Towards a cross-disciplinary framework for promoting youth wellbeing

Abstract

The youth wellbeing literature draws upon the fields of Positive Education, Positive Youth Development, Social and Emotional Learning, Coaching and Mentoring Psychology and Quality of Life, collectively referred to as the Youth Wellbeing Fives (YWB Fives). Despite their individual efforts to promote mental health and address mental health issues, no study to date has explored their collective contributions (intersections) towards this goal, nor has a framework been developed to understand the benefits of collaboration between youth wellbeing scholars from different fields. This paper develops a framework for promoting the cross-disciplinary study of youth wellbeing, and critically reviews the contributions of individual and collective YWB Fives to enhancing the wellbeing of young people. Given their complementary approaches and combined influence on successful interventions, we illuminate possibilities for intersections to exist among the YWB Fives. Insights gained have various research and practical applications; these include providing a rationale for future youth studies to empirically measure intersections among the YWB Fives, and encouraging the development, delivery and evaluation of cross-disciplinary interventions to ensure widespread access to wellbeing services by all young people.