Positive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies

By L. Bolier, M. Haverman, Gerben J. Westerhof, Heleen Riper, F. Smit, Ernst T. Bohlmeijer. BMC Public Health, 2013

1,846 citations recorded by the source corpus.

BackgroundThe use of positive psychological interventions may be considered as a complementary strategy in mental health promotion and treatment. The present article constitutes a meta-analytical study of the effectiveness of positive psychology interventions for the general public and for individuals with specific psychosocial problems.MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature search using PubMed, PsychInfo, the Cochrane register, and manual searches. Forty articles, describing 39 studies, totaling 6,139 participants, met the criteria for inclusion. The outcome measures used were subjective well-being, psychological well-being and depression. Positive psychology interventions included self-help interventions, group training and individual therapy.ResultsThe standardized mean difference was 0.34 for subjective well-being, 0.20 for psychological well-being and 0.23 for depression indicating small effects for positive psychology interventions. At follow-up from three to six months, effect sizes are small, but still significant for subjective well-being and psychological well-being, indicating that effects are fairly sustainable. Heterogeneity was rather high, due to the wide diversity of the studies included. Several variables moderated the impact on depression: Interventions were more effective if they were of longer duration, if recruitment was conducted via referral or hospital, if interventions were delivered to people with certain psychosocial problems and on an individual basis, and if the study design was of low quality. Moreover, indications for publication bias were found, and the quality of the studies varied considerably.ConclusionsThe results of this meta-analysis show that positive psychology interventions can be effective in the enhancement of subjective well-being and psychological well-being, as well as in helping to reduce depressive symptoms. Additional high-quality peer-reviewed studies in diverse (clinical) populations are needed to strengthen the evidence-base for positive psychology interventions.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/45fd44e9cff6334f80a54b3d327ced46d9b2d444

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Citations in the corpus

Integrating Positive and Clinical Psychology: Viewing Human Functioning as Continua from Positive to Negative Can Benefit Clinical Assessment, Interventions and Understandings of Resilience (2017, methodology): “more effective in clinical groups than the general population (Bolier et al. 2013).”
How WEIRD are positive psychology interventions? A bibliometric analysis of randomized controlled trials on the science of well-being (2018, neutral): “Finally, reference lists of four recent meta-analyses (Bolier et al., 2013; Chakhssi, Kraiss, SommersSpijkerman, & Bohlmeijer, 2018; Dickens, 2017; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009) and seven recent review articles on PPIs (Casellas-Grau, Font, & Vives, 2014; Ghosh & Deb, 2016; Macaskill, 2016; Rashid,…”
The student voice in well-being: a case study of participatory action research in positive education (2019, background): “The positive psychology interventions (PPIs) used in positive education have a strong evidence base (e.g. Bolier et al. 2013; Sin and Lyubomirsky 2009), but less is known about their efficacy within complex school environments.”
PERMA and the building blocks of well-being (2018, background): “On the other hand, if I understand that PERMA is a theory of the building blocks of well-being, we can work together on gratitude visits, or three blessings, or active-constructive responding or any of the other validated positive interventions that build these elements (e.g. Bolier et al., 2013).”
Why do people prefer gratitude journaling over gratitude letters? The influence of individual differences in motivation and personality on web-based interventions (2015, background): “Our motivationfocused approach complements a growing literature concerned with the variety, efficacy, and effectiveness of positive psychological interventions (Bolier et al., 2013).”
A Test of Two Positive Psychology Interventions to Increase Employee Well-Being (2014, neutral): “depression (Bolier et al. 2013).”
Can Gratitude and Kindness Interventions Enhance Well-Being in a Clinical Sample? (2015, background): “Growing evidence attests to the positive effects of gratitude interventions on psychological health (Bolier et al. 2013; Wood et al. 2010).”
A fully automated conversational agent for promoting mental well-being: A pilot RCT using mixed methods (2017, background): “Both studies found small, but signi ﬁ cant e ﬀ ect sizes at follow-up (up to ten months) on well-being (Bolier et al., 2013; Weiss et al., 2016).”
Nature Involvement Increases Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being: A Two-Week Experimental Study (2014, positive): “Moreover, compared to the average effect size of positive psychology interventions on well-being ( d s from .20 to .34; Bolier et al., 2013), the effect sizes of ongoing nature involvement in this study are larger, with d s from .37 to .63.”