Benefits of well-being: Health, social relationships, work, and resilience

Abstract

Well-being has been strongly linked to many important life facets ranging from physical and mental health to social relationships to academic and work performance. Not only has it been associated with many beneficial outcomes across these realms, but it has also been demonstrated to predict positive changes in these key areas of functioning. In this article, we will review the benefits of high subjective well-being (high positive affect and life satisfaction and low negative affect) for health, resilience, work performance, and social relationships. Using multi-method assessments and approaches as well as cross-cultural findings, we review the evidence which vastly supports a strong link between well-being and crucial life domains. Gaps in our understanding of this connection and areas for future research to address the limits of our knowledge assessing the beneficial outcomes of well-being will be discussed. Implications of the link between well-being and important life outcomes for practical applications including interventions and preventative policy work are provided.