Mapping Global Research on Child Well-Being in School Contexts: A Bibliometric and Network Analysis (1978–2018)

Abstract

Researchers and practitioners have progressively begun to see schools as an ideal environment to promote the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Consequently, the interest in the scientific study of young people’s well-being in school contexts has grown exponentially in the last decades. This study adopts a descriptive bibliometric approach to map global research on child well-being and schooling using metadata extracted from Scopus database over a period of 40 years. The analysis of the publication and citation trends showed that child well-being and schooling research is an emerging research field, which has grown exponentially over the last two decades. Moreover, research on child well-being and schooling is generated in a variety of geographic locations around the world, although some regions are underrepresented. Co-authorship network analyses revealed that researchers in child well-being and schooling tend to work alone or in small groups, and that most of the collaborative research networks are formed within national borders or between institutions that are geographically proximal. Co-citation analysis of journal articles revealed that research on child well-being and schooling is interdisciplinary and draws on the knowledge generated from several interconnected academic disciplines and subdisciplines in the areas of psychology, social sciences, and health sciences. The findings are discussed and implications for the development of the field are presented.