What are female middle school aged youths’ experiences with Self-Efficacy?: Findings from an Interdisciplinary Social and Emotional Learning Intervention
Comparisons of Gait Patterns and Muscle Properties in Ballet Dancers with Different Skill Levels
POSTER 13
Mattering, Wellness, and Fairness in Context: How Diverse Groups Suffer and Thrive
Abstract
Wellness, fairness, and mattering are central concerns in community psychology. Wellness is a positive state of affairs, in multiple domains of life, derived from the satisfaction of subjective and objective needs. Fairness can be defined as the practice of justice. Fairness is multifaceted, entailing, among others, distributive, procedural, and corrective justice. Mattering derives from feeling valued and having opportunities to add value. There is evidence that wellness is highly influenced by both fairness and mattering. These three psychosocial goods make up an interactional model embodying conditions for the common good. The common good refers to an ecological framing of well-being. Research suggests that fairness affects wellness directly and indirectly through mattering. Fairness, mattering, and wellness are experienced in different manners through the context of diverse groups. We submit that the extent to which diverse groups suffer or thrive depends on the presence or absence of wellness, fairness, and worthiness in their lives. We explore this argument in four groups: LGBTQAI+, Muslim women in Indonesia, Black women navigating predominantly white higher education institutions, and Black adolescent women in high schools. We argue that the mattering, wellness, fairness (MWF) model can be usefully applied to understand the situation of diverse groups, reduce their suffering, facilitate their thriving, and foster solidarity. The model would also help to envision the future direction of how these communities could thrive when considering what prevents and promotes their sense of mattering, wellness, and fairness.