Wellness

Does more money correlate with greater happiness?

Reconciling previously contradictory results, researchers from Penn and Princeton find a steady association between larger incomes and greater happiness for most people but a rise and plateau for an unhappy minority.

Michele W. Berger

Taking play seriously at the Penn Libraries

The Penn Libraries’ Education Commons and Vitale Digital Media Lab facilitate and support play through planned activities and in response to student requests, with an ultimate goal to benefit student wellness.

From Penn Libraries

Penn prof pens guidebook for college students

Dustin Brisson of the School of Arts & Sciences consolidated notes from his years of teaching and advising to create a guidebook for undergraduates aimed at helping them achieve success and well-being.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Fostering a therapy dog means welcoming strangers and petting

Foster families and therapy dogs in training learn their roles together. Studies show pet therapy in hospitals significantly decreases pain, calms breathing, and boosts mood and perceived energy levels in patients.

From Penn Medicine News

Abandoned house repairs reduced nearby gun violence

Installing working windows and doors, cleaning trash, and weeding at abandoned houses led to safety improvements and should be considered in efforts to create healthy communities, according to researchers from University of Pennsylvania and Columbia.

Kelsey Geesler



In the News


The Washington Post

The less college students sleep, the worse their grades, study finds

Two hundred Penn students and staff participating in a seven-week online course to build better sleep habits have reported an overall decrease in symptoms of insomnia, according to Rebecca Huxta of Wellness at Penn.

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Inside Higher Ed

New on the job: Penn director of well-being initiatives creates tools for success

As Wellness at Penn’s inaugural director of well-being initiatives, doctoral candidate Jackie Recktenwald of the Graduate School of Education is looking to improve student health and wellness across campus.

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The New York Times

The foods that keep you hydrated

Dan Negoianu of the Perelman School of Medicine says there’s really no data behind the eight-glasses-of-water-a-day advice.

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WHYY (Philadelphia)

Penn researchers find mental health benefits in visiting museums, including reduced anxiety

Katherine Cotter and James Pawelski of the School of Arts & Sciences are quoted on their work showing that visiting a museum can have measurable mental health benefits.

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The Washington Post

No, you don’t need a detox juice cleanse. Here’s why

Nitin Ahuja of the Perelman School of Medicine weighed in on detox diets. “In general, the idea that you would need to actively remove by-products of digested food in a normal gastrointestinal system is false,” he said.

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USA Today

5 things you and your college-bound daughter need to know about campus sexual assault

Susan Sorenson of the School of Social Policy & Practice wrote an opinion piece about how parents can talk to their daughters about avoiding and/or surviving campus sexual assault. “If this conversation makes you uncomfortable now, imagine what it would be like to talk to her after a sexual assault,” she wrote.

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