February 2025
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Applied Psychology Health and Well-Being
This pre‐registered study examines the longitudinal relationships between well‐being, hair cortisol (a biomarker linked to poor health), and self‐reported health. Accumulated cortisol output over three months was determined quarterly over the course of one year using hair samples. Well‐being was assessed as affective well‐being (via experience sampling), cognitive well‐being (i.e., life satisfaction), and eudaimonic well‐being (via the Ryff Scales of Psychological Well‐Being). Self‐reported health was measured using one item on the current state of health. The longitudinal analyses allowed for disentangling initial between‐person differences from within‐person changes and were based on a large panel study of working‐age people (N = 726). The results indicate that hair cortisol levels were generally not associated with any of the examined well‐being facets, regardless of the level of analysis. Further, deviations from well‐being trait levels were not linked to subsequent within‐person changes in hair cortisol (and vice versa), challenging the notion that cortisol output is a key physiological pathway through which well‐being improves health. In contrast, self‐reported health was positively correlated with affective, cognitive, and eudaimonic well‐being at both the trait and within‐person levels, whereas deviations from well‐being trait levels were generally not associated with subsequent within‐person changes in self‐reported health, and vice versa.