-based cohort. Nature Mental Health, 4, 416–426
- Wilkinson, R., Nakamura, J. S., Cowden, R. G., Long, K. N. G., Koh, H. K., Byrne, T. H., Molinsky, J. H., Kim, E. S., VanderWeele, T. J., & Tsai, J. (2026). Housing distress and subsequent health and well-being among older adults: An outcome-wide longitudinal approach. SSM–Population Health, 33, 101900
- Yee, J., Oakes, E. G., Santacroce, L., Choi, M. Y., Karlson, E. W., Koenen, K., Kubzansky, L. D., Cui, J., Feldman, C. H., & Costenbader, K. H. (2026). Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder in association with cardiovascular disease among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis in the All of Us Research Program. Clinical Rheumatology, 45(2), 791–801
- Anderson, T. S., Kraemer, K. M., McCann, M. L., Wang, B. X., Lindenberg, J. H., Schwartz, J., & Tjia, J. (2026). Pharmacist-led taper with brief mindfulness-informed cognitive behavioral therapy for benzodiazepine deprescribing in older adults: A pilot trial.Journal of General Internal Medicine, 1–12
- Chen, Y., Kim, E. S., Nakamura, J. S., Lomas, T., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). The prospective association between mindfulness and flourishing in mid-to-late life. Aging & Mental Health, 1–11
- Garnsey, C. L., Gnall, K. E., Wilt, J. A., Park, C. L., & Lazar, S. (2026). Self-compassion and interoceptive awareness as mechanisms of change in yoga for emotional well-being: A secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 66, 102619
- Muñoz‑Vergara, D., Ma, Y., Yang, E. M., Park, S. J., Burton, W. M., Kim, E., Manson, J. E., Yeh, G. Y., Wayne, P. M., & Sesso, H. D. (2026). Use of complementary health approaches and research interests among older adults in the COSMOS trial. The American Journal of Medicine. Advance online publication.
- Yeh, G. Y., Wayne, P. M., & Mehta, D. (2026). Inside the gut–mind connection: Mind–body medicine meets the microbiome revolution. Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine. Advance online publication.
- Stenlund, S., Koga, H. K., James, P., Farmer, J., McGrath, C. B., Grodstein, F., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2026). The bright side of life: Optimism and risk of dementia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
- Huffman, J. C., et al. (2026). A pilot randomized clinical trial of a peer support intervention for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Blood Advances. Advance online publication.
- Nilsson, A. H., Kajonius, P. J., Kjell, O., Dahlen, M., Schwartz, H. A., Case, B., Cowden, R. G., Padgett, R. N., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Swedish well-being: The rising importance of age among demographic, personality, and social relationship factors. SSM–Population Health, 33, 101913
- Wilkinson, R., Kim, E. S., Chen, Y., Holt-Lunstad, J., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Adolescence in social context: Longitudinal associations of 15 social factors with health and well-being. Social Science & Medicine, 350, 118993
- de la Rosa Fernández-Pacheco, P. A., Wilkinson, R., Cowden, R. G., Chen, Y., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Adolescent screen use in the pre-internet era and subsequent health and well-being: An outcome-wide longitudinal study. Current Psychology, 45, 657
- Kawachi, I., et al. (2026). Interpersonal conflicts, social media use and depression associated with protests. Nature Medicine, 1–7
- Koh, H. K., Frederick, D. E., Balboni, T. A., O’Reilly, S. M., Kelly, J. F., Humphreys, K., Botticelli, M., Mathur, M. B., Psimopoulos, C. S., Long, K. N. G., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Spirituality and harmful or hazardous alcohol and other drug use: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. JAMA Psychiatry, 83(4), 363–378
- Lin, L., & Viswanath, K. (2026). How religion shapes health and wellbeing. Nature Health, 1–3
- Banister, G., Fioroni, T., Miranda, I., Finley, W., Jones, D. A., Sylvia, L. G., & Park, E. R. (2026). Understanding and addressing the importance of wellbeing within Federally Qualified Health Centers who serve underrepresented communities.Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 1–18
- Kawachi, I. (2026). Inclusive occupational health: Advancing well-being from epidemiology to green transformation. Journal of UOEH, 48(S_1), 5
- Lara, E. I., Bond, L., O’Neill, K., Ruiz, E., & Patel, V. (2026). “Peer with a P versus a p”: A mixed-methods study of peer support training, service delivery, and supervision across global contexts. PLOS Mental Health, 1(2), e0000042
- Mordukhovich, I., Staffa, S. J., Cowden, R. G., Weziak-Bialowolska, D., VanderWeele, T. J., Coull, B., & McNeely, E. (2026). The impact of workplace sexual harassment on health and quality of life outcomes among flight attendants: A two-wave longitudinal study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 1–14
- Peters, S. E., Neidlinger, S. M., Alahmad, B., & Wagner, G. R. (2026). Healthy work, healthy heart? The role of job characteristics in promoting heart health. Cardiology Clinics, 44(2), 179–191
- Stelson, E. A., Sabbath, E. L., Chen, L., Sorensen, G., Berkman, L., Moallef, S., & Buxton, O. M. (2026). The Vicarious Occupational Trauma Exposure (VOTE) Index: Development and validation with a substance use disorder workforce. Traumatology