Wellbeing of the students in educational settings; challenges and perspectives

Abstract

The focus of this study is child and adolescent wellbeing in schools, but naturally children don’t live in a vacuum in these settings and when exploring the determinants of child and adolescent wellbeing we must look at the whole world of the child, including the parts of their life that happen outside their educational setting. Below we highlight some of the most prominent ecological models of children’s wellbeing as a point of reference to understand how some of the drivers of wellbeing might interact and as an aid to visualise their interdependent nature. An individual’s wellbeing is multi-dimensional, affected by many variables, both within the individual themselves, and external elements that either support or pose risks to wellbeing (Huebner, Gilman, & Laughlin, 1999). Such mediating factors are examined here at the individual, school, family, community, and government levels. When reviewing the wellbeing literature, it is of note that the overall picture of drivers of wellbeing is complicated. The research area is relatively new and there is a lack of robust high-level research (e.g., Randomised Controlled Trials; RCTs), and therefore very few studies where causality can be determined. Much of the research conducted and presented is correlational, cross-sectional, pre and post, or only focused on individual countries or populations