Optimizing Health and Well-Being Across the Lifespan: A Multidimensional Health Psychology Perspective

Across modern life and work contexts - characterized by uncertainty, complexity, and accelerating demands- sustaining human performance and well-being has become both a psychological and public health priority. Human Performance Optimization (HPO) offers a unifying framework that views optimal functioning as the outcome of dynamic interactions among cognitive, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual domains. Originally rooted in performance-critical settings such as the military, HPO has evolved into a multidimensional approach relevant to healthcare, education, sport, and organizational life. Within health psychology, this paradigm resonates with holistic and positive health models that emphasize resilience, adaptability, and meaning as pillars of sustained human effectiveness and flourishing. Despite growing interest, there remains a need to better understand how these interwoven processes promote lasting well-being and to translate them into evidence-informed practices. This Research Topic aims to deepen the understanding of the psychological, behavioral, and environmental mechanisms that enable individuals and groups to perform effectively while preserving health across the lifespan. It invites exploration of how self-regulation, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, hope, and purpose interact with physical and social conditions to foster resilience and recovery. Contributors are encouraged to examine interventions, models, and technologies that integrate multiple domains of readiness, combining physiological, cognitive, and psychosocial viewpoints, to create sustainable systems of human performance. By drawing on frameworks from positive, health, and organizational psychology, the Topic seeks to bridge individual well-being with collective functioning, translating theory into action in real-world settings. The Topic welcomes contributions spanning the continuum from prevention to optimization, with an emphasis on holistic integration and translational impact. To enrich this dialogue, we invite submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following areas:- Multidimensional models of human performance and their implications for health and well-being- Resilience, recovery, and adaptation processes in high-demand and high-stakes environments- Foundational health behaviors—nutrition, sleep and rest, physical activity, and stress management—as determinants of optimal functioning- Psychological resources including mindfulness, meaning, hope, self-efficacy, and post-traumatic growth in sustaining performance and health- Cognitive and emotional regulation, judgment, and decision-making under pressure or uncertainty- The role of social, cultural, and organizational environments in enabling or constraining human potential- Digital health, artificial intelligence, wearable sensors, and biofeedback technologies for monitoring and enhancing behavioral health- Ethical, existential, and spiritual dimensions of human optimization across the lifespan, including questions of equity, autonomy, and authenticity- Lifespan and developmental perspectives on performance, recovery, and flourishing, with attention to transitions and vulnerable populations.Original Research, Systematic Reviews, Theoretical Contributions, and Interdisciplinary Methodological Papers are especially encouraged. Topic editors: Piotr Mamcarz, Alessandro Lo Presti, Margarida Pocinho Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81748/optimizing-health-and-well-being-across-the-lifespan-a-multidimensional-health-psychology-perspective