Student Wellbeing

For all students – and especially those with support needs. They may experience barriers due to:

• A disability or chronic illness
• Psychological complaints such as stress or anxiety
• Informal care, pregnancy or young parenthood
• Gender transition or other personal circumstances
• Financial concerns or social exclusion

Every student is entitled to appropriate support in order to study successfully. This requires adjustments in education, as well as attention and understanding from education professionals.

Education as a health environment | According to WHO, health is strongly linked to the environment in which people learn, live and work. This means that educational institutions also influence student well-being. Consider:

• policies that focus on prevention as well as support.
• physically accessible buildings
• a safe social climate
• flexible schedules and customized guidance
• teachers who identify, listen and support

Student wellness requires not one solution, but a culture where it is normal to ask for help, share emotions and support each other. As a teacher, counselor or policymaker, you can make a difference in this.

Student wellbeing is a broadly definable term. Student wellbeing deals specifically with the wellbeing of the student during the study career. And is thus narrower than wellbeing in general. There are extensive definitions but also very concise ones, such as De Fraine’s (2005): “The degree to which a student feels well in the school environment. And Fraillon’s (2004) definition: ‘The degree to which a student functions effectively in the school community’. The terms they use such as “functioning effectively” or “feeling good” are still open to broad interpretation. English et al (2004): ‘A positive emotional state resulting from a harmony between the sum of specific contextual factors on the one hand and personal needs and expectations regarding the school on the other’. Noble’s (2008), NSSF’s (2011) definitions: ‘Optimal student wellbeing is a sustained emotional state characterized by a (predominantly) positive mood and attitude, positive relationships with other students and teachers, resilience, self-optimization and a high degree of satisfaction with learning experiences at school’ and Gubbels and Kappe (2017) are the most appropriate. For this reason, Gubbels and Kappe’s most recent definition is used with the additional element of self-optimization (from NSSF’s definition):

“A sustained positive mental state characterized by resilience, self-optimization, satisfaction with oneself, engaging in relationships and gaining experiences during college years and characterized by the absence of psychological symptoms such as stress, anxiety and depression.” – From Gubbels and Kappe

• World Health Organization definition WHO: “Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (2022).
• Definition Universities of the Netherlands: ‘Student wellbeing is a state of wellbeing in which a student is able to use his or her abilities, cope with the normal stresses of student time, work productively on his or her own development, monitor the balance between positive aspects and negative aspects of student time and contribute to the academic community and society. Student wellbeing is emphatically broader than just mental wellbeing and includes a measure of physical, social and cognitive wellbeing characterized by resilience, where personal and academic development can flourish optimally and student success is promoted” (2022).
• Definition different higher education professionals: from interviews, they gave as positive aspects of student wellbeing: developing yourself, adaptability/ being able to cope with life’s challenges, resilience, daring to be open and ask for help, self-direction study: going through the study as the student wishes and motivated and healthy students. In addition, loneliness, performance pressure and stress were mentioned as negative aspects.

Mental health: A health environment is a place or social context where people conduct their daily activities and where interaction between environmental, organizational and personal factors influence mental health and wellbeing. Thus, one can think of an educational institution as a health environment(WHO Health Promotion Glossary, 1998). WHO (1986) also states that health is influenced by how people experience their daily lives, because that is where they live, learn, and love.

• WHO defines mental health as a state of wellbeing in which each individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to contribute to his or her community.
• Pury & Dicks: Mental health is determined by a range of individual, interpersonal, community, environmental and structural factors. “Functioning” and “social and community factors,” such as a person’s home and living environment, can also be influencing, protective or risk factors and thus be seen as determinants of mental health (Pury & Dicks, 2021).

Wellbeing: ‘When people talk about wellbeing, it is not only about the emotional aspect (feeling happy and satisfied) but also about factors that contribute to feeling good. Think of the following areas: emotional, mental, behavioral, physical and social’ (Trimbos, 2021). In short, wellbeing is then about working on an environment that contributes to developing a healthy, social and independent person.

“A positive feeling and being (able to) be positive in life, self-confidence, happiness, perseverance and energy, a feeling that you matter, self-esteem, experiencing support from the environment, knowing how to handle your own emotions well”() – Definition NCJ, NIP, NJI, Pharos and Trimbos, 2021