REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Positive Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1601955
This article is part of the Research TopicPositive Higher Education: Empowering Students through Learning and WellbeingView all 19 articles
Well-Being Interventions in U.S. Colleges: A Scoping Review from a Positive Higher Education Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of La Verne, La Verne, United States
- 2The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
In response to growing concerns about student mental health, this scoping review synthesizes 40 peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2009 and 2024 on well-being interventions for undergraduate students in U.S. higher education, examined through the emerging lens of Positive Higher Education. Drawing from diverse methodologies and interventions—including mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychoeducation, and positive psychology strategies—the review examines how well-being is defined, implemented, and assessed across curricular and co-curricular contexts. While many interventions demonstrated positive outcomes, particularly in reducing stress and enhancing psychological well-being, the field remains limited by conceptual ambiguity, inconsistent theoretical frameworks, and insufficient attention to long-term institutionalization and sustainability. Most studies lacked a clearly articulated definition of well-being, and relatively few were embedded in academic curricula. This review underscores the need for a coordinated, theory-informed approach to integrating well-being as a core educational outcome, aligned with the values of liberal arts education. It concludes with a call to develop a Positive Higher Education Implementation Toolkit to guide institutions in embedding well-being into policy, pedagogy, and practice.
Keywords: Well-being, higher education, positive education, positive higher education, well-being interventions
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Zhao, Bean, Robbins and Mahrer. 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: Grace Xia Zhao, University of La Verne, La Verne, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.