Well-being has become a central concern in contemporary societies, particularly in the face of rapid social change, growing inequalities, and increasing mental health challenges across the lifespan. This book offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and internationally grounded exploration of well-being, positioning it as a dynamic, relational, and context-dependent construct that evolves from early life to older adulthood.
Bringing together leading scholars from psychology, education, health, and the social sciences, the volume is structured into five thematic parts that reflect the complexity of human development and the diverse contexts in which well-being is shaped. The first part establishes a strong theoretical foundation, integrating perspectives from Positive Psychology, neurobiology, personality research, and Latin American legal frameworks, while also addressing key issues in the assessment of well-being, including the PERMA Profiler.
Subsequent sections focus on well-being in childhood and adolescence, emphasizing comprehensive and preventive approaches that highlight the role of early relationships, health care, sport, and interprofessional strategies in promoting healthy development. The book then examines adolescence and emerging adulthood as critical periods for positive development, addressing topics such as emotion regulation, prosocial behavior, character strengths, mental health, academic stress, interpersonal relationships, and university-based interventions.
Well-being in adulthood is explored through a diversity of specific contexts, including eco-anxiety, labor participation, transitions from education to work, physical activity, chronic illness, artistic engagement, and pregnancy and childbirth. The final section focuses on positive aging, offering integrative perspectives on flourishing, caregiving, dependency, and mental health in later life, and concludes by identifying key challenges and future directions for well-being research and practice.
A distinctive strength of this volume lies in its integrative lifespan perspective, its strong empirical grounding, and its explicit attention to sociocultural and contextual diversity, particularly from Latin American and international viewpoints. This book is an essential resource for researchers, practitioners, and graduate students seeking evidence-based frameworks and applied insights to understand, assess, and promote well-being across diverse populations and life stages.
