Psychological well-being of the portuguese population

Abstract

Psychological well-being can be understood as the emotional balance between the internal of each individual and the external experiences, that is, it means being well with oneself and simultaneously with others, accepting the demands and difficulties of life, knowing how to deal, cope or manage emotions, maximizing the fullness of life with respect. Research has been showing the enormous importance between psychological well-being and good mental health. The aim of the present study is to assess the level of psychological well-being in the Portuguese population,as wellasto identify determining factors. It is a quantitative study, characterized as observational, transversal and analytical. For the sample selection, the Snowball or Snowball Sampling methodology was used. Thus, this is called non-probabilistic and accidental. By analogy, it is like a snowball that rolls down the hill and as it rolls it increases in size. All ethical principles applied to this type of research were respected, considering the Declaration of Helsinki and the Oviedo Convention. Data collection was carried out in 2020. To this end, we applied an online questionnaire consisting of two parts, the first of which consists of questions of a sociodemographic character (gender, age, marital status, educational qualifications, place of birth, district, municipality and means of residence, type of housing), the second is made up of the Psychological Well-Being Manifestation Scale (EMMBEP). The sample consists of 135 participants, of which 92 are female and 43 are male, aged between 18 and 63 years, where the most frequent age group is between 18 and 39 years (73%) and mostly single (60.74%). In professional terms, the most representative group corresponds to active workers (56.20%), of these 33.87% are working at home and 16.94% are working online. They mostlylivein urban areas(70.37%)and in houses(50.37%). In terms of health, 79.26% reported not having diseases and not taking tranquilizers / antidepressants (87.41%). Regarding psychological well-being, although without statistical significance, higher mean values seem to be observed in males (70.93), in individuals aged 60 and over (69.66), in divorced people (73.66), in students (70), workers working in the workplace (69.04), individuals living in urban areas (68.57) and apartments (68.61%), participants who say they are not sick (69.21) and who take tranquilizers / antidepressants (72.5). Lay-off workers (46) and pensioners (41) have, on average, scores below 60. In conclusion, we observed values above 60 for most people in the sample, with generally good levels of psychological well-being. Except for workers in Lay-off and pensioners. No statistical relationship was identified with the factors analyzed. These data must be considered regarding health decision-making,since groups with low psychological well-being are identified, where the intervention may be of central importance, contributing to raise the level of well-being and therefore the health status of the populations. The sample size may be considered a limit to the present investigation