Psychological Well-Being from the Perspective of Sustainable Development: Second Edition

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Second Edition of the Special Issue titled “Psychological Well-Being from the Perspective of Sustainable Development”, to be published in the open-access journal Sustainability. In recent years, there has been increasing recognition that mental health and psychological well-being are not only outcomes of sustainable development but also key enablers of environmentally and socially responsible behavior. The global challenges we face—climate change, social inequality, economic instability—require psychologically resilient and engaged individuals. This research area is gaining momentum across disciplines, calling for new frameworks and rigorous methodologies that explore how psychological dimensions contribute to sustainable lifestyles and communities.

This Special Issue aims to explore psychological well-being within the broader framework of sustainable development, with a particular focus on psychometric approaches. It is aligned with the aims and scope of Sustainability, which promotes interdisciplinary research connecting human wellbeing, social justice, and ecological responsibility. We seek to highlight how psychological factors can serve both as drivers and outcomes of sustainability. A central objective is to collect contributions that use or develop validated tools to assess sustainability-related psychological constructs, offering methodological and applied insights.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and review papers are welcome. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies, empirical research using validated scales, and theoretical contributions linking well-being to sustainability science.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Development and validation of psychometric tools to assess sustainable well-being;
• Studies on eco-anxiety, sustainable happiness, environmental engagement, and sense of community;
• Mental health and pro-environmental behavior;
• Psychological resources in climate adaptation and environmental activism;
• Educational and community interventions promoting psychological well-being and sustainability;
• Cross-cultural comparisons of psychological well-being in sustainable contexts;
• Methodological innovations in assessing psychological indicators of sustainability;
• Policy implications of psychological research in sustainability.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Maria Rita Sergi
Prof. Dr. Alessandra Fermani
Dr. Marco Tommasi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.