Psychological well-being is a multifaceted and multidimensional concept. It includes essential elements such as happy emotions, autonomy, satisfying relationships, little negative emotion, a sense of meaning in life, and personal development. Psychological well-being is essential for overall health and happiness and has been associated with greater physical and mental health as well as a longer life span. This study attempts to gain theoretical knowledge about psychological well-being and knowledge of the various studies conducted in the area of psychological well-being. To alleviate stress and enhance students' psychological well-being, higher institutions of learning must prioritize proactive, resilience-focused, and mental health promotion efforts to assist students.
TopBackground
The prevalence of psychological problems among university students is extremely high, with depression (76%), anxiety (88.4%), stress (84.4%), and other mental disorders (45.5%) leading (Asif et al., 2020; Lipson et al., 2019; & Auerbach et al., 2018). Teh et al. (2015) claim that such problems affect students’ psychological well-being (PWB). In the literature, psychological well-being has been defined in two different ways: (a) subjective well-being that includes happiness, positive affect, and life satisfaction (Thanoi et al., 2023; Sharma & Shara, 2018; He et al., 2018) and (b) eudaemonic well-being, including autonomy, self-acceptance, purpose in life, personal growth, positive relations with others, and environmental mastery (Ryff, 2018).
Ryff had introduced six core dimensions of PWB, specifically:
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Self-acceptance (state of having positive thoughts and feelings about oneself);
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Positive relations with others (ability to engage in a warm and trusting relationship with others);
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Autonomy (ability to be independent and cope with social pressure);
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Environmental mastery (ability to adapt, change, or create one’s environment according to one’s needs through physical and mental activities);
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Purpose in life (state of having objectives and goals in life and working toward achieving goal-oriented);
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Personal growth (continuously growing and developing as oneself) (Sharma et al., 2022, p.47).
As public knowledge and understanding have increased over the past few decades, it is now known that psychological well-being and the absence of mental illness are both components of mental health. A complex concept, psychological well-being refers to the best possible psychological experience and functioning (Christner et al., 2021). In addition to resilience coping, emotion regulation and healthy problem solving, Community Translational Science Team (CTST) (2016), NIH Report (2018) and Tang (2021) added that it may be defined as enjoyment, pleasure, fulfilment and happiness.