Science Daily – Staff Writer
Encouraging adolescents to feel capable and purposeful — rather than just happy — could improve their academic results as well as their mental health, according to new research which recommends changing how wellbeing is supported in schools. The study involved over 600 teenagers from schools in England and examined two aspects of wellbeing: life satisfaction (which roughly equates to how happy a person is) and ‘eudaimonia’, which incorporates feelings of competence, motivation, self-esteem and of ‘functioning well’. Students with higher eudaimonia consistently outperformed peers in GCSE-level assessments, especially Maths. The study’s lead author suggests that attention to these aspects of wellbeing could improve some pupils’ Maths scores ‘by a couple of grades’. There was no link between academic performance and life satisfaction. Despite this, life satisfaction — helping children to feel ‘happy’ and suppress negative thoughts — remains the focus of wellbeing education in English schools.