ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Positive Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1598910
A PERMA-nent solution to Understanding Psychological Wellbeing? -Exploring the Utility of a Wellbeing Model in a University Workplace
Provisionally accepted
- 1Health and Wellbeing, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- 2INSiGHT Therapeutics & Consulting, Singapore, Singapore
- 3Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
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Having been diagnosed with a psychological health concern is associated with lower wellbeing and subjective quality of life. However, there is little literature on whether individuals who suspect they have a psychological health condition (SPHC) face these same challenges. The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between SPHC, workplace wellbeing, and subjective quality of life (sQoL) so that future workplace wellbeing interventions can be initiated within a diverse university workplace. A secondary aim is to determine if there exist areas of wellbeing important to a multicultural population above and beyond the key components of wellbeing as defined by Martin Seligman's Wellbeing Theory, namely positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement.Results: First, individuals with SPHCs reported significantly lower wellbeing and sQoL as opposed to individuals who did not suspect they had a PHC. Second, workplace wellbeing mediated the relationship between levels of distress and sQoL.Finally, qualitative analysis uncovered five additional lay conceptualisations of wellbeing in addition to the five facets identified in Wellbeing Theory. The additional identified themes include psychological health, physical health, balance, meeting of basic needs, and autonomy. Implications are discussed.
Keywords: Workplace wellbeing, Mental Health, PERMA, subjective quality of life, multicultural population
Received: 24 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ng, Chu and Doshi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiao Hui Ng, Health and Wellbeing, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
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