About this Research Topic
The mental health burden is increasing, posing challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. Aiming to reduce this burden, new models of care are using some concepts of the positive psychology to generate observational evidence and to propose interventions, such as the case of values, virtues, and flourishing. Flourishing is defined by VanderWeele as "the relative attainment of a state in which all aspects of a person's life are good including the contexts in which that person lives”, which includes domains of human life such as (i) happiness and life satisfaction; (ii) health, both mental and physical; (iii) meaning and purpose; (iv) character and virtue; and (v) close social relationships and four pathways, i.e., family, work, education, and religious community. These domains have been increasingly studied over the past decades and are based on a less disease-oriented and a more person-centred view of healthcare.
Although there is a consolidated literature investigating the factors associated with mental health and well-being among different populations, more evidence is needed concerning the role of values, virtues, and flourishing. This research topic aims to understand further the role of flourishing or its associated factors on the well-being and mental health of different populations, bringing new insights and novel approaches to address the mental health of individuals. For this topic, we are considering the following associated factors of flourishing: forgiveness, meaning, purpose, character/virtues, kindness, altruism, volunteering, spirituality/religiosity/transcendence, gratitude, savoring, compassion, resilience, family, and flourishing as a general term (preferred). To achieve this goal, we are seeking high-quality studies that could bring novel findings, generate robust data, propose new interventions, and explore the mechanisms of actions for the relationship between different domains of flourishing and mental health.
This Research Topic will include the following topics:
- Understanding the definitions and concepts of flourishing based on systematic or scoping reviews of the literature
- Systematic reviews with meta-analysis concerning the association between flourishing or its associated factors on the mental health and/or well-being of individuals
- Observational (preferred longitudinal) studies assessing how flourishing, or its associated factors may have an influence on the mental health and well-being among different populations
- Studies (experimental or quasi-experimental) proposing and investigating the effectiveness of different flourishing interventions or its associated factors on the mental health and well-being of individuals
- Studies addressing the mechanisms by which flourishing, or its associated factors may lead to mental health and well-being outcomes
- Studies that use instruments/scales of flourishing - Qualitative studies (following COREQ or SRQR checklists) aiming to understand flourishing and its relationship with mental health.
Although there is a consolidated literature investigating the factors associated with mental health and well-being among different populations, more evidence is needed concerning the role of values, virtues, and flourishing. This research topic aims to understand further the role of flourishing or its associated factors on the well-being and mental health of different populations, bringing new insights and novel approaches to address the mental health of individuals. For this topic, we are considering the following associated factors of flourishing: forgiveness, meaning, purpose, character/virtues, kindness, altruism, volunteering, spirituality/religiosity/transcendence, gratitude, savoring, compassion, resilience, family, and flourishing as a general term (preferred). To achieve this goal, we are seeking high-quality studies that could bring novel findings, generate robust data, propose new interventions, and explore the mechanisms of actions for the relationship between different domains of flourishing and mental health.
This Research Topic will include the following topics:
- Understanding the definitions and concepts of flourishing based on systematic or scoping reviews of the literature
- Systematic reviews with meta-analysis concerning the association between flourishing or its associated factors on the mental health and/or well-being of individuals
- Observational (preferred longitudinal) studies assessing how flourishing, or its associated factors may have an influence on the mental health and well-being among different populations
- Studies (experimental or quasi-experimental) proposing and investigating the effectiveness of different flourishing interventions or its associated factors on the mental health and well-being of individuals
- Studies addressing the mechanisms by which flourishing, or its associated factors may lead to mental health and well-being outcomes
- Studies that use instruments/scales of flourishing - Qualitative studies (following COREQ or SRQR checklists) aiming to understand flourishing and its relationship with mental health.
Keywords: flourishing, positive psychology, psychiatric disorders, values, virtues, depression, forgiveness, spirituality, meaning, gratitude, resilience
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
