Researching the Links between Education and Well-being

This article focuses on some of the conceptual and empirical issues relating to the links between education and well-being. Recent research has made progress in this area, despite the complexity and the limitations of available measurements and other observations. The first part discusses the ill-defined nature of education and the negative implications this has on research and policy. The second part outlines some of the major relationships that are being explored around the theme of education and well-being. This is not exhaustive but provides an overview of distinct theoretical explanations for the potential causal links. Reference is made to available evidence so as to provide an overview of what is known empirically about some of these possible explanations. The third section discusses some of the empirical limitations and challenges to building up a robust evidence base in this area.