Well-Being and Mental Health in Childhood and Adolescence: Quality of Life, Coping with Daily Stress, and Risk Behaviors

The symposium aims to present empirical evidence on well-being and mental health in childhood and adolescence, integrating quality of life, coping with daily stress, and their relationship with indicators of socio-emotional maladjustment, risk behaviors, addictions, and violence in educational contexts.

The symposium is structured into four presentations addressing the following topics: (1) the analysis of children’s quality of life and its dimensions associated with perceived well-being, considering socio-emotional and educational variables; (2) the study of coping with daily stress (functional and unproductive strategies) in different domains and its association with psychological adjustment, with particular attention to vulnerability/protection profiles and their relationship with variables such as homophobia among secondary school students; (3) the exploration of risk behaviors in adolescence, including patterns of problematic gambling, and their links with specific coping strategies, impulsivity levels, and psychological distress; and (4) the inclusion of well-being and subjective happiness indicators, together with markers of distress such as stress and burnout in educational contexts, analyzing differences according to sociodemographic variables (e.g., gender and nationality).

Results will be presented based on the administered instruments, highlighting the most relevant associations and analyses of differences according to sociodemographic factors. As an element of innovation, artificial intelligence–based analytical methodologies will be incorporated, using neural networks to optimize the identification of risk and protection patterns and profiles. Based on these findings, implications for early detection and the design of psychoeducational and health education interventions in schools and community resources will be discussed. These interventions will aim to strengthen adaptiv.