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Mental health is not simply the absence of mental illness, it is also comprised of mental wellbeing. We know very little about the underlying mechanisms of mental wellbeing relative to mental illness. Similarly, we know very little about the underlying mechanisms that contribute towards resilience to stress and adversity. This project led by A/Prof Justine Gatt aims to identify the underlying markers of wellbeing in various cohorts, including a prospective cohort of 1,600 healthy adult twins from the TWIN‑E Study. Follow-up data over 12 years was established in this twin sample in the extended TWIN-10 Study.
Mental wellbeing is measured using the 26-item COMPAS‑W Wellbeing Scale (Gatt et al., 2014, Psychiatry Research) which we have validated in adults and adolescents. What differentiates this wellbeing scale from many others is that it provides a “composite” measure of wellbeing; that is, a measure of both subjective (hedonia) and psychological (eudaimonia) wellbeing, whereas most other scales measure only one component. The COMPAS‑W scale can be used to calculate total wellbeing, as well as subscale measures of composure, own-worth, mastery, positivity, achievement and satisfaction. Twin modelling was conducted on the scale and heritability (genetic variability) was confirmed to be 48%. Subsequent studies have used the COMPAS‑W scale to establish novel genetic, psychological, cognitive, and neural mechanisms of wellbeing using EEG and MRI in different samples.
Team Members & Collaborators
A/Prof Justine Gatt is leading this project.
Grant Funding
This project was supported by NHMRC Project Grant funding awarded to A/Prof Justine Gatt (APP1122816, 2017 – 2021), NHMRC Career Development Fellowship awarded to A/Prof Justine Gatt (APP1062495, 2014 – 2017), a Commonwealth Health Minister’s Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research awarded to A/Prof Justine Gatt ($50,000, 2014 – 2017), and a past ARC Linkage Grant (LP0883621, 2008 – 2011, Williams, Schofield, Harris and Clark, Gatt), which included an ARC Linkage Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to A/Prof Justine Gatt.
This project is still ongoing.
Publications
(1) Book chapters and reviews:
Egan LA, Park HRP, Gatt JM. (2024). Resilience to stress and trauma: narrative review of neuroimaging research. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 58: 101408. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154624000597
Egan LA, Park HRP, Lam J, Gatt JM. (2024). Resilience to stress and adversity: a narrative review of the role of positive affect. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 17, 2011 – 2038. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S391403
Gatt JM (2024). Neuroscience and happiness. Chapter 5. In: Brockmann H and Fernandez-Urbano R. Eds. Encyclopedia on Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Well-being. Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800889675
Alexander, R., Aragon, O.R., Bookwala, J., Cherbuin, N., Gatt, J.M., Kahrilas, I.J., Kästner, N., Lawrence, A., Lowe, L., Morrison, R.G., Mueller, S.C., Nusslock, R., Papadelis, C., Polnaszek, K.L., Richter, S.H., Silton, R.L., & Styliadis, C. (2021). The neuroscience of positive emotions and affect: Implications for cultivating happiness and wellbeing. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 121, 220 – 249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.12.002
Gatt JM (2020). The neuroscience of wellbeing: Part 1, Chapter 37. In: Cohen L. Ed. The Wiley Encyclopedia of Health Psychology. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, p. 325 – 330. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119057840.ch37
Gatt JM (2020). The neuroscience of wellbeing: Part 2, Chapter 41. In: Cohen L. Ed. The Wiley Encyclopedia of Health Psychology. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, p. 361 – 372. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119057840.ch41
Alexander R and Gatt JM (2019). Resilience, Chapter 20. In: Miu AC, Homberg JR, Lesch K‑P. Eds. Genes, Brain and Emotions: Interdisciplinary and Translational Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 286 – 303. ISBN: 9780198793014.
(2) COMPAS‑W development and validation papers:
Lam J, Park HRP, Gatt JM. (2024). Measuring mental wellbeing in clinical and non-clinical adolescents using the COMPAS‑W Wellbeing Scale. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15: 1333828. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1333828
Gatt JM, Alexander R, Emond A, Foster K, Hadfield K, Mason-Jones A, Reid S, Theron L, Ungar M, Wouldes T, Wu Q. (2020). Trauma, resilience and mental health in migrant and non-migrant youth: An international cross-sectional study across six countries. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, Article 997. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00997
Gatt JM, Burton KLO, Schofield PR, Bryant RA, Williams LM. (2014). The heritability of mental health and wellbeing defined using COMPAS‑W, a new composite measure of wellbeing. Psychiatry Research, 219 (1), 204 – 213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.04.033
(3) Research papers using the COMPAS‑W Scale:
Lam J, Park HRP, Gatt JM. (2024). Measuring mental wellbeing in clinical and non-clinical adolescents using the COMPAS‑W Wellbeing Scale. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15: 1333828. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1333828
Chilver MR, Champaigne-Klassen E, Schofield PR, Williams LM, Gatt JM. (2023). Predicting wellbeing over one year using sociodemographic factors, personality, health behaviours, cognition, and life events. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023 – 32588‑3
Sacks DD, Schwenn PE, Boyes A, Mills L, Driver C, Gatt JM, Lagopoulos J, Hermens DF (2023). Longitudinal associations between resting-state, interregional theta-beta phase-amplitude coupling, psychological distress, and wellbeing in 12 – 15-year-old adolescents. Cerebral Cortex, 33(12): 8066 – 8074. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhad099
Jamshidi J, Park HRP, Montalto A, Fullerton JM, & Gatt JM. (2022). Wellbeing and brain structure: A comprehensive phenotypic and genetic study of image-derived phenotypes in the UK Biobank. Human Brain Mapping, 43(17): 5180 – 5193. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25993
Jamshidi J, Schofield PR, Gatt JM*, Fullerton JM* (*equal senior authors). (2022). Phenotypic and genetic analysis of a wellbeing factor score in the UK Biobank and the impact of childhood maltreatment and psychiatric illness. Translational Psychiatry, 12, 113. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022 – 01874‑5
Park HRP, Quide Y, Schofield PR, Williams LM, Gatt JM. (2022). Grey matter covariation and the role of emotion reappraisal in mental wellbeing and resilience after early life stress exposure. Translational Psychiatry, 12, 85. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022 – 01849‑6
Montalto A, Park HRP, Williams LM, Korgaonkar MS, Chilver MR, Jamshidi J, Schofield PR, Gatt JM. (2022). Negative association between anterior insula activation and resilience during sustained attention: an fMRI twin study. Psychological Medicine. pp 1 – 13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033291721005262
Chilver MR, Park HRP, Schofield PR, Clark CR, Williams LM, Gatt JM. (2022). Emotional face processing correlates with depression/anxiety symptoms but not wellbeing in non-clinical adults: An event-related potential study. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 145, 18 – 26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.11.038
Egan L, Mulcahy M, Tuqiri K, Gatt JM. (2022). The Thrive online wellbeing program for healthcare workers: Protocol for a randomised controlled trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 11(4): e34005. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/34005
Boyes A, McLoughlin LT, Anderson H, Schwenn P, Shan Z, Gatt JM, Lagopoulos J, Hermens DF. (2022). Basal ganglia correlates of wellbeing in early adolescence. Brain Research, 1774, pp 147710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147710
Chilver MR and Gatt JM. (2021). Six-week online multi-component positive psychology intervention improves subjective wellbeing in young adults. Journal of Happiness Studies, Sep 5, 1 – 22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021 – 00449‑3
Gatt JM, Burton KLO, Schofield PR, Bryant RA, Williams LM. (2021). Corrigendum to ‘The heritability of mental health and wellbeing defined using COMPAS‑W, a new composite measure of wellbeing’: Psychiatry Research, 219 (2014), 204 – 213. Psychiatry Research, 304. 114141. Accepted 24th July 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2021.114141
Park HRP, Chilver MR, Montalto A, Jamshidi J, Schofield PR, Williams LM, Gatt JM. (2021). Associations between mental wellbeing and fMRI neural bases underlying responses to positive emotion in a twin sample. Psychological Medicine, 1 – 9. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721002695
Cheng P, Park HRP, Gatt JM (2021). Approach coping mitigates psychological distress of COVID-19 isolation for young men with low wellbeing in a sample of 1749 youth from Australia and the USA. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 634925. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.634925
Routledge KM, Williams LM, Harris AWF, Schofield PR, Gatt JM. (2021). The impact of online brain training exercises on experiences of depression, anxiety and emotional wellbeing in a twin sample. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 134, 138 – 149. https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0022-3956(20)31162 – 6
Jamshidi J, Williams LM, Schofield PR, Park H, Montalto A, Chilver M, Bryant R, Toma C, Fullerton J, Gatt JM. (2020). Diverse phenotypic measurements of wellbeing: Heritability, temporal stability, and the variance explained by polygenic scores. Genes, Brain and Behavior, 19 (8), e12694. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12694
Chilver MR, Keller AS, Park H, Jamshidi J, Montalto A, Schofield PR, Clark CR, Harmon-Jones E, Williams LM, Gatt JM. (2020). Electroencephalography profiles as a biomarker of wellbeing: A twin study. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 126: 114 – 121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.04.010
Gatt JM, Alexander R, Emond A, Foster K, Hadfield K, Mason-Jones A, Reid S, Theron L, Ungar M, Wouldes T, Wu Q. (2020). Trauma, resilience and mental health in migrant and non-migrant youth: An international cross-sectional study across six countries. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, Article 997. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00997
Gatt JM, Burton KLO, Routledge KM, Grasby KL, Korgaonkar MS, Grieve SM, Schofield PR, Harris AWF, Clark CR, Williams LM. (2018). A negative association between brainstem pontine gray matter volume, wellbeing and resilience in healthy twins. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Jun 20; 43(6): 386 – 395. DOI: 10.1038/tp.2017.204
Routledge KM, Williams LM, Harris AWF, Schofield PR, Clark CR, Gatt JM. (2018). Genetic correlations between wellbeing, depression and anxiety symptoms and behavioral responses to the emotional faces task in healthy twins. Psychiatry Research, 264, 385 – 393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.03.042
Routledge KM, Burton KLO, Williams LM, Harris A, Schofield PR, Clark CR, Gatt JM. (2017). The shared and unique genetic relationship between mental wellbeing, depression and anxiety symptoms and cognitive function in healthy twins. Cognition and Emotion, 31(7), 1465 – 1479. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2016.1232242
Routledge KM, Burton KLO, Williams LM, Harris A, Schofield PR, Clark CR, Gatt JM. (2016). Shared versus distinct genetic contributions of mental wellbeing with depression and anxiety symptoms in healthy twins. Psychiatry Research, 244, 65 – 70. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2016.07.016
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