Evolution of Research on Happiness and Education: A Bibliometric Review (2019-2025)
When we set out to study the production of research on the relationship between happiness and education, we need a method that helps us cover large volumes of articles and identify patterns that are not always evident at first glance. In this context, bibliometrics is an extremely useful tool to map the state of the art and understand the direction in which research is headed.
In the study we conducted, the Scopus database was chosen as the source due to its extensive coverage of academic journals and its reliability in terms of indexing. To filter the results, a search strategy combining terms such as happiness and education was applied, limiting the temporal period from 2019 to 2025. This time delimitation allowed us to capture the most recent trends.
Once the articles were obtained, the data cleaning process was carried out to eliminate duplicates and works that were not directly related to the topic. Subsequently, bibliometric analysis techniques were employed: - Publication trend analysis to observe the annual evolution of the studies. - Keyword and co-occurrence analysis to identify the most frequent terms and how they are thematically grouped. - Co-authorship networks to see how collaborations are formed among researchers, institutions, and countries.
For processing and visualizing these data, Bibliometrix and its graphical version, Biblioshiny, were used within the R environment. This software facilitates both the organization and interpretation of the results, as well as the generation of graphs, thematic maps, and collaboration networks that provide a panoramic view of the research in the field.
The main findings of the study were as follows:
Growth in the Number of Publications:
- A sustained increase in academic production was observed between 2019 and 2022, with a slight decline in 2025.
- This pattern suggests a growing interest in integrating the perspective of well-being and happiness within the educational sphere.
Dominant and Emerging Themes:
- Main themes: happiness, education, resilience, well-being, and emotional intelligence.
- Emerging themes: social capital, ethics, and mental health in relation to education.
- The increasing relevance of mental health and resilience highlights the importance of emotional factors in the teaching-learning process.
Most Productive Authors and Institutions:
- Authors such as LAM, TAI HING and WANG, MAN PING stand out, with a significant volume of publications.
- Among the institutions, the University of Hong Kong and the University of Turku appear as key players in generating knowledge in this field.
Co-authorship Networks:
- Several clusters of researchers were identified, some with strong internal ties but with limited interconnection between groups.
- This fragmentation indicates the need to foster interdisciplinary and transnational collaborations to enrich the field.
The results of this bibliometric analysis highlight the growing importance of happiness and well-being in education—a field that, although traditionally focused on academic performance, has increasingly begun to incorporate the socio-emotional dimension. The emergence of themes such as emotional intelligence, resilience, and mental health signals a shift toward a comprehensive understanding of the student, where emotions are considered a determining factor for academic success and personal development.
Furthermore, the fragmentation within collaboration networks suggests that, despite the existence of consolidated research groups, there is still a long way to go in terms of connecting different disciplines (psychology, pedagogy, neuroscience, sociology, etc.). This point is fundamental, as contemporary educational challenges demand integrated, evidence-based responses coming from multiple areas of knowledge.
The preprint of the study can be accessed at: https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.11337