Schools provide an environment where students find opportunities to build resilience, acquire the necessary skills to effectively respond to mental health challenges, and improve well-being (Arslan & Yıldırım, 2021). The promotion of well-being at school can be achieved through positive education (Arslan et al., 2021), which refers to the integration of traditional education goals with positive psychology’s principles of well-being to support the psychological health of individuals at schools (Seligman et al., 2009; Waters, 2011). Considering that there is a high prevalence of mental health problems including depression, anxiety and stress and a low prevalence of positive emotions, satisfaction with life, and happiness among students (Seligman et al., 2009; Yıldırım & Green, 2023) supporting well-being at school offers a pathway to improve happiness, life satisfaction, flourishing, learning, creativity, and social cohesion.
Programs should be designed and implemented at schools to improve the participation of educators to create a good learning environment. Educators can collabo-rate with each other to build a lively atmosphere and healthy behavior cultures at schools. Teachers may differ in the level of knowledge and experiences regarding understanding of students’ well-being and mental health. As such, the school authority should encourage teachers to support and promote the positive mental health and well-being of students. It is also vital to note that teachers’ mental health and well- being are as important as students’ mental health and well-being. Teachers who are aware of how to look after their own mental health and well-being are better at sup-porting and promoting young people’s psychological health. Teachers’ well-being is closely related to their behaviors, students’ achievement, and school and class-room environments.
Different strategies and activities have been presented to increase teachers’ well- being and reduce stress. These activities include but are not limited to mindfulness- based activities, Pilates and yoga, massage, art classes, and reflexology. These strategies treat the momentary effects of psychological distress on an individual basis and fail to address causes of distress and well-being (Manning et al., 2020). The capabilities approach was recommended to use by schools and policymakers who should develop interventions that enhance teachers’ freedom to behave in accordance with strategies that mitigate momentary feelings of stress (Sen, 1993). Educators should be provided attainable aims and goals and that one’s resources should be matched to the demands of his/her role.
“Try This” for Students
Positive psychology school-based interventions are found to improve the well- being, mental health, problem-solving skills, mindfulness, physical health, and coping strategies of students (Cilar et al., 2020). In school settings, various interventions have been designed and implemented to promote well-being and mental and physical health among children and young people.
Accumulative scientific evidence shows that school-based well-being interventions and programs have significant potential to assist children and young people in developing psychosocial-emotional skills needed for academic success. A meta- analysis study synthesizing 47 studies with a total of 38.946 healthy individuals showed a significant positive relationship between well-being and academic achievement with a small-medium effect size. This relationship was invariable across different demographic factors, various well-being domains, and different measures of well-being and academic achievement (Bücker et al., 2018). Students with higher levels of subjective and psychological have higher levels of academic achievement. However, this may not always be the case. High-achieving students do not have to experience greater well-being, and low-achieving students do not have to report poor well-being (Bücker et al., 2018).
There are very effective positive psychology interventions (e.g., mindfulness, forgiveness, hope, gratitude, mindfulness, happiness, and savoring) applied to educational settings helping to improve the well-being of children and young people. Here we only focused on two interventions/programs: the Well-being Promotion Program (WBPP) and mindfulness. The WBPP is particularly designed to facilitate positive psychosocial education by focusing on positive emotions, character strengths, optimism, gratitude, kindness, and hope (Suldo, 2016). The WBPP is developed in the framework of positive psychology for increasing happiness and promoting students’ optimal outcomes via intentional activities that trigger positive feelings and thoughts about the past, present, and future. Students involved in this program are made aware of positive psychological constructs by discussing how these constructs are related to happiness and well-being. They are also instructed to learn particular strategies to improve the given psychological constructs (e.g., happiness and optimism). Students are further required to practice the given activities and strategies independently outside of the classrooms. This program targets not only practices that work best in small group counselling but also the involvement of parents in school mental health interventions. Scientific evidence provided support for the utility of WBPP as an evidence-based approach for improving well-being in adolescents. In a 10-week WBPP group program, Roth et al. (2017) reported that in comparison to randomly assigned peers to wait-list control, grade 7 students demonstrated a significant growth in positive affect and satisfaction with life. Students also reported a decrease in internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and negative affect.
Another particular promotion program for students’ well-being can be done through mindfulness. Mindfulness interventions have become a prominent topic in the extant literature and have been shown to be effective in addressing psychosocial and mental health problems and promoting the well-being of youth (Khoury et al., 2013). Mindfulness intervention is a mind-body-based approach that supports children and young people to experience their feelings, thoughts, and sensations with-out having predetermined assumptions about them. With those interventions, individuals are encouraged to focus on their present feelings, thoughts, and behaviors so that they become more aware of them and better able to cope with them. Those who experience challenges with negative emotions, thoughts, and behaviors and relaxation and dissociation problems can benefit from mindfulness interventions. Mediation and relaxation techniques (e.g., deep breathing exercises, engagement in prayer, reading and reflecting) can be used to improve well-being, effective coping strategies, confidence, sense of staying in the present moment, and feeling in control of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. The interventions can be easily administered to a group of students or as a whole class activity to minimize symptoms of social comparison, stigma, and other mental health problems (Kuyken et al., 2013). Huppert and Johnson (2010) reported that the amount of time young people spend practicing mindfulness is positively related to increases in mindful-ness, resilience, and well-being.
In conclusion, due to the multidimensional and complex nature of well-being, it can be difficult to promote students’ well-being at schools. As noted above, there are different forms of well-being which have different measures and theoretical underpinnings. These types of well-being are different from each other, yet related. As such, there is a need to support and promote all types of well-being to some extent to cultivate an overall sense of well-being in school settings. It is hard to integrate all forms of well-being into a single activity or intervention focusing on the improvement of children’s and students’ well-being. However, effective school- based well-being interventions and activities can be achieved through a comprehensive understanding of well-being with the active involvement of teachers, students, school administrators, and families.
Case Study
Schools have been closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students returning to schools after the mandatory closure are more likely to experience various school- based and mental health problems including low engagement, poor motivation, academic stress, and lack of belongingness to the school. Many students visited the counselling service center at school with those symptoms and the lack of ability to cope with these challenges. Those students were encouraged to participate in a school-based well-being promotion program that focuses on eliciting positive emotions and thoughts about the past, present, and future. They were particularly made aware of the practicing positive psychological constructs like happiness, hope, and optimism and how using these constructs helped them to deal with those challenges after school closure. They all reported positive outcomes about improvements in positive emotions, happiness, motivation, belongingness, and academic participation.
Discussion Points
- Does well-being matter in school settings?
- What support, information, and guidance will students and teachers need for improving their well-being?
- Why should schools support and promote the well-being of students?
- How is school authority embedding the promotion of well-being into the school curriculum?
- How can principles of positive psychology be applied to support well-being in school and overall functioning?