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Promoting children’s and adolescents’ mental, physical, and social wellbeing is highly important to help them learn, create social connections, and stay healthy. Nature has the potential to restore cognition, reduce stress and mental fatigue, and improve wellbeing, all factors that are conducive to learning. There is growing interest in understanding the effects of nature on the wellbeing of children and adolescents, particularly in the school context. This paper presents a PRISMA-guided systematic review of the literature examining the effects of school-led nature interventions on the mental, physical, and social wellbeing of school children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years. Examples of school-led nature interventions include outdoor learning, walks in nature and green schoolyards. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies employing quantitative measures were selected, yielding 19 studies from 17 papers. Included studies were rated as being of high (n = 6) and moderate quality (n = 13). The results provide some evidence that nature exposure in the school context can improve the wellbeing of children and adolescents, particularly their positive affect, physical activity, and social relationships/interactions. The wellbeing effects of school-led nature interventions were also examined according to age and gender, with results indicating a gender effect, but inconclusive findings for age. Findings from this review support the integration of nature in schools to enhance the mental, physical and social wellbeing of children and adolescents.

For this review strengths intervention studies were located using online searches and collegial networks and included if they explicitly sought to teach or use a strengths classification to enhance well-being, and used pre- and post-intervention measures and a comparison group. Eight studies met the criteria and have been summarised by this review. To date, the effect sizes achieved by character strengths interventions have been small to moderate. An understanding of how these interventions work may facilitate development of more effective interventions, while expanding the field of character strengths interventions to include a broader range of activities and approaches may also offer benefits. Research examining individual factors, such as strengths use, psychological need satisfaction, goal-setting and goal-striving provides promising leads to explain how strengths interventions work. However, the effect on intervention efficacy of relational or contextual factors, such as intervention environment or facilitator attitude to strengths, has not yet been explored. Implications for interventions in school settings are considered.

There is growing interest in understanding the extent to which natural environments can influence learning particularly in school contexts. Nature has the potential to relieve cognitive overload, reduce stress and increase wellbeing—all factors that are conducive to learning. This paper provides a PRISMA-guided systematic review of the literature examining the effects of nature interventions on the cognitive functioning of young people aged 5 to 18 years. Examples of nature interventions include outdoor learning, green playgrounds, walks in nature, plants in classrooms and nature views from classroom windows. These can vary in duration and level of interaction (passive or active). Experimental and quasi-experimental studies with comparison groups that employed standardized cognitive measures were selected, yielding 12 studies from 11 papers. Included studies were rated as being of high (n = 10) or moderate quality (n = 2) and most involved short-term nature interventions. Results provide substantial support for cognitive benefits of nature interventions regarding selective attention, sustained attention and working memory. Underlying mechanisms for the benefits were also explored, including enhanced wellbeing, cognitive restoration and stress reduction—all likely to be contributors to the nature-cognition relationship. The cognitive effects of nature interventions were also examined according to age and school level with some differences evident. Findings from this systematic review show promise that providing young people with opportunities to connect with nature, particularly in educational settings, can be conducive to enhanced cognitive functioning. Schools are well placed to provide much needed ‘green’ educational settings and experiences to assist with relieving cognitive overload and stress and to optimize wellbeing and learning.

This paper examines the 'what', 'why' and 'how' of employee well-being. Beginning with the 'what' of well-being, the construct of mental health was explored with the aim of building a model of employee well-being. It was proposed that employee well-being consists of three core components: (1) subjective well-being; (2) workplace well-being and (3) psychological well-being. Following this, the 'why' of employee well-being was investigated; that is, why employee well-being should be an important matter for organisations. It was argued that employee well-being is an important precursor to organisational well-being, as indicated by its links to employee turnover and performance. The next section was concerned with the 'how' of employee well-being; that is, how well-being can be reliaby enhanced. Drawing on two models of strengths and a practice model of psychological assessment, it was asserted that strength-based development can reliably enhance employee well-being. A solid framework for understanding and measuring employee well-being is offered in the hope that it will foster a more integrated approach to assessing and optimising employee well-being.

Studies have found that job crafting and employee well-being are correlated. Less is known, however, about the contextual variables that support or thwart job crafting within an organization. The present study examined perceived autonomy support as one such contextual factor. Working adults ( N  = 250) completed a battery of measures on autonomy support, job crafting, and workplace well-being. A hypothesized model in which perceived autonomy support predicts job crafting, which in turn predicts workplace well-being was tested using structural equation modeling. The hypothesized model fit the data well; however, a competing model in which autonomy support and job crafting were separate, but correlated direct predictors of well-being provided a better fit to the data. Supplemental analyses suggested a synergistic relationship between job crafting and autonomy support in organizations, showing employees with the highest well-being did the most job crafting and experienced the highest amount of perceived autonomy support. Findings underscore the importance of both individual factors and contextual factors in supporting workplace well-being.

This study examined the effects of mental imagery ability (MIA) on the efficacy of two positive psychology interventions (PPIs) to enhance well-being. Participants (N = 210) were randomly assigned to either: Three Good Things (TGT), Best Possible Selves (BPS), or a control group and completed well-being questionnaires pre and post intervention. ANCOVA results partially supported the hypothesis that the interventions would significantly increase well-being (measured by the WEMWBS, PA and NA) compared to the control group. Correlations partially supported the prediction that greater effort and motivation towards the PPI would relate to greater increases in well-being. MIA was not found to influence the efficacy of the PPIs, hence, refuting the final hypothesis that participants with high MIA would report greater post-intervention increases in well-being than participants with low MIA (measured by imagery vividness and controllability scales). Well-being was positively correlated with MIA suggesting that improving MIA might facilitate an increase in well-being regardless of PPI use.

Teacher wellbeing has received widespread and increasing global attention over the last decade due to high teacher turnover, growing teacher shortages, and the goal of improving the quality of teaching and student performance. No review has yet sought to undertake a cumulative quantitative assessment of the literature pertaining to teacher wellbeing. Using meta-analysis, we address this gap by systematically examining the relative strength of key antecedents, consequences, and correlates of teacher wellbeing, using the Job Demands-Resources theory as a guide to positioning factors in the nomological network. Following PRISMA guidelines, our systematic search yielded 173 eligible studies for inclusion (N = 89,876). Results showed that hope, autonomous motivation, psychological capital and job competencies were the top four strongest positive predictors of overall wellbeing, whereas neuroticism and disengagement coping were the top two strongest negative predictors. Occupational commitment was the strongest positive consequence of overall wellbeing, and turnover intentions were the strongest negative consequence. Burnout and work engagement were the strongest correlates of overall wellbeing. We also found that some effects were moderated by factors such as whether teachers were in-service or pre-service, and the educational setting (e.g., K-12, initial teacher education). Our review provides a useful empirical resource that may help guide practice in terms of how teachers, school leaders, and policy makers can support teacher wellbeing.

Organisations are frequently confronted with the issue of how to enhance employee mental health. Based on self-determination theory, a model is proposed that examines the relationships between job crafting, the satisfaction of the intrinsic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness at work, and employee well-being—defined here as both subjective well-being and psychological well-being. A sample of 253 working adults completed a battery of questionnaires including the Job Crafting Questionnaire, the Intrinsic Need Satisfaction Scale, and the Mental Health Continuum. Using structural equation modelling methods, it was determined that job crafting predicted intrinsic need satisfaction, which, in turn, predicted employee well-being. The results suggest that job crafting may be an important underpinning upon which to base an employee well-being intervention.

The widespread benefits of creativity have become more salient in recent years. This has led to scholarly interest in finding ways to foster creativity. Nature immersion may be one way to enhance creativity, particularly as many individuals involved in creative pursuits have found nature to be a source of inspiration and a haven for restoration. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews and the PRISMA-ScR 22 item checklist, we conducted a scoping review to examine the evidence on the relationship between nature and creativity as well as any underlying mechanisms facilitating this relationship. A scoping review was deemed appropriate given the infancy of the topic and the need to understand the broad landscape. Our aim was to present a range of interdisciplinary applications of nature interventions on different types of creative performance. We found 45 publications exploring the relationship between nature and creativity, with the majority (n = 36, 80%) published within the past seven years. Overall, the quantitative studies in our scoping review provided evidence of a significant positive relationship, or effect, between nature and creativity. These relationships held across various types of nature including for wilderness, rural and urban settings, as well as in different applications of creativity such as in the arts, workplace, education, and laboratory conditions. Qualitative and case study research also supported the positive relationship between nature and creativity including in diverse nature settings and in different applications such as in visual arts, design, writing, music, free play in kindergartens, and work. Qualitative studies highlighted potential mechanisms behind this relationship, including time in solitude, appreciation of impermanence, relaxation and inspiration, and disconnection from technology. Moreover, the degree of exposure to nature may be an important consideration for creative performance with more immersive, real-life experiences typical of outdoor nature, tending to be more effective than indoor spaces with window views or indoor plants. These preliminary findings suggest that more opportunities to connect with nature, especially in the outdoors, may help to stimulate creativity in a wide range of settings including education, the creative arts, and workplaces, although more high-quality research examining the sustained effects of nature on creativity is needed.

Physiological measures provide a useful complement to self-report indices of mental health and well-being. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) has been associated with mental distress, but less consistently so with positive functioning. In this study, the utility of two CAR indices as a measure of the full spectrum of mental health and well-being in a sample of healthy adolescents was explored. Forty-seven adolescents (14M, 33F; mean age 13.89, SD = .73) completed questionnaires on mental distress and positive functioning, and provided three saliva samples for cortisol analysis as well as demographic and life event information. Correlational analyses revealed that both absolute CAR (CARi) and area under the curve during awakening (CAR AUC ) indices correlated positively with measures of mental distress, and inversely with measures of positive functioning. When the significant life events score was controlled, moderate to strong effects were maintained with negative and positive affect, mental well-being, satisfaction with life and perceived social support from significant others. These findings provide the first data confirming that CAR is a reliable index of positive functioning in healthy adolescents.