Dining With More People, Gaining Greater Well-Being: Association Between Co-Dining Networks And The Flourishing Trait

Understanding the association between social connections and individual psychological traits is critical for educational administrators. Currently, many relevant studies rely heavily on online questionnaires, web-scraped media data, and self-reported surveys, while analysis of the relationship between offline social networks and mental health status remains scarce. By leveraging a public dataset encompassing on-campus dining activities over 21 weeks, we construct student co-dining networks and track the temporal changes of network topology over time. Empirical analysis reveals that the node centrality in the co-dining networks exhibits a significant positive correlation with the improvement in the flourishing trait–a core construct in positive mental well-being. Furthermore, we find that students with more connections in the network often show greater improvement in the flourishing trait. Our findings offer potential guidance to assist students in maintaining positive mental health.