Research Overview
Education intended to facilitate wellbeing might be one of the oldest practices of human civilization. At the same time, its execution in formal schooling is quite new and not well understood.
On the one hand, the study of wellness is one of the oldest fields. After all, this topic was the explicit preoccupation of figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, the Buddha, Vedic scholars, etc. On the other hand, from another perspective, the field is still in its infancy. I suspect one reason for this is because the modern school is itself quite young (roughly 100-150 years old) and has traditionally prioritized formal instruction in liberal arts subjects. In that regard, it is still somewhat novel to employ “wellness” methods in the school system in any comprehensive or meaningful sense.
There is a history of using traditional academic methods (e.g., lecture) to teach general topics associated with health. However, in education circles we have limited experience employing scientific methods to study those outcomes (or seemingly any others associated with wellness). In short, until very recently, “health education” was not taken very seriously or studied very rigorously.
Adding to the complexity, we lack a coherent definition of “wellness.” The result is that the term is either used to refer to a flimsy sense of generalized success, or it is used as a loose synonym for “mental health,” and/or “physical health,” in which case we already have extensive research in other fields regarding how to experience success in those areas.
All of this has made the scholarly literature on the topic a little insubstantial. In some sense, we know wellness is correlated with academic/life success, and prioritizing it in schools seems to lead to increased success and personal satisfaction. We are much less clear on how enduring the changes brought about by such instruction might be or exactly what mechanisms lead to that success. We are very weak in our knowledge of comparative/cross-cultural studies (as noted by some scholars, an enormous percentage of the literature is focused on the US, the UK, and Australia).
With that said, we do know some concrete methods seem to work quite well: meditation and positive-thinking exercises stand out. Wellness curricula appear to be generally successful, though we don’t always know why, how lasting those changes might be, or how they might relate to a more robust sense of human flourishing/wellbeing (which would likely include, for example, existential and spiritual dimensions as well as something more easily measurable like physical health).
More generally, the research suggests a lot of concerns regarding wellness at virtually every level of schooling and amongst both students and staff. From what we can tell, it appears while some specific interventions seem to have been successful, most schools are not very good at facilitating wellness.
Going forward, the literature is unanimous in finding wellness, almost no matter how we define it, to be correlated with academic and general life success. On top of that, the idea of “wellness,” or personal development, has become quite trendy with a popular audience. For those reasons, I’m inclined to think that research on the topic will continue at a swift pace and likely yield dividends.
This overview will start with some definitional work, move on to a brief history of wellness education in the modern school, provide some examples of popular “wellness” methods, and conclude by gesturing towards the state of the field on the topic.
Definitions
- Needless to say, the frameworks used to interpret “wellness” come from different disciplines and have varied over time and across societies (Fraillon 2004; Dear et al. 2002; La Placa et al. 2013; McAllister 2005; McNaught 2011; Watson 2010). This has led some commentators to even suggest that the concept itself might be a distraction (Carlisle and Hanlon 2008)
- Most definitions capture at least three key dimensions, though there are many, many more definitions and dimensions:
- Psychological/emotional (happiness, satisfaction, social acceptance, sense of achievement, etc.)
- Physical (nutrition/physical health, physical safety, etc.)
- Cognitive (learning, memory, clarity of mind) (Ryff and Singer 1998; Ryff 1995; Crisp 2008; Carlisle and Hanlon 2008; Diener et al. 1999, 2002; Keyes 2006; Kim-Prieto et al. 2005; WHO, 1948)
- Clearly, these dimensions come from different fields and would consequently require different methods to measure; measuring wellness as a single construct is very challenging (Fraillon 2004; Hattie et al. 2004; Hill 2004; Keyes and Lopez 2002; La Placa et al. 2013; Pollard and Lee 2003; Ryan and Deci 2001; Ryff and Singer 1998; Schickler 2005)
- Furthermore, most commentators agree that there is a synergistic quality to the parts of wellbeing: it is more than the sum of its parts (Nussbaum 2003; Sen 1979). To give a more concrete example, some commentators have suggested that spirituality is an important dimension of wellness (Reese et al. 2018-2019; Schein 2014)
- Finally, the construct itself poses clear complexities:
- it is possible to be simultaneously doing well in one area of wellness and poorly in others. All of this conspires to make studying wellbeing quite complicated (Diener and Oishi 2005; Fattore et al. 2007; Kim-Prieto et al. 2005; Pollard and Lee 2003; Weston 1999)
- it is possible that traits that might be expedient in the moment do not yield to more enduring personal wellbeing (the philosopher Lisa Tessman often writes about ideas kind of like that)
- it is particularly vulnerable to socio-historical variation, and its execution has been haphazard. As a field, it lacks the firm methodological foundation and historical grounding of seemingly almost any other area of study (contrast it, for example, with mathematics)
Antecedents of Modern Wellness Education
- Education intended to encourage human wellbeing is arguably one of the oldest human ventures; it was the explicit aim of Epicurean thought, the Aristotelian academy, etc.
- Regarding more contemporary approaches to education, health education in some form can be traced back to at least 1787 (Hoyman 1962; Uhler 1943; Means 1962; Childs 1961)
- Initial attempts at health education in the modern school seem to have been focused on physical health, disease prevention, etc. (Deschin 1961)
- In time, this expanded to include an emphasis on physical fitness/exercise, sexual health, substance abuse, and so on (Buzzetti 1951; Bates & Eccles, 2008; Belmont, 2014))
- In contemporary K-12 education, it’s common for schooling to include some facet of “wellness education” (Bates & Eccles, 2008; Belmont, 2014); however, it’s extremely rare for university-level instruction to include formal health/wellness training (Russell-Mayhew, Ireland, & Alberga, 2015), though this appears to be changing
Examples of Contemporary “Wellness” Methods used in Schools
- Please note: many of these are in use but have not been studied scientifically
- These methods commonly lack a single overarching philosophy or vision and are rather more of a hodgepodge of methods encouraged to facilitate a general sense of student health
- Counseling
- Meditation
- Physical exercise/exposure to the outdoors
- Peer support groups
- Cooking/nutrition classes and activities
- Recreational activities (e.g., crafts, pet therapy)
- Massages
- Formal hygiene/health education
Research Findings
- Unsurprisingly, a sense of wellbeing is correlated with academic and life success (Fredrickson, 1998; Bolte et al., 2003; Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005; Rowe et al., 2007; Isen et al. 1987; Estrada et al., 1994; Isen et al., 1991; Kuhl, 1983, 2000; Greenberg et al. 2017)), while negative wellbeing is linked to roughly the exact reverse in every one of those major areas (Bolte et al, 2003; Kuhl, 1983, 2000)
- Most schools do not employ a coherent wellness-specific curriculum, though such curricula do exist, and studies appear to have found them to be largely successful (Staeker et al 2015-2016; Jones et al. 2017; Seligman et al 2009)
- There are a few caveats here: namely, we don’t know why these curricula succeed. Beyond that, it’s very hard to know in any conclusive sense if students are in fact experiencing sustained wellbeing after the end of the intervention
- As noted above, the rigorous scientific study of wellness in schools is still in its relative infancy (Wells et al. 2003; Merry et al. 2005; Neil and Christensen 2007)
- Overall our institutions don’t seem to be doing a fantastic job of teaching health/wellness; most teachers, for instance, report being uncomfortable with teaching it (Hamming et al. 2011; Russell-Mayhew et al. 2012; Vamos and Hayos, 2010; Whitley et al. 2013
Looking Forward
- Students (both K-12 and university) are reporting increased levels of stress and a need for increased productivity; this has led to greater awareness of and interest in wellness (El Ansari et al. 2011; Hartman and Darab 2012; Polat et al, 2015; Shaheen et al 2015; Hartman and Darab 2012)
- Students in professional schools and graduate programs appear particularly vulnerable (Confino 2019) as do educators themselves
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