‘I just don’t know what to eat!’ is a frequent statement from people seeking nutrition support. With a magnitude of information available, confusion and limited confidence is a common complaint. People face myriad challenges in their attempts to have a healthy diet, including cost and time constraints, challenging food environments, and limited knowledge and skills(1). Challenges about eating well are often raised, yet enablers to eating well are not as readily discussed. Intention for healthy behaviours, self-efficacy and social support are examples of favourable elements which support healthy diets(1,2). As such, existing knowledge, skills, and positive influences should also be considered. As part of a wider qualitative study, and using an interpretive description approach, we sought to identify enablers to healthy eating perceived by people engaged with Green Prescription (GRx) and Active Families programmes. Nineteen clients aged 18 years and over, engaged with six GRx services were interviewed between May and October 2023. Eighteen whānau (family) members, (19-53 years) attending Active Families sessions facilitated in the Waitematā area participated in focus group discussions during May-August 2024. Participants were asked in these discussions (kōrero) to share what helps them and their whānau to eat well. Braun and Clarke’s(3) thematic analysis approach was used to analyse responses from these kōrero through data familiarisation, coding, and cyclical review of thematic relationships. Several themes were identified in this analysis: ‘confidence in personal skills,’ ‘supportive environments’, and ‘being open and willing’. Personal skills such as planning meals, managing household budget and efforts to procure ‘good’ food were identified as strengths. These wider food skills have been suggested as potentially more important to enhancing dietary behaviours than cooking skills(4). Participants relayed experiences of developing skills that improved their confidence in eating well including growing, gathering and preserving food, experimenting with recipes, and knowing where to find affordable, nutritious food. Environments where people learned food and cooking skills and household members supported their endeavours to eat well were described as influential to encourage people in their efforts. Participants also expressed that being open to trying new foods and ways of eating led to inspiration and new knowledge. This attitude resulted in increased variety in the diet and further enhanced confidence to seek recipes and food information and spurred on efforts to make changes. People who have sought nutrition advice have often expressed challenges and uncertainty impacting their efforts to eat well. Nevertheless, there are also strengths which have meaningful impact on their eating. In nutrition advice provision, it would be beneficial to thoroughly explore the strengths people exhibit to support healthy eating. Identifying these insights may powerfully effect people’s confidence to eat well and identify more effective support and information provision.

Modern careers are enacted in turbulent and stressful environments and workers face increasing uncertainty in navigating their careers. Therefore, it is essential to support workers in coping with stress by enhancing their resilience. We propose that strengths-based leaders help their workers to find their own unique pathway to developing resilience by building upon their pre-existing strengths. In turn, we propose that resilience allows workers to transform the support and opportunities provided by their strengths-based leader into the active state of work engagement. We conducted a two-wave time-lagged survey among a representative sample of 1,095 Dutch employees. Results of our structural equation modelling indicated that T1 strengths-based leadership was positively related to T2 employee work engagement and that T2 employee resilience mediated the relationship between strengths-based leadership (T1) and employee work engagement (T2). We conclude that strengths-based leadership might be a tool to develop a resilient and engaged workforce and make suggestions for developing strengths-based leadership.

The present work sought to confirm the factor structure and examine longitudinal strengths-based and mental health correlates of the dysregulation profile (DP) in children of at-risk fragile families of diverse ethnoracial backgrounds. The data came from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2125 families). Mothers (Mage = 25.3) were mostly unmarried (74.6%), and children (51.4% boys) were identified as Black (47.0%), Hispanic (21.4%), White (16.7%), or multiracial or other backgrounds. Childhood DP was constructed using mother reports of the Child Behavior Checklist at age 9. Mothers’ in-home parent–child interactions and depressive symptoms were assessed at child age 5. At age 15, children responded about their own mental health, social skills, and other strengths-focused outcomes. A bifactor DP structure fit well to the data, with the DP factor representing difficulties in self-regulation. Using SEM, we found that mothers who were more depressed and used less warm parenting at child age 5 had children who presented with higher DP at age 9. DP was in turn associated with less social skills, perseverance, optimism, and more anxiety, depression, and impulsivity at adolescence. Childhood DP appears to be relevant and applicable for at-risk, diverse families, and may also impede on children’s future positive functioning.

Children who have experienced maltreatment are more likely to have disrupted attachments, fewer psychosocial strengths, and poorer long-term psychosocial outcomes. However, few studies have examined the interplay between attachment security and psychosocial strengths among children involved in therapeutic services in the context of the child welfare system. The present longitudinal study examines the insecure attachment behaviors and psychosocial strengths of 555 children referred to the Therapeutic Family Care program (TFCP) in Cobourg, Ontario between 2000 and 2019. The children were assessed by their caregivers on a regular basis using the Assessment Checklist for Children (ACC) and the complementary strengths-focused ACC+ measure. Average age of children at baseline was 9.57 years (SD = 3.51) and 229 (41.26%) were female. We conducted growth curve and random intercepts cross-lagged panel models to test the longitudinal interplay between insecure attachment behaviors and strengths. Results suggest that females’ attachment security improved, males’ attachment security worsened, and both males and females developed strengths over time. Further, analyses revealed a directional effect, whereby fewer insecure attachment behaviors predicted more psychosocial strengths approximately 6 months later. Implications for attachment-oriented and strengths-based services in the context of child welfare are discussed.

This study examined the qualitative differences between the types of strengths identified by satisfied versus distressed couples seeking a Marriage Checkup. We hypothesised that distressed couples would nominate less intimate strengths, while satisfied couples would nominate more intimate strengths. We found that distressed partners were significantly more likely to nominate items from a Parallel Support category, whereas satisfied women, but not men, were significantly more likely to nominate items from an Intimate/Affectionate category. These findings suggest that an indicator of developing couple distress is the point where couples begin to focus their attention on less emotionally vulnerable relationship aspects.

Background: Interventions focusing on positive experiences have moderate effects on distress, protective factors and quality of life. Aims: To evaluate the ‘Personal Model of Resilience’ (PMR) intervention by Padesky and Mooney (2012) with a focus on resilience strategies the person already possesses. Method: In a pre–post design, intervention and control samples of college students (n = 53) are compared with regard to distress, protective factors and quality of life. Results: Compared with the control group, the PMR group shows significant improvements in distress, protective factors and quality of life with medium to large effect sizes. Conclusions: The PMR is a promising intervention module. It requires further evaluation in clinical contexts, with larger samples, and long-term follow-up assessments.

The greatest challenge for agriculture is to reduce the trade-offs between productivity and long-term sustainability. Therefore, it is interesting to analyse organic agriculture which is a given set of farm practices that emphasise ecological sustainability. Organic agriculture can be characterised as being less driven by off-farm inputs and being better embedded in ecosystem functions. The literature on public goods and non-commodity outputs of organic farms is overwhelming. Most publications address the positive effects of organic farming on soil fertility, biodiversity maintenance and protection of the natural resources of soil, water and air. As a consequence of focusing on public goods, organic agriculture is less productive. Meta-analyses show that organic agriculture yields range between 0·75 and 0·8 of conventional agriculture. Best practice examples from disadvantaged sites and climate conditions show equal or, in the case of subsistence farming in Sub-Saharan Africa, higher productivity of organic agriculture. Hence, organic agriculture is likely to be a good model for productive and sustainable food production. Underfunding in R&D addressing specific bottlenecks of organic agriculture are the main cause for both crop and livestock yield gaps. Therefore, the potential for improving the performance of organic agriculture through agricultural research is huge. Although organic farming is a niche in most countries, it is at the verge of becoming mainstream in leading European countries. Consumer demand has grown over the past two decades and does not seem to be a limiting factor for the future development of organic agriculture.

This planning study was designed and conducted in a predominantly rural Canadian province to examine the strengths and learning needs of four categories of nursing staff practising in New Brunswick nursing homes. Participants included directors of care, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and resident attendants. The nursing homes ranged in size from 38 to 196 beds and were located throughout the province. In health and planning studies, ethnography conveys a coherent statement of peoples' local knowledge as culture-sharing groups (Muecke, 1994). The study derived information from the Nursing Home Act, reports, the literature, key informants, and direct observations of and interviews with participants. Leadership strengths defined the roles for categories of staff and supported the capacity of each category to identify their learning needs. In conclusion, nurses practising in nursing homes can and must take an active role in decision making for their learning.

In 1998, a review for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (the predecessor of the Food Standards Agency) was published evaluating the relative merits of different dietary assessment methods against a series of factors likely to affect compliance or accuracy in low-income households. The review informed the design of a method comparison study carried out in London, UK, in 2001, in which the validity and acceptability of 4 d dietary assessment methods based on 24 h recalls, food checklists and a semi-weighed method were compared with 4 d weighed inventories and other reference measures. Results were based on observations in 384 respondents (159 males, 225 females) aged 2–90 years in 240 households. Outcomes of the comparison study included evaluations of each method made by respondents, interviewers and researchers. These findings were used in the present paper to update and extend the 1998 review. Additional factors not included in the 1998 review have been considered. This updated and extended review provides the basis for discussion of the relative merits of approaches to dietary assessment in low-income households in developed economies. The evidence presented here and elsewhere suggests that the 24 h recall is the method best suited for dietary assessment in low-income households, followed by the weighed inventory, food checklist and lastly the semi-weighed method.