Fear of Happiness and Its Correlates with Gender, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Perceived Stress among Medical Graduate Students in India

Introduction: Fear of happiness is the belief that happiness may have negative consequences and hence, should be avoided. While western societies take the pursuit of happiness to be a universal trait, empirical evidence suggests this assumption may not hold true for other cultures, especially in the east. We aim to study fear of happiness among medical graduate students and its correlates with gender, adverse childhood experiences and perceived stress. Methodology: 116 medical graduate students were asked to fill a questionnaire that included Fear of happiness scale (FHS), questions from Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire, and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Data was analysed using Chi-squared test to study gender differences in childhood adverse experiences, Student’s t-test to compare gender differences in PSS score, and in FHS score. Pearson correlation analysis was used to study association of childhood adverse experiences and perceived stress with fear of happiness. Results: All forms of childhood adverse experiences were seen to be significantly greater in women, with the exception of physical neglect, while PSS scores were similar in both. There was no difference between the two genders on FHS total scores or in any of its sub-categories.  Conclusion: Fear of happiness in our sample does not seem to differ between genders, nor do history of adverse childhood experiences or perceived stress seem to correlate with it. Fear of happiness may have more to do with how cultures and societies perceive the attainment and expression of happiness, rather than individual trauma or stress.