A study about social values and psychological well-being in young people: implications for educational social work

ABSTRACT

Education represents one of the pillars of well-being in any state or society. In turn, educational social work is a profession that intervenes in people’s psychosocial relationships and, in particular, plans different social programs that try to apply successful itineraries in young school children. Social workers acting in the field of education should know what social values interact in young people and the differences that exist based on their sex and age. To this end, an investigation is presented that aims to analyze the psychological well-being of young people in relation to their social values. A quantitative, descriptive, correlational and ex post facto study was carried out, with 385 Spanish youth between 13 and 19 years old. It is concluded that young people prefer values of self-direction, conformity, hedonism and security. Likewise, there is a correspondence between high scores in the dimensions of psychological well-being: self-acceptance, positive relationships, autonomy, domain of the environment, personal growth and purpose of life with high scores of the values benevolence, security, conformity, tradition, achievement, stimulation and self-direction. This relationship takes special relevance in the intervention methods carried out from the Educational Social Work.

KEYWORDS:

• Value system
• psychological wellbeing
• youth
• social work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Javier Páez Gallego

Javier Páez Gallego, He is a professor at the European University of Madrid (UEM). PhD in Education from the National University of Distance Education, Graduated in Social Work and Psychology. His research area addresses the axiological dimension of the human being.

Ángel De-Juanas Oliva

Ángel De-Juanas Oliva, He is Senior Lecturer of Social Pedagogy in National Distance Education University (UNED, Spain). PhD in Educational Psychology (UCM) and graduated in Psycho-pedagogy and Teaching (UCM). Member of the research group Socio-educational Intervention (UNED) and Study Coordinator of the Master in Educational Intervention in Social Contexts.

Francisco Javier García Castilla

Fco. Javier García-Castilla, He is Professor of Social Work and Social Services at the National University of Distance Education (UNED, Spain). Doctor in Sociology in the program of Exclusion and Social Politics (UPCO) and graduate in Social Work and Sociology (UPCO). Member of the research group Socio-educational Intervention (UNED) and Teaching Secretary for studies of the Master in Educational Intervention in Social Contexts.

María José Díaz Santiago

María José Díaz Santiago, Doctor in Sociology. She is an Assistant Professor of PHd, Department of Applied Sociology Unit. Faculty of Economics and Business, Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). She is part of the international research group Charles Babbage in Social Work Sciences (UCM) and recently of the TABA International Research (UNED). Research on social inclusion and human rights. It has articles and international research on Work, Youth and Gender.