Positive psychology school‐based interventions: A reflection on current success and future directions

Abstract

An increased focus on youth development has led to an understanding of the importance of the wellbeing, resilience and mental health of children and young people. As a result there is a growing body of research, especially over the last two decades, which increasingly recognises the complexities of learning and development across the years spent at school. Alongside this trend is the rise of positive psychology, which is changing our conceptions of youth, education and development. Support for a new era of student‐centric teaching practices dedicated to enhancing student wellbeing has come not only from researchers and psychologists, but also from school and education authorities, who are showing an increased appetite for integrating positive psychology‐based programs into the learning curriculum. While researchers are beginning to express cautious optimism about the effectiveness of such interventions, there is a large disparity between the initiatives being researched and what is being taught in classrooms. A set of key constraints relating to limited resources, an overcrowded curriculum, accessibility of information, teacher factors and quality training all play a role in shaping the effectiveness with which an intervention is implemented. This article reflects on the recent development of positive psychology school‐based programs and offers insights into how these initiatives can be enhanced to reach a wider range of young people and translated more effectively into classroom practice.

They're always there for me! Friendship and meaning in young people's lives?

“…Thus, the current study acknowledges the growth in positive psychology interventions in Australian schools (Chodkiewicz & Boyle, 2017), and re-works Steger et al's (2013) minds-eye approachto explore a uniquely individualized view on meaning in life both in and out of school, for students at a unique time in their school and personal lives. The research limited the students' responses to four self-selected images encouraged a maximum of 12 ranked photos); thus creating a manageable process for potential school replication.…”

“…Thus, the current study acknowledges the growth in positive psychology interventions in Australian schools (Chodkiewicz & Boyle, ), and re‐works Steger et al . 's () minds‐eye approach – to explore a uniquely individualized view on meaning in life both in and out of school, for students at a unique time in their school and personal lives.…”

SEARCH: A Meta-Framework and Review of the Field of Positive Education

“…While these frameworks are evidence-based and actionable, and each have various sub-elements of their core focus, they do not comprehensively represent the wide range of factors in the literature that comprise wellbeing. Chodkiewicz and Boyle's (2017) recent review of positive education criticizes the field for relying on single or dual frameworks arguing that these frameworks limit "the number of possible techniques and skills accessible to each student" (p. 74).…”

“…In the current review, the bulk of the interventions were run in the classroom (83%), followed by after-school programs (10%), school sports teams (4%), whole-school initiatives (2%) and other (1%). There is some evidence already to suggest that interventions have the greatest impact on students when they are delivered by teachers (Waters et al 2015;Chodkiewicz and Boyle 2017) but this may also depend on the particular nature of the intervention. Perhaps interventions that tap the pathways of coping and relationships have a greater effectiveness in the classroom due to the stronger bond with one's teacher but it could be that strengths interventions and goal interventions do equally well in other context such as sport teams, after school programs, student buddy programs and peer coaching.…”

Searching for Wellbeing in Schools: A New Framework to Guide the Science of Positive Education

“…PPIs in schools teach skills to students such as cognitive re-framing, progressive relaxation, empathy, active listening, constructive negotiation and goal setting. In addition to the teaching of skills, some PPIs focus on the teaching of certain practices that build mental health such as mindfulness, gratitude, savouring, strengths use and kindness [36,37]. Teaching these skill sets and practices to students has been shown to promote a range of wellbeing outcomes including reductions in anxiety, depression and stress as well as increases in life satisfaction, coping, calmness, positive emotions and self-esteem [35,38,39].…”