Positive education is an emerging paradigm that involves the application of positive psychology principles to the realm of education. Its aim is utterly pragmatic and eminently important: to help improve students’ well-being and learning—the relationship between these two being one of mutual augmentation (Seligman et al. 2009).

Research focusing on positive education has remained relatively distant from mainstream education and educational psychology research. Efforts that draw upon the principles of positive psychology to promote learning have “mostly failed to register on the radar screen of educational psychologists” (Kristjansson 2012, p. 88). Another pertinent gap in positive psychology and positive education research is the lack of attention to the socio-cultural contexts. Most of the published studies have been conducted in what Henrich et al. (2010) have creatively termed as WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) societies. While two-thirds of the world’s population reside in Asia, majority of the positive education literature has come from Western societies.

The lack of Asian samples is apparent in the home journal of positive psychology—the Journal of Positive Psychology. A quick review of the Journal of Positive Psychology until 2016 (volume 11) indicated that only approximately 2 % (roughly 9 out of 410 articles) of the empirical studies were conducted in Asian societies. This is especially problematic given that culture has a key role to play in learning and well-being (Deiner et al. 2003; Kasser 2011; King and McInerney 2014, 2016a, b; Suh and Oishi 2004; Zusho and Clayton 2011). Moreover, several studies have demonstrated that the factors that promote student learning, well-being, and flourishing of Asian students may not always be exactly the same as those found among Western students (e.g., Ahn et al. 2016; Caleon et al. 2015; King 2015; King and Ganotice 2015; Liem 2016; Mesurado et al. 2016; Low et al. 2015).

From a more practical standpoint, in any given year about 20 % of adolescents worldwide experience some form of mental health problem, the most common being depression and anxiety (Birmaher et al. 1996; Saluja et al. 2004; Thapar et al. 2012; World Health Organization 2011). Mental health problems among students are pervasive. There is also high prevalence of depression among university students with estimates showing that between 8 and 34 % of university students around the world are diagnosed with clinical depression (Svanum and Zody 2001; World Health Organization 2011). The rates of mental health problems have been increasing. There is a 4.6 % increase in the incidence of clinical depression among university students (ACHA-NCHA 2009). It has also been shown that teen suicide rates have nearly tripled in the last 50 years (Centers for Disease Control 2003). A large-scale cross-national study has shown that there were higher levels of depression and lower levels of life satisfaction for Asian students compared to those of their European peers (Stankov 2013). Insights drawn from positive education research which focuses on enhancing student functioning can benefit students in general—but these insights would be especially valuable for Asian students.

Given the theoretical and practical importance of positive education research in Asia, we invited papers that used a positive education perspective to explore students’ optimal flourishing in Asian societies. This special issue includes empirical research conducted by a stellar group of authors doing cutting-edge research on positive education in Asia. The topics included several key positive education topics/themes such as hope, resilience, psychological capital, positive emotions, well-being, gratitude, autonomous motivation, positive self-beliefs, and forgiveness among others. The methodologies were equally diverse including correlational, experimental, quasi-experimental/intervention, longitudinal, and qualitative approaches. The samples were drawn from seven different socio-cultural contexts—Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

We organize the special issue into three sections. The first eight papers focuses on positive psychological traits and states and the implications of these constructs for students’ optimal functioning. The second section—eighth to eleventh papers—focus on positive socio-cultural contexts. The last two papers have more pragmatic goals delving on the development and implementation of positive interventions and their implications for student functioning.

The first section commences with the study of Bernardo et al. (2016), which examined the role of hope on students’ learning strategies. Unique among the papers in this special issue, they drew on a cross-cultural dataset with students recruited from four Asian cities (Hong Kong, Macau, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur). They found that internal locus of hope predicted the use of individual learning strategies such as rehearsal, elaboration, and organization. External peer locus of hope predicted the use of collaborative learning strategies. These findings were generally consistent across the four cities. Their study extended theorizing on the role of hope in educational contexts by showing the key contribution of hope that is anchored on one’s friends and its implications for collaborative learning.

Two papers in the first section explored trait resilience—its correlates and dimensions—among Chinese students. Chen (2016) found that resilience positively predicted life satisfaction and positive affect of Chinese university students. These relationships were partially mediated by coping style (task-focused and emotion-focused). Fan et al. (2016) examined the resilience and mental health of Chinese secondary students who survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. They conceptualized a culturally relevant model of resilience comprised of two dimensions: the first is a more individualistic type of resilience reflected by goal planning, affect control, and positive thinking; the second is a more collectivist-oriented type of resilience reflected by family support and help-seeking. Both dimensions of resilience negatively predicted emotional and behavioral problems among the students who were affected by the natural disaster. Both studies make important contributions towards clarifying the theoretical mechanisms that link resilience to well-being.

Psychological capital is a positive motivational state comprised of hope, optimism, efficacy, and resilience (Luthans et al. 2007). It was the focus of two studies that were conducted in the Philippines. Datu and Valdez (2016) showed that psychological capital was a key predictor of academic engagement and well-being of Filipino secondary school students. They found that the positive effects of psychological capital were consistent across a wide range of optimal functioning indices (academic engagement, positive affect, interdependent happiness, and flourishing). Ganotice et al. (2016) explored the role of psychological capital among Filipino teachers. They found that teachers high in psychological capital were more likely to experience better work outcomes (e.g., interpersonal fit, thriving, feelings of competency, recognition, involvement, job dedication, and work performance). The positive association between psychological capital and these various work-related outcomes was found to be significant even after controlling for the effects of demographic variables such as age, gender, and educational attainment. These two studies demonstrate the importance of psychological capital in understanding optimal flourishing among both students and teachers.

Villavicencio and Bernardo (2016) argued that previous research on emotions in the educational context have mostly focused on negative emotions such as anxiety. In their study, they focused on how the positive academic emotions of enjoyment and pride predicted math learning outcomes among Filipino students. Even after controlling for the effects of math anxiety, they found that enjoyment and pride positively predicted math achievement, self-regulation, and self-efficacy.

Moving on from the school domain to the family domain, Xie et al. (2016) investigated the role of indigenous Chinese personality traits and parenting style on various aspects of secondary students’ life satisfaction. Drawing on an indigenous model of personality in the Chinese culture, they found that social potency, emotional stability, interpersonal relatedness, and dependability positively predicted different aspects of life satisfaction. Among the three parenting styles, authoritative parenting was found to be the strongest predictor of various domains of student life satisfaction.

The second section of this special issue, which features four papers, highlights the role of positive socio-cultural contexts in promoting well-being. Yu and Jin (2016) investigated the role of family functioning and classroom environment in predicting Chinese students’ gratitude. In terms of family functioning, they found that family cohesion (i.e., family members’ emotional bonds with each other) positively predicted gratitude towards helpers and gratitude towards adversity. Family adaptability (i.e., family’s ability to adapt to stresses) was found to be a positive predictor of gratitude towards life and sense of abundance in life. In relation to classroom environment, they also reported that positive relationships with classmates predicted gratitude towards helpers, gratitude towards adversity, and gratitude towards life.

The classroom environment was also the focus of the paper written by Maulana et al. (2016). They investigated how teacher autonomy support, relatedness support, and competence support were associated with Indonesian students’ autonomous motivation. Using multi-level modeling, they found that these three teacher support dimensions positively predicted both intrinsic motivation and identified motivation. Interestingly, they found that competence and relatedness support seem to have a stronger role in predicting intrinsic and identified motivation compared to autonomy. They explained this particular finding in light of the collectivist nature of Indonesian society.

Ng and Ye (2016) focused on the role of societal values in predicting Hong Kong university students’ life satisfaction. Values pertain to what people consider important in life. Using Schwartz’s (1992) seminal work on human values, they adopted a longitudinal approach to examine how values and life satisfaction influenced each other across time. They found that conformity and benevolence positively predicted life satisfaction even after controlling for autoregressor effects. They also documented that life satisfaction negatively predicted the adoption of power values even after controlling for autoregressor effects. Their findings, which contradicted results from previous Western research (Sagiv and Schwartz 2000), were explained in light of Hong Kong’s collectivist socio-cultural context.

Zhang (2016) adopted a qualitative case study approach to examine the leadership practices in a Chinese secondary school and how these practices contributed in enhancing the students’ well-being. She found that the school leaders prioritized the promotion of student well-being in the school vision. The school leadership also changed the examination-oriented culture of the school into a well-being-oriented one. This change was made possible by reducing examinations, restructuring the curriculum, using student-centered pedagogy, involving students in decision making, and providing social support for students.

The last section reports on the findings of two studies that evaluated the effects of positive psychological interventions. Liau et al. (2016) asked participants from an institute of higher learning in Singapore to engage in the “best possible self” activity, which entails asking participants to project themselves into the future and imagine that they have met all their goals in every domain of their life (Sheldon and Lyubomirsky 2006). The researchers found that those who participated in the best possible self activity had larger decreases in negative affect compared to those in the control group. This decrease in negative affect was found to be related to changes in depressive symptoms and life satisfaction.

Ji et al. (2016) reported the results of two forgiveness intervention programs conducted among Chinese university students. They pitted the Western-derived Enright’s (2001) process model forgiveness program and the more culturally relevant (Tang 2014) Chinese cultural-values forgiveness program. They found that both programs were equally effective in helping participants forgive their offenders and improving life satisfaction. It also seemed that those in the Chinese cultural-values forgiveness program experienced a slightly higher increase in prosocial intentions and a greater reduction in negative emotional forgiveness.

Collectively, the papers showcased the diversity of positive education research in Asian contexts. The theoretical contributions and methodological rigor of the papers have made significant inroads to advancing our understanding of student optimal functioning. Research, however, is an ongoing journey. In his commentary, Martin (2016) mapped out several directions for future research that could move the field of Asian positive education forward. Future researchers are encouraged to heed his call and build on the strengths of the papers in this special issue. Doing so can help us inch closer towards attaining positive education’s vision of helping students master the “skills of well-being and the skills of achievement” (Seligman et al. 2009, p. 294).