Flourishing and its predictors and links to health outcomes are well documented in adults, including among those facing adversities. Less is known about flourishing and its correlates among children, especially those who face circumstances such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), chronic illness, or poverty. Studies show that flourishing is distinct from an absence of physical or mental illness and other adversities; that flourishing can and does exist amid these circumstances; and that health outcomes vary widely among individuals exposed to similar levels of adversity. Understanding the factors that promote flourishing amid adversity is an important public health need for children and families.
A recent systematic review of human flourishing models identified six overlapping positive attributes used to define flourishing: meaning, engagement, positive relationships, competence (or accomplishment), positive emotion, and self-esteem (or self-worth). Among these six attributes, meaning and engagement in life were common to each flourishing model. Positive emotions were least consistently included in definitions of flourishing.
There is a robust literature on flourishing, its specific attributes, and how it is measured and relates to other concepts such as well-being. In terms of the six attributes listed above, flourishing is similar to measures of subjective well-being, such as those used by the World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, flourishing is distinct from other comprehensive measures of well-being, such as the Gallup measure, which includes reflective evaluations of life satisfaction, having financial and social needs met, and experiencing physical vitality; the United Nations Children’s Fund child well-being measure, which includes objective measures related to material, educational, health, safety, housing, and environmental resources and health behaviors and risks; and a recently developed population well-being measure to explain disparities in life expectancy.
Attributes of flourishing identified in research on adults are reflective of goals for promoting the healthy development of children, as set forth in research and national frameworks and guidelines. This includes healthy social and emotional development and cultivating an open and engaged approach to learning. Because of children’s developmental status and reliance on parent or teacher reports of children’s attributes for measurement validity reasons, measuring flourishing for children typically focuses on parents’ or other adults’ reports of observable attributes of children. In contrast, adult measures of flourishing typically rely on self-reports.
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