Psychology of child well-being

This chapter addresses child well-being from a psychological point of view. In doing so, we need to remember that psychology is not one single discipline but covers a wide range of psychological disciplines from evolutionary psychology and behavior genetics via psychometrics to developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychology - all of them relevant to the psychology of child well-being. The psychological study of well-being has a history of approximately 2,500 years. The modern psychological study of well-being and its close relatives, resilience, and prosocial behavior belong together under a common umbrella called “positive psychology.” In this chapter, we draw upon both of the ancient and the modern tradition. We have addressed the concept of well-being from both a theoretical and an empirical position. Yet, we have to admit that there is no unified way of sorting all the terms associated with the psychological study of well-being. Consequently, terms like happiness, subjective, emotional, affective, cognitive, mental and psychological well-being, life satisfaction, satisfaction with life, quality of life, enjoyment, engagement, meaning, flow, and hedonic balance have not been used consistently trough out the chapter.