Subjective Well-Being Among Youth: A Study Employing the Pyramid Procedure

Designing Online Interventions in Consideration of Young People’s Concepts of Well-Being: Exploratory Qualitative Study

“…The importance of physical wellness for well-being among the participants is consistent with Bourke and Geldens’ [25] physical dimensions. This is also consistent with Armezzani and Paduanello’s [24] healthy style of well-being, which focuses on reaching a state of physical balance and avoiding situations that could be a source of physical disorder (eg, smoking, an unhealthy diet, drugs, alcohol, and stress). The workshop participants described physical health as the absence of illness (eg, “not going to the hospital”).…”

“…Although the workshops were conducted in five separate locations, similar themes around how well-being is conceptualized by young people emerged in each group. The findings from this study confirm that well-being is indeed multidimensional, with each of the seven themes identified well-supported by previous research [24,25,37]. Both the pursuit of activities leading to positive experiences that satisfy their desires (ie, hedonic) and a focus on autonomy, purpose, social connectedness, and achieving goals (ie, eudaimonic) contributed to young people’s conceptualizations of well-being [38].…”

“…As a result, what it means to be well comes to be defined by the absence of physical symptoms; in other words, to be well is to be not unwell . Although themes related to physical health have emerged strongly elsewhere [24], the theme of physical wellness did not particularly dominate in this study. The importance of language in studies of this nature should not be overlooked.…”

“…Our study revealed that young people place high importance on the theme of social connectedness and altruism, which forms part of Keyes’ social well-being construct [36]. This theme is also reflected in Bourke and Geldens’ relationships dimension [25], Armezzani and Paduanello’s relational style of well-being [24], and the relationships component of the positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (PERMA) model [37], which emphasizes a person’s relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and community. The workshop participants, especially those from the rural workshops, spoke of connecting with others and maintaining friendships online (eg, via social media or online gaming).…”

“…Online well-being interventions have received some attention in the literature as a viable method for improving, at scale, the well-being of young adults [14-18] due to their relevance, accessibility, cost-efficiency, and promotion of anonymity and confidentiality [19-22]. However, in addition to the concepts of well-being varying by age [23], prior research suggests that young people’s concepts of well-being depend on the individual’s aims and values [24]. This is significant, as even professional youth workers can have distinctly different views of well-being compared with those of young people.…”