Emotional Well-Being and Public Health: Proposal for a Model National Initiative

Abstract

In 2011, the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council named mental and emotional well-being as 1 of 7 priority areas for the National Prevention Strategy. In this article, we discuss emotional well-being as a scientific concept and its relevance to public health. We review evidence that supports the association between emotional well-being and health. We propose a national emotional well-being initiative and describe its 6 components: systematic measurement of emotional well-being, identification of the drivers of emotional well-being, formation of partnerships with diverse stakeholders, implementation and dissemination of evidence-based interventions to promote emotional well-being and its drivers, development of public health messaging, and identification of and strategies to address disparities in emotional well-being and its drivers. Finally, we discuss ways in which a national emotional well-being initiative would complement current public health efforts and the potential challenges to such an initiative.

Emotional wellbeing in youth: A concept analysis

“…The Academic Pediatric Association and many pediatric providers are calling for a paradigm shift from a medical model of healthcare delivery to one embracing emotional wellbeing for youth . The results of this study reflect the critical nature of the need to further develop this area of science.…”

“…Research demonstrates positive self‐esteem is exhibited by youth with emotional wellbeing; and is a recurring theme in the literature describing this concept in this population. This finding was evident across a wide range of participants, ages 5 to 24 years . For example, youth ages 18 to 24 in a descriptive phenomenological study described the centrality of positive self‐esteem to emotional wellbeing with phrases such as “feeling good with yourself,” “being comfortable in your own skin,” and “being happy with who you are.” Another study demonstrated a direct relationship between positive self‐esteem and emotional wellbeing in adolescents .…”

“…Emotional wellbeing in youth can operationally be defined as an overall positive state of emotions, self‐esteem, and resilience that leads to self‐actualization, self‐efficacy, and health‐promoting behaviors. This definition captures the core essence of the concept as described throughout history …”

The Benefits of emotion Regulation Interventions in Virtual Reality for the Improvement of Wellbeing in Adults and Older Adults: A Systematic Review

“…Health and wellbeing are considered as indispensable resources for societies and human development [36]. The World Health Organization (WHO) has placed wellbeing on the "Health 2020: the European policy for health and well-being" agenda as an objective for social progress [37].…”

Pregnant women are still therapeutic orphans

“…Positive mental health is a distinct construct, separate from the absence of disease, that is associated with improved birth outcomes and parenting practices which support favorable child development 8 . Emotional well‐being is an overall positive state of emotional tone, life satisfaction, a sense of meaning and purpose, balance, and ability to pursue personal goals 9 .…”