Positive Psychology in Schools with Focus on Adolescent Well-Being

Abstract

The present population of young people is 1.8 billion and they comprise one quarter of the world population. Their age ranges between 10-24 and is currently the largest in the history. Adolescent (age 10-19 years) can be a powerful agent of personal change and community development, so focus on adolescent health is pertinent to meet global health targets. Personal, school, family, community factors effect adolescent overall health. The age of onset of puberty has decreased and the age at which mature social roles are achieved is rising amidst the huge impact of social media. This generation is taking a different path through adolescence from previous generations and is facing new challenges to their health and wellbeing. In last few years factors like socio-economic development, less mortality, high migration, breaking down of families, increase in terrorism and age of social media have added to more psychological problems. Hence there is an increasing demand to focus on adolescent mental health issues. As a clinical Psychologist and a school counsellor, I work with school mental health wellbeing teams to support mental, emotional, behavioural, and social wellbeing of students. I advocate positive psychology in schools and can confidently argue its many benefits towards enhancing overall wellbeing of students. In this paper, I have put forward a working “Positive Psychology Life-skills” curriculum triangular model (PPL model).