This report describes a groundbreaking military-civilian collaboration that benefits from an Army and Department of Defense (DoD big data business intelligence platform called the Person-Event Data Environment (PDE). The PDE - a consolidated data repository that contains unclassified but sensitive manpower, training, financial, health, and medical records covering U.S.
Martin Seligman's multidimensional theory of psychological well-being, PERMA (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment), was empirically tested on a sample of Australian male students (age 13-18). Researchers selected a subset of theoretically relevant items from an extensive well-being assessment. Four of the fiver PERMA elements emerged from a factor analysis, along with two ill-being factors.
While low levels of negative emotion or high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness are predictors of long-term survival in men and women, being both fit and not unhappy provides a strong combined effect, reducing premature death by 63 percent, according to this study.