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Open research questions in Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction

924 gap statements mined from Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 8,527 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Weak convergent validity, limited model fit, and sampling limitations warrant cautious interpretation. The indirect association through loneliness was not significant in some models. The study's findings are sensitive to specification.

    How social skills relate to academic life integration: psychological well-being and loneliness · 2026 · DOI

  • The literature presents different accounts of how Social Skills relate to Psychological Well-Being and academic outcomes. Weak convergent validity, limited model fit, and sampling limitations warrant cautious interpretation.

    How social skills relate to academic life integration: psychological well-being and loneliness · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need to investigate the relationship between daily perceived stress, psychological richness, and social inhibition in emerging adults.

    Across days and levels: psychological richness and perceived social support in stress-related social inhibition · 2026 · DOI

  • The study faced the challenge of assessing life satisfaction in a population with limited autonomy. The study had to consider the specific legal conditions of forensic psychiatric patients. The study had to account for the cross-sectional nature of the study, which does not allow for determining the direction of the relationship or inferring a causal relationship.

    Life satisfaction of patients in forensic psychiatry departments in the context of illness acceptance and clinical and demographic factors · 2026 · DOI

  • The cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow for conclusions about a causal relationship between variables. No p-value correction was applied due to multiple testing. The study had a limited sample size of 121 patients.

    Life satisfaction of patients in forensic psychiatry departments in the context of illness acceptance and clinical and demographic factors · 2026 · DOI

  • The study had a limited sample size of 120 participants. The study had a high attrition rate of 27 participants. The study only included university students from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. The study excluded participants with certain mental and physical health conditions.

    A Mobile App–Based Gratitude Intervention’s Effect on Mental Well-Being in University Students: Randomized Controlled Trial · 2025 · DOI

  • The gap is not explicitly stated, but it can be inferred that the paper aims to address the limitation of considering NFC only as a domain-general trait. The study investigates the domain-specificity of NFC in predicting various aspects of subjective well-being.

    Cognitive Engagement and Subjective Well-Being in Adults: Exploring the Role of Domain-Specific Need for Cognition · 2024 · DOI

  • The study highlights the challenge of enhancing well-being and resilience among university students. The study notes the challenge of addressing the low levels of well-being among university students, along with increasing needs for mental health services and counseling.

    Relationships between Big Five Personality Traits and Psychological Well-Being: A Mediation Analysis of Social Support for University Students · 2024 · DOI

  • Ensuring the sample size is sufficient to represent the student population. Balancing the need for a flexible methodology with the need for a structured approach to data analysis.

    How Can the University Environment Support Student Quality of Life? A Novel Conceptual Model · 2024 · DOI

  • Further research is needed to explore the long-term effects of the gratitude intervention app on mental health symptoms. Studies should investigate the effectiveness of the gratitude intervention app in different populations, such as older adults or individuals with mental health conditions. Research should examine the mechanisms by which the gratitude intervention app exerts its effects on mental health symptoms.

    A Mobile App–Based Gratitude Intervention’s Effect on Mental Well-Being in University Students: Randomized Controlled Trial · 2025 · DOI

  • The main demographic and psychological correlates of Well-Being (WB) are well-established, but have not yet been assessed in the Swedish population–regularly ranked among the world’s top five ranked WB nations–based on large, nationally representative data.

    Swedish Well-Being: The rising importance of age among demographic, personality, and social relationship factors · 2026 · DOI

  • Prior research indicates that growth mindset and meaning in life promote school life satisfaction, yet the relationship between these three factors and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

    Reciprocal Associations Between Growth Mindset and Adolescent School Life Satisfaction: The Longitudinal Mediation Effect of Meaning in Life · 2026 · DOI

  • Prosocial behavior can promote well-being, yet the effects of everyday acts-such as cooking for others-remain understudied.

    Cooking for others is food for the soul: Consistent momentary, but mixed trait‐level well‐being benefits for home cooks · 2026 · DOI

  • However, relatively little is known about how dynamic patterns of gratitude correspond to both fluctuations and stable patterns of life satisfaction, and whether these associations differ as a function of individual factors.

    Dynamic patterns of gratitude and life satisfaction: The role of emotion regulation difficulties and mental health challenges · 2026 · DOI

  • Risk perceptions involving estimates of whether negative events would occur are theorized to be linked to psychological well-being, although there is inconsistent evidence on whether well-being leads to reduced risk perceptions or if risk perceptions lead to reduced well-being.

    Predicting the future from fear: An RI‐CLPM analysis of risk appraisals and long‐term psychological well‐being · 2026 · DOI

  • Using one's signature strengths is a robust predictor of well-being, yet the psychological mechanisms underlying this association remain insufficiently understood.

    Using signature strengths for a good day: Need‐based pathways to daily hedonic, eudaimonic, and social well‐being · 2026 · DOI

  • While Confucian values offer a unique perspective on well-being in travel, they remain under-explored in the framework of character strengths.

    Character strengths, strengths application and tourist well-being: evidence from Chinese tourists · 2026 · DOI

  • While subjective health (SH) is widely used as a measure of well-being, little is known about how personal values influence SH differently between immigrants and nonimmigrants during crises.

    Subjective health and personal values in immigrants and nonimmigrants across Europe: Evidence from the Covid-19 era · 2026 · DOI

  • However, little is known about the role of basic psychological needs in the subjective well-being of adolescents living in different family structures or in residential care.

    Family structure, family affluence and adolescents’ subjective well-being: the mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigate the mechanisms by which perceived social support influences stress-related social inhibition. Examine the generalizability of the findings to other age groups or populations. Explore the potential for interventions targeting daily psychological richness to mitigate the effects of stress on social inhibition.

    Across days and levels: psychological richness and perceived social support in stress-related social inhibition · 2026 · DOI

  • The role of identity content in adolescent subjective well‐being (SWB) is poorly understood.

    Between “we” and “well‐being”: Do basic psychological needs mediate the relationship between interdependent self‐construal and adolescent subjective well‐being? · 2026 · DOI

  • The study only investigated students participating in fieldwork for educational purposes, - The study was conducted during a specific field school in archaeology, - The sample size was limited to 170…

    Archaeological Field School Training and Student Well-Being: A Case Study from The Netherlands · 2025 · DOI

  • Investigating the long-term effects of archaeological fieldwork on student well-being, - Comparing the well-being of students participating in fieldwork to those in traditional classroom…

    Archaeological Field School Training and Student Well-Being: A Case Study from The Netherlands · 2025 · DOI

  • Investigating the role of domain-specific NFC in other contexts, - Examining the relationship between domain-specific NFC and other motivational…

    Cognitive Engagement and Subjective Well-Being in Adults: Exploring the Role of Domain-Specific Need for Cognition · 2024 · DOI

  • The study had a small sample size - The sample was limited to undergraduate students (aged 18-25) from three universities of varying size, age…

    How Can the University Environment Support Student Quality of Life? A Novel Conceptual Model · 2024 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) There is a need to investigate the relationship between daily perceived stress, psychological richness, and social inhibition in emerging adults (“Across days and levels: psychological richness and perceived social support in…”, 2026); (2) Prior research indicates that growth mindset and meaning in life promote school life satisfaction, yet the relationship between these three factors and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear (“Reciprocal Associations Between Growth Mindset and Adolescent School Life…”, 2026); (3) Prosocial behavior can promote well-being, yet the effects of everyday acts-such as cooking for others-remain understudied (“Cooking for others is food for the soul: Consistent momentary, but mixed…”, 2026); (4) Relatively little is known about how dynamic patterns of gratitude correspond to both fluctuations and stable patterns of life satisfaction, and whether these associations differ as a function of individual factors (“Dynamic patterns of gratitude and life satisfaction: The role of emotion…”, 2026); (5) Using one's signature strengths is a robust predictor of well-being, yet the psychological mechanisms underlying this association remain insufficiently understood (“Using signature strengths for a good day: Need‐based pathways to daily hedonic,…”, 2026). 924 gap statements have been mined from Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 8,527 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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