Special Issue "Contextual and Psychological Variables Facilitating Psychosocial Well-being and Adjustment: Perspectives for a Sustainable Psychological Development"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 23 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Arantzazu Rodríguez-Fernández
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of the Basque Country, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Interests: education; educational research; psychology
Prof. Dr. Arantza Fernández-Zabala
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of the Basque Country, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Interests: education; educational research; psychology
Prof. Dr. Eider Goñi-Palacios
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of the Basque Country, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Interests: education; educational research; psychology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the central objectives of the psychology of sustainability is to achieve an improvement in the quality of life and wellbeing of people through the achievement of a good psychosocial adaptation or psychosocial adjustment. Since the emergence of the current of positive psychology, the wellbeing (with its different meanings of happiness, subjective wellbeing, life satisfaction, and positive affectivity) and psychosocial adjustment (understood as adequate adaptation to the academic, work, or socio-personal environment) of the individual have been acquiring greater relevance. Hence, wellbeing and psychosocial adjustment are widely recognized by the scientific community as key objects of study, also within the framework of the psychology of sustainability.

It is known that the social support of the closest contexts has both a direct and indirect impact on the adequate psychological development and adaptation of the individual to his or her environment. It has also been found that several psychological variables (resilience, self-concept, emotional intelligence, academic motivation, critical thinking, etc.) are associated with higher rates of wellbeing and psychosocial adjustment. However, it is necessary to delve, on the one hand, into whether these variables or other different contextual and psychological variables would ultimately facilitate a more sustainable psychological development, and, on the other hand, into the dynamics of the relationships established between all of them.

Psychosocial wellbeing and adjustment, as a sustainable development objective proposed by the United Nations, should be promoted within the framework of primary prevention. Knowing all the above-mentioned unknowns that are still pending clarification will help to design and implement primary interventions that will make it possible to prevent psychological problems or disorders, thus guaranteeing better academic, occupational, or sociopersonal adjustment. Only in this way, on the basis of empirically contrasted data, will the scientific community be able to develop rigorous interventions on variables related to wellbeing and psychosocial adjustment, and act within a preventive framework focused on improving the sustainable development of individuals.

The psychology of sustainability seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of the individual through an adequate psychological adjustment as well as an optimal adjustment in their different areas of life (work, school, family, social).

In recent years, wellbeing (with its different meanings of happiness, subjective wellbeing, life satisfaction, positive affectivity) and psychosocial adjustment (understood as an adequate adaptation to the academic, work or socio-personal environment) of the individual have been acquiring greater relevance in the framework of the psychology of sustainability.

It is known that the support offered by the people included in the closest contexts has both a direct and indirect impact on the adequate psychological development and adaptation of the individual to his or her environment. It has also been proven that several psychological or individual variables are associated with higher indices of quality of life, well-being, adjustment, etc. However, it is necessary to go deeper into these variables and their relationship dynamics.

 Only in this way, on the basis of empirically contrasted data, will the scientific community be able to develop rigorous interventions on variables related to well-being and psychosocial adjustment, and act within a preventive framework focused on improving the sustainable development of individuals.

This Special Issue will include a series of articles that analyze the main psychosocial variables involved in the improvement of psychosocial adjustment and well-being, in order to bring together the most recent and updated research on the subject. This will facilitate the design and implementation of actions aimed at the prevention and promotion of an adequate psychological development within the Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development.

Keywords

  • social support
  • family
  • friends
  • teachers
  • resilience
  • emotional intelligence
  • self-concept
  • school adjustment
  • personal adjustment
  • psychological well-being
  • life satisfaction
  • positive and negative affect
  • critical thinking
  • psychological development
  • sustainable psychological development
  • motivation
  • adaptation
  • adaptation to the environment
  • engagement
  • education
  • psychological and social environment
  • adjustment risk prevention

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Academic Help-Seeking Attitudes, and Their Relationship with Emotional Variables
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6120; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116120 - 28 May 2021
Viewed by 609
Abstract
Academic help seeking is a self-regulatory strategy that is closely related to students’ school functioning and successful school outcomes. The aim of the present study is to gain greater insight into the associations between help-seeking behavior and attitudes (i.e., emotional costs, perception of [...] Read more.
Academic help seeking is a self-regulatory strategy that is closely related to students’ school functioning and successful school outcomes. The aim of the present study is to gain greater insight into the associations between help-seeking behavior and attitudes (i.e., emotional costs, perception of benefits, threats and avoidance of academic help seeking), and socio-emotional factors (i.e., functional social support, satisfaction with life, happiness, academic and social self-concept, emotional loneliness and social network). Two hundred and thirty-two students from three public secondary schools (53.9% girls; mean age = 16.61, SD = 2.85) participated in this study by completing the assessment form during school hours. As expected, the results showed significant associations between attitudes toward academic help seeking and socioemotional factors except for (1) perceived emotional cost of academic help seeking and happiness, academic self-concept and social network, (2) threat of academic help seeking and satisfaction with life and social network and (3) avoidance of academic help seeking and social network, in which cases the correlations were not significant. Finally, (1) emotional loneliness was found to be a significant predictor of the perceived emotional cost of academic help seeking, (2) functional social support, academic self-concept, social self-concept and subjective evaluation of the social network were found to be significant predictors of the perceived benefits of academic help seeking, (3) emotional loneliness and academic self-concept were found to be significant predictors of both threat of academic help seeking and avoidance of academic help seeking. The results of this study suggest that psycho-emotional variables play an important role in academic help-seeking strategies and can affect students’ final behavior in help seeking. Full article
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