Duffin, Amy R.
(2019)
An evaluation of a positive psychology programme used to support potentially vulnerable secondary school students to enhance their well-being, self-efficacy, resilience and related behaviours.
DAppEdPsy thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Traditional mental health support in schools focuses upon emotional difficulties rather than preventatively developing skills and enhancing resilience (McGrath, 2010). Positive psychology approaches support children to be mentally healthy through emphasising strengths (McGrath, 2010). There is however, a need to measure the impact and outcomes of positive psychology programmes in schools to build an evidence base (McGrath, 2010) and educational psychologists can contribute to this (Shute, 2012).
A single case experimental design explores the impact of 8 sessions from Positive Approaches to Life (Notter & Jose, 2010) on participants’ subjective well-being, self-efficacy, resilience and behaviour. Five students, aged 12-13, participated, completing the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubmirsky & Lepper, 1999), Students Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1991b), the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (Laurent et al., 1999), The Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (Muris, 2001), The Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (Prince-Embury, 2007) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997), to explore their perceptions. Teachers completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires and weekly on and off-task observations were carried out for four participants. Three participants were interviewed to explore how they felt the programme had impacted upon them.
Interviewed participants spoke of positive changes in terms of their emotions, thoughts and behaviour. There was evidence of positive changes in aspects of resilience, self-efficacy, subjective well-being and behaviour but no overall positive changes for any participant. Conclusions are limited due to the lack of stable baselines, the small number of participants in one school and the lack of a longitudinal follow-up. Therefore, more research is needed to further investigate the potential benefits of a preventative positive psychology programme.
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