Abstract
BACKGROUND: Well-being literacy is a relatively new construct that refers to an individual's capacity to intentionally use, understand, and communicate language and knowledge to promote and sustain well-being for oneself and others. Although gaining attention in positive psychology, empirical research on its impact and mechanisms remains limited, particularly regarding its mechanisms of influence on well-being and mental health outcomes in non-English-speaking contexts. OBJECTIVE: This study had two primary aims: (i) to validate the applicability and initial validation of the six-item Well-Being Literacy Scale (Well-Lit 6) among Turkish undergraduate students for the first time, and (ii) to examine whether optimism mediates the relationship between well-being literacy and psychological adjustment problems, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being. METHOD: The study recruited 893 undergraduate Turkish students (58.90% female; M = 21.53 ± 3.99) from Batman University, representing a non-English-speaking educational context. Participants completed the Well-Lit 6, Optimism and Pessimism Questionnaire (optimism subscale), Brief Adjustment Scale-6, Life Satisfaction Scale and Riverside Eudaimonia Scale using an online survey. To validate the Well-Lit 6, confirmatory factor analysis was performed. The proposed mediation model was tested using the PROCESS macro for SPSS (Model 4), with bootstrapping procedures to assess indirect effects. RESULTS: The findings indicated that the Well-Lit 6 had a single-factor structure with high reliability. Mediation analysis showed that well-being literacy was positively related to optimism, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being, and negatively related to psychological adjustment problems. Optimism partially mediated the positive relationships between well-being literacy and both life satisfaction and psychological well-being, as well as the negative relationship with psychological adjustment problems. All indirect effects were statistically significant based on bootstrapped confidence intervals. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: These findings underscore the significance of interventions that promote an optimistic mindset, as such interventions may amplify the positive psychological impact of well-being literacy on life satisfaction and psychological well-being, while also mitigating its negative effects on psychological adjustment difficulties.