Effectiveness of Positive Psychology Intervention training on increasing well-being, academic buoyancy and academic achievement in female students

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Positive Psychology Intervention training on enhancement of wellbeing, academic buoyancy and academic achievement in students. Method: A quasi-experimental method was used with control group and pre-test, post-test and one-month follow-up. The population consisted of 360 female secondary third grade school students in the academic year 2015-16 in the Charosa district of the City of Kohgiluyeh western Iran. Using a multi-stage cluster sampling method, 12 girls' high schools were selected. Of these, two high schools namely, Umm-e-Kulthum and Khadijeh-e-Kobra and from each high school one class was selected and 48 students who fulfilled the necessary research entrance criteria were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Data collection tools were as follows: Hoseinchari and DehghaniZadeh’s (2012) Academic Buoyancy Scale, Ryff’s (1989) Psychological well-being inventory, the grade point average (GPA) and Savajs' Positive Psychology Intervention Program (2011) which included 11 weekly sessions of 60-minutes duration. The intervention program was carried out with the experimental group only. Data was analyzed using mixed variance analysis with repeated measures design Results: Results showed that Positive Psychology Intervention training had a significant effect on well-being (F= 16.71, P= 0.001), and academic buoyancy (F= 16.21, P= 0.001), and that this effect remained stable after the follow-up phase. However, the intervention did not have any effect on the improvement of students' academic achievement. Conclusion: Positive Psychology Intervention has the necessary efficacy to enhance wellbeing and academic buoyancy. Hence, it can be used as an effective intervention by therapists to develop psychological positive characteristics in adolescents as well as college students

Keywords

• بهزیستی، پیشرفت تحصیلی، روان‌شناسی مثبت، سرزندگی