Dissertation Title: Perceptions of Happiness and Mental Resilience Across Diverse Life Contexts: A Qualitative Thematic Study
Research Methodology: Qualitative interpretivist methodology using thematic analysis
Research Design: Exploratory cross-sectional qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews
Abstract
Background: Understanding how people connect personal happiness with mental resilience is central to contemporary mental health promotion. While the literature recognises the critical role of mental health in overall wellbeing, there is still limited insight into how individuals experience and interpret the relationship between happiness and resilience across different cultural and life contexts. This gap is particularly salient in situations involving cultural transitions, shifting identities, and varied social support networks.
Aim: This study explores how individuals perceive the relationship between personal happiness and mental resilience within diverse life contexts. It seeks to clarify how cultural adjustment, everyday stressors, and social relationships shape subjective experiences of happiness, coping, and psychological strength.
Methods: Using purposive sampling, three participants (Richard, Shivani, and John) from differing demographic and cultural backgrounds were recruited for in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis approach, allowing the identification of patterned meanings within the narratives. The analytic process involved iterative coding, theme development, and review. Reflexive journaling was used throughout to acknowledge and manage researcher assumptions, and inter-coder reliability checks were undertaken to enhance the credibility and consistency of coding and theme interpretation.
Results: Three overarching themes were generated. Experiences of living in a different country to the one you grew up in captured the psychological and cultural challenges of relocation, including identity negotiation, value conflicts, and opportunities for personal growth. Experiences of personal happiness and mental resilience highlighted the role of positive emotions, optimism, gratitude, and cognitive reframing in sustaining wellbeing during uncertainty. The role of social support in enhancing mental resilience demonstrated how supportive relationships, affirmation, and a sense of belonging buffered stress and reinforced coping capacities. Together, these themes illustrated that happiness and resilience are dynamic, context-dependent processes shaped by culture, life transitions, and social networks.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that happiness cannot be separated from mental resilience, cultural context, and relational environments. Positive emotions, adaptive mindsets, and robust social support emerged as key drivers of resilience across diverse life situations. The study underscores the need for culturally sensitive, strengths-based interventions that foreground social connectedness, meaning-making, and everyday resilience-building strategies in promoting mental health and subjective wellbeing.