Wellbeing and flourishing

Abstract

The presence of childhood and adolescent mental illness has risen significantly in recent years. The challenges that modern society poses necessitate providing children with the cognitive, social, and emotional competencies that help them avoid future mental illness as well as flourish socially and professionally. Positive psychology has introduced models of mental health in childhood to incorporate both the 'treatment/prevention approach' (i.e., treating and preventing mental disorders; removing negative states) as well as the 'promotion approach' (promoting life satisfaction; increasing positive states). In that sense, wellbeing can be defined as feeling good, functioning well, and doing good for others. Flourishing implies feeling satisfied with life and having the ability to live to the fullest. School and family contexts are important in the promotion of wellbeing in childhood. Nowadays, there is evidence that points to the positive association between levels of wellbeing and students' academic performance, social abilities, and physical and psychological health. Many of the lifelong habits, beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes that a person carries are established in the family context. In this chapter, advances in the incorporation of positive psychology in these developmental environments are reviewed. Special attention is paid to the efficacy of interventions in preventing future psychological problems as well as in promoting childhood wellbeing, and the importance of political commitment to the achievement of generalized and sustainable changes over time is analysed.