IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i11p6755-d829405.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Education for Sustainable Development and Meaningfulness: Evidence from the Questionnaire of Eudaimonic Well-Being from German Students

Author

Listed:
  • Johannes Klement

    (Department of Applied Sciences, International Center for Sustainable Development, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany)

  • Wiltrud Terlau

    (Department of Applied Sciences, International Center for Sustainable Development, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany)

Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD, SDG 4) and human well-being (SDG 3) are among the central subjects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this article, based on the Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-Being (QEWB), we investigate to what extent (a) there is a connection between EWB and practical commitment to the SDGs and whether (b) there is a deficit in EWB among young people in general. We also want to use the article to draw attention to the need for further research on the links between human well-being and commitment for sustainable development. A total of 114 students between the ages of 18 and 34, who are either engaged in (extra)curricular activities of sustainable development (28 students) or not (86 students), completed the QEWB. The students were interviewed twice: once regarding their current and their aspired EWB. Our results show that students who are actively engaged in activities for sustainable development report a higher EWB than non-active students. Furthermore, we show that students generally report deficits in EWB and wish for an improvement in their well-being. This especially applies to aspects of EWB related to self-discovery and the sense of meaning in life. Our study suggests that a practice-oriented ESD in particular can have a positive effect on the quality of life of young students and can support them in working on deficits in EWB.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Klement & Wiltrud Terlau, 2022. "Education for Sustainable Development and Meaningfulness: Evidence from the Questionnaire of Eudaimonic Well-Being from German Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-11, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:11:p:6755-:d:829405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/11/6755/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/11/6755/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    2. Hartog, Joop & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1998. "Health, wealth and happiness: why pursue a higher education?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 245-256, June.
    3. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
    4. Rubén Trigueros & José M. Pérez-Jiménez & Alejandro García-Mas & José M. Aguilar-Parra & José M. Fernandez-Batanero & Antonio Luque de la Rosa & Ana Manzano-León & Noelia Navarro, 2021. "Adaptation and Validation of the Eudaimonic Well-Being Questionnaire to the Spanish Sport Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-9, March.
    5. Michel A. Cara & Constanza Lobos & Mario Varas & Oscar Torres, 2022. "Understanding the Association between Musical Sophistication and Well-Being in Music Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-23, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katharina Voltmer & Maria von Salisch, 2023. "Promoting Subjective Well-Being and a Sustainable Lifestyle in Children and Youth by Strengthening Their Personal Psychological Resources," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kirsten Hillebrand & Lars Hornuf, 2021. "The Social Dilemma of Big Data: Donating Personal Data to Promote Social Welfare," CESifo Working Paper Series 8926, CESifo.
    2. Rasciute, Simona & Downward, Paul & Simmons, Nick, 2023. "Valuation of subjective wellbeing and the role of marital status: Linear versus ordinal estimators," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    3. Feng He & Xin Huang & Guanchun Liu & Ziqiao Wang, 2024. "Does CSR Engagement Deter Corporate Misconduct? Quasi-natural Experimental Evidence from Firms Joining a Government-Initiated Social Program in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 193(3), pages 555-587, September.
    4. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    5. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    6. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2006:i:33:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Heineck, Guido & Süssmuth, Bernd, 2013. "A different look at Lenin’s legacy: Social capital and risk taking in the Two Germanies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 789-803.
    8. Mengyuan Zhou, 2022. "Does the Source of Inheritance Matter in Bequest Attitudes? Evidence from Japan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 867-887, December.
    9. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    10. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," Post-Print halshs-02315734, HAL.
    11. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," IZA Discussion Papers 11210, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Daniel Sutter & Daniel J. Smith, 2017. "Coordination in disaster: Nonprice learning and the allocation of resources after natural disasters," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 469-492, December.
    13. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    14. Gary Bolton & Eugen Dimant & Ulrich Schmidt, 2018. "When a Nudge Backfires. Using Observation with Social and Economic Incentives to Promote Pro-Social Behavior," PPE Working Papers 0017, Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    15. Dwenger, Nadja & Kleven, Henrik & Rasul, Imran & Rincke, Johannes, 2014. "Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivations for Tax Compliance. Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100389, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    17. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    18. Anne Corcos & Yorgos Rizopoulos, 2011. "Is prosocial behavior egocentric? The “invisible hand” of emotions," Post-Print halshs-01968213, HAL.
    19. Francesco Rullani, 2005. "The Debate and the Community. “Reflexive Identity” in the FLOSS Community," LEM Papers Series 2005/18, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    20. Nikolova, Milena & Roman, Monica & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2017. "Left behind but doing good? Civic engagement in two post-socialist countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 658-684.
    21. Josse Delfgaauw & Robert Dur, 2008. "Incentives and Workers' Motivation in the Public Sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(525), pages 171-191, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:11:p:6755-:d:829405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.