A global multidimensional concept, well-being is an important measure that is closely associated with quality of life. This book examines well-being concepts and measurements, related health theories and correlates of well-being, as well as gender and geographical differences. The authors explore the evidence on well-being policies, programs, and health interventions, in addition to issues of health advocacy, self-care, and healthy aging. They also examine global wellness perspectives in the context of planetary challenges and decolonization. As the authors share their unique perspectives, they bring to the fore the integration of cross-cutting themes of gender, human rights, social and environmental justice/equity and inclusivity, health promotion/settings, and healthy public policy. This book explores the diversity of philosophical and methodological perspectives on wellness and well-being. It further contextualizes the lived experience of the dimensions of well-being as experienced by the contributors across different regions of the globe.

How’s Life? charts whether life is getting better for people in 37 OECD countries and 4 partner countries. This fifth edition presents the latest evidence from an updated set of over 80 indicators, covering current well-being outcomes, inequalities, and resources for future well-being.

Shows the interconnections among the elements of well-being, how they cannot be considered independently, and provides readers with a research-based approach to improving all aspects of their lives.

Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and well-being, alongside developments in practice and policy activities in different countries across the WHO European Region and further afield. This report synthesizes the global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being, with a specific focus on the WHO European Region. Results from over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan. The reviewed evidence included study designs such as uncontrolled pilot studies, case studies, small-scale cross-sectional surveys, nationally representative longitudinal cohort studies, community-wide ethnographies and randomized controlled trials from diverse disciplines. The beneficial impact of the arts could be furthered through acknowledging and acting on the growing evidence base; promoting arts engagement at the individual, local and national levels; and supporting cross-sectoral collaboration.

Positive psychological science has experienced extraordinary growth over the past two decades. Research in this area is revealing new strategies and interventions for improving everyday life, health and well-being, work, education, and societies across the globe. Contributions from luminaries in the field provide excellent reviews of the selected topics, summarizing empirical evidence, describing measurement tools, and offering recommendations for improving many aspects of our lives. Comprehensively updated, this second edition not only incorporates the more recent empirical findings; three new chapters on relationships and love, the importance of purpose, and the stimulation of education practice have been added. Focused on peer-reviewed and theory-driven psychological science, this book uniquely establishes a bridge between the intellectual movement for positive psychology and how it works in the real world. This collection of chapters will inspire the reader to creatively find new opportunities to better the human condition, whether these are in our lives, schools, health care settings, or workplaces. This book will be of interest to all psychologists and social scientists, applied researchers, program designers and evaluators, educators, leaders, students, and anyone interested in applying the science of positive psychology to improve everyday life and/or to promote social betterment and justice locally and globally.

Climate change is increasing the severity of disasters and adverse weather conditions worldwide, with particularly devastating effects on developing countries and on individuals with lower resources. Climate change is likely to impact mental health and psychosocial well-being via multiple pathways, leading to new challenges. Direct effects such as gradual environmental changes, higher temperatures, and natural disasters, are likely to lead to more indirect consequences such as social and economic stressors, population displacement, and conflict. Climate change, largely the product of industrialized nations, is projected to magnify existing inequalities and to impact the most vulnerable, including those with low resources, individuals living in developing countries and specific populations such as women, children and those with pre-existing disabilities. This book outlines areas of impact on human well being, consider specific populations, and shed light on mitigating the impact of climate change. Recommendations discuss ways of strengthening community resilience, building on local capacities, responding to humanitarian crises, as well as conducting research and evaluation projects in diverse settings.

Subjective well-being refers to how people experience and evaluate their lives and specific domains and activities in their lives. This information has already proven valuable to researchers, who have produced insights about the emotional states and experiences of people belonging to different groups, engaged in different activities, at different points in the life course, and involved in different family and community structures. Research has also revealed relationships between people's self-reported, subjectively assessed states and their behavior and decisions. Research on subjective well-being has been ongoing for decades, providing new information about the human condition. During the past decade, interest in the topic among policy makers, national statistical offices, academic researchers, the media, and the public has increased markedly because of its potential for shedding light on the economic, social, and health conditions of populations and for informing policy decisions across these domains. Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience explores the use of this measure in population surveys. This report reviews the current state of research and evaluates methods for the measurement. In this report, a range of potential experienced well-being data applications are cited, from cost-benefit studies of health care delivery to commuting and transportation planning, environmental valuation, and outdoor recreation resource monitoring, and even to assessment of end-of-life treatment options. Subjective Well-Being finds that, whether used to assess the consequence of people's situations and policies that might affect them or to explore determinants of outcomes, contextual and covariate data are needed alongside the subjective well-being measures. This report offers guidance about adopting subjective well-being measures in official government surveys to inform social and economic policies and considers whether research has advanced to a point which warrants the federal government collecting data that allow aspects of the population's subjective well-being to be tracked and associated with changing conditions.