1 What is wellbeing?
Wellbeing is a commonly used term which also connects to ideas about feeling well and unwell, feeling happy and feeling sad. This might appear obvious, however, ideas and understandings about wellbeing are not straightforward. Closer inspection reveals wellbeing to be a complex and often contested term.
In this section, you will first reflect on your own understanding of wellbeing before listening to the views of children, young people, practitioners and those with caring responsibilities for children and young people, as well as looking at formal definitions.
Activity 1 What is Wellbeing?
Spend some time thinking about what the term ‘wellbeing’ means to you. Don’t overthink this – just go with your initial thoughts and write down five words which define wellbeing.
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There are a number of words you may have chosen to describe wellbeing, including happiness, contentment, healthy, resilient, safe, strong, robust, secure and balanced.
Now spend a few minutes reflecting on your responses. Why do you think you chose these particular words to define wellbeing?
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You may have chosen words which describe the physical or mental aspects of wellbeing or how wellbeing connects to feelings of safety and security. Or you may have chosen a whole host of other words not included here to define wellbeing and what this means to you. Wellbeing is a subjective concept and how you describe it reflects your own values and experiences.
Discussions about wellbeing have a long history and can be traced back to Ancient Greek philosophy, in particular, the work of Aristotle, who wrote extensively using the term eudaimonia to describe human happiness, contentment and feelings of wellbeing. More contemporary discussions about wellbeing cross over many academic disciplines, spanning philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology. The psychologist Ed Diener (1984) proposed a model of subjective wellbeing which described how individuals think about and evaluate their life satisfaction based on positive and negative life experiences. His work reminds us that although genetics may play a role people’s subjective wellbeing can also be influenced by the relationships, environments and activities in which our lives are embedded.