The Skill of Positive Solitude Moderates the Relationship between 24 Character Strengths and Flourishing in the Second Half of Life

Response to Reviewer 1  Comments

1. Summary

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted in the re-submitted files

Point-by-point response to comments

Comments 1: "This paper explores the correlation between the so-called mindset of "positive solitude" and the 24-character strengths which might provide a sense of well-being later in life as objective circumstances bring forth in the case of most people increased time spent alone. The study is ambitious and has high standards - and could significantly contribute to scholarship provided that the language employed in describing and analyzing the data, the facts, the work hypotheses, the interpretation and the conclusions is substantially improved. See attached file for some general suggestions in particular repetitions which could be replaced with synonyms or rephrasing."

Response 1: We appreciate the reviewer’s suggestion and made the appropriate changes according to this comment.

Regarding language improvements, we have made significant changes to enhance the clarity and readability of the text. We have conducted thorough proofreading to address your concerns. Individual words and paragraphs containing errors have been corrected [ see revised manuscript, introductions lines 31,57-60,61-62, 72-83,89-95, 272-289,290-304].

Moreover, the specific changes made following your suggestions are detailed as the following:

a)     Please reformulate this sentence." This includes challenges of shrinking social relations and being by yourself in old age, while using your personal strengths"

Response 1: a. Thank you for pointing this out. We have revised the sentence as follows: " This includes the challenges of diminished social connections and the experience of solitude in later life while leveraging personal strengths " [revised manuscript, abstract, lines 10-11]

b)     Why are the different fonts? (Regarding manuscript lines: 42-44, 47-49, and line 249 title of table 2) 

Response 1: b. Regarding the manuscript's formatting, we apologize for the font inconsistencies in the submitted version. The unintentional changes occurred while switching the document from one format to another in alignment with the journal's guidelines. Unfortunately, some lines retained the original font without our noticing, and we appreciate your bringing this to our attention. We have thoroughly reviewed the entire manuscript and made the necessary corrections to ensure uniformity in the font and formatting throughout the manuscript.

c)      Repetitions could be replaced with synonyms or rephrasing

Response 1: c. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We appreciate your feedback and agree with your observations. We have made the following revisions to remove repetitions and enhance the manuscript's clarity:

• The term "meaningful" has been replaced with "significant" and "valuable."
• The word "moreover" has been substituted with "in addition."
• The conjunctions "and" have been replaced with "nonetheless" and "nevertheless."

Please refer to the revised manuscript for specific changes on lines 38, 44, 102, 108, 125, and 127.

d)     Specify geographical area (line 156)

Response 1: d. We appreciate the feedback regarding the geographical representation of participants. see revised manuscript: ". Participants included community-dwelling adults from 47 countries worldwide who engaged with the study through the Qualtrics web platform." (lines 156- 157).

e)      Repetition of "and" in (line 176)

Response 1: e. Thank you for the observation regarding the repetition of "and." We have adjusted the phrasing in lines 176-177 to enhance readability. The sentence now reads: “I lead a purposeful and meaningful life; I am a good person who lives a good life.”

f)      Change "curiosity" to lowercase (line 222)

Response 1: f. We have corrected the capitalization of "Curiosity" to lowercase "curiosity" (line 222 in the revised manuscript) as suggested.

g)     Remove space between the number and word (line 236)

Response 1: g. The unnecessary space between the number "2" and the word "participants" has been deleted (line 236).

h)     Correct spaces and line adjustments (line 236)

Response 1: h. We have fixed the spacing issue in line 236, ensuring there is no space between "24" and "character." See line 236 in revised manuscript

i)        In the references section, regarding item number 15 (line 363)

Response 1: i. We have corrected the formatting issue that resulted in an extra space. Specifically, item number 15 was located on an empty line and has been deleted. Consequently, all subsequent items have been moved up accordingly. (see references section in the revised manuscript).