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A key challenge in developing online well-being interventions for young people is to ensure that they are based on theory and reflect adolescent concepts of well-being.
This exploratory qualitative study aimed to understand young people’s concepts of well-being in Australia.
Data were collected via workshops at five sites across rural and metropolitan sites with 37 young people from 15 to 21 years of age, inclusive. Inductive, data-driven coding was then used to analyze transcripts and artifacts (ie, written or image data).
Young adults’ conceptions of well-being were diverse, personally contextualized, and shaped by ongoing individual experiences related to physical and mental health, along with ecological accounts acknowledging the role of family, community, and social factors. Key emerging themes were (1) positive emotions and enjoyable activities, (2) physical wellness, (3) relationships and social connectedness, (4) autonomy and control, (5) goals and purpose, (6) being engaged and challenged, and (7) self-esteem and confidence. Participants had no difficulty describing actions that led to positive well-being; however, they only considered their own well-being at times of stress.
In this study, young people appeared to think mostly about their well-being at times of stress. The challenge for online interventions is to encourage young people to monitor well-being prior to it becoming compromised. A more proactive focus that links the overall concept of well-being to everyday, concrete actions and activities young people engage in, and that encourages the creation of routine good habits, may lead to better outcomes from online well-being interventions.
Well-being has been shown to be associated with more adaptive responses to negative life events and protection against development of mental health and behavioral problems [
Online well-being interventions have received some attention in the literature as a viable method for improving, at scale, the well-being of young adults [
Individual conceptualization of well-being also varies according to societal and cultural contexts [
The contested understanding of the term, its substantial increase in use, and its various social meanings make the term
This exploratory qualitative study aimed to understand how young people in Australia conceptualize the term
The collection of data for this study was conducted collaboratively by two groups of researchers: one group in Sydney, New South Wales, and the other in Adelaide, South Australia. For convenience, and due to the nature of the sites, one site in metropolitan New South Wales (metropolitan 1, M1) and four sites in rural or regional South Australia (rural 1-rural 4, R1-R4) were chosen (see
Participants for the metropolitan workshop were recruited using a recruitment agency and included a mix of young people who were studying, working, and unemployed. One 5.5-hour workshop was conducted in November 2013. Participants were offered a small incentive of Aus $50 for their time. The workshop was facilitated by two staff members from the Sydney group.
An additional four workshops were conducted in rural South Australian schools. In order to obtain a dataset reflective of demographics of the selected rural South Australian schools, maximum variation sampling was applied [
Due to logistical constraints, particularly at rural schools, the workshops drew on a range of different methods deemed suitable for the context and participants. All workshops explored how young people think about and experience well-being. In addition, methods were deliberately designed to be open and encourage participants to explore the question from a range of perspectives, including using metaphors for well-being. The rural workshops (R1-R4) were run in a
The metropolitan workshop (M1) allowed for the creation of a shared definition of well-being, mapping well-being goals, and activities that could help to achieve these goals using the photovoice method [
Workshop locations and participant demographics.
Workshop | Details |
Metropolitan general young adults (M1) | 12 participants (6 male, 6 female); 17-21 years of age; metropolitan New South Wales |
Rural disengaged school (R1) | 6 participants (5 male, 1 female); 15-22 years of age; inner regional South Australia |
Rural public school (R2) | 5 participants (5 male); 15-18 years of age; outer regional South Australia |
Rural public school (R3) | 5 participants (4 male, 1 female); 15-19 years of age; inner regional South Australia |
Rural private school (R4) | 9 participants (2 male, 7 female); 15-18 years of age; inner regional South Australia |
All five workshops were audiotaped and the recordings were professionally transcribed. Data from each workshop were collected and analyzed as a whole, with no distinction made between comments or terms expressed by male or female participants or participants of differing ages. Inductive, data-driven coding was then used to analyze the transcript and artifact (ie, written or photographed) data [
Despite using a data-driven, ground-up approach, exploration and analysis of the data were conducted in the context of Keyes’ model of well-being. The researchers coded the key themes based on Keyes’ broad categories of social, emotional, and psychological well-being [
Well-being was found to be a diverse concept and was conceptualized in many different ways; however, similar themes emerged between groups. The seven key themes that emerged were as follows: positive emotions and enjoyable activities, physical wellness, relationships and social connectedness, autonomy and control, goals and purpose, being engaged and challenged, and self-esteem and confidence. These themes are outlined below.
In conceptualizing well-being, participants in both groups repeatedly described feelings of happiness and enjoyment. When discussing
In all five workshops, physical wellness was seen as an important aspect of well-being. Participants described the absence of illness (eg, “not going to the hospital”), as well as eating healthily and engaging in physical activity, as important aspects of well-being. Some of the words and activities they described included
Relationships and connections to others played a large role in young people’s understanding of well-being. This occurred at an intrapersonal level (eg, friends and family), as well as at a group (ie, community) level (eg, a football team or club). Participants spoke about
Participants also spoke about altruism and described how behaviors including
Across all groups, participants discussed being independent and in control of their lives and their emotions. They said well-being includes
Not necessarily in control of their surroundings, but in control of themselves.
I’d feel independent, like, I’m in control of my own happiness.
You can’t exactly always rely on other people to make you happy, you have to learn to make yourself happy.
As part of having autonomy and control, participants discussed having their own money and working. Common themes were
Saving [money] feels like you’re moving forward.
Money also goes into part of learning...we're learning to get money, like how to get money, get jobs, we're learning how to respect our money and not just use it all, I guess.
Participants discussed setting and achieving goals and feeling as though they were working toward something. Concepts included
Achieving and celebrating achievement was important, including
Being resilient was also important, particularly in the metropolitan group, as illustrated in the following quote:
Well, if you're feeling down, to be able to get yourself up, get yourself motivated, comes a lot from rugby, really. If you get tackled you have to get yourself up.
A key theme related to well-being was learning new things, trying new things, and challenging yourself in order to grow. Related behaviors included
...not just comfortable, but challenged by your surroundings, like you’re improving yourself because of them.
Taking risks was also important to well-being. One participant used the example of going outside your comfort zone to make new friends, as illustrated in the following quote:
Getting friends, you have to take a risk, to go up to them and say, “Hi, my name is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...” To then hang out with them and all that takes risks, your whole life is about risks.
Participants felt that a person who possesses well-being has high self-esteem and confidence. Rural groups commented that someone with well-being possesses confident body language and
Participants had no difficulty describing actions and things that lead to good well-being and what they perceived well-being to
Although the young people in the study were able to articulate a complex understanding of well-being when asked, they did not think about their well-being on a day-to-day basis, nor did they generally work to improve it. They did not think about well-being unless there was an issue that impacted negatively on them. Young people thought more about well-being when they were stressed. The following responses were given when a workshop moderator asked the trigger question, “Do you think about your well-being?”
Probably when something really bad happens, is probably when you are more likely to think about yourself.
...and in challenging situations.
I feel like in high pressure, as well in Year 12, when things are really full on, you think “Am I sleeping enough? Am I eating enough fruit? Like that kind of thing”...cause you don’t want to just fall over in a heap.
The following responses were given when a workshop moderator asked the trigger question, “What would prompt you to think about your well-being?”
Whenever I am down, I suppose.
Let’s face it, crap feelings are always stronger than nice feelings because, let’s face it...you usually do remember crap days.
Things perceived to be needed for well-being, identified by young people in the workshops, and organized according to the key themes.
Theme | Examples of actions indicating or leading to well-being | Examples of things needed for well-being |
Positive emotions and enjoyable activities | Feeling happy, smiling, laughing, making jokes, positive attitude, having fun, celebrating, shopping, reading, surfing, and gaming | Music, parties, karate, motorbikes, and a good state of mind |
Physical wellness | Healthy eating, exercising, swimming, running, sleeping, drinking water, destressing, and relaxing | Health, fitness, sport, massages, organics, vitamins, and fruits and vegetables |
Social connectedness and altruism | Talking, accepting others, getting together, loyalty, becoming part of teams or clubs, making new friends, being part of your community, fitting in, volunteering, respecting others, treating others well, responsibility for your friends, kindness, and caring | A support network, friends and family, and unconditional love |
Autonomy and control | Protecting yourself, being in control of yourself, being in control of your life, making good choices, rising above, being independent, clearing your mind, letting things go, work-life balance, and “normal” behavior | Safety, stable home life, long drives, freedom, and money |
Goals and purpose | Perseverance, being motivated, setting goals, working toward something, planning, hoping for the future, and recognizing your achievements | Receiving awards and prizes, having purpose or a purposeful lifestyle, and having hobbies |
Being engaged and challenged | Learning, going to school, travelling, exploring, discovery, living in the moment, taking risks, learning from your past mistakes, being outside comfort zone, and competition | A career |
Self-esteem and confidence | Body language, believing in yourself, self-acceptance, being confident, being yourself, being free of embarrassment, and no judgment | Not applicable |
The following response was given when a workshop moderator asked the trigger question, “What does it feel like when you don’t have well-being?”
I picture it [well-being] like a plank of wood...when life sucks, it’s splintered, but when it’s not, it’s like smooth, yeah collected.
Subthemes that emerged in the rural groups, but did not feature in the metropolitan group, related mainly to the role of place in young people’s lives and the concept of
Although the workshops were conducted in five separate locations, similar themes around how well-being is conceptualized by young people emerged in each group. The findings from this study confirm that well-being is indeed multidimensional, with each of the seven themes identified well-supported by previous research [
Keyes’ general well-being categories, for example, social, emotional, and psychological well-being [
The importance of physical wellness for well-being among the participants is consistent with Bourke and Geldens’ [
This study found that young people generally only think about their well-being in times of stress. Similarly, Bourke and Geldens’ [
Despite only thinking about their well-being during times of stress, young people in this study were able to give examples of specific actions and things that lead to positive well-being. Honey et al [
Linking such key elements of well-being with existing actions and behaviors that young people are familiar with has implications for the design of interventions to promote the active pursuit of well-being. The key to intervention design may be to not promote well-being per se—because clearly young people already know it exists and know what to do to maintain it—but rather to use a strengths-based approach to build on existing practices (eg, running, listening to music, and connecting with friends) in ways that enhance and increase young people’s capacity for well-being. In line with McLeod and Wright [
This study had a number of limitations. There was an uneven representation of participants from metropolitan and rural sites. As well, the rural participants were primarily sampled from inner regional sites and were, consequently, unrepresentative of young people living in outer regional and remote Australian locations. Therefore, any findings related to location should be understood in this context. In addition, the method of data collection differed between the metropolitan and rural sites with different questions and stimuli used (eg, the metropolitan group was asked to bring in photos while the rural group was not). However, the different methodologies were not compared in terms of their effectiveness, but should rather be viewed as complementary. These differences in approach between the rural and the metropolitan groups reflected logistic difficulties in setting up workshops at the rural schools. In the rural schools, time constraints meant we were only able to have one session with the participants and it was not possible to have them bring photographs to the classroom using the photovoice approach. For this reason, the World Café style of workshop was adopted.
The data were analyzed as a whole for each group, with no distinction made between comments or terms expressed by participants of differing gender or ages; as well, the socioeconomic status of individual participants was not gathered. While it may have been interesting to investigate differences in conceptualization of well-being between male and female participants and between participants of different ages, this was not the primary focus of the study. Despite the slight variations in method and relatively small sample size, the data derived from the workshops were comparable in that they both involved activities designed to generate participants’ concepts of well-being.
The findings from this study suggest that well-being is a multidimensional concept when conceptualized by young people, with each of the seven themes identified—positive emotions and enjoyable activities, physical wellness, relationships and social connectedness, autonomy and control, goals and purpose, being engaged and challenged, and self-esteem and confidence—being well-supported by previous findings [
Since it appears young people think mostly about their well-being in times of stress, the challenge with online well-being interventions is how to get young people to monitor their well-being before it becomes compromised. A more proactive focus may be the key here, that is, linking the overall concept of well-being to everyday, concrete actions or activities young people engage in and encouraging the creation of routine good habits.
The aims and design of online well-being interventions should resonate with young people’s own views. Well-being should be reframed not in terms of a deficit-based response to a problem, but rather as something that can be proactively fostered. Further research could investigate more about what young people would value most in an online well-being intervention and what factors might best trigger its use.
positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment
This study was funded by the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, Country Health South Australia, and Flinders University. The Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre was established under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program.
NB, MW, GV, VB, SO, and GA conceived of and designed the study, contributed and supervised data collection, analyzed and interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript. MN contributed to the design and analysis of the metropolitan workshops. GS contributed to the design of the study and performed the critical revision of the intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
GV and VB work at Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre. GS works at Country Health South Australia. MW and NB work at Flinders University.