Improving Student Wellbeing: 16 Tools & Resources

Key Insights

14 minute read
  • Student wellbeing combines hedonic & eudaimonic approaches for balanced mental health and resilience.
  • Prioritizing wellbeing improves mental & physical health, academic performance, social skills, & resilience.
  • Effective wellbeing programs include mindfulness, emotional intelligence, social inclusion, & goal-setting skills.

Student WellbeingWellbeing: happiness and success? Or good physical and mental health? What is the crux of wellbeing for a student?

There is no question regarding the benefits of student wellbeing. It is essential for learning and educational achievement, as the lack of wellbeing impedes learning and leads to poor outcomes.

Let’s explore the definition of student wellbeing, why it’s important, and how to improve student wellbeing according to the latest research.

In this article, we will explain how positive psychology can build on these findings and help develop a student wellbeing program. Finally, we introduce some recently developed positive psychology tools and resources for students.

The term student means different things in different cultural contexts, so for the sake of this article, the word student refers to any individual of school age and upward engaged in formal learning activities in an educational institution.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Education Exercises for free. These ready-made tools are perfect for enhancing your teaching approach, making it easier to engage students in meaningful, student-centered learning.

Defining Student Wellbeing

Defining student wellbeing is crucial to frame the discussion in this article, especially given the wide-ranging types of students mentioned earlier. A recent literature review (Hossain et al., 2023) detected three dominant approaches to defining student wellbeing: hedonic, eudaimonic, and integrative. Let’s explore these in more detail using a positive psychology framework.

Hedonic wellbeing refers to short-term pleasures derived from immediate sensory and emotional gratification and the avoidance of pain. Examples include eating a delicious meal, celebrating a special occasion, enjoying a good film, or visiting a beautiful place (Jia et al., 2022).

Meanwhile, eudaimonic wellbeing refers to the long-term satisfaction gained from living a value-based, meaningful life. Examples include overcoming challenges that result in personal growth and cultivating a sense of purpose that results in a deep feeling of fulfillment (Jia et al., 2022).

We need both sources of wellbeing, hence the integrative perspective promoted by contemporary positive psychology (Alam, 2022).

Human beings of all kinds, including students, need pleasure and positive emotions as short-term rewards while pursuing value-based activities and overcoming challenges to achieve a sense of meaning and purpose in the long term (Garcia-Alvarez et al., 2023).

For students, sources of hedonic wellbeing are important for offsetting the stress of academic pressures. These would be age dependent and could include enjoying social time with friends and family, participating in sports achievements with a team, enjoying a leisure trip, or taking part in gaming and entertainment-based activities. Hedonic sources of wellbeing can often be factored into educational activities as rewards for goal achievement (Jia et al., 2022).

Eudaimonic sources of wellbeing include deep engagement in subjects students are passionate about, providing a sense of purpose and fulfillment (Alam, 2022). This is more than getting good grades; it’s mastering skills and expanding knowledge. Working toward personal and academic goals provides a sense of accomplishment and growth.

Why Is Student Wellbeing Important? 8 Benefits

Importance of student wellbeingStudent wellbeing is important because it directly affects academic performance, personal development, and long-term health (Hossain et al., 2023).

Prioritizing student wellbeing is about nurturing a supportive, balanced, and engaging environment where students can thrive.

In the TEDx talk Why You Should Take a Break: Prioritizing Mental Health in Schools, Hailey Hardcastle explains the importance of wellbeing for academic achievement, especially from the teenage years onward, which are often a turbulent time for adolescents and their families.

Why you should take a break: Prioritizing mental health in schools

When students are well rested and feel safe, valued, and healthy, they are more likely to succeed academically, socially, and personally. Focusing on student wellbeing is an investment in the long-term success of learners, which ultimately benefits society as a whole (Hill et al., 2024).

Here are eight demonstrable benefits:

1. Better mental health

Prioritizing wellbeing helps students manage stress and anxiety resulting from academic and social pressures. Students who have a strong sense of wellbeing are better at managing setbacks. This builds resilience and is critical for navigating the ups and downs of student life (Alam, 2022; Hossain et al., 2023; Jia et al., 2022).

2. Improved physical health

Wellbeing programs encourage students to adopt healthy habits, such as regular exercise, balanced nutrition, and adequate sleep, that improve physical health and enhance mood, energy levels, and focus.

Addressing student wellbeing can help prevent long-term health problems. Healthy students are less likely to experience frequent illnesses, absenteeism, or chronic health conditions (Ling et al., 2022).

3. Personal development and growth

When students feel well, they have a more positive self-image. This gives them the courage to overcome challenges and pursue their interests. A focus on wellbeing can help students develop essential life skills, such as time management, self-discipline, problem-solving, and interpersonal communication. These skills are essential for academic achievement as well as their future careers and personal lives (Hossain et al., 2023; Jia et al., 2022).

4. Better social skills and relationships

Students who feel good about themselves are more likely to form healthy, supportive relationships with their peers. Social wellbeing promotes teamwork, collaboration, and a sense of belonging. Social skills are essential for forming positive relationships and resolving conflicts throughout life (Hossain et al., 2023; Jia et al., 2022; Ling et al., 2022).

5. Increased engagement, participation, and retention

Students who experience wellbeing are less likely to skip classes or drop out. This may be because they feel more connected to their learning environment and are better able to cope with academic challenges. This participation fosters a sense of community and belonging, which further supports their wellbeing (Alam, 2022; Hossain et al., 2023; Jia et al., 2022; Ling et al., 2022).

6. Improved resilience

Students who learn that wellbeing involves managing stress, maintaining healthy habits, and building resilience are better prepared for the workforce and adult life. Employers increasingly value soft skills like emotional intelligence, communication, and emotional resilience. Students who develop these skills through wellbeing programs are often better positioned for future career success (Alam, 2022; Hossain et al., 2023; Jia et al., 2022).

7. Positive learning environment

When schools prioritize student wellbeing, they create a more supportive, inclusive, and positive learning environment. This, in turn, cultivates a culture of empathy, respect, and mutual support between students and staff. It also reduces behavioral disruption in the classroom (Graham et al., 2016).

8. Improved academic performance

Students who feel well mentally and physically can focus better in class, retain information, and stay motivated to engage actively in learning activities. All the benefits listed above combined improve the comprehension and retention of material, leading to better academic performance (Alam, 2022; Hossain et al., 2023; Jia et al., 2022).

Download 3 Free Positive Education Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip educators with tools to foster student well-being and boost academic performance.

Assessing Students’ Mental Health: 6 Surveys

In this section, we outline six student mental health and wellbeing surveys used from school age to university-level populations.

Tim Bono outlines the issues facing the 18+ age group and their often unrealistic expectations of college life in this talk, How Can We Solve the College Student Mental Health Crisis?

How can we solve the college student mental health crisis?

It’s worth mentioning that surveys focused on younger students tend to employ broader measures of wellbeing at school, whereas those aimed at college students use more standardized mental health metrics.

  1. The Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) is used for population-level monitoring of the social and emotional aspects of student wellbeing in schoolchildren (Hotez et al., 2024).
  2. The Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ) assesses middle school students’ sense of school inclusion, academic efficacy, joy of learning, and educational purpose (Arslan et al., 2022).
  3. The Personal Wellbeing Index—School Children (PWI-SC) measures the subjective wellbeing of high school students, including school satisfaction as a core domain (Jovanović, 2024).
  4. The College Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (CSSWQ) was developed to measure “covitality” in college students. This survey assesses academic efficacy, school connectedness, and academic satisfaction (Zhang & Renshaw, 2020).
  5. The National College Health Assessment (NCHA) assesses a range of student health issues, including mental health, sleep, substance use, nutrition, and sexual health. This survey provides universities with the data they need to develop tailored wellbeing programs (Lederer & Hoban, 2022).
  6. The University Student Health and Wellbeing Study (USHWS) is a web-based survey designed to evaluate various health behaviors of university students. It has been primarily used with Australian university populations but was developed for widespread implementation (Wold et al., 2021).

How to Improve Student Wellbeing: Evidence From Research

How to improve student wellbeingImproving student wellbeing requires a multifaceted approach involving support for positive teacher–student relationships, whole-school strategies, curriculum integration, participatory approaches, teacher wellbeing, and schoolwide mindfulness and resilience training.

Ensuring students are involved in the design and management of wellbeing initiatives can enhance their effectiveness.

Let’s look at how each of these steps is backed by research.

  • Positive teacher–student relationships
    Tolerant and cooperative teaching approaches cultivate positive relationships with students and promote student mental health and wellbeing (Graham et al., 2016).
  • Whole-school strategies
    Whole-school systems that focus on community, respect, and inclusivity have a positive impact on teacher and student wellbeing. These approaches integrate support for physical, emotional, and social wellness as essential components of learning communities (Higgins & Booker, 2023).
  • Curriculum integration
    Integrating wellbeing programs into the curriculum by including dedicated self-care days, group self-care activities, and personal wellbeing sessions positively impacts students’ physical health, mood, and stress management (Merrick et al., 2021).
  • Participatory and democratic approaches
    Actively involving students in creating and managing wellbeing programs helps align initiatives with their needs and supports student empowerment (Pulimeno et al., 2020).
  • Teacher wellbeing
    Teachers’ mental wellbeing has a direct impact on students’ wellbeing. Schools with healthy teachers have a more positive learning environment (García-Álvarez et al., 2023).
  • Mindfulness and resilience training
    Mindfulness, self-compassion, and resilience training significantly improves student wellbeing and academic performance. These elements can be integrated into student learning and support systems (Egan et al., 2021).

How Can Positive Psychology Take It Further?

The science of positive psychology focuses on the contributions wellbeing makes to mental health. This contrasts with the more traditional approach adopted that screens for psychopathology and focuses on symptom alleviation (Jia et al., 2022).

In the field of positive psychology, the PERMA model has served as a framework for interventions that promote, sustain, and support wellbeing and mental health (Kovich et al., 2023).

PERMA stands for:

  • Positive emotions
  • Engagement
  • Relationships
  • Meaning
  • Accomplishment

Sometimes an H, for “health,” is added to the end of the acronym.

Positive emotions

Positive emotions refer to the broader domain of emotional intelligence and the ability to be emotionally present, congruent, and authentic, and to regulate emotions and cultivate resilience.

Emotions are messengers that provide feedback about our environment and cannot really be deemed positive or negative. So-called negative emotions can be useful indicators of problems or conflicts in need of attention (Kovich et al., 2023).

In positive psychology, positive emotions are associated with optimal functioning and flourishing. These include joy, contentment, kindness, love, gratitude, and peace.

Cultivating positive emotions helps to offset any stress caused by negative emotions like anger, anxiety, guilt, fear, and sadness, thereby contributing to the emotional regulation essential for wellbeing (Kovich et al., 2023).

Engagement

Engagement refers to the passionate interest in a specific activity that triggers a flow state, the foundation of optimal productivity and fulfilment. It follows that students who are passionately interested in their academic subject will experience deeper engagement with learning and greater fulfillment from the learning process (Kovich et al., 2023).

Relationships

Relationships are essential components of wellbeing, as human beings are wired for connection with others. For students, supportive relationships with peers are essential for their development. Learning communities based on positive relationships are also the bedrock of educational attainment (Kovich et al., 2023).

Meaning

Meaning refers to investing our actions with value and purpose. Students of any age will benefit from understanding the purpose of learning something new and the value it contributes to life as a whole. When learning is experienced as meaningful, it enhances motivation and promotes academic achievement (Kovich et al., 2023).

Accomplishment

Accomplishment refers to achieving meaningful goals. For students, achieving their academic and other educational goals boosts confidence, self-efficacy, resilience, and wellbeing (Kovich et al., 2023).

Taken together, the elements of the PERMA model provide a useful template for planning a student wellbeing program for any age group. The next section describes how.

5 Suggestions for Developing a Student Wellbeing Program

Student wellbeing programs can be initiated by educational institutions to aid students with improving their mental and physical wellbeing. There are five essential components to include in such a wellbeing program.

1. Health education

Holistic awareness of the relationship between mind and body includes understanding how mood, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors impact each other. This includes learning how movement, exercise, sleep, rest, regular meals, and hydration affect emotional wellbeing and mental health.

2. Emotional intelligence

This includes learning stress management skills, emotional regulation skills, self-soothing skills, mental health awareness, substance abuse awareness, and how all these impact resilience. Emotional literacy is crucial for building positive relationships.

3. Social inclusion

Includes peer support groups, conflict resolution, and inclusive activities that celebrate diversity while promoting a sense of belonging.

4. Goal-setting skills

Micro- and macro goal-setting abilities help to sustain motivation and support educational attainment, both academic and vocational. Time management skills are crucial for achieving goals.

5. Life skills training

Age-appropriate life skills training could include self-care, budgeting, career guidance, digital competencies, and personal boundaries and safeguarding.

3 Science-Based Tools & Resources for Students

Student wellbeing toolsIn this section, we present handy resources for students to support their learning and education.

1. Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo when he was a university student (Ali & Hashemi, 2023). Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato.

Cirillo used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer to break his work into intervals of 25 minutes to help him focus, followed by a short break. Each 25-minute chunk is called a Pomodoro. You can use this technique to support sustained work as follows.

  • Use an alarm or a free app for your desktop or phone like Pomofocus or Pomodor to set a Pomodoro of 25 minutes (or less) of focused time on your chosen task.
  • Select the first task on your list.
  • Start the timer and work on the task until your alarm goes off.
  • Take a 5-minute break.
  • Start another Pomodoro.

2. Time management

Time management is a familiar term in the workplace as well as an essential skill for educational goal achievement. We have an entire article on time management that is packed with resources that can be adapted for use by students.

3. Stress management

A certain amount of stress can help provide the drive to get things done. This is called eustress and can include the borderline excitement/anxiety experienced before a performance of some kind, including tests and examinations (Jia et al., 2022).

However, excessive stress impedes the ability to learn, so stress management skills are essential, especially when students begin to study independently. The following articles are full of free tools, worksheets, and other resources to help students manage stress.

In the next section, we outline further resources specifically tailored to the needs of students.

17 Education Exercises

Top 17 Exercises for Positive Education

Use these 17 Positive Education Exercises [PDF] to enhance student engagement, resilience, and wellbeing while also equipping students with valuable life skills.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

More Helpful Resources From PositivePsychology.com

Here at PositivePsychology.com, we have an impressive selection of articles packed with free resources related to student wellbeing.

For those interested in investing further, we also have a Positive Education toolkit that contains a range of group exercises to help balance student wellbeing with academic achievement, on topics like kindness art to cultivate emotional literacy, goal-setting skills to sustain motivation, and classroom service projects to develop collaborative teamwork skills.

Wellbeing X© is a fully customizable science-based training in the positive psychology of wellbeing that focuses on developing healthy micro-habits to support positive behavioral change.

A Take-Home Message

The holistic wellbeing of students is crucial for their academic success. Students of any age who are struggling with aspects of their mental and physical health may suffer socially and academically.

From the teen years onward, building positive relationships with peers is key to healthy development, and healthy development is the best support for learning, whether academic or vocational. Social inclusion is the bedrock of student engagement and full participation in learning at school and college.

Balancing student wellbeing with educational attainment is the foundation of the holistic human development needed to thrive and enjoy a fulfilling adult life.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Education Exercises for free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Students struggling with wellbeing might display behavioral changes that indicate challenges with their mental, emotional, or physical health, such as social withdrawal, unexplained absence, or missing deadlines.

Educators can balance academic expectations with wellbeing by recognizing that mental and physical health are the foundation of learning and academic success.

Educators can foster a growth mindset in students by helping them learn from their mistakes. Effort, persistence, and making mistakes are all needed to learn and improve.

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