The notion of well-being incorporates a person’s quality of life. It is, at the same time, a multidimensional concept (OECD, 2020b) with a social and economic dimension, a psychological and mental health dimension, a philosophical dimension and an educational dimension (Mashford-Scott, Church and Taylor, 2012). It includes a sociological focus on external living conditions, a psychological and public health focus on person-related indicators, such as self-efficacy or self-esteem, and a focus on subjective experiences and subjective feelings of happiness or satisfaction.
Well-being is close to the notion of ‘good life’, which refers to a person’s quality of life, and not the quantity of skills they have acquired. It is about enjoying ‘being’, judged by what it brings in the life of others, and the capacity to derive joy from life, which everyone can achieve (Kittay, 2019).
Well-being depends on culture, historical circumstances, socio-economic class and other variables, which illustrate the differences in how well-being is conceived. The notion of well-being has been reshaped during the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to mental and emotional health, among other things.
In a rights-based approach, children can be active participants in defining their well-being and the ways to achieve it (European Agency, 2021b, p. 103).
(See also ‘Mental health’)