From general well-being to school well-being: a systematic review

Abstract

School well-being has a growing interest in educational research and practice, although its multidimensional nature and the imprecision in its definition limit its knowledge and make more in-depth study necessary. The aim was to deepen the understanding of the construct of school well-being identifying perspectives, models and definitory elements. A systematic review of 53 bibliographic sources from internationally databases (APA, PsycInfo, ERIC, Scopus, WoS) was conducted. PICO approach for formulating the eligibility criteria and searching for research questions, and PRISMA-compliance systematic review recommendations were followed. There were included articles and papers conferences, from 2000 to 2020, with the keywords school wellbeing or well-being, in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish languages. Topics related to health and illness, work, university, and social, economic, politic, or cultural issues were excluded. Information was analysed descriptively using the meta-narrative. The characteristics of the studies (methodology, participants, years of publication and countries) were presented; the perspectives classically linked to school well-being as a subjective (hedonic) and psychological (eudemonic) concept as well as the social well-being were explained; and the factors that operationalize it were identified.