Who Thrives Where? A Multilevel Latent Profile Analysis of Students’ Well-Being Across the Globe

Promoting student well-being has become a central concern in education, given its strong associations with academic success and long-term life outcomes. However, most research has emphasized hedonic aspects of well-being ignoring the eudaimonic dimensions of well-being. Additionally, prior studies have focused mostly on quantitative differences in well-being, overlooking the existence of qualitative differences in how various dimensions of well-being co-occur within individuals. Last, studies have mostly explored student well-being as an individual phenomenon, putting less emphasis on the collective aspects of well-being. To address these gaps, this study employs a multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) using data from the PISA 2018, encompassing 406,953 students nested within 10,173 schools in 76 regions worldwide, to examine both student- and school-level well-being profiles. At the student level, five distinct profiles were identified: Flourishing (17.6%), Moderate (53.7%), Languishing (5.1%), Low Hedonic (19.6%), and Low Eudaimonic (4.0%), reflecting meaningful variations in student well-being. At the school level, three well-being profiles emerged: High (33.9%), Moderate (28.0%), and Low (38.1%) Well-Being Schools. A range of individual and school-level factors, particularly school climate, were associated with profile membership. Various aspects of school climate such as cooperative peer environments, teacher enthusiasm, and lower bullying levels were particularly salient in distinguishing more adaptive profiles at both student and school levels. By uncovering multilevel patterns of well-being across a large and international sample, this study foregrounds student well-being as both an individual and collective phenomenon.