Life satisfaction and positive and negative feelings of workers: a systematic review protocol

BACKGROUND: In this article, conceptualization of well-being is a starting point. According to Diener, subjective well-being refers to all kinds of evaluation, both positive and negative, people make about their own lives. It includes cognitive assessments, such as satisfaction with life and satisfaction with work, as well as affective reactions to life events, such as sadness and contentment. Low levels of health and well-being in workers lead to many consequences. Sick leave, low productivity, and absenteeism are some examples. In this systematic review, the main objective is to assess workers’ subjective well-being. METHODS: The studies should include workers, whether they are paid or volunteers. Also, they must assess workers’ subjective well-being. Observational peer-reviewed studies will be included. Qualitative studies will be excluded. The primary outcomes to be considered are the subjective well-being indicators described. Only studies that used six (6) instruments, developed by Diener, will be included. The instruments are Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE), Positive Thinking Scale (PTS), Flourishing Scale (FS), Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving (CIT), and Brief Inventory of Thriving (BIT). The studies will come from Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS), Portal da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and Global Index Medicus databases. The studies must be written in Portuguese, English, or Spanish. DISCUSSION: As far as we know, this is the first systematic review related specially to workers’ subjective well-being. We hope that this study contributes to the “well-being at work” discussion and also to the development of effective interventions, used outside and inside organizations, that could improve well-being scores and increase correlate variables scores such as general health, social relations, and quality of life. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42016039520 ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13643-018-0903-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.