Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts [1st ed.] 978-3-030-20310-8;978-3-030-20311-5

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xx
Effect on Happiness of Happiness Self-monitoring and Comparison with Others: Using the Happiness Indicator (Ruut Veenhoven, Arnold Bakker, Martijn Burger, Pieter Van Haren, Wido Oerlemans)....Pages 1-23
Well-Being at School: Development and Evaluation of the Feasibility of a Positive Psychology Intervention for Native Francophone Students in Two Multicultural Contexts (Julie Dubarle, Emmanuel Bernet, Véronique Brun, Rebecca Shankland)....Pages 25-55
#NoFilter: An Online Photographic Meaningful-Moments Intervention (Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl, Inge Hulshof, Leah R. Dickens)....Pages 57-82
Positive Psychological Interventions Intended for a Supportive Work-Family Culture (Eileen Koekemoer, Micaela Petrou)....Pages 83-103
Happy Together: The Development of Dyadic Functioning and Individual Well-Being Among Heterosexual Couples Through a Positive Psychological Intervention (Pascal Antoine, Eva Andreotti, Emilie Constant)....Pages 105-129
The Effects of Using Socio-culturally Targeted Communications on the Uptake and Adherence to Positive Psychology Interventions (Jason Moran, Zelda di Blasi, Annalisa Setti)....Pages 131-155
Strategies for Resilience-Focused Interventions for Youth Within Collectivistic Cultures: Reflections on the Pathways to Resilience Project (Tamlynn C. Jefferis, Angelique van Rensburg, Linda C. Theron)....Pages 157-175
The Effectiveness, Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention in Two Irish Primary Schools (Zelda di Blasi, Aoife Rice)....Pages 177-196
Positive Psychology Programs for Youth in Diverse Communities (Jane Gillham, Katherine Sachs Leventhal, Tayyab Rashid, Afroze Anjum, Steve Leventhal)....Pages 197-225
Voluntary Work as Embodied Aboutness: How the Act of Volunteering Becomes Meaningful (Mark van Vuuren, Silvie J. Pothof)....Pages 227-250
The Best Possible Self Intervention: Evidence for Its Efficacy in Multi-cultural Contexts (Guadalupe Molinari, Ángel Enrique, María Dragomir-Davis, Cristina Botella)....Pages 251-267
Applying Positive Psychology to Prenatal Care Among Women from Different Cultures: A Web-Based Positive Psychology Intervention (Giulia Corno, Guadalupe Molinari, Macarena Espinoza, Ernestina Etchemendy, Rocío Herrero, Alba Carrillo et al.)....Pages 269-287

Citation preview

Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl  Sebastiaan Rothmann Sr.   Editors

Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts

Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts

Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl Sebastiaan Rothmann Sr.

•

Editors

Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts

123

Editors Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences Human Performance Management Group Eindhoven University of Technology Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Sebastiaan Rothmann Sr. Optentia Research Focus Area North-West University Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

Optentia Research Focus Area North-West University Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

ISBN 978-3-030-20310-8 ISBN 978-3-030-20311-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20311-5

(eBook)

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

In remembrance of Prof. Fons van de Vijver (1952–2019)

We dedicate this book to Prof. Alphonsius Josephus Rachel (Fons) van de Vijver, one of the fathers of Cross-cultural Psychology. Fons was an intellectual giant and an excellent teacher, well-known for his methodological expertise. He was a mentor to many students, academics and researchers and one of the most competent and helpful academic citizens.

Foreword

Unity and Diversity in Positive Psychology Fundamentally, we may assume that there are certain natural ways of living that foster well-being in all people, just as there seems to be in plants and all other animals. And if the conditions for thriving are present, flourishing may readily be expected. Thus, rather than being an exorbitant ambition directed toward some unrealistic utopia, a good life may be regarded as an indeed quite ordinary ideal, to be sought after even in the most troubled quarters of the world. From this perspective, our ways of thinking and acting may be understood in somewhat parallel to our biological immune system: it may be of a quality that keeps us mentally healthy despite hardship, or not. Recognizing this may in itself already be sufficient evidence for the importance of actively promoting mental health, and for preventing damage to individuals and communities that may threaten their ability to function and thrive. And from this perspective, the rapid adoption and success of many positive psychological ideas are rather easy to explain: by instinct, people are drawn toward promises of living well and doing good, whenever they see or hear them, as is often the case when encountering positive psychology. Yet, as shown in this fine volume, popularity often comes at a price, and the adoption and application of positive psychological interventions have been no exception. As it turns out, many of the applications devised by eager practitioners in the name of positive psychology have not been sufficiently anchored in sound science, and much of the proclaimed wisdom in many self-help books was built on shaky foundations. This appears particularly paradoxical in the light of positive psychology being a scientific endeavor aimed directly at preventing this from happening. Thus, all the more inspiring it is to read this impressive anthology, which sets out to improve the state of affairs. Professors Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl and Sebastiaan Rothmann have succeeded in bringing together an array of remarkable scholars whose contributions focus on qualifying positive psychological

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interventions through strengthened evidence bases and improved understandings of multi-cultural contexts. The reader gains fascinating insights as regards diverse, yet deeply related, topics. What does meaning mean? Can it be captured through photography? Is work–life balance really achievable, and if so, how? And what about resilience in the Global South? In South Africa? In a township? Is it different from what is seen on the upper Northern hemisphere? How can healthy relations be fostered across cultural differences? How can diverse cultural contexts most meaningfully be mapped? Why do some students want to continue mindfulness practices even though these don’t appear to improve their well-being? Is it possible to do voluntary work without oneself thereby being rewarded one way or the other? Can awareness of one’s own happiness actually reinforce it? And in case so, how much of such “auto-happiness” may one expect? These and many other points of great interest await the keen reader in this timely and important collection of fine scholarship. I hope and trust it shall reach the broad and multi-cultural readership it deserves. Prof. Hans Henrik Knoop Associate Professor with Distinction, Aarhus University, Denmark Extraordinary Professor, Optentia, North-West University, South Africa Past President of European Network for Positive Psychology

Preface

With the advent of positive psychology in 1998, an upsurge in popular psychological (pop-psych) “self-help” publications drawing from processes and principles of the paradigm became apparent. These publications promised “scientifically proven methods” toward obtaining “lasting happiness, positivity and good fortune” through relatively “easy steps.” This promise by pop-psych authors fast-tracked the mass adoption of positive psychology as a consumer-friendly, self-help paradigm. These publications drew from clinically validated positive psychological intervention (PPIs) studies and translated into “consumer-friendly” terms. However, these self-help books and interventions fail to deliver on their promise as the intervention methods are significantly altered from the original forms, the contexts of the consumer are meaningfully different from the original study populations, and the impact on outcome variables misinterpreted or overinflated and incorrect outcomes are targeted. Further, the original articles from which these self-help interventions draw do not extensively discuss the content of the interventions, but merely present short descriptions of the PPI. As such, the intervention content cannot accurately be translated into practice, leaving self-help books to fill in the proverbial gaps with their own (unvalidated) content and approaches. Therefore, the purpose of this volume is to address the problems above by presenting clearly defined and detailed descriptions of evidence-based interventions which have been validated within multi-cultural contexts. This volume provides a range of empirically validated PPIs which have shown to have a significant effect on the development of positive psychological capacities and attributes within multi-cultural contexts. It includes PPIs applicable to individuals at various stages in their lifespans and those which are applicable to different cultural contexts. The volume provides a multi-disciplinary view on the implementation and effects of PPIs within clinical-, educational-, and work-related contexts. It provides readers with empirically validated and replicable PPIs, spanning the contents of 12 chapters. Chapter “Effect on Happiness of Happiness Self-monitoring and Comparison with Others: Using the Happiness Indicator” evaluates the effect of using the happiness indicator on happiness considering the change in happiness among 5,411 ix

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users who have participated at least twice in completing the indicator. Chapter “Well-Being at School: Development and Evaluation of the Feasibility of a Positive Psychology Intervention for Native Francophone Students in Two Multicultural Contexts” presents a PPI and its feasibility study in two Francophone school contexts based in France and Singapore. Chapter “#NoFilter: An Online Photographic Meaningful-Moments Intervention” focuses on the development, implementation, and preliminarily evaluation of an online photographic meaningful-moments intervention to explore sources of meaning through the use of Instagram©. Chapter “Positive Psychological Interventions Intended for a Supportive Work-Family Culture” identifies how organizations can incorporate various PPIs aimed at improving or aiding in employees’ work–family needs. Chapter “Happy Together: The Development of Dyadic Functioning and Individual Well-Being Among Heterosexual Couples Through a Positive Psychological Intervention” addresses the theoretical background and practical details of the implementation of a 4-week theory-driven preventive self-help dyadic PPI called Couple+, which was adapted for heterosexual couples living in France. Chapter “The Effects of Using Socioculturally Targeted Communications on the Uptake and Adherence to Positive Psychology Interventions” tests whether tailoring a message to the target demographics socio-cultural characteristics can promote adherence to the Three Blessings PPI, more so than the expert heuristic. Chapter “Strategies for Resilience-Focused Interventions for Youth Within Collectivistic Cultures: Reflections on the Pathways to Resilience Project” presents a strategy on how to design, implement, and monitor resilience-focused interventions with South African youth based on evidence-informed intervention practices stemming from the Pathways to Resilience Project. In particular, the chapter focuses on how cultural and contextual responsiveness are paramount to resilience-enabling interventions for marginalized youth from collectivistic cultures. Chapter “The Effectiveness, Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention in Two Irish Primary Schools” examines the effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of mindfulness-based interventions in Irish primary schools. Chapter “Positive Psychology Programs for Youth in Diverse Communities” describes a research team’s collective experience developing, implementing, and evaluating school-based positive psychology programs for youth (children and adolescents) in a variety of communities around the world, including communities in India, Kenya, and Canada. Chapter “Voluntary Work as Embodied Aboutness: How the Act of Volunteering Becomes Meaningful” presents a phenomenological study of volunteering experiences in India and what it means to engage in volunteering, with the aim to propose an intervention for experiencing meaning in life. Chapter “The Best Possible Self Intervention: Evidence for Its Efficacy in Multicultural Contexts” presents evidence for the efficacy of the “Best Possible Self” intervention supported by information and communication technologies in different populations, namely, Spanish clinical patients, Spanish participants from the general population, and Romanian immigrants. Finally, Chapter “Applying Positive

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Psychology to Prenatal Care Among Women from Different Cultures: A WebBased Positive Psychology Intervention” introduces the current knowledge about the benefits of positive factors on women perinatal and newborn well-being. Eindhoven, The Netherlands Vanderbijlpark, South Africa March 2019

Prof. Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl Prof. Sebastiaan Rothmann Sr.

Acknowledgements

As the editors of this manuscript, we would like to extend our appreciation to all those who were involved in making this publication possible. This manuscript is the end result of the collaboration between more than 70 individuals (43 authors, 24 reviewers, 2 editors, and a team at Springer) and two professional societies (the Centre for Positive Organisational Scholarship and the Canadian Positive Psychology Association), emanating from various different countries, cultures, and continents, all in the name of the advancement of the science underpinning positive psychological interventions. Each chapter in this book makes a unique professional, scientific, and theoretical contribution to the discipline of applied positive psychology within multi-cultural contexts through the scientific works of the respective authors and the valuable investment of the independent, blind peer reviewers. First, we would like to acknowledge the investment of our reviewers. Each of the 12 chapters in this manuscript was subjected to an independent, double (and in some instances a triple)-blind peer-reviewed process. The reviewers not only aided in shaping the individual manuscripts, but also in enhancing the credibility and scientific quality of the overall manuscript. This book and the quality of its contents would not have been possible if not for the selfless investment of both the time and expertise of these reviewers. We would like to take the opportunity to extend our personal thanks and heartfelt appreciation to the following reviewers who participated in enhancing the quality of this manuscript: Prof. Sebastiaan Rothmann Dr. Anna Bos-Nehles Dr. Linda Liebenberg Prof. Ieva Stokenberga Dr. Sjoukje van Dellen Prof. Werner Nell Prof. Bright Mahembe Prof. Kirsti Lonka Thomas Mündle Dr. Hannah Berkers xiii

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Dr. Maarten Renkema Gillian Schultz Prof. Jonathan Passmore Dr. Tamlynn Jefferis Prof. Evangelia Demerouti Prof. Elias Mpofu Prof. Rebecca Shankland Dr. Ana Fonseca Dr. Nina Junker Dr. Karen Smolders Prof. Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl Prof. Tharina Guse Prof. Maria Peeters Dr. Sonja Heintz Prof. Mirna Nel Dr. Leoni van der Vaart Second, we would like to extend our gratitude to the Centre for Positive Organisational Scholarship and the Canadian Positive Psychology Association for their support in the distribution of our call for chapters in their networks, as well as for both adding us in the identification of qualified reviewers. Their support in this process is unquantifiable and we are truly grateful for their investment in this project. Third, we would like to thank the authors who contributed to this manuscript. We received overwhelming support for this (and two other) manuscript from our contributors. Contributing authors allowed us to showcase some of the most cutting-edge advancements in PPI research in this manuscript. Their contribution, and commitment to the advancement of the science underpinning PPIs, is humbling. Fourth, we would like to thank Springer for their patience, diligence, and continued support throughout this process. The planning of this book (and two others) started as far back as 2016 with tremendous guidance of Stefan Einarson, Shinjini Chatterjee, and Christopher Wibly. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute this manuscript to Springer’s collection, and thankful for all those at Springer who made this possible. Finally, we would like to extend our gratitude to all those individuals who will read, appreciate, and consume the contents of this manuscript.

Contents

Effect on Happiness of Happiness Self-monitoring and Comparison with Others: Using the Happiness Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ruut Veenhoven, Arnold Bakker, Martijn Burger, Pieter Van Haren and Wido Oerlemans

1

Well-Being at School: Development and Evaluation of the Feasibility of a Positive Psychology Intervention for Native Francophone Students in Two Multicultural Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julie Dubarle, Emmanuel Bernet, Véronique Brun and Rebecca Shankland

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#NoFilter: An Online Photographic Meaningful-Moments Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl, Inge Hulshof and Leah R. Dickens

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Positive Psychological Interventions Intended for a Supportive Work-Family Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eileen Koekemoer and Micaela Petrou

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Happy Together: The Development of Dyadic Functioning and Individual Well-Being Among Heterosexual Couples Through a Positive Psychological Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Pascal Antoine, Eva Andreotti and Emilie Constant The Effects of Using Socio-culturally Targeted Communications on the Uptake and Adherence to Positive Psychology Interventions . . . . 131 Jason Moran, Zelda di Blasi and Annalisa Setti Strategies for Resilience-Focused Interventions for Youth Within Collectivistic Cultures: Reflections on the Pathways to Resilience Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Tamlynn C. Jefferis, Angelique van Rensburg and Linda C. Theron

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The Effectiveness, Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention in Two Irish Primary Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Zelda di Blasi and Aoife Rice Positive Psychology Programs for Youth in Diverse Communities . . . . . 197 Jane Gillham, Katherine Sachs Leventhal, Tayyab Rashid, Afroze Anjum and Steve Leventhal Voluntary Work as Embodied Aboutness: How the Act of Volunteering Becomes Meaningful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Mark van Vuuren and Silvie J. Pothof The Best Possible Self Intervention: Evidence for Its Efficacy in Multi-cultural Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Guadalupe Molinari, Ángel Enrique, María Dragomir-Davis and Cristina Botella Applying Positive Psychology to Prenatal Care Among Women from Different Cultures: A Web-Based Positive Psychology Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Giulia Corno, Guadalupe Molinari, Macarena Espinoza, Ernestina Etchemendy, Rocío Herrero, Alba Carrillo and Rosa Maria Baños

Editors and Contributors

About the Editors Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl, Ph.D. is currently an Assistant Professor of work and organizational psychology at the University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He also holds an extraordinary professorship in Industrial Psychology with the Optentia Research Focus Area at the North-West University. Academically, he has completed a Doctorate degree in the field of Industrial Psychology, specializing in the development and evaluation of Positive Psychological Interventions aimed at increasing happiness. He also holds a Master of Commerce, an Honours and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Psychology, which were obtained from the North-West University (cum laude) at the top of his class. These qualifications provided him with a means to register with the Health Professions Council of South Africa as a psychologist (cat: industrial). Professionally, he is a respected researcher and published author of various scientific articles and specialist books. Within the scientific community, he is known for his academic work as Associate Editor of the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology as well as his work on the editorial board of the Journal of Leadership and Organizational studies. He has extensive experience within the tertiary educational environment (as a lecturer and researcher), as well as within the private and public sectors (as a consultant). He has a passion for Online Positive Psychological Interventions aimed at talent development and consumer behavior. As of January 1, 2017, he holds the ranking as a C2-rated researcher with the National Research Foundation within South Africa. Sebastiaan Rothmann Sr., Ph.D. is a Professor in Industrial/Organisational Psychology at the North-West University (Vanderbijlpark Campus) and the Director of the Optentia Research Programme. His research journey started with the topics of stress, burnout, and work engagement and has evolved toward prospering and flourishing of people in work and organizational contexts. People who prosper in work and organizational contexts are satisfied with their jobs, experience positive emotions, are energetic, learning and dedicated, experience satisfaction of their

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autonomy, competence and relatedness needs, find meaning and purpose in their work, experience harmony, and relate positively. He focuses on researching the prospering of people at work, the antecedents and outcomes thereof, and intervention programs that could contribute to prospering of individuals and organizations.

Contributors Eva Andreotti CNRS UMR 9193—SCALab—Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Univ. Lille, Lille, France Afroze Anjum Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Toronto, Canada Pascal Antoine CNRS UMR 9193—SCALab—Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Univ. Lille, Lille, France Arnold Bakker Department of Psychology and Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands Rosa Maria Baños University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Emmanuel Bernet Université Grenoble Alpes, LIP/PC2S, Grenoble, France Cristina Botella CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERObn), Valencia, Spain; Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain Véronique Brun Université Grenoble Alpes, LIP/PC2S, Grenoble, France Martijn Burger School of Economics and Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization EHERO, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands Alba Carrillo University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Emilie Constant CNRS UMR 9193—SCALab—Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Univ. Lille, Lille, France Giulia Corno Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab of the I.R.C.C.S, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy; University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Zelda di Blasi School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland Leah R. Dickens Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA María Dragomir-Davis University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA Julie Dubarle Université Grenoble Alpes, LIP/PC2S, Grenoble, France

Editors and Contributors

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Ángel Enrique Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Macarena Espinoza University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Ernestina Etchemendy University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Jane Gillham Psychology Department, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, USA Rocío Herrero Department of Human Sciences, Verona University, Verona, Italy Inge Hulshof Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands Tamlynn C. Jefferis Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa Eileen Koekemoer Department of Human Resource Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa Katherine Sachs Leventhal CorStone, Baltimore, MD, USA Steve Leventhal CorStone, Baltimore, MD, USA Guadalupe Molinari CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERObn), Valencia, Spain; University Jaume I, Castellón de la Plana, Spain Jason Moran University College Cork, Cork, Ireland Wido Oerlemans Technical University Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands Micaela Petrou Department of Human Resource Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa Silvie J. Pothof Department of Communication Science, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Tayyab Rashid University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), Scarborough, Canada Aoife Rice School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland Annalisa Setti University College Cork, Cork, Ireland Rebecca Shankland Université Grenoble Alpes, LIP/PC2S, Grenoble, France Linda C. Theron University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa Pieter Van Haren Department of Innovation, VGZ Insurance Company, Arnhem, Netherlands Angelique van Rensburg Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

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Mark van Vuuren Department of Communication Science, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University (VTC), Vanderbijlpark, South Africa Ruut Veenhoven Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Optentia Research Program, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Effect on Happiness of Happiness Self-monitoring and Comparison with Others: Using the Happiness Indicator Ruut Veenhoven, Arnold Bakker, Martijn Burger, Pieter Van Haren and Wido Oerlemans

Abstract The Happiness Indicator (www.happinessindicator.nl) is a website containing self-help tools designed to make people more aware of their own happiness. The theory behind the tools is that a keener awareness of one’s own happiness helps users find an optimal lifestyle and consequently promotes happiness among its users. Users of the website periodically record how happy they feel on the present day and how happy they have felt over the past month, using the Happiness Comparer. They also have the option of indicating in the Happiness Diary how happy they felt during the various activities of the previous day. Users receive instant feedback in the form of comparisons with their earlier scores and with the average scores of similar participants. In this chapter we assess the effect of using this tool on happiness considering the change in happiness among 5411 users who have participated at least twice. We found that using the Happiness Diary 10 times, results in an average increase in happiness of 2%. Repeated use of the Happiness Diary had a particularly strong effect for those who initially felt the least happy. Use of the Happiness Indicator may have prevented a decline in happiness among our participants, such as observed in the Shortened version of a paper entitled ‘Happiness raised by raising awareness’ (Bakker et al., 2015). R. Veenhoven (B) Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] Optentia Research Program, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa A. Bakker Department of Psychology and Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands M. Burger School of Economics and Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization EHERO, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands P. Van Haren Department of Innovation, VGZ Insurance Company, Arnhem, Netherlands W. Oerlemans Technical University Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 L. E. Van Zyl and S. Rothmann Sr. (eds.), Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20311-5_1

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control-groups of 10 studies among self-selected participants in happiness trainings. If so, the net effect of using the Happiness Indicator was about 5%, which is quite substantial and comparable to the short-term effects of real-life events, such as the birth of a first child. Keywords Life satisfaction · Mood · Self-help · e-help · Effectiveness · Life style · Day reconstruction method DRM

1 Introduction 1.1 In Search of Greater Happiness It is our nature to prefer feeling good over feeling bad (Grinde, 2002) and this tendency extends to a universal quest for a satisfying life, for ‘happiness’ (Veenhoven, 2011). Today, we pursue happiness probably more than in the past (Veenhoven, 2015a). One way to promote happiness is to create situations in which most people will enjoy their life, such as conditions of material comfort and safety. Though quite successful, this approach involves the danger of paternalism, which may backfire on happiness (Omerod & Johns, 2007). Another approach is to help people find happiness by themselves. In this chapter, we look at this pathway and present a tool by means of which people can used to get a better view on their happiness and adjust their way of life accordingly. We also report a first effectiveness check of that tool.

1.2 Methods for Becoming Happier The search for greater happiness has led to the development of a growing range of happiness-help products, such as advisory books (e.g. Lyubomirskiy, 2008), training courses (e.g. Fordyce, 1977) and life-coaching services (e.g. Spence & Grant, 2007). These products use different techniques, such as training social skills, increasing personal insight, reducing stress and promoting positive thinking, for example to encourage people to see the glass as half full instead of half empty. The majority of these techniques originate from psychology; in recent years, they have drawn mainly from the field of positive psychology. Other methods that aim to increase happiness draw on esoteric inspiration such as Buddhist meditation.

Effect on Happiness of Happiness Self-monitoring and Comparison …

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1.3 Approach of the Happiness Indicator In collaboration with the Dutch health insurance company VGZ, a new online method has been developed at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands1 aimed at providing people with greater insight into their own happiness. Users monitor how well they feel in general and during specific daily activities and are informed of how other users of the website feel, in particular other users of a similar in age, sex, education and employment status. The method is based on the expectation that a better awareness of one’s own happiness will help you find a personally optimal life style, which will subsequently lead to increased happiness. We will first discuss the psychological theory on which this expectation is based in Sect. 3.1. Then in Sect. 3.2 we explicate a focus on the affective component of happiness. We note similarities with other self-tracking techniques in Sect. 3.3 and differences with other approaches in Positive Psychology in Sect. 3.4, to place the approach of the Happiness Indicator in context

1.3.1

Underlying Theory

The expectation that a better awareness of one’s happiness will be helpful is based on the theory that affective experience is functional in the process of adaptation to life, but that our awareness of how well we feel falls short in several ways.

Information Function of Affective Experience Our feelings have a signaling function (e.g. Schwarz, 2012), and feeling happy basically indicates that our way of life matches our nature (Grinde, 2002). In this perspective, it is functional to be well aware of how happy we feel, feeling good indicating that we are on the right track and feeling bad signaling that there is something wrong. Feeling bad will only be functional when there is opportunity to improve our situation; locked in hell, it is probably better to reduce awareness of one’s feelings as far as possible, since one cannot change the situation despite the painful signal. Awareness of one’s happiness is also not functional in cases of affective disorder.

Inaccurate View on How Happy One Typically Feels Memories of how happy we felt in the past are often distorted and may feed us with false information. Several sources of bias in affective recall have been identified. One is that salient memories of ups and downs limit our perception of the average 1 The

first version of the Happiness Indicator was developed for a study of elderly people by Veenhoven in collaboration with VanHerpen and Vermeulen-Kersten (2008). Veenhoven was also involved in the development of the current version.

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experience (Wilson, Gilbert, & Meyers, 2003). Another source of memory bias is in ‘cognitive framing’; the longer ago the affective experience, the more its afterglow is adapted to existing views on the world and the more we are blinded to divergent information (Kahneman & Krueger, 2006). A related insight is that we are bad at predicting how our choices will affect our future happiness (Gilbert, 2005). We tend to project our biased memories of past affective experience on the future, typically neglecting uncertainties and differences in conditions and being susceptible to suggestion (e.g. Wilson, Meyers, & Wheatley, 2000). For this reason, we frequently make misinformed choices, such as accepting a better paying job further from home, which in the end makes us less happy because better pay does not compensate the happiness lost to commuting (Frey & Stutzer, 2004). In this respect, it is plausible that the view on our affective experience will be less biased if we monitor it systematically and can retrieve in writing how well we have felt in the past and how well we typically feel during specific activities. It is also plausible that this will subsequently result in better informed choices when it comes to making decisions in which happiness is at stake, and that a better view on our happiness will therefore tend to result in a higher level of happiness in the long term.

Limited View on How Happy One Could Be, Given One’s Situation Next to a better view on how happy one feels personally, we could benefit from more accurate information on how our own happiness compares to the happiness of other people, similar people in particular. If these other people are typically less happy than you are, then there is apparently little chance of a more satisfying life and you would better spend your energy on what you are enjoying. Pursuing happiness only makes sense if a more satisfying life appears to be possible in your situation (Veenhoven, 2015b). It is not easy to assess how much happiness is realistically possible for ourselves. We are bombarded with misleading information in fiction and advertisement, skewed to suit the propagators interests. Media reports of happiness research concerns mostly the general population, e.g. how happy the average citizen is, while what you need to know is how happy people like you typically are: for example, a physically handicapped widow will want to know how happy other people in her situation are. Good talks with intimates may provide you with information on this, but there are limits to people’s openness and the size of one’s circle of intimates. Anonymous reports of larger numbers of similar people are therefore helpful. A further, more common sense, insight underlying the Happiness Indicator is that we can learn from each other and that we typically do so. If you appear to be less happy than otherwise comparable people are and want to improve, it is worth knowing what these other people do differently. One of the most palpable things in this context is how these people usually spend their time, such as how much of the day they spend with others or alone, how long they commute and how many hours

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they sleep. It is also of interest to know how comparable people feel during particular activities. If they feel less miserable when the alarm clock goes off or enjoy dinner more than you do, that is another clue in your search for a more satisfying way of life.

Limited View on Effects of Behavioral Change Bias in affective recall makes it difficult to grasp the effect of behavioral changes on one’s happiness. For instance, if you go to a gym, you are probably well aware of how you feel right after leaving the gym, but may have little awareness of how daily exercise has affected your average mood in the last month. Systematic mood monitoring should such small and delayed effects more visible. The idea behind the Happiness Indicator is that accurate and tailored information will be helpful in the pursuit of happiness. As such, it fits a wider plea for ‘informed pursuit of happiness’ (Veenhoven 2015a, b). How that information is provided is shown in Sect. 4.

1.3.2

Focus on Feeling

The Happiness Indicator addresses how happy one feels, in other words, how pleasant or unpleasant one’s mood is most of the time. In the academic literature on subjective well-being, this is referred to as the ‘affective component’ of happiness and is distinguished from the ‘cognitive component’, a more rational assessment of the extent to which life brings what one wants it to bring (Veenhoven, 1984: Sect. 2.2). Research has shown that the affective component dominates our overall evaluation of life (Kulainen, Saari, & Veenhoven, 2018) and that the effect of happiness on our health is mainly via the affective component (Veenhoven, 2009).

1.3.3

Related Self-monitoring Techniques

Self-tracking techniques are commonly used in health care, for example to help people control their weight or drinking and form part of the ‘Quantified Self’ movement2 (e.g. Neff & Natus, 2016) also called ‘life-logging’. The aim of using these techniques is mostly to help people achieve particular behavioral changes. The Happiness Indicator is designed rather to help people to find out what to they might need to change. The use of these techniques increase considerably once self-tracking tools became available on smart phones and other wearable electronic devices. Though mostly welcomed, these self-tracking practices are also criticized, e.g. as data-fetishism and promoting self-obsession, see Lipton (2016) for a review.

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantified_Self.

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1.3.4

Difference with Other Approaches in Positive Psychology

As noted above in Sect. 3.2, the focus of the Happiness Indicator is on how happy one feels. In Positive Psychology, this is called ‘hedonic happiness’ and distinguished from ‘eudaimonic happiness’, which denotes a wider set of desirable mental and moral features and is also referred to as ‘positive mental health (Jahoda, 1958). Next to this difference in kind of wellbeing addressed, there is also a difference in method. The Happiness Indicator is aimed specifically at providing us with a better view on the facts of our happiness, with the assumption that this will enable us to make more informed life-choices Positive Psychology interventions cover a much broader range of mental changes, such taking another view of one’s self and practicing new behaviors. Contrary to mainstream happiness advice, the Happiness Indicator does not provide generic recipes, such as ‘count your blessings’, but is aimed at helping you find what works for you in particular. This approach will not fit everybody, since it requires an ability to digest complex information and to behave accordingly.

1.4 Tools in the Happiness Indicator The website provides ‘Tools for working on your happiness’ and is available free of charge on www.happinessindicator.nl.3 Upon visiting the website for the first time, the user will be asked to create an account and complete a profile questionnaire. They will then receive an e-mail every month with a link to the website, asking them to complete the ‘Happiness Comparer’ and, if desired, the ‘Happiness Diary’. At the end of each calendar year, the user will also be asked to specify what has changed in their lives.

1.4.1

Happiness Comparer

The users’ first task each month is to answer two questions: first, how happy they feel that day, and next, how happy they have felt over the past month. The answers are rated using a visual faces scale, ranging from zero (very unhappy) to 10 (very happy); see Fig. 1. By first asking the participants how they feel that day, we focus the participants’ attention on the affective component of happiness and minimize the influence of their current mood on their answer to the second question on their happiness over the past month. After answering the two questions, the participants will receive instant feedback in the following two ways.

3 The

version in Dutch: www.gelukswijzer.nl.

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Fig. 1 Questions about how happy the user feels

Comparison with Others The program compares the answer to the two questions with the average score of all participants and with the average score of all participants with the same profile; e.g. those in same age category, with same gender and with a similar level of education. A screenshot of this feedback is shown in Fig. 2. This feedback is meant to provide the participant with insight into the likelihood of becoming happier than they are at present. We expect that this will reduce the problem of a ‘limited view on how happy one could be’ noted above in Sect. 3.1.

Comparison Over Time If the user has previously made an entry in the Happiness Comparer, the program will generate a trend line, see Fig. 3. This trend line shows the user whether they have made progress in their happiness and whether they have fared better or worse than similar users. We expect that this will reduce the problem of a ‘limited view on effects of behavioral change’ discussed in Sect. 3.1.

8

Fig. 2 The user’s happiness compared with the happiness of other users

Fig. 3 Example of a comparison over time

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9

Happiness Diary

The Happiness Diary (Fig. 4) comprises an internet application of the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) developed by Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, and Stone (2004).4 Users are first asked to record everything they did the day before, such as eating, completing household tasks, working and resting. They are also asked to state how much time they spent on each activity, where the activity was carried out (e.g. at home or at work) and with whom (e.g. alone, with a partner, with family, or with colleagues) and to rate their happiness during these activities on a scale ranging from 0 (very unhappy) to 10 (very happy), similar to that shown in Fig. 1. As Fig. 5 shows, users can indicate on this scale how happy they felt during each activity. The happiness Diary provides the user with instant feedback in the following ways. Feelings during each activity

Fig. 4 Example of a diary

4 For

a recent review of this method, see Diener and Tay (2014). Others studies that have applied DRM to the study of happiness include Kahneman et al. (2004), Oishi et al. (2009), Knabe et al. (2010), and Hendriks et al. (2014).

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Fig. 5 Rating of how happy the user felt during each activity

The program generates an at-a-glance overview that shows the activities during which the user felt the least and most comfortable, see Fig. 6. This overview can help users allocate their time optimally. Comparison with other participants This part of the program provides instant comparison with other users with similar life situations, see Fig. 6. This comparison can help when the user is making choices, for example when deciding whether to look for a new job. The fact that a person does not feel great at work is in itself not a reason to change jobs, because most people feel one point less happy at work than at home. However, if your difference between work happiness and home happiness is greater than that of similar users, it is most likely worthwhile to look for a job that suits you better. Feelings throughout the total activity pattern. The average happiness level of the day is calculated based on the time spent on each activity. This helps users to assess more accurately their own happiness level. We expect that this will reduce the problem of an inaccurate view on how well one typically feels noted in Sect. 1.3.1. This technique also provides us with an estimate of the size of that imprecision; if the daily averages obtained with the Happiness Diary differ substantially from the global estimates made on the Happiness Comparer, the latter estimates may be biased.

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Fig. 6 Example of a comparison of a user’s happiness profile with that of similar people

1.5 This Chapter In this chapter, we give an account of the first study of the short-term effects of using the Happiness Indicator. The website has attracted a sufficient number of participants to demonstrate the effect of repeated participation on a participant’s happiness. Is this effect positive, as we expect it to be? If so, what is the size of this effect, and does it differ across types of participants?

2 Method 2.1 Users The participants were, and continue to be, recruited using various channels, including different types of customer communications from the health insurer VGZ, social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) and Dutch popular magazines. Since its start in January 2011, the Happiness Indicator has attracted 40,495 participants all of whom

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completed a profile and the Happiness Comparer at least one time. Of these 40,495 participants, 9091 (22%) subsequently filled out the Happiness Diary at least once. The average happiness of these visitors at first participation was a 6.32 on scale 0–10, which is well below average life satisfaction scores reported in Dutch surveys5 ; 9 out of 20 people scored their monthly happiness a 6 or lower. This indicates that the Happiness Indicator attracts individuals who are less happy than the average citizen is and probably for this reason would like to work on their happiness. Most of the users (86%) only participated once; therefore, we could not ascertain whether these users became happier because of using the Happiness Indicator. Consequently, we limited this study to examining the effect of Happiness Indicator use for people who participated twice or more. A total of 5411 users met this criterion and these participants used the Happiness Indicator for an average of 233 days, measured as the difference between the first day and last day of use, with on average 3 months between participations. Well educated women were overrepresented among the participants considered in this effect study. Further details of the participants are available in Bakker, Burger, VanHaren, Oerlemans, and Veenhoven (2015).

2.2 Descriptive Statistics The means, standard deviations and inter-correlations of the variables used in this effect study are presented on Table 1. These descriptive statistics are based on 13,320 participations by 5411 users. Inspection of the means shows that average happiness ‘today’ (6.89) is somewhat higher than retrospective happiness over the last month (6.61). This may mean that participants are more inclined to use the Happiness Indicator on good days and/or that they underestimated their happiness over the preceding month.

2.3 Analysis In this study, we focused on the feeling of happiness in the past month, as measured using the second question shown in Fig. 1. The research question was whether happiness in the past month increases with the repeated use of the Happiness Comparer and the Happiness Diary. As a first test, we assessed whether a participant’s happiness had changed between their first and their last use of the Happiness Indicator, and, if so, by how many points to the positive or negative. As a next step, we performed a more sophisticated analysis taken from econometrics, which allowed us to obtain a better estimate of the size and significance of the effects. A standard reduced-form 5 Average

response to the question “How happy would you say you are?” was 7.9 in the Dutch sample of the European Social Survey in 2014.

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Table 1 Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix of most important variables in the analysis Mean

SD

1. Happiness last month

6.61

1.68

1 1.00

2

2. Happiness today

6.89

1.64

0.64 1.00

3. Times comparer used

4.29

5.44

0.10 0.07

1.00

4. Times diary used

2.91

5.60

0.11 0.07

0.68

1.00

5. Number of days participating

93.31

198.3

0.04 0.04

0.24

0.01

1.00

6. Days since last participation

90.24

177.4

−0.01 0.01

−0.15 −0.14

0.68

7. Change happiness last month

0.09

1.48

0.41 0.20

3

4

5

6

7

1.00

−0.03 −0.02 −0.03 −0.01 1.00

happiness model was estimated (see also DiTella et al., 2003; Arampatzi, Burger, & Veenhoven, 2015). Hit = α0 + α1 Hi(t−1) + α2 Pi(t−1) + α3 X i(t) + μi + ϕt + εit , where H is the self-reported happiness over the past month, at participation time t; P is a set of variables capturing the number of times the participant has used the Happiness Comparer and the Happiness Diary6 ; X is a set of control variables capturing happiness that day, the number of days the participant has already used the Happiness Indicator, and the number of days since the last use; μi is a vector of participant fixed effects to control for time-invariant participant characteristics, such as gender, marital status, income, and level of education; and ϕt is a vector of month and year dummies to capture time-related circumstances, such as the weather and economic situation. The lagged dependent variable Hi(t−1) is included to allow for adjustment dynamics and to tackle serial correlation and avoid potential omitted variable bias. Please note that we use a within-person design, where we look at variation of happiness within a person and not between people.

6 Please

note that our Happiness Diary variable is winsorized at the 1% level.

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35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% -10 -9

-8

-7

-6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Fig. 7 % change in last month’s happiness between first and last use of the happiness diary

3 Results An overview of the observed changes in the last-month’ happiness following use of the Happiness Indicator is presented in Fig. 7. Horizontal: Change happiness in points on 0–10 scale. Vertical: % of participants who went through a change of that size.

3.1 Happiness Is Changeable First, we examined whether individual happiness fluctuates over time. This was found to be true. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that among the users of the Happiness Diary, only some 30% remained evenly happy and some 20% experienced changes of 2 points or more. The average monthly change was 0.09 point on scale 0–10, that is, about 1% of the possible range. At first sight, this small change supports the ‘set point’ theory, which holds that happiness is a stable ‘trait’ (e.g. Cummins, 2010). Yet cumulated over time, such minor monthly changes can result in substantial alterations of happiness, such as these demonstrated in long-term follow-up studies, see for example Headey (2008).

3.2 Happiness Increases Following Repeated Use of the Happiness Indicator We considered whether individuals experienced an increase in monthly happiness following the use of the Happiness Indicator. As we can see from Fig. 7, there was

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more change to the positive than to the negative. This was confirmed using the econometric analysis reported in Table 2. In this analysis, all models were estimated using fixed-effects estimators and cluster robust standard errors. Of the control variables included in the model (Table 1, Column 1), only happiness that day was statistically significant (b = 0.314, SE = 0.016, p < 0.01). Surprisingly, we did not find an effect of happiness of last month in the previous period (t − 1) on happiness of the last month in the current time period. It should be noted that this effect might be confounded by individual fixed effects and the Nickell bias induced by fixed-effects estimation, discussed in the extended version of this text (Bakker et al., 2015).

3.2.1

No Effect of the Happiness Comparer

We examined whether there was an increase in monthly happiness over time because of repeated use of the Happiness Comparer. We observed a positive effect that did not reach statistical significance (b = 0.008, SE = 0.005, p = 0.113; Table 2, Column 2). Just knowing whether comparable users are more or less happy than you are has apparently little influence on change in happiness, at least not on average and for the 3 months period studied here.

3.2.2

Significant Effect of the Happiness Diary

We found a significant effect of use of the Happiness Diary (b = 0.013, SE = 0.005, p < 0.01; Table 1, Column 3), even when controlling for use of the Happiness Comparer (b = 0.014, SE = 0.007, p < 0.05; Table 2, Column 4). This effect may be due to the increased awareness of how one spends one’s time and how well one feels during daily activities, as well as to the comparison one can make with how similar participants are doing. This latter comparison of one’s self with how other similar people feel is likely to provide more clues for making changes in one’s way of life than the comparison with average happiness of others discussed above in Sect. 3.2.1. How strong is this effect of using the Happiness Diary? Using it ten times increased a participant’s monthly happiness by approximately 0.14 points on a 0–10 scale when all other factors were held constant. However, fewer than 4% of the respondents completed the diary 10 times or more, and the average use was only 2.4 times. The Happiness Comparer and Happiness Diary cannot be considered as substitutes in terms of their contribution to well-being. The participants who only used the Happiness Comparer and not the Happiness Diary did not benefit more from the Happiness Comparer than the participants who used both tools (Table 2, Column 5). We found decreasing marginal benefits of using the Happiness Comparer and Happiness Diary. In other words, the effect of repeated participation on monthly happiness decreases slightly with increasing use of the Happiness Comparer and the Happiness Diary. These interaction effects are shown in Table 3 of Bakker et al. (2015).

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Table 2 Determinants of happiness last month—fixed effects estimation (1) Only control variables Times happiness comparer used t − 1

(2) + (3) + (4) Full Happiness Happiness model comparer diary −0.001 (0.007)

0.008 (0.005)

(5) +No diary use effect 0.001 (0.008)

−0.010 (0.012)

Times happiness comparer used t − 1 × no diary used Times happiness diary used

0.013*** (0.005)

0.014** (0.007)

0.012* (0.007)

t−1

Happiness last month

0.024 (0.020)

0.023 (0.020)

0.022 (0.019)

0.022 (0.020)

0.022 (0.020)

Days using happiness indicator (× 100)

0.156 (0.146)

0.126 (0.149)

0.119 (0.148)

0.121 (0.150)

0.123 (0.149)

Days since last use (× 100)

−0.020 (0.014)

−0.012 (0.015)

−0.012 (0.015)

−0.013 (0.015)

−0.014 (0.015)

Happiness today

0.314*** (0.016)

0.314*** (0.016)

0.314*** (0.016)

0.314*** (0.016)

0.314*** (0.016)

Respondent FE

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Month-year FE

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Observations

13,320

13,320

13,320

13,320

13,320

Number of respondents

5411

5411

5411

5411

5411

Within R-square

0.15

0.15

0.15

0.15

0.15

Between R-square

0.26

0.29

0.30

0.29

0.29

Overall R-square

0.27

0.29

0.30

0.29

0.29

t−1

Cluster-robust standard errors in parentheses ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.10 FE = fixed effects. R = explained variance

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3.3 Effect Is Larger Among Those Who Initially Were the Least Happy Further analysis of the use of the Happiness Diary indicated that the effect of use was larger for the participants who were less happy at the first use of the Happiness Indicator (table not shown). The participants who were initially the happiest profited less from participation compared with the participants who were initially the least happy. Using the Happiness Comparer or the Happiness Diary 10 times resulted in a 0.3-point increase the happiness of the people who scored 4 on their first use, whereas on average, no effect was found for people who were relatively happy (7 or higher) at the start.

3.4 No Differences in Effect Across Participant Types We examined whether the increase in monthly happiness with repeated participation differed according to a participant’s background. We found no differences in the effect of using the Happiness Comparer or the Happiness Diary on happiness across age, gender, income level, and education.

4 Discussion This first exploration of the effect of using the Happiness Indicator confirmed our expectation that increased awareness of one’s own happiness contributes to the likelihood of one finding a more satisfying way of life. The findings give rise to the following questions.

4.1 Causal Effect? Possibly the observed gain in happiness following use of the Happiness Indicator is due to other causes than a participant’s greater awareness of their happiness as postulated in Sect. 1.3.1 of this chapter. The following alternative causes could be involved.

4.1.1

Spontaneous Recovery from a Temporary Dip?

Users of the Happiness Indicator are probably occupied with their own happiness to an above-average degree. Would these people have become happier without using

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the Happiness Indicator? We are familiar with the ‘waiting room effect’ described in psychotherapy.7 A part of that effect is seen in spontaneous healing and another part in sharper problem awareness, i.e. there is something wrong with me, and consequent coping. In our case, the problem lies not in sharper awareness, because that is what the Happiness Indicator aims to promote, but in spontaneous recovery, in this case, overcoming a dip in happiness, one that could have been overcome anyway. We consider two variants of this alternative explanation below.

Difference with Observed Gains in Control Groups in Effect Studies of Happiness Trainings In effect studies, this possibility of spontaneous improvement is commonly handled using ‘control groups’, typically randomly assigning part of the applicants to a waiting list or a placebo treatment. The Happiness Indicator does not have such a control group, but we can learn from other studies. We looked for earlier studies among self-selected participants in wellbeing trainings that involved a control group in which change in happiness was assessed and we subjected these findings to a mini meta-analysis. We used the Bibliography of Happiness,8 which lists some 90 studies on the effects on happiness of individual level interventions on wellbeing, of which 10 were among self-selected participants and had a control group.9 The observed changes in happiness among these controls are reported in Table 6 of Bakker et al. (2015). The changes are typically small and mostly negative, the average decline of happiness in these control groups was 3.8% of the possible scale ranges. So, denying treatment to people who seek treatment, lowers these people’s happiness. If spontaneous recovery exists at all, it is apparently an exception rather than the rule. This means that the observed rise in happiness following use of the Happiness Diary is unlikely to have happened without use of this tool. It can also mean that the observed rise in happiness since start of use was an underestimation of the total effect. Below in Sect. 4.5, we will see that frequent use of the Happiness Diary raised happiness by 1.4% of the scale range. If using this tool also prevented a 3.8% decline in happiness, the net effect is about 5%.

Regression to the Mean? The observed changes in happiness may also be due to random variation, an atypical bad month at baseline might be followed by increased happiness at follow-up. Yet this regression to the mean applies also to an atypical good month at start and both

7 Waiting

for treatment often appears to be conducive to spontaneous healing. of Happiness, section Rf02.08 ‘Psychological training/therapy’. 9 We did not consider studies that rewarded participants with money or course credits. 8 Bibliography

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fluctuations balance in the average change in happiness, which is positive as we have seen in Sect. 3.2. However, such a regression to the mean may be involved in the observed greater gain in happiness made by the initially least happy (cf. Sect. 3.3). It is also plausible that the least happy benefit most from this intervention, as they can win more and are probably more motivated.

4.1.2

Response Shift?

It is conceivable that repeated use of the Happiness Indicator led the participants to score themselves higher on the happiness scale even though their happiness remained unchanged. In the literature, this is known as a ‘response shift’. Previous follow-up research into happiness has shown a reverse pattern; happiness was estimated to be lower at the second measurement, apparently because respondents had formed a clearer picture of what happiness is for them. Therefore, if response shift is involved at all, it is more likely to repress the happiness rating and thus cause under-estimation of the effect rather than over-estimate it.

4.1.3

Difference in Gains Between Participants Who Used and Did not Use Happiness Diary

Another way to assess the probability of the above alternative explanations, spontaneous recovery and regression to the mean, is to assess evidence for the expected effect of increased awareness. For that purpose, we compared the gains made by participants who used only the Happiness Comparer, with the gains in happiness made by participants who also used the Happiness Diary. The latter spend more time monitoring their happiness and are thus likely to become more aware of how well they feel. Indeed, we found that use of the Happiness Diary affected happiness more, than use of the Happiness Comparer did (cf. Sect. 3.2) and we also found a stronger effect on happiness, the more often the Happiness Diary was used.

4.2 Sleeper Effect? In this study, the average difference between the first and the last use of the Happiness Indicator was 3 months, which means that we observed the short-term effects of using this self-help tool. The long-term effects of use on happiness could be greater, in particular if one gains a greater awareness of one’s happiness, which leads to major life-chances, such as taking another job or divorcing. Such decisions come with considerable delay, and so do the effects of these decisions on happiness, which often are negative in the beginning. The Happiness Indicator is an ongoing project, and we hope to learn more about this topic in future analyses.

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4.3 Effect Size The observed increase in happiness that resulted from using the Happiness Diary ranged between 0.1 and 0.3 points on a scale of 0–10, i.e. approximately 1.5%. Is this a lot or a little? One way to answer this question is to compare with effects of real-life changes on happiness. To this end, we scanned the research literature for observed changes in happiness following major life events over periods of about a year. The best comparable findings are presented in Fig. 8. Although the effect of using the Happiness Diary can be considered modest compared with these real-life changes, it is a relatively easy road to take in the pursuit of happiness. As noted in Sect. 4.1.1, use of the Happiness Indicator may also have prevented a bigger decline in happiness in this group of people seeking to improve their happiness. Together the prevented loss and the achieved gain amount to some 5% of the scale range, which is substantial and equals the effect of getting married.

Fig. 8 Effects of the happiness indicator and specific life events on happiness, measured using a 0–10 scale (References to the publications in which these effect sizes were reported in Bakker et al. 2015)

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4.4 Use of the Happiness Indicator by Colleagues We welcome use of the Happiness Indicator technique by colleague researchers and practitioners. Now that the system has been developed, large-scale applications are possible at low cost. ‘Satellite projects’ will run on the same server at Erasmus University. Variants tailored to specific interest can be made, if a common core of variables is maintained. Data will be added to a common pool, which all projects can use, among other things, for comparison. For further information, please go to https://www.eur. nl/sites/corporate/files/HappinessIndicator_SatelliteProjects_Prospectus2016.pdf.

5 Conclusion This first study confirms the expectation that use of the Happiness Indicator leads to an increase in happiness, especially when the Happiness Diary is used repeatedly. The effect of this intervention is positive but modest. Acknowledgements This project is funded by VGZ health insurance company in the Netherlands. The dataset is available for interested scientists. Participation in linked projects is welcome.

References Arampatzi, E., Burger, M. J., & Veenhoven, R. (2015). Financial distress and happiness of employees in times of economic crisis. Applied Economics Letters, 22, 173–179. Bakker, A., Burger, M., VanHaren, P., Oerlemans, W., & Veenhoven, R. (2015). Raising happiness by raising awareness of how happy one feels. Effect of happiness self-monitoring using the happiness indicator. EHERO working paper 2015-1, Erasmus Happiness Research Organization, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. Cummins, R. A. (2010). Subjective wellbeing, homeostatically protected mood and depression: A synthesis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11, 1–17. Diener, E., & Tay, L. (2014). Review of the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM). Social Indicators Research, 116(1), 255–267. Di Tella, R., MacCulloch, R. J., & Oswald A. J. (2003). The macroeconomics of happiness. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 85, 809–27. Fordyce, M. W. (1977). Development of a program to increase personal happiness. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 24(6), 511–521. Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2004). Economic consequences of mispredicting utility. Zürich, Switzerland: Institute for Empirical Research in Economics. Gilbert, D. T. (2005). Stumbling on happiness. New York, USA: Vintage Books. Grinde, B. (2002). Happiness in the perspective of evolutionary psychology. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3 (4), 331–354. Headey, B. W. (2008). The set-point theory of well-being: Negative results and consequent revisions. Social Indicator Research, 85, 389–403. Hendriks, M., Ludwigs K., & Veenhoven, R. (2014) Why are domestic migrants unhappier than locals? The role of daily life. Social Indicators Research, 125(2), 481–508. Jahoda, M. (1958). Current concepts of positive mental health. NY, USA: Basic Books.

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Lipton, D. (2016) Critical social research on self-tracking: A reading list. This sociological life, blog. https://simplysociology.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/critical-social-research-onself-tracking-a-reading-list/. Lyubomirskiy S. (2008). The How of Happiness. A scientific approach to getting the life you want. UK: The Penguin. Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D. A., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2004). A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: The day reconstruction method. Science, 306, 1776–1780. Kahneman, D., & Krueger, A. B. (2006). Developments in the measurement of subjective wellbeing. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, 3–24. Knabe, A., Rätzel, S., Schöb, R., & Weimann, J. (2010). Dissatisfied with life but having a good day: Timeuse and wellbeing of the unemployed. Economic Journal, 120, 867–889. Kulainen, S., Saari, J., & Veenhoven, R. (2018). Happiness is more a matter of feeling well than having what you want: Tests of Veenhoven’s theory. International Journal of Happiness and Development, 4(3), 209–235. Neff, G., & Natus, D. (2016). Self tracking. Boston, USA: MIT Press. Oishi, S., Whitchurch, E., Miao, F., Kurtz, J., & Park, J. (2009). Would I be happier if I moved? retirement status and cultural variations in the anticipated and actual levels of happiness. Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 437–446. Omerod, P., & Johns, H. (2007) Against happiness. Prospect, 133. Schwarz, N. (2012). Feeling-as-information theory. In: P. VanLange, A. Kruglanski, & H. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp 289–309). London: Sage. Spence, G. B., & Grant, A. M. (2007). Professional and peer life coaching and the enhancement of goal striving and well-being: An exploratory study. Journal of Positive Psychology, 2(3), 185–194. VanHerpen, S. G. A., & Vermeulen-Kerstens, L. M. (2008). De Levensstijl van Vijftig-Plussers. Tussenrapportage Najaar 2008. Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Risbo Research. Veenhoven, R. (1984). Conditions of happiness. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel (now Springer/Nature). Veenhoven, (2009). How do we assess how happy we are? In A. K. Dutt & B. Radcliff (Eds.), Happiness, economics and politics: Towards a multi-disciplinary approach (pp. 45–69). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elger Publishers. Veenhoven, R. (2011). Greater happiness for a greater number: is that possible and desirable? Journal of Happiness Studies, 11, 605–629. Veenhoven, R. (2015a) Happiness: History of the concept. In J. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopaedia of social and behavioural sciences (2nd ed., Vol. 10, pp. 521–525). Elsevier. Veenhoven, R. (2015b). Informed pursuit of happiness: What we should know, do know and get to know. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16, 1035–1071. Wilson, T. D., Meyers, J. M., & Wheatley, T. (2000). Focalism: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 821–836. Wilson, T. D., Gilbert, D. T., & Meyers, J. (2003). How happy was I, anyway? A retrospective impact bias. Social Cognition, 6, 421–446.

Ruut Veenhoven (Ph.D.) studied sociology and is also accredited in social psychology and socialsexuology. He is emeritus-professor of ‘social conditions for human happiness’ at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands and extra-ordinary professor at North-West University in South Africa. Veenhoven’s current research is on subjective quality of life. Major publications are: ‘Conditions of happiness’ (1984), ‘Happiness in nations’ (1993), ‘The four qualities of life’ (2000) and ‘Greater happiness for a greater number: Is that possible and desirable?’ (2010). Veenhoven also published on abortion, love, marriage and parenthood. Veenhoven is director of the World Database of Happiness and a founding editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies.

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Arnold Bakker is a professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Particularly interested in positive organizational behavior, including work engagement, work-related flow, job performance, job crafting, and positive spillover and crossover. Professor Bakker is also secretary general of the Alliance for Organizational Psychology, fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and adjunct professor at Lingnan University (Hong Kong). Previously, he was professor of positive organizational behaviour at Utrecht University and from 2009 until 2013 he was president of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology. His research interests include positive organizational phenomena such as work engagement, flow, and happiness at work, with a particular interest in understanding the processes that lead to job performance (e.g. crossover of work-related emotions). He has developed numerous internet applications, such as the Job Demands–Resources monitor, the Happiness Indicator, and the Engagement App. Professor Bakker’s articles have been published in major psychology journals such as American Psychologist, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Organizational Behavior. He is also series editor of Current issues in Work and Organizational Psychology (Psychology Press) and Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology (Emerald). Martijn Burger is Academic Director at the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation (EHERO) and Associate Professor of Industrial and Regional Economics in the Department of Applied Economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics (cum laude) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Most of his current research focuses on happiness economics and urban and regional economics, including geography of happiness, location decisions of multinational corporations, and institutional and social conditions for economic development. In addition, he is associate director of the Globalization and World Cities Network (GaWC) Research Network, associate editor of the Journal of Economic and Social Geography, and member of the board of the Dutch Regional Science Association and International Society for Quality of Life Studies. Pieter Van Haren (Ph.D.) is an information Analyist at the Canisius Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis and the author of the book ‘Geluk in Zorg’. Wido Oerlemans (Ph.D.) was an Assistant Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology at the Technical University in Eindhoven.

Well-Being at School: Development and Evaluation of the Feasibility of a Positive Psychology Intervention for Native Francophone Students in Two Multicultural Contexts Julie Dubarle, Emmanuel Bernet, Véronique Brun and Rebecca Shankland Abstract Student motivation and well-being at school are increasingly important issues for all educational systems throughout the world as they contribute to academic success. Attention difficulties, performance anxiety and a low sense of belonging place the issue of well-being as a key factor that can promote learning and optimal student development. In underprivileged and multicultural environments, the focus on these aspects are even more important. This has led to the development of interventions aiming at enhancing kindness, trust and sense of belonging to improve class climate in order to increase motivation and well-being at school. “Je suis bien à l’école” (I feel good at school) is a positive psychology intervention for elementary school children based on two widely validated positive psychology practices which are highly linked to well-being and positive relationships: gratitude and mindfulness. This chapter will present this program and its feasibility study in two Francophone school contexts based in France and in Singapore. In France, the program was carried out in an underprivileged and multicultural environment, while in Singapore it was tested on a high socio-economic population of mainly French-expatriated pupils. Increases in wellbeing in both contexts were reported after the intervention. The students reported using the practices frequently to calm down or to rest. Furthermore, teachers reported having implemented it with ease in their teaching routine, as it adapts well to their pedagogical needs and constraints. This program is freely accessible for French-speaking schools. Further studies will continue to assess the efficacy of this program using randomized controlled trials. Keywords Well-being · Mindfulness · Gratitude · Positive psychology intervention · Elementary school

J. Dubarle · E. Bernet · V. Brun · R. Shankland (B) Université Grenoble Alpes, LIP/PC2S, 1251, Avenue Centrale, 38000 Grenoble, France e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 L. E. Van Zyl and S. Rothmann Sr. (eds.), Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20311-5_2

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1 Problem Statement For a student, well-being at school is essential to success. It creates an internal climate conducive to learning that can be greatly facilitated by the school (Roffey, 2015) and by the teacher (OECD, 2017). This will not only affect their mental health and resilience, but will also promote prosocial behaviours, motivation to learn, commitment to the task and ultimately the quality of their learning (Noble, Wyatt, McGrath, Roffey, & Rowling, 2008). In fact, the well-being of the student is so important that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development grants it a complete part in its PISA study (OECD, 2017) by assessing four areas of their lives: their academic performance, their relationships with peers and teachers, their family life, and their activities outside school. The study shows, among other things, that anxiety related to schoolwork undermines their well-being and that a good relationship between the student and his or her teacher helps to create a climate through which well-being is facilitated. Recently, the new French Government has included dimensions of well-being, trust and kindness in its education action plan (Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale, 2017).

1.1 The French Education System and Well-Being The most commonly used indicator to assess an educational system in France is academic achievement. However, in recent years these indicators have been criticized. The World Economic Forum in its 2016 report advocates the importance of soft skills (e.g., Soffel, 2016). The French national education system traditionally emphasises on teaching essentially knowledge, but gradually it is adapting to the needs of the 21st century by considering the “whole student”. It marked a turning point in the early 1990s, moving from the transmission of knowledge to a new model in which it placed the student at the centre of the education system. Since then, the subject of student well-being has gained ground both in official texts and in research. The French Ministry of National Education defines well-being as “the degree of individual satisfaction of students in different aspects of school life” (Murat & Simonis-Sueur, 2015, p. 3). The holding of an international symposium under the patronage of the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research, in October 2017, entitled “Well-being in education: a research topic for the human and social sciences” shows the importance of this question. This is indeed a paradigm shift (Goyette, 2018; Roegiers et al., 2012) by giving schools a role that goes far beyond the transmission of knowledge in various French speaking countries such as France or Quebec.

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1.2 Impact of Governmental Policies Schools are naturally ideal places to prevent mental health problems, promote wellbeing and thus reduce the costs associated with psychological distress (Taylor & Malbœuf-Hurtubise, 2016). The school is the place where those who will become tomorrow’s actors are trained. Therefore, it seems necessary that schools not only strive to impart basic academic knowledge, but also to promote mental health through the teaching of psychosocial and emotional skills (Shankland & Rosset, 2017). According to the report of the CNESCO1 (Phuong, 2016), which analyzes the concept of well-being in 5 education systems (France, Finland, United Kingdom, Australia, Spain and the United States), it is in Finland that student well-being is at the heart of pedagogy, unlike other countries where this notion is diluted in other themes: health, safety and discrimination reduction. The results of the PISA study (OECD, 2017) places Finland in 4th position, while France is in 26th position. The CNESCO report concludes that the Anglo-Saxon countries and Finland have a “whole school” approach and implement SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) programs, unlike France where these approaches are less common. However, some initiatives are emerging under the influence of school principals or teachers, but these initiatives remain local. There is the creation of general interest non-governmental organizations trying to make the link between research and the field such as SynLab or IREP (Institute for Research in Positive Education). Research on well-being in schools is a new field of research in France, hence the importance of this study which aims at assessing a new program entitled “Je suis bien à l’école” (I feel good at school), presented below. It has been implemented in different cultural and socio-economic contexts in order to identify its potential for multicultural contexts.

1.3 The Problematic in Underprivileged and Multicultural Contexts The socio-economic and cultural characteristics of different backgrounds influence student success in both performance and persistence (Bouchard et al., 2000). They may grow up in a privileged context, live abroad as expatriates, be educated in a multicultural or disadvantaged environment. Each of these environments will have its advantages and drawbacks. However, researchers agree that what will determine the adverse consequences of a particular context is not so much poverty itself, for example, as the number of risk factors in its environment (Guo, 1998; Gutman & Midgley, 2000; Prelow & Loukas, 2003; Rauh, Parker, Garfinkel, Perry, & Andrews, 2003). Various risk factors such as psychological distress in families, parents’ low level of education, the quality of parents’ involvement in their child’s school life, the 1 Conseil

national d’évaluation du système scolaire.

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student’s low social and emotional skills, problems of delinquency and harassment in school, problems in the neighbourhood and many other factors can negatively influence the child’s social and cognitive development. Moreover, the impact of these risk factors also appear to be influenced by age (Guo, 1998): young children are more likely to be influenced negatively by these type of factors. For example, children from French expatriate families, such as those living in Singapore, may experience these experiences as sources of personal enrichment. However, they can also cause emotional breakdown, suffering and even attachment difficulties when moving frequently from one country to another. These children have been called “Third Culture Kids” or “Cross-Cultural Kids” (Pollock, Reken, & Pollock, 2010). David Pollock defined and then described them as “a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental tears outside the parents’ culture. The Third Culture Kid frequently builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture may be assimilated into the Third Culture Kid’s life experience, the sense of belonging is (often) in relationship to the others of similar background”. For these children, a high level of family cohesion, a stable emotional climate and a strong attachment are the determinants of adaptation to expatriation (Zee, Ali, & Haaksma, 2007). These children will be able to put in place active coping strategies (Endler & Parker, 1990). At the same time, the strong link between school and family also has beneficial effects on mental health, especially on anxiety and depression (Matos, Dadds, & Barrett, 2006). Moreover, the situation in disadvantaged areas in France is particularly difficult for pupils with learning and behavioral difficulties. They consider themselves in a school environment that prevents them from working properly. According to the study (OECD, 2014) the same difficulty is present among teachers. In priority areas, they spend 21% of their school time establishing and maintaining a favourable class climate (compared to 16% outside priority education zones and 12% in the private school sector). This represents a decrease in the amount of time students actually spend learning. In order to better understand and help the development of children exposed to several environmental risk factors, researchers propose to look at the problem from an ecological perspective (e.g., Jack, 2000, p. 704). According to Bronfenbrenner’s theory (1979), the child evolves in different systems having an impact force more or less close to him. Thus, as school and family are microsystems close to the individual, their importance is all the greater. Conversely, the link between school and family (mesosystem), government policies (exosystem) or value systems will affect children less and indirectly. For Bronfenbrenner (1979) and Rocque (1999), the school’s microsystem can have a significant impact on children’s development by offering them different protective factors, through extracurricular activities or anti-harassment intervention programs. Closer to students, teachers can influence their well-being even more directly through their attitudes and by teaching them techniques that help face difficult situations (see for example mindfulness practices that help emotion regulation, Theurel, Gimbert, & Gentaz, 2018). In sum, prevention actions in schools seem to be the most cost-effective and efficient solution to counter the negative

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potential of risk factors (Heckman & Masterov, 2007). It is thus useful to look into the current efficacy of interventions aiming at enhancing student well-being at school.

1.3.1

Efficacy of Student Well-Being Interventions

More specifically, research has examined the multidimensional concept of well-being from different perspectives such as subjective well-being (Diener, 1984; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999), which is characterized by the frequent presence of positive affect, low levels of negative affect and a high level of satisfaction with life, and psychological well-being (Ryff, 1989), which is based on an existential perspective taking into account different dimensions such as meaning in life, self-acceptance, feeling of autonomy, relationship quality, level of personal development and the feeling of control over one’s environment. Optimal well-being combines the two previous definitions, and brings together the following three components: cognitive, affective and self-realization (Keyes, Shmotkin, & Ryff, 2002). The WHO (2018) even refers to a larger definition of well-being including physical, mental and social aspects. The field of positive psychology has developed many interventions aimed at enhancing these three dimensions of well-being. Systematic reviews and metaanalyses give useful indications as to how positive psychology interventions should be implemented in educational settings.

Positive Psychology Interventions and Well-Being In positive psychology, interventions focus the determinants of well-being. In his most recent model (PERMA), Seligman (2011) defines five determinants of sustainable happiness: Positive emotions, Engagement, positive Relationships, Meaning in life, and Accomplishment or self-fulfillment. In schools, positive education aims to equip the teacher so that he can teach skills that help promote well-being and academic achievement (Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009). In the educational environment, positive psychology values the experience and expression of positive emotions and the awareness and use of individual strengths that contribute to enhance creativity, self-efficacy beliefs, optimism, resilience and positive relationships (Shankland & Rosset, 2017). To this end, various programs have been built over the years. According to the study by Noble and McGrath (2008), based on evidence from research on practices that increase student well-being, the structure of their interventions target the following dimensions, which come close to the later developed PERMA model: 1. Social and emotional skills to enhance resiliency and positive relationships. 2. Positive emotions, including feelings of belonging, safety, satisfaction, excitement and joy. 3. Engagement and self-efficacy beliefs through personal strengths use. 4. Meaning in life and purpose which increase learning motivation.

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These programs can be classroom-based or school-wide. They aim to promote well-being (not just reduce problematic behaviors) by cultivating positive emotions, cognitions and behaviors (Shankland & Rosset, 2017; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). Several programs have been developed, mainly in English-speaking countries, that can be divided into two main types of interventions: – Mindfulness based interventions aiming at enhancing emotion and attention regulation in order to reduce automatic responses, anxiety and depression symptoms, and increase positive relationships and attention (for a meta-analysis, see Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). – Positive psychology interventions aiming at increasing positive emotions, creative problem solving and positive relationships (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008; Green, Grant, & Rynsaardt, 2007; Marques, Lopez, & Pais-Ribeiro, 2011; Seligman, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009).

Summary of Existing Evidence-Based Programs In their article published in Educational Psychology Review, Shankland and Rosset (2017) list examples of interventions that have been developed in recent years around the world. These programs usually include either mindfulness based practices, character strengths use, gratitude or cooperation practices. To date, programs rarely combine these various types of practices. Mindfulness based Interventions. Several mindfulness based programs have been developed in recent years targeting educational settings. Among them, MindUP (Maloney, Lawlor, Schonert-Reichl, & Whitehead, 2016), developed in the United States in over 1000 schools, as well as in England and Canada, focuses on learning basic breathing and listening skills. It includes 15 lessons for children from kindergarten to college. This program increases empathy and optimism while reducing depression symptoms (Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010; Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015). Inner Kids (Greenland, 2010), is another program implemented in the United States for children from kindergarten to high school, with two weekly sessions of 30 min for eight weeks or 45 min once a week for 10–12 weeks, depending on the children’s age. Each week a theme is addressed (interconnections, everything changes …) in the form of games and activities, and the sessions always end with a moment of introspection and a practice of compassion (program based on ABC: Attention, Balance and Compassion). The study by Flook et al. (2010) highlights an improvement among children with emotional regulation difficulties. In Great Britain, Mindfulness in Schools Project is developing the .b (dot-be: Stop, Breath and Be) program by Kuyken et al. (2013). It is intended for middle and high school students through an 8-week program. These authors report a decrease in stress as well as an increase in well-being. Other mindfulness based programs exist, such as Learning to BREATHE (Metz et al., 2013) and The Still Quiet place (Saltzman, 2014). The general content of

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Mindfulness Based Interventions for children and adolescents in school settings remains similar, but their form and structure differ (Malboeuf-Hurtubise, Taylor, Lefrançois, Essopos, & Lacourse, 2017). Several mindfulness based programs have been developed recently in French speaking countries, but the efficacy has not yet been assessed (e.g., Siaud-Facchin, 2014). Overall, the meta-analyses (Zenner, Herrnleben-Kurz, & Walach, 2014; Zoogman et al., 2015) show significant effects on attention, stress and resilience. According to Taylor and Malboeuf-Hurtubise (2016), mindfulness based interventions would also benefit from integrating other theoretical frameworks from positive psychology, such as self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and the congruence model (McClelland, Koestner, & Weinberger, 1989; Thrash, Elliot, Maruskin, & Cassidy, 2010). Positive Psychology Interventions. A number of multi-component positive psychology interventions have been developed and shown positive effects on student well-being. For example the Penn Resiliency Program (Nolen-Hoeksema, Girgus, & Seligman, 1986) which aims at enhancing optimism and active coping strategies, or other programs such as SPARK (Boniwell & Ryan, 2012) and Zippy’s Friends (Mishara & Ystgaard, 2006), all of which aim at cultivating social and emotional competencies leading to resilience and well-being. When looking closely at school based research studies in positive psychology that have targeted specific practices, most of them have focused on character strengths use and gratitude practices. Character strengths are considered as individual resources that are useful to enhance well-being for oneself and for others (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Using ones character strengths has been shown to increase self-esteem, reduce aggressive behaviors, anxiety, depression and enhance prosocial behaviors as well as school engagement (Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009). Specific gratitude enhancing interventions have been experienced in school settings such as Gratitude journaling (e.g., Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008; Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005), the Gratitude Letter (e.g., Froh et al., 2009; Seligman et al., 2005), and the Gratitude Graph (Zakrzewski, 2013). After such practices, studies show an increase in optimism, life satisfaction and well-being at school (Froh et al., 2008). Furthermore, such practices promote prosocial behaviors (for more details, see Algoe, 2012). At the same time, according to a study by Ma, Kibler and Sly (2013), gratitude practices also increase academic interest and grade point averages.

Main Drawbacks Overall, these programs and interventions, increase well-being and school engagement (Rascle & Bergugnat, 2016; Seligman, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009), which can promote educational success that could lead to a better future (Goyette, 2018). However, these programs may appear complicated to set up in institutions, which tends to refrain teachers from engaging in these types of activities. Teachers are

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not trained in this field, and professional interventions can be expensive. Moreover, Goyette (2018) notes that several of them are conceived in a top-down approach, where little account is taken of the particular context of the school and class in which they are integrated. At the same time, frequency and repetition appear to impact long-term outcomes (Froh et al., 2014). There are also methodological limitations in the studies carried out in this field. There is a vast heterogeneity between the different interventions in terms of content, structure, frequency, practice and training of the instructor or teacher (Felver, Celisde Hoyos, Tezanos, & Singh, 2016; Zenner et al., 2014; Zoogman et al., 2015). This may explain the differences in effect sizes found between studies to date (MalboeufHurtubise, Joussemet, Taylor, & Lacourse, 2018). In addition, it remains difficult to measure well-being in schools (Kempf, 2018) as many variables impact children’s well-being which are not linked to school based practices. In order to develop the field of mental health promotion in educational settings in French speaking countries, a group of researchers, teachers and positive psychology professionals, worked together to develop a brief school based positive psychology intervention comprising both mindfulness and positive psychology practices. The program is called “Je suis bien à l’école” (I feel good at school). It is freely available on the Internet of the French national educational system and has been experimented in various school contexts in France and abroad.

“I Feel Good at School”: Pillars of the Program Following research evidence, mindfulness and gratitude practices appeared to be most efficient in school settings in order to enhance individual and collective wellbeing. Kabat-Zinn (2009, p. 4) defines Mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally”. Mindfulness based practices offer a means of making a pause, in order to reduce our natural tendency to react automatically to inner tensions or external stimuli (Shankland & André, 2014). This requires regular attentional training (Lutz, Slagter, Dunne, & Davidson, 2009). The effects of such attentional training have been shown on physical, mental and social well-being (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn, 2008), More precisely, the following effects have been reported: reduction of sleep disorders and improved immune function (Davidson et al., 2003), slowing down of cellular ageing (Jacobs et al., 2011), better pain management (Kabat-Zinn, 1982) improved subjective and psychological well-being (Teasdale et al., 2002), enhanced emotion regulation (John & Gross, 2004) and decreased automatic thoughts and ruminations (Watkins, 2004), which leads to reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms (Hayes et al., 2004; Heeren & Philippot, 2010). The practice of mindfulness also positively influences prosocial tendencies and the quality of relationships (Wallmark, Safarzadeh, Daukantait˙e, & Maddux, 2013). Gratitude is a complex emotion one may feel when having received help or a gift intentionally through a selfless gesture (Shankland, 2016). Certain preconditions

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appear to be necessary to experience gratitude. First, being able to perceive the benevolent act is necessary in order to experience gratitude. Gratitude journaling is a means of developing such attention to the positive intentions and actions of others (e.g., Emmons & McCullough, 2003). Second, being able to perceive the prosocial intention and the benefactor’s efforts (Tesser, Gatewood, & Driver, 1968). This implies minimal levels of empathy. In an experiment carried out by Froh and colleagues (2014), it has been shown that children aged from 8 to 11 years old, were able to develop this ability through simple school based exercises such as identifying intentions and efforts in little story boards presented to them. This ability in turn lead to greater ability to experience and express gratitude. Gratitude is different from happiness because it implies a two-step process. The individual first recognizes that he/she has benefited from a positive event that brings him joy or happiness, and then attributes the origin of this well-being to an external source (mostly others). Thus, it raises awareness that human beings can be a source of well-being for others. This requires a third condition which is humility and acceptance of interdependence (Shankland, 2016). As shown by numerous research studies, gratitude can have benefits on physical, mental and social well-being. At the physical level, such positive emotions have been shown to reduce the effects of stress. For example, Fredrickson and Levenson (1998) reported a 23% reduction in stress hormones (cortisol), improved cardiac recovery after a stressful situation, and a better quality of sleep. In terms of psychological well-being, research has shown that gratitude is linked to better mental health. For example, the studies carried out by Emmons and McCullough (2003) showed increased levels of positive emotions and life satisfaction as well as reduced anxiety and depression. At the social level, gratitude enhances the feelings of social connectedness and belonging, and reduces feelings of social isolation (e.g., Algoe, 2012). This feeling represents one of the three basic psychological needs as defined by Ryan and Deci (2000), which have been shown to impact well-being in a sustainable way. Gratitude and social integration form an upward spiral: the more grateful you are, the better you integrate, which increases gratitude (Shankland & André, 2017). As reviewed by Algoe (2012), beyond its role in social integration, gratitude builds positive and sustainable relationships. Several research studies underline the relevance and effectiveness of positive psychology interventions to increase well-being, improve class climate and produce better academic outcomes. Parents, educators and teachers show a growing interest in these prospects for positive education. However, their expectations come up against many resistances: administrative reluctance, the cost of innovation, time management, human and material resources and various constraints. The need to facilitate the implementation of positive psychology interventions in the classroom in everyday pedagogy is emerging. However, to date no brief positive psychology intervention combining both mindfulness and gratitude practices had been developed and implemented. The current program “I feel good at school” was thus developed and implemented in French school contexts in order to first identify the feasibility of such interventions in these contexts, and then to analyse their potential effects on

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emotion regulation, class climate (feelings of social connectedness) and enhanced well-being at school (reduced school anxiety).

2 Methodology 2.1 Research Approach The aim of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of positive psychology interventions in two distinct contexts. The aim was not to compare the efficacy of such interventions in these two contexts as there are to many confounding variables, but to assess whether such interventions are feasible in both contexts: how do the students perceive these practices? How do they use them in everyday life? A secondary aim was to analyze the feasibility of an efficacy trial by verifying whether the questionnaires would be adapted for young children (7–8 years old). Information regarding the feasibility was collected through self-report questionnaires and focus groups with students about the program in terms of satisfaction and usefulness of the practices, frequency and contexts of use outside the classroom. Therefore, the study was carried out with a pragmatic approach using qualitative and quantitative research methods (Karsenti & Savoie Zajc, 2004). For Karsenti and Savoie Zajc (2004), a mixed research approach is a method in its own right that makes it possible to avoid falling into the debate between the positivist and the interpretative paradigm in research.

2.2 Participants and Sampling Method This program has been tested in two different settings. A first experiment was carried out in Limoges in France with twenty-six French 2nd grade children, and a second experiment was carried out with ninety-four Francophone expatriate pupils divided into four 2nd grade classrooms at the Lycée Français of Singapore (LFS). The classrooms were chosen following a voluntary basis on the teachers’ behalf after having given the information to all the school teachers. These two settings were contrasted in terms of population: in France the population of children was rather composed of low income backgrounds while in Singapore children rather came from high income backgrounds. Description of the setting and sample specificities in France. Of the 47 parents from the children in the self-selected class (some families were single-parent families), only 26 parents have access to employment (45% unemployment rate in this cohort compared to 19% on average in the city of Limoges, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, 2017). Only one salary enters the homes, but it should be noted that in nine cases, the workers are even temporary or part-time

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employees. There is an average of three children per family. Most children live in collective social housing dating from the late 1970s. Ten children speak a language other than French at home. Five children benefit from a specialized education network (Réseau Spécialisé d’Aide aux Élèves en Difficulté, RASED). Two children present disruptive behaviours that are difficult to manage in a classroom setting. According to school results, the vocabulary and academic skills are low. The poverty of these families may cause various learning difficulties and the teachers wish to enhance general school climate. Description of the setting and sample in Singapore. The Lycée Français of Singapore is a private school approved by the French National Agency for overseas teaching (Agence pour l’Enseignement Français à l’Étranger, AEFE). This network is made of 492 schools in 137 countries under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France and provides its 350,000 students with schooling following the French curriculum. Today, the LFS welcomes more than 2841 students (348 in kindergarten, 1300 in elementary and 1193 in high school), with a 100% success rate in the French baccalaureate for several years. Children come from privileged backgrounds, but they may suffer from parental absence. Often nannies are in charge of the children. The children are mainly of French origin, but they also often have a parent from another nationality. They generally speak one or two other languages. Children are under pressure to succeed, as success is very strongly valued on the island of Singapore and in the Francophone community.

2.3 Intervention Methods: The “I Feel Good at School” Program The “I feel good at school” program was designed for children from 7 to 8 years old (in 2nd grade) and it is based on 2 pillars: mindfulness and gratitude practices. In this program, the two axes are not antagonistic (Shankland & André, 2014). The attentional opening makes it possible to develop awareness of daily satisfactions and to experience gratitude more frequently. Indeed, the principles of mindfulness and gratitude are different but complementary. One is based on acceptance and nonjudgment, the other is more attached to instilling new attentional habits that modify daily emotional experiences by increasing the positive attentional bias (Nandrino, Dodin, Martin, & Henniaux, 2004), which is the tendency to perceive life’s experience in a more balanced way, rather than being too much impacted by the negativity bias – the tendency to perceive only the negative aspects of daily life (for more details, see Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001). Based on self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) which highlights the importance of three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and belonging), “I feel good at school” has been designed as a cooperative program not as a topdown intervention. To increase children’s chances to develop their self-determination (Ryan & Deci, 2000), the teacher and students together create appropriate times in

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the school day to practice together. Furthermore, the aim is to integrate the practices into various learning situations and daily classroom life by setting up new habits. The positive psychology practices as well as the way they are carried out in the classroom aim at enhancing the children’s sense of autonomy and competence as it should lead to greater emotion regulation and learning abilities (through attention regulation and positive emotions). Furthermore, these practices have been shown to enhance relationship quality which should lead to greater feelings of social connectedness in the classroom (belonging). Although the pilot program was developed by external facilitators through five brief workshops (30–45 min), the teachers train their students every day in order to anchor these strategies in their life habits both in class and at home. Teachers then become autonomous with these practices and can implement the program by themselves the following years. The five workshops of the program. The format of the workshops is deliberately brief, between 30 and 45 min, as the aim is to have the classroom become autonomous with these practices throughout the week. • The first workshop, entitled “Tic-Tac-Turtle”, aims to teach students simple mindful breathing practices to calm themselves, understand the effects of being calm on our body and mind and prepare for attention focusing or broadening according to what is more useful in the given context. The children experience three brief practices that help them focus their attention to their breath and are invited to think of themselves as little turtles that gently enter their shells to rest. These practices aim to teach students to become aware of their breathing and to use it voluntarily to connect to the present moment, to pacify themselves, to prepare for effective learning or to face a complex situation, in other words, to develop their mindfulness. • The second workshop, entitled “Meeting with my Allkalm elf” (Rencontre avec mon lutin Toukalm), is based on a story written in order to help students become more aware of their five senses. The elf discovers the environment, one sense at a time, and the students are encouraged to do the same during the week, with curiosity and a non-judgmental stance. During this workshop they are also taught abdominal breathing, which they are encouraged to do while they listen to the story. In this workshop, children are helped to feel their abdominal breathing by a small plush placed on their stomach. This allows them to focus on their breath and the movement of the plush. • The third workshop, entitled “Savouring at School”, aims to learn to eat mindfully and to savour this moment shared with others. It also aims at learning to observe without judging, the sensations, emotions and thoughts during a mindful eating practice. Students are led to imagine that we arrive from a distant planet and discover for the first time the food placed in their hand. • The fourth workshop, entitled “I am happy because…”, aims to focus on satisfactory experiences, and to become aware of what is important for oneself and for others, identifying which type of experiences give satisfaction and meaning to our life. Children are then encouraged to express the emotions they feel when they recall these positive events (joy, pride, happiness …)

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• The fifth workshop, entitled “The Gratitude Bouquet”, aims to develop attitudes of gratitude to foster the experience of positive emotions, recognition of satisfactions and to maintain quality relationships with oneself, others and the environment. The children will be invited to place a flower and say thank you to …, I am happy because … This practice also contributes to enhance the memory of positive events in the classroom and to increase feelings of belonging. Description of a Workshop The five workshops are carried out by a trained facilitator who can be the teacher himself or who works in the presence of the teacher. Each workshop follows a five-step process. Co-construction of the Framework (Step 1) The facilitator creates the guidelines with the children during the workshops. They will be reviewed and readjusted if necessary at the beginning of each workshop. The relation between the pupils and the teacher is not a unidirectional teaching relation, but one of co-construction. The goal is to create a context in which students feel free to intervene, share and learn. For example, during the first workshop, the facilitator asks open-ended questions: How should one act when a person speaks? What do you need to feel respect in the classroom? Discovering our Resources (Step 2) The facilitator introduces the day’s suggested strategy (the new practice that they will be able to use) with an open-ended question. Students are then invited to tell what they know or have experimented about this topic. For example, during the second workshop, students are led to share what they know about breathing and how they feel about it. They have discovered some experience in the first workshop and during the week, and they come back to the topic in order to discover more about how to use breath in order to calm down and focus attention. Experimenting (Step 3) We start from the children’s knowledge to present the new practice. Through different games and experiences, the children discover the use of their resources linked to their five senses. Then they turn these experiences into practice. For example, during the second workshop, the children will discover through a game another type of breathing, breathing with the stomach (abdominal). Then, in order to memorize the benefits of this practice, a story will be read while they practice abdominal breathing. Through this story, they will also be led to discover how they can be more curious about their environment by using their five senses. This can be used in the classroom by the teacher throughout the week in order to help them focus their attention on the sounds for example when they come back from break. Debriefing (Step 4) Children observe the differences within themselves and reflect on what it could be useful for (practice/benefits link). For example, during the fifth workshop, children are asked about the difference between the thanks they have just experienced (thank you from the heart) and an “automatic” thank you (without feelings of gratitude). End of the Workshop with Facilitator/Teacher/Children Collaboration (Step 5) During this last part of the workshop, the facilitator works with the children in

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order to determine together how and when to set up the experienced practice. The reflection ends with the possibility of using the strategy learned in other contexts, such as at the home or at the playground. It is important that children project themselves into the practice to facilitate its appropriation and use. They identify when and how to do it by themselves. The idea is to develop their motivation to practice. For example, at the fourth workshop, children had the idea of using this method to help their little brother or sister eat, or when they had a dish in front of them that they did not like very much in order to help them go through it, or a dish that they liked very much in order not to eat to too quickly. The workshop ends with the question: “What are you leaving with today?”. Each student and adult is invited to share with the others what they have learned and what difference this will make for them tomorrow.

2.3.1

Procedure: Workshop Setting-up and Feasibility Measurement

In France, the workshops were facilitated by Véronique Brun, National Education nurse and counsellor, trained in positive psychology. She conducted the five workshops between January and May 2017 with a month interval between each session in order for the students to be able to practice with their teacher during one month after each session. In Singapore, the program was facilitated by Julie Dubarle, coach and trained in applied positive psychology, with one workshop per week between April and May 2017 in order to give access to the variety of practices in a short period of time, and then the teacher and students can choose which practice they wish to use in what moments of the day. In both countries, the activities took place with classes in half groups (about 12 students) in order to facilitate experimentation and discussion.

2.3.2

Measurement Instruments

As the study was a pilot feasibility study, student quantitative measures (questionnaires) were used to identify whether they would be appropriate tools for young children (7–8 years old). They were only used in the second experiment (Singapore), not in the first pilot study (France). In both studies, student and teacher qualitative measures were used to assess the feasibility of the workshops and their potential usefulness for children in the classroom and at home.

Quantitative Measures (Only Used in Singapore) In Singapore, the students filled out a brief questionnaire with items referring to emotion regulation, school anxiety, and feeling of social connectedness in the class-

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room before and after the five workshops. The aim was to test the feasibility of the measurements of key targets of this program, namely emotion regulation as a mechanism through which students may reduce school anxiety and increase positive class-climate. The measure of emotion regulation used is a five-item subscale of the Profile of Emotional Competences (e.g., When I’m angry, I can calm down), developed in Belgium (Brasseur, Grégoire, Bourdu, & Mikolajczak, 2013) which was adapted for children in a past positive psychology study (Shankland et al., 2018). Children answer on a five-point Likert scale, from 1 (not at all like me) to 5 (very much like me). Internal consistency for this scale in children was satisfactory (Chronbach’s alpha = 0.81). The measure of school anxiety is a 7-item questionnaire (e.g., Usually, before I go to school I’m scared), developed by Boissicat and colleagues in France, and used in a past positive psychology intervention (Shankland et al., 2018). Children answer on a frequency scale from 1 (never) to 4 (always). Internal consistency for this scale in children was satisfactory (Chronbach’s alpha = 0.72). The measure of social connectedness is a one-item scale adapted from the inclusion of other in the self scale (Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992), adapted in four levels instead of seven in the original adult version. Children answer by choosing which drawing corresponds to how they feel close to the other students in their classroom. The first two circles are far from each other (score = 1) and the following circles come closer to each other (closest circles are coded 4).

Qualitative Measures Student Measures In both France and Singapore, a questionnaire was filled out by the children at the end of the five workshops. It was composed of ten questions with a 3-level Likert scale in the form of Smileys (not at all, which was coded as “No”, a little, or a lot, which were coded as “Yes” answers). They were asked to colour the Smiley that corresponded most to how they felt about the program and the practices and how they used them. The questions refer to the use of the strategies taught, namely those of returning to calm, stress management, mindful eating, recognition of happiness as well as gratitude. Questions also refer to where they have used the strategies learnt (school, home …) and why (to calm down, to rest, to concentrate …). At the end of the questionnaire, an open-ended question asked them to choose three words to say what they think of the “I feel good at school” activities. Teacher Measures Teacher feedback was only corrected in sample 2. The teachers completed a qualitative survey in order to know more about how they implemented the practices in the classroom, how the children reacted to them, and what they would want to continue or to change for the future regarding this program.

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2.4 Statistical Analyses 2.4.1

Statistical Analyses of Quantitative Measures (Questionnaires in Singapore Only)

Data were analysed with SPSS.22 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). First, descriptive statistics (i.e., means and standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) for each assessment point was computed in order to describe the data and to determine the distribution. Second, the level of internal consistency measured by the Cronbach Alpha, was computed for both questionnaires and we referred to the suggested cutoff values for Cronbach Alpha (>0.70; Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994) to determine the scales’ level of reliability. For repeated measures ANOVA, statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. Statistical analyses were carried out on the questionnaires collected in Singapore in order to analyze the internal consistency of the questionnaires adapted to this agegroup (we used the Chronbach’s alpha), and also in order to assess whether the three measures were sensitive to change (repeated measures ANOVA), or whether there was a ceiling or floor effect on some measures (mean scores).

2.4.2

Statistical Analyses of the Qualitative Data Collected

To achieve both objectives of this study, simple descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Speaking of which, Howell (1998) mentioned that the use of descriptive data statistics for exploratory purposes is essential and rarely “an eitheror proposal” (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001, p. 8) in the face of inferential statistics. Howell (1998) also states that they are often neglected in research. According to him, there is “a necessity to pay particular attention to the data and to examine them in detail before resorting to more elaborate procedures” (p. 5). Thus, averages were used to describe the frequency of use of the different strategies at school and at home as well as the reason for their use by the students surveyed. Furthermore, given the difficulty of conducting parametric statistical tests, due in particular to the sample size and abnormal distributions, the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney non-parametric test was carried out to compare the two research groups. With 95% of the statistical power of Student’s t-test, this test makes it possible to compare two independent groups without having to meet the conditions of the application of parametric tests and whose data could be collected without precise scales (Nachar, 2008). Thematic Content Analysis In order to analyze the answers to the last open-ended question in the questionnaire, a content analysis method (L’Écuyer, 1990; Miles & Huberman, 2003; Yin, 2003) was used. Very frequently used in educational sciences, it is a “method for classifying or coding the various elements of the material analyzed, enabling the user to know its characteristics and meaning better” (L’Écuyer, 1990, p. 9). Complementary to quantitative analyses, qualitative analyses allow to go further in the search for meaning and, as a result, to improve the relevance of the study. It

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consists of grouping the collected text responses into units of meaning to produce a frequency table. The responses of the participants were captured in a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet for analysis. Thematic content analysis was employed in order to determine the most frequently occurring themes. First, an overview of the verbatim was carried out by two of the authors in order to obtain a general view of the responses. Second, a coding typology was developed based on a content analysis methodology using general categories determined by both authors after their first reading of the responses (Bardin, 2007). Third, each response was classified in one of the determined category by both authors separately. Incongruences were discussed, and consensus reached on the primary themes.

3 Results 3.1 Results of the Quantitative Measures (Questionnaires, Singapore Only) 3.1.1

Descriptive Statistics: Feasibility Analyses of Questionnaire Measurements

Teachers were asked to report on the feasibility of the questionnaires for this agegroup. The reported that certain questions were difficult to understand (e.g., the word emotion needs explanation and examples), and the children found it difficult to understand the circle drawings used to assess social connectedness. These scales should thus be modified before carrying out experimental studies on this population. In total, we were able to match 78 students who responded at T1 and T2 questionnaires. The internal consistency of both scales was not satisfactory (Chronbach’s alpha for the emotion regulation scale = 0.52; for school anxiety = 0.60, after having removed one item). This underlines the fact that some questions might have been too complicated to understand for this age group. The previous positive psychology intervention that used these scales was carried out on students aged 9–12. More simple sentences and avoiding negative sentences should help in younger children. Table 1 presents the mean scores on both scales and the mean score on the social connectedness drawings before and after the program. Repeated measures ANOVA were performed in order to verify the sensitivity of the scales to potential change (see Table 1). The results showed that the emotion regulation scale was sensitive to change while the other scores did not change significantly (only a tendency for the social connectedness item). There might be a floor effect for the school anxiety scale with low scores (10 while the maximum is 28) and we might be close to a ceiling effect for social connectedness (3/4). It would therefore be useful to use a wider range of possible answers (five instead of four possible choices) and to add other items on

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Table 1 Pre and post-program mean scores, standard deviations and mean comparisons Dependent variable

Mean

SD

T1 − T2 difference (p-value)

Emotion regulation pre-test Emotion regulation post-test

11.44 14.73

3.92 4.26

p < 0.001

Emotion regulation pre-test Emotion regulation post-test

10.27 10.56

2.79 2.75

NS

Social connectedness pre-test Social connectedness post-test

2.97 3.21

1.03 0.87

p = 0.086

Social connectedness pre-test

2.97

1.03

p = 0.086

Social connectedness post-test

3.21

0.87

social connectedness in order to use a score rather than relying only on one item as it is an important aim of the program in the schools who collaborated on this project.

3.2 Results of the Qualitative Measures 3.2.1

Descriptive Statistics

A simple comparative frequency analysis by grouping students’ answers to each question in two groups was carried out. The first group of answers grouped the pupils that used a little and a lot the strategies taught; the second group was composed of those that did not use them at all. Globally, all the practices were used by a majority of students, except for the Allkalm Elf story and abdominal breathing at home (used at 36%) and at school (47%), mindful eating at school (49%) and during leisure time (56%). The thank you strategy was the most used with 97% of students reporting using it, both at school and at home. In addition, 85% of respondents reported using Tic-Tac-Turtle to calm down. They used it at school (81%), when the teacher asked (79%), at home (69%), and to rest (66%). The possibility of sharing positive events at home was used by 84% of the students. The other strategies learnt were used in a large proportion, between 70 and 79%. Table 2 presents these results.

3.2.2

Group Comparisons of Strategies Use

By comparing the graduated responses (not at all, somewhat, very) of the two study groups using the Mann-Whitney U test, some statistically significant differences emerged. First, with regard to the frequency of use of strategies at school, Tic-TacTurtle return to calm (p = 0.027), the abdominal breathing of the Allkalm Elf (p = 0.000), mindful eating (p = 0.000) and the recognition of happiness (p = 0.037) were significantly used more often in France than in Singapore. Second, only breathing was used more in households in France (p = 0.041). Third, students in France used

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Table 2 Frequency of responses regarding use of strategies taught Questions

No (%)

Yes (%)

n

Do you use “Tic-Tac-Turtle” at school?

118

19

81

at home?

31

69

118

to calm down?

15

85

117

to get some rest?

34

66

116

when the teacher asks you to?

21

79

117

53

47

118

Do you use your “Allkalm Elf story” at school? at home?

64

36

118

to calm down?

21

79

117

to get some rest?

29

71

117

when the teacher asks you to?

33

67

115

51

49

116

at home?

22

78

115

in your spare time?

56

44

115

22

78

117

Do you have the possibility to eat with full awareness at school?

Do you have the opportunity to say regularly what makes you happy at school? at home?

16

84

116

in your spare time?

30

70

115

3

97

116

at home?

3

97

117

in your spare time?

10

90

116

Do you have the opportunity to say thank you regularly to others at school?

calming and abdominal breathing strategies more frequently to rest (p = 0.013; p = 0.000) and calm down (p = 0.007; p = 0.003). Fourth, in French classes, abdominal breathing was used more when the teacher requests it (p = 0.001). Finally, students in Singapore seemed to take more opportunities to regularly thank others at home (p = 0.039). This result is the only statistically significant result in favor of the second sample, despite some higher means. Table 3 presents these results.

3.2.3

Thematic Content Analysis

In a second step, the content analysis of the last question focused on three words about the children’s appreciation of the different activities was analyzed. A total of 173 response items were collected from the students in Singapore, and 64 from the students in France. These responses were grouped into 76 units of meaning for all respondents (24 for students in France and 52 units for students in Singapore). Three categories (calm, appreciative, positive emotions) for the first group, and five

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Table 3 Comparison of the two groups in terms of the frequency of use of the strategies taught France

Singapore

Questions

n

M (SD)

n

M (SD)

Do you use Tic-Tac-Turtle at school?

26

2.38 (0.7)

92

2.08 (0.7)

at home?

26

1.88 (0.8)

92

2.12 (0.8)

to get some rest?

26

2.38 (0.8)

91

1.96 (0.9)

861.00*

to calm down?

25

2.68 (0.5)

91

2.26 (0.8)

808.50**

when the teacher asks you to?

25

2.60 (0.7)

92

2.37 (0.8)

991.50

Do you use your Allkalm Elf at school?

26

2.19 (0.7)

92

1.53 (0.7)

657.00***

at home?

26

1.85 (0.9)

92

1.50 (0.8)

955.00*

to get some rest?

26

2.62 (0.7)

91

1.99 (0.8)

699.00***

to calm down?

25

2.56 (0.6)

92

2.10 (0.8)

763.50**

when the teacher asks you to?

25

2.68 (0.7)

90

2.07 (0.9)

723.50***

Do you have the possibility to eat in full attention at school?

25

2.64 (0.7)

91

1.58 (0.8)

439.50****

at home?

25

2.36 (0.7)

90

2.16 (0.8)

973.00

in your spare time?

25

1.72 (0.9)

90

1.62 (0.8)

1078.00

26

2.46 (0.6)

91

2.13 (0.8)

925.00*

at home?

26

2.12 (0.9)

90

2.39 (0.7)

973.50

in your spare time?

26

2.08 (0.9)

89

2.17 (0.8)

1093.50

26

2.65 (0.6)

90

2.73 (0.5)

1093.00

at home?

26

2.58 (0.6)

91

2.78 (0.5)

in your spare time?

26

2.42 (0.8)

90

2.59 (0.7)

Do you have the opportunity to say regularly what makes you happy at school?

Do you have the opportunity to say thank you regularly to others at school?

*p < 0.05 **p < 0.01 ***p < 0.001

The Mann-Whitney U 916.50* 1009.00

963.00* 1038.00

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categories (fun, calm, appreciative, interesting, and positive emotions) for the second group came out of these units of meaning. Figure 1 reports these results. In sum, three categories emerged that were common to both samples. Figure 1 shows that in both samples calm (examples: calm, relaxing …) and appreciation (examples: good, super, cool, excellent) were quite similar, whereas “positive emotions” (examples: I love, I feel happy …) was more typical in Sample 1. Only in Sample 2, the categories Interesting (examples: interesting) or Fun (examples: fun, games, playing …) emerged.

3.2.4

Teacher Feedback on the Program

The teachers in Singapore reported that the program was adapted to primary school children. They recommended to program to their colleagues and expressed their willingness to carry out the program again the following year. Acceptability by the teachers was thus considered as satisfactory. The teachers in Singapore reported that the children appreciated the practices and even asked for them. They underlined that Tic-Tac-Turtle was easy to use in the classroom context and that it appeared to be more efficient to use it as a ritual for example each time the children come back from recess. The teachers also underline the benefits of having each student express how he or she feels in the classroom context. The teachers reported that they discovered new facets in their students through these expression times. However, the teachers reported that they did not use these practices for themselves.

Fig. 1 Assessment of the program feasibility according to student feedback in both contexts

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4 Discussion The aim of this pilot study was to collect the perceptions of students in France and Singapore regarding the “I feel good at school” program, and to analyze the frequency of use of the strategies taught and the perceived reasons for their use. The ultimate goal was to assess the feasibility of a positive French psychology program which aimed at being integrated into daily classroom life. A secondary aim was to assess the effects of such a program on student well-being and class climate, although this pilot study could only give accurate information on how the students were able to answer the questions. As there was no control condition in this study, the effects were assessed by comparing the scores from pre-to-post intervention in Singapore.

4.1 The “I Feel Good at School” Program Descriptive analyses reveal that overall the strategies learnt were used by a majority of the students. It therefore appears that the pedagogy used during the workshops was effective. The “I feel good at school” program uses collaborative and experiential pedagogy (Mangrulkar, Whitman, & Posner, 2001). It starts from what the children know, to discover new strategies that they experiment during workshop. Then a new skill is developed by experimenting daily in the classroom with the teacher’s help. The results of comparative analyses between France and Singapore show that the frequency of strategy use was generally higher in France. This result raises the question of the importance of the temporality of the program, allowing for more or less experimentation in the classroom. The children in France had, in addition to experiential workshops with the facilitator, one month to practice in class the strategy discovered during the session. This daily repetition for 4 weeks seems to help the children to acquire the skills they need to use the strategy, to understand through their experience and the lived benefits how they can use it by themselves. This may help to maintain the benefits over time. It is important that the time for intervention and experimentation in the classroom is large enough; more than twenty hours per year for children, according to Webster-Stratton (2001). In Singapore, the approach was not sustainable as the frequency was one workshop per week, which may explain the difficulty children had in appropriating strategies to implement them in their daily lives. This difference in temporality seemed to have had an impact on the frequency each strategy was used when comparing France and Singapore. Indeed, even if children learn in partly from the instructions given by adults (parents, teachers, educators, etc.), it is mainly through experience, interaction, observation and imitation that learning takes place (Lamboy & Guillemont, 2014). In order to develop gratitude and mindfulness (the two pillars of this program), which can change one’s overall attitude towards self and others, implies a daily practice and routines that young children get to know well before they learn a new practice.

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4.2 The Workshops The return to calm is highly used by the children in both samples. This strategy is easy to implement in the classroom. Thanks to the Tic-Tac-Turtle workshop, the children were able to experiment and understand the benefits of such a strategy to calm down and better focus their attention. They were able to use this strategy by themselves when they felt they needed it. Thus, the teachers could easily set up a routine of returning to calm. The difference in frequency of use between France and Singapore was small. On the other hand, concerning the Allkalm Elf workshop a very different frequency of use was observed. If we look at the descriptive analyses, we see that the abdominal breathing strategy is the least used. The results of the comparative analyses showed a significant standard deviation between the use of this practice in the classroom in favour of France. As seen above, it is important to have enough experimentation time for learning to take place. Abdominal breathing as well as attention focusing on each of the five senses can be considered as various skills that need to be practiced separately. Hence the importance of the chronology of the workshops and the daily practice in class. Concerning mindful eating, there was a significant difference in frequency of use at school between France and Singapore. In France, children benefited from a “fruit at recess” program, which has facilitated the implementation of this practice at school. This underlines the importance of adapting each program to the cultural and contextual background in order to become more useful and efficient. The recognition of happiness was used by children at school and at home. Through the workshop the children were able to express their contentment and discover the joy it brings to share it. At the same time, the teachers had a modelling role by regularly expressing their contentment (Lamboy & Guillemont, 2014). Intervention in primary school can be particularly beneficial because it is at this time that children make rapid progress in interactions with others (Wentzel, Barry, & Caldwell, 2004). Moreover, some authors argue that it is around this period that gratitude becomes more anchored as a trait (Emmons & Shelton, 2002). Saying thank you was the most used strategy. However, a more specific question on the type of thanks used would have been necessary to see if the students meant gratitude (thank you with the heart) or politeness (a more “automatic” thank you, which does not necessarily imply an emotion of gratitude). In most cultures, politeness is a value that parents praise. Expatriate families come from higher social classes where some social skills are part of the codes taught to children (Wagner, 2010). The children may not have distinguished politeness from gratitude in our investigation, and this might explain the difference between both samples on this question. Nevertheless, to begin to become aware that we experience thankfulness, little by little amplifies our ability to become more aware of positive experiences. This is the foundation of positive psychology programs in educational settings. Qualitative analyses revealed that children made the link between the program and being calm. They qualify it as an occasion to be calm or to use the strategies to calm down when necessary. More, children in Singapore seemed to find these

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activities also fun. The fact that the experiential workshops were concentrated over a short period may have entertained the children who are used to having a steady pace in the Lycée Français of Singapore where French, Mandarin and English are taught on top of all the other topics that have to be covered during the year. Overall children enjoyed and appreciated the workshops. The calm and wellbeing experienced during these practices may have an influence on the quality of their commitment to implement the strategies, which may in turn impact their school engagement and their ability to learn (Wagner, 2010).

5 Limitations Various limitations should be addressed. First, the questionnaires showed poor internal consistency, which means that they should be revised in order to better suit this age-group. Second, interventions were slightly different in both samples, as they had to be adapted to each school’s possibilities. Further limitations of this study lie essentially on a methodological level, as it was only a pilot study. Indeed, on a quantitative level, it would have been useful to compare these interventions to a control group in order to identify whether the results were significantly different. On a qualitative level, it would have been useful to carry out parent interviews, classroom observations, and a group interview with participating teachers in order to collect more information on the use of these practices and the contexts in which they appear to be most useful at school and at home. All these means would have made it possible to triangulate measuring instruments and data. According to Savoie Zajc (2004, p. 146), this strategy is defined as “a research strategy in which the researcher superimposes and combines several perspectives, whether theoretical or methodological and personal”. It helps, among other things, to overcome weaknesses in one instrument or in the data by using other instruments (Johnson & Christensen, 2004; Karsenti & Savoie Zajc, 2004). Furthermore, in order to carry out statistical analyses, it would have been useful to add one or two levels to our Likert scale in order to observe more variance in the results. Questions about the type of thanks should also be added to clarify whether children are referring to politeness or gratitude.

6 Implications for Multi-cultural Contexts The “I feel good at school” program has been established in France in a disadvantaged and multicultural environment, but also in Singapore in a completely different multicultural context. Although the children’s background were opposite in terms of social and economic status, both samples comprised third culture kids who appeared to be struggling with their identity and cultural issues. Although for different reasons, parental support appeared to be lacking. Hence, in both samples, working on

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resilience and protection factors seemed to be useful, and the proposed intervention can be promising if one is able to overcome the limitations of the present pilot study. In both contexts, children mostly enjoyed practicing mindfulness and positive psychology at school and managed to develop the strategies that were taught outside the classroom. This underlines the adaptability of positive psychology interventions, and is in line with the aims of such mental health promotion programs that are oriented towards the development of social and emotional skills that are useful for all students. It concretely encourages a balanced development between academic, socioemotional, moral and intellectual skills in schools (Cain & Carnellor, 2008). These skills are now recognized values in society as strengths that promote employability and social life. Schools must prepare young citizens to adapt to a changing world, in which some of today’s professions will no longer exist tomorrow, and where tomorrow’s professions have yet to be invented (White & Murray, 2015). The “I feel good at school” program makes it possible to accompany the school’s paradigm shift, by teaching to all students competences that can be mobilized in “real life” and for “life”.

7 Future Directions It will be necessary to continue research on the existing “I feel good at school” program, measuring well-being, emotion regulation, gratitude and social connectedness. Data collection should also be carried out among teachers as well as parents. It will be important to test different temporalities with different experimental times for the sessions to find the best frequency of workshops. It could also be useful to follow-up children who have benefited from the program after to asses whether they still use these strategies after some years. At the level of the program itself, the idea is to complete it by adding other workshops including other positive psychology practices from kindergarten to middle school. The workshops will continue to give primary importance to the experience and expression of positive emotions as well as to the awareness and use of individual strengths (Shankland & Rosset, 2017). The middle school program will include workshops on identifying and using character strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) in everyday life. The ability of children to develop, experience and carry the new skills in their daily lives, in a sustainable way, will depend on the amount of practice in class and on their relational environment both at school and at home (Lamboy & Guillemont, 2014). It therefore appears to be necessary to involve parents and other educators in the program, for example by creating a parent workshop to introduce the strategies taught in class.

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8 Conclusion This study presented the feasibility and the effects of the “I feel good at school” program in the French education system in different contexts with various populations. It combines attentional training (mindfulness), open monitoring through the five senses, and the development of gratitude. Children enjoyed the workshops and reported the use of these practices both at school and at home. The pedagogical approach of the “I feel good at school” program based on experiential workshops and daily practice in the classroom seems to allow learning of appropriate strategies. Thus, these results encourage the pursuit of research on this program in order to contribute to the development of social and emotional skills that will help students in their daily lives and for their future. The program “I feel good at school” is oriented towards a well-being approach in educational psychology. According to Goyette (2018), this approach aims at the overall development of the child, learning through the integration of benevolent, planned or spontaneous educational interventions while promoting the appropriation of strategies for an emotional, cognitive, psychosocial and physical balance.

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Julie Dubarle is a coach from The Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and from the Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC). She is a graduate student in Positive Psychology from the University Grenoble Alpes. She is one of the developers of the “Je suis bien à l’école” program under the guidance of Rebecca Shankland. She works in schools, especially at the French School of Singapore, with teachers and children to implement and evaluate the program. Emmanuel Bernet is a Ph.D. holder from the University of Montreal in Psychopedagogy. He is a professional learning coordinator, a teacher trainer and a primary school teacher at the French School of Singapore. Member of the CRIFPE, the most important research centre on education in Canada, his works focus, among others, on school motivation in underprivileged and multicultural context. Véronique Brun is a graduate student in Positive Psychology from the University Grenoble Alpes. She is the conceptor of the “Je suis bien à l’école” program under the guidance of Rebecca Shankland. Consulting nurse for the National Education Inspector of the French region of HauteVienne, she trains other nurses specialized in health education and works in schools to promote health and well-being for children, teenagers and adults. Rebecca Shankland is Associate Professor and coordinator of the Positive Psychology Diploma at University Grenoble Alpes. Her research focuses on the development and adaptation of mindfulness and positive psychology interventions in educational, work and healthcare settings, and on the identification of underlying mechanisms of efficacy, such as attention orientation and psychological flexibility.

#NoFilter: An Online Photographic Meaningful-Moments Intervention Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl, Inge Hulshof and Leah R. Dickens

Abstract The search for and presence of meaning in life is an inherent human need which transcends cultural boundaries. The cultivation of meaning, which focuses on the discovery of what matters most in life and the pursuit of personal aspirations, has shown to have significant effects on lowering psychopathology, and enhancing individual well-being in various cross- and multi-cultural contexts. Finding meaning and purpose in life increases resilience and perseverance, even in extreme environments such as war-torn states and absolute poverty. Despite the various benefits of meaning, individuals have reported that finding meaning or purpose is ‘elusive’ and its sources difficult to pin-point. Although sources of meaning are abundant, individuals need opportunities to explore such in a structured manner. Photographs could be an interesting means through which to capture and explore meaningful moments. As such, the purpose of this paper is to develop, implement and preliminarily evaluate an online photographic meaningful-moments intervention to explore sources of meaning through the use of Instagram©. A mixed-method pre-experimental intervention design was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. Data was obtained through (a) personal reflections on the sources of meaning after the intervention and (b) a pre-, post and post-post assessment with the Meaning in Life Questionnaire and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Specific within-person changes on the subscales were evaluated and implications of the research described. The results showed that Instagram could be an interesting tool to consider when the aim is to enhance well-being in the short term. However, the results only showed significant changes in the presence of meaning, and life satisfaction between the Time 1 and Time 3 measures. Finally, the results showed that positive relationships with family and friends, savouring life’s joys, freedom and autonomy, a unison with nature, perL. E. Van Zyl (B) · I. Hulshof Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] L. E. Van Zyl Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University (VTC), Vanderbijlpark, South Africa L. R. Dickens Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 L. E. Van Zyl and S. Rothmann Sr. (eds.), Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20311-5_3

57

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sonal development, caring for or showing kindness to others, and purposeful work are important sources of meaning for individuals. Keywords Meaning in life · Photo-ethnography · Positive psychological intervention

1 Introduction Perhaps now more than ever, our planet is facing a number of challenges. Global warming appears to be wreaking havoc around the world—with rising sea levels, species extinctions, and large-scale natural disasters. Global politics and the relations among nations is a source of stress for many, especially when numerous countries have access to nuclear weapons, and some even threaten to use them. War and civil disputes have led many to leave their homes, seeking refuge elsewhere, and some have been turned away, with seemingly no options left. At an individual level, people face financial woes, relationship troubles, stress and anxiety, and all other sorts of daily hassles. In the face of such large-scale and small-scale troubles, it is not surprising that more than half of the world’s population is unhappy (Fisher, 2010; Rothmann et al., 2013; Seligman, 2002). For many philosophers, social scientists, and mental health professionals, two important questions are prevalent: “What is happiness and how can it be developed?” Given the state of the world today, as well as the complexity of the human condition, this is not a simple question to answer, but it is a rather important one. The purpose of the current chapter is to propose the construct of meaning as a key component to happiness, and to present a novel experimental intervention designed to boost experiences of meaning and satisfaction with life.

1.1 Defining Happiness and Meaning Happiness has become a fundamental building block of positive psychology (Seligman, 2011). Although researchers are in agreement as to the antecedents and consequences thereof, there is still little agreement as to its conceptualisation (Van Zyl & Rothmann, 2014). Hedonically, happiness is defined as the consistent strive towards the presence of positive emotional experiences and the avoidance of pain, whereas eudaimonically it stems from living in accordance with one’s own values or strengths (Rothmann et al., 2013). For the purposes of this chapter, happiness is approached from a holistic or integrated perspective: Happiness is therefore a general sense of well-being in life categorised by both hedonic feelings and eudaimonic experiences (Seligman, 2011). That is, does a person feel s/he is living well? Does s/he feel s/he has a “full” life? According to Seligman (2002), there are multiple routes to happi-

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ness: the pursuit of pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Although distinguishable, these routes are not incompatible, and people can endorse multiple routes. Pleasure refers to positive emotional experiences which stems from activities that are engaging and personally meaningful (Seligman, 2002). Some might refer to this pursuit of pleasure as hedonism—maximizing pleasure and positive affect above all else. Engagement, on the other hand, is involvement in pursuits that capture one’s full attention and help one continue to learn and grow through life (Seligman, 2011). This is more in line with Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) idea of flow. The state of flow itself is not necessarily purely pleasurable in the moment, but is often considered a positive experience, post hoc. In the long term, engagement likely leads to valuable skills and resources for individuals, relating more broadly to potential success in life and related happiness (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Finally, meaning—or the pursuit of a meaningful life—was originally conceptualized by Seligman as feeling that one is connected to something larger than the self (Seligman, 2002), and others, too, have focused on the self-transcendent qualities of meaning (Wong, 1998). One connects to other people or perhaps a higher power, and by doing so, feels a sense of purpose in life that can lead to happiness. Taken together, these three routes provide distinct “orientations to happiness,” with individuals differing in their tendencies to use each route. People strongly endorsing all three routes have been found to report the highest levels of life satisfaction (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005; Peterson, Ruch, Beerman, Park, & Seligman, 2007; Schueller & Seligman, 2010). Additionally, evidence suggests that engagement and meaning are more strongly related to elements of subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, and subjective happiness) as well as objective well-being (educational and job attainment), when compared to pleasure (Schueller & Seligman, 2010). Although all three routes can be pursued independently, and are unique contributors to experiences of happiness, research suggests that not all paths are created equally (Van Zyl & Rothmann, 2014). Research has shown that meaning is the most important factor to approach when attempting to sustainably enhance happiness (Park, Park, & Peterson, 2010; Steger, Shim, Barenz, & Shin, 2014). Numerous studies have found that not only does meaning declare more variance in life satisfaction than pleasure and engagement/flow, but the path coefficients linking meaning to such and other components of well-being is stronger (cf. Van Zyl & Rothmann, 2014). Indeed, decades of literature link meaning with a host of positive consequences. It not only is linked with well-being, positive emotions, self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction (e.g., Chamberlain & Zika, 1988; Compton, Smith, Cornish, & Qualls, 1996; Debats, van der Lubbe, & Wezeman, 1993; Ryff, 1989; Steger & Kashdan, 2007; Steger, Oishi, & Kashdan, 2009b; Zika & Chamberlain, 1992), but research also shows it can decrease numerous negative states, such as depression, fear, stress and anxiety (Steger & Kashdan, 2009; Steger, Mann, Michels, & Cooper, 2009a), post-traumatic stress (Kashdan, Kane, & Kecmanovic, 2011), and suicide ideation (Harlow, Newcomb, & Bentler, 1986). Indeed, one longitudinal study found that having higher levels of meaning in life reduced the risk of death for older adults

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in the US, even after controlling for things like age and income (Boyle, Barnes, Buchman, & Bennett, 2009). For these reasons, it seems important for people to try to find ways to enhance meaning in the everlasting pursuit towards happiness. To further explore meaning as a major contributing factor to happiness, Steger, Frazier, Oishi, and Kaler (2006) suggested that experiences of meaning are the result of a dynamic interplay between two components: (a) the search for meaning and (b) the experience or “presence” of meaning. The search for meaning relates to an active pursuit towards finding meaningful in one’s life (Steger et al., 2009a). The presence of meaning, on the other hand, pertains to active experiences that life is worth-while, that one is connected to the proverbial “bigger picture,” and that one is contributing to society (Steger et al., 2009b). Although these factors are relatively independent constructs, they are often inversely related (Steger et al., 2014). Some people may seek meaning when life seems to lack it (and the search for meaning could lead to increased presence of meaning in life, or not), while others may feel their lives have meaning and therefore no longer need to seek it. Still others may have meaning and continue to search for additional meaning in life. Despite the various permutations in which meaning could be explored, numerous cross-sectional studies have confirmed its relationship to important components of well-being (Steger, 2009; Zhang, Sang, Chen, Zhu, & Deng 2018). Research has shown that the presence of meaning in life is linked with higher life satisfaction, for instance, while the search for meaning in life is related to depression (Steger et al., 2006). Some researchers have found that for those who have higher presence of meaning in life, the search for further meaning correlates positively with wellbeing indices (Park et al., 2010). As such, it is imperative to aid individuals in their individual searches for meaning in order to cultivate more meaningful life experiences.

1.2 How Can We Cultivate Meaning? Researchers have argued that 40% of our happiness is under our direct, voluntary control, with 50% determined by genetics and 10% related to environmental factors (Lyubomirsky, 2007; Seligman, 2002). If this is indeed the case, individuals can therefore try to engage in certain behaviors or ways of thinking in order to optimise the 40% that is under their direct control. If meaning is an important component of happiness, then cultivating or developing it can be one way to pursue happiness. The research and therapeutic realms provide some ideas for how to try to enhance experiences of meaning in life. At a group level, things like meaning-centered therapy (Greenstein & Breitbart, 2000; Wong, 1999) and group-administered interventions (Magyar-Moe, 2009; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009) have been used, providing training and support that can assist in people’s pursuit of more meaningful relationships and social networks. At the individual level, there are individual coaching and counselling options aimed at changing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, forgiveness and mindfulness therapies, and Logother-

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apy (Lyubomirsky, 2007; Seligman, 2011; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009; Wong, 2011). In addition, there are numerous self-administered intentional activities (including many so-called “positive psychology interventions”) people can do, like performing random acts of kindness or writing gratitude letters, which can lead to positive outcomes for individuals, such as positive affect and life satisfaction (e.g., Lee, Cohen, Edgar, Laizner, & Gagnon, 2006; Lyubomirsky, 2007; Seligman, 2004; Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005; Steger et al., 2014). A primary benefit of these interventions is the fact that training and money are not required to engage in these practices; they are simple and can be done by individuals on their own time (unlike various forms of group and individual therapies). One especially promising approach is through the use of photo-ethnography, or “photo voice.” Steger et al. (2014) argued that the sources of meaning are abundant, but individuals need to find unique means through which to explore, capture and reflect upon the sources thereof. Steger et al. (2014) suggested that photography could be a powerful mechanism which individuals could employ to not only capture meaningful moments, but to explore the sources of such in their daily lives. As such, Steger et al. (2014) implemented a relatively simple photography intervention to try to increase positive affect and life satisfaction, through aiding individuals in developing both the presence and search for meaning in life. They had participants take 9–12 photos over the course of the week of things that helped make their lives feel meaningful. At the end of the week, participants looked at the photos and wrote about why each photo was meaningful to them. Measures completed preintervention and post-intervention showed an increase in the presence of meaning in life and satisfaction with life, but a marginal decrease in the search for meaning in life. No changes were seen for depression, anxiety, or stress. Unfortunately, several limitations impacted this study, such as the reliance on a university sample, a lack of control group, and a short one-week duration of intervention. Therefore, it is hard to draw firm conclusions from Steger’s findings. For the current study, we incorporated some elements of photo-ethnography within a modified paradigm, as will now be described, in order to try to increase people’s sense of meaning in life and life satisfaction.

1.3 The Meaningful Moments Intervention For this study, like Steger and colleagues, we wanted to use photo-ethnography in a way that encouraged people to reflect on meaning in their lives. We wanted to maintain the conscious awareness of meaningful moments that the act of photography gave participants. Instructed to photograph things that they found meaningful, participants would practice mindful awareness daily. Indeed, some research has shown photography can help with memory, if people are instructed to focus in on aspects of the object of interest (e.g., Henkel, 2014). While incorporating this photo element, we created a new paradigm that provided what we view as several improvements on Steger’s design.

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First, we wanted to have people thinking and reflecting on their photos each day, rather than one end-of-week reflection. We chose to have participants take at least one photo each day, and write down three things that made it feel meaningful to them. In this way, participants would hopefully be actively considering meaning throughout the intervention, and would gain practice at describing meaningful moments. Given that meaning is a subjective experience (such that something can be subjectively meaningful to one person, but seem objectively meaningless to others), this practice might help people discover the sources of their meaning and articulate them. What themes appear in the pictures? Second, we wanted to have a more varied sample, and one that was not limited by the need to distribute digital cameras or have participants come into a lab. To this end, we recruited online through various platforms and had an international sample. Additionally, by using Instagram©, anyone with a smartphone could be involved, without any other necessary equipment. All questionnaires were also administered online, and could be completed anywhere that had an internet connection. Third, we wanted to incorporate a social support element. Again, Instagram© was a useful platform in this regard. Participants were able to see other people’s posts and were encouraged to comment on them throughout the week. The research team also provided positive feedback on every post. Together, we created a small social support network for the duration of the intervention—one that reinforced the practice of sharing meaning. The purpose of the current study was to develop and evaluate an online photographic meaningful moments intervention, aimed at identifying sources of meaning and enhancing happiness. Specifically, we aim to (a) investigate the effect of the intervention and (b) study the primary sources of meaning from participants.

2 Research Methods 2.1 Research Design and Procedure A pre-experimental mixed-method longitudinal research design was employed to investigate the research objectives. A single pre-, post- and post post-test treatment group design was employed in order to track changes in both meaning (search for- and presence of meaning) and satisfaction with life before, directly after and three months after the intervention. Qualitative data was obtained through personal reflections upon the primary sources of meaning identified by participants at the last stage of the intervention. A post-positivistic qualitative content analytic, descriptive design was employed to analyse the data. Post-positivism provides for researchers’ potential biases, through presenting the researcher as an instrument of analysis, rather than an object of the process (Duriau et al., 2007). It further allows for the quantification of qualitative data (Coetzee & Van Zyl, 2014).

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Participants were recruited through various online platforms (e.g. social media platforms and reddit). An invitation letter was placed on various social media platforms and distributed through email, explaining the nature of the intervention. Individuals who showed interest were directed towards an online registration portal whereby basic contact details were captured. The recruitment phase lasted four weeks. After registration, participants were sent a link via email requesting the completion of a battery of psychometric assessments. In this email, the rights and responsibilities of the participants were discussed (e.g., voluntary participation, confidentiality, and the right to withdraw) and participants needed to accept the termsand-conditions of participation before they were permitted to continue with the baseline assessment (Time 1: Pre test). A reminder email was sent three days before the pre-assessment closed. After the pre-assessment, participants were sent thorough instructions on how to create an Instagram account, how to post pictures, how to follow #hashtags and what would be expected of them during and after the intervention. A week was allotted to create the Instagram account, and to pose technical questions to the researchers. Three days before the intervention was to start, the intervention instructions were emailed. The intervention lasted seven days in order to keep in line with Steger et al.’s (2014) original intervention protocol. Directly after the intervention, the post-assessment was emailed to participants requesting the completion of the second battery of psychometric tests along with personal qualitative reflections on the content of the intervention. Two reminder emails were sent requesting individuals to complete the assessments. During this time, all photos and qualitative reflections on the photos individuals posted on Instagram was captured and coded. Three months after the intervention, participants were sent a final battery of psychometric assessments. Quantitative data was captured and stored on a secure SQL server. Qualitative reflections and photos were stored an on encrypted external hard-drive.

2.2 Participants Initially, a convenience sample of 220 individuals pre-registered for the intervention; whereby 118 completed the first assessment. Of these only 67 participated in the intervention. Only 58 individuals completed the post assessment and 53 the post-post assessment. For the purpose of this chapter, only those who actively participated in the intervention and who completed all three assessments are used. Table 1 provides an overview of the characteristics of the active participants (n = 53). The majority of the participants were married (43.4%) Afrikaans speaking (34%) South African (47.2%) females (81.1%) between the ages of 31 and 40 years old (41.5%). Most of the participants had obtained a master’s degree (41.5%).

64 Table 1 Characteristics of the participants (n = 53)

L. E. Van Zyl et al.

Item

Category

Frequency

Percentage (%)

Gender

Male

10

18.9

Female

43

81.1

Age

19–25 years

6

11.3

26–30 years

11

20.8

31–40 years

22

41.5

41 and older

14

26.4

European

21

39.6

South African

25

47.2

4

7.5

Nationality

American Marital status

Other

3

5.7

Single

14

26.4

Living together

13

24.5

Married

23

43.4

Divorced

2

3.8

Widowed Native language

1

1.9

English

14

26.4

Dutch

15

28.3

German

2

3.8

18

34.0

Other

4

7.5

High school/GED

3

5.7

Afrikaans Highest level of education

Some college

3

5.7

Bachelor’s degree

18

34.0

Master’s degree

22

41.5

7

13.2

Advanced graduate work or Ph.D.

2.3 Intervention Participants were requested to create an Instagram Account two weeks before Time 1 (if they did not already have one). During Time 1, participants were instructed to photograph a moment, event or ‘thing’ each day which they perceived to be meaningful, profoundly powerful or something that “really stood out” during a particular day with a smartphone. In this way, participants defined what was “meaningful” for

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themselves (rather than have meaning formally defined for them). At the end of a particular day, participants were instructed to upload the photo to Instagram (with a specific hashtag) and reflect upon what the photo signifies, represents or ‘means’. Participants were requested to share three reasons why the photo was meaningful in the Instagram comment box. Participants were also requested to follow other users participating in the intervention and to comment, like and reflect upon their photos. This process was to be repeated for six days. On the seventh day, participants were instructed to compile an electronic collage of all six photos uploaded during the week and to reflect upon and post the three most frequently occurring themes or “primary sources of meaning”. The researchers simulated the social media interaction experience in the study, in the sense that they commented on and liked posts. An interaction protocol which stipulated the extent towards which researchers engaged with participants, the time between a post and a response and the like was clearly defined before the start of the intervention.

2.4 Measures Data for the study was obtained through both quantitative and qualitative means.

2.4.1

Quantitative Measures

The following questionnaires were used to obtain quantitative information about participants psychological experiences and demographic details: A biographical questionnaire was compiled to obtain data pertaining to participants’ gender, age, nationality, marital status, native language and level of education. Further, in order to track participants, a unique code was developed for each participant based on responses to questions, such as “the second letter of your mother’s maiden surname”. The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ; Steger et al. 2006) was used in order to assess the two components of meaning: Presence of Meaning and Search for Meaning. The questionnaire consisted out of 10 items rated on a seven Likert-point scale ranging from 1 (Absolutely untrue) to 7 (Absolutely True). Examples of items measuring Presence of Meaning are “I understand my life’s meaning” and “I have a good sense of what makes my life meaningful”. Search for Meaning is measured by items like “I am always looking to find my life’s purpose” and “I am always searching for something that makes my life feel significant”. The measure has shown to be a valid and reliable instrument in various contexts (e.g., Steger et al., 2006, 2014) with internal consistencies ranging from 0.83 to 0.91 on both subscales. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) was employed to measure subjective well-being or “happiness”. The five-item scale measures the extent towards which an individual is satisfied with the overall presence of his/her life. The SWLS is measured on a 7-Point Likert type scale ranging

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from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) on items such as “I am satisfied with my life.” The internal consistency is shown to be satisfactory across cultures and generations with Cronbach Alphas ranging from 0.82 to 0.94 (Diener et al., 1985; Steger et al., 2014; Van Zyl & Rothmann, 2012).

2.4.2

Qualitative Data

Qualitative data was extracted from the final self-reflection photo posted on the seventh day. Participants were asked to reflect upon the week’s photos and to list and describe the three most frequently occurring themes pertaining to the sources of meaning identified during the intervention. Specifically, participants were asked to “Reflect upon the seven photos of the week. What are the most frequently occurring themes or sources of meaning which you could identify this week? List and describe the three things that gives meaning to your life”.

2.5 Data Analysis 2.5.1

Statistical Analysis

Data was analysed with SPSS 25 (IBM 2017). First, descriptive statistics (i.e. means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) for each assessment interval was computed in order to describe the data and to determine the distribution thereof. Second, the level of internal consistency, as represented by Cronbach Alpha, was computed for each instrument at each assessment interval. The suggested cut-off values for Cronbach Alpha (>0.70; Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994) were used to determine scale reliability. Third, given the distribution of the data, both Pearson and Spearman correlations were used to determine the relationships amongst the variables. If skewness or kurtosis exceeded +1 or −1, the data was considered to be non-normally distributed, and Spearman correlations were employed. Statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.01, whereas the practical significance or “effect sizes” were set at 0.30 (medium effect) and 0.50 (large effect) (Steyn & Swanepoel, 2008). Finally, repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine the changes in the study variables between the three different time intervals. Both eta squared (η2 ) and omega squared (ω2 ) was computed to estimate the effect size of overall changes overtime. Since SPSS 25 (IBM, 2017) does not calculate such, the estimation equation proposed by Lakens (2013) was employed to determine such. Omega2 was computed as it is less biased and corrects for error-variance in partial eta squared (Lakens, 2013). Effect sizes where interpreted based on the framework of Lakens (2013) where 0.13 represents a medium effect and 0.25 (>) indicates a large effect. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.01. Changes over time were evaluated through meanscore comparisons of the research variables between the three assessment instances.

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2.5.2

67

Thematic Content Analysis

The responses of participants were captured in a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet for analysis. Thematic content analysis was employed in order to determine the most frequently occurring themes emanating from participants’ reflection on the sources of meaning from the final post (collage) on Instagram. Creswell (2013) indicates that thematic content analysis provides for the exploration of muted textual data in order to identify common properties from unstructured qualitative data. First, a thorough overview of the verbatim reflections per participant was compiled. Second, the transcripts were perused by two of the researchers in order to obtain a “general feel” for the results. Third, a coding typology was developed based on the Sources of Meaning framework of Damásio, Koller, and Schnell. Fourth, primary themes were identified and clustered by means of the coding process. Finally, the coding process was co-coded by two researchers and findings compared. Incongruences were discussed, and consensus reached on the primary themes.

3 Results The results are presented in line with the main objectives of the research. First, the quantitative results pertaining to the evaluation of the intervention are presented. Second, the results from the thematic content analyses are presented.

3.1 Intervention Effects 3.1.1

Descriptive Statistics, Reliabilities and Correlations

The results of the descriptive statistics, reliabilities and correlations for the three different assessment instances (pre-, post-, and post-post) are presented in Table 2. The results showed that all the instruments presented with acceptable levels of internal consistency, with Cronbach Alpha levels higher than Nunnally and Bernstein’s (1994) suggested cut-off (>0.70). Further, the data on all but the Presence of Meaning at the post-post test interval and Life Satisfaction at the post-test interval was normally distributed. Further, the mean scores of the pre-test showed that participants generally experienced slightly above average levels of Search for (Mean: 4.90; σ: 1.02) and Experience (Mean: 4.64; σ: 1.30) of Meaning as well as Satisfaction with Life (Mean: 4.79; σ: 1.29) with a significant deviation from the mean. The mean scores of all three constructs at the post-test interval showed an increase directly after the intervention. However, a decrease in mean scores on all three constructs occurred at the final assessment.

5.00

4.64

6.14

5.30

4.79

6.20

5.18

Search for meaning (post-post)

Presence of meaning (pre)

Presence of meaning (post)

Presence of meaning (post-post)

Satisfaction with life (pre)

Satisfaction with life (post)

Satisfaction with life (post-post)

< 0.01

6.28

Search for meaning (post)

*p

4.90

Search for meaning (Pre)

Mean

1.18

0.86

1.29

1.25

0.78

1.30

1.03

0.55

1.02

SD −0.13 −0.79 −0.09 −0.90 −0.70 1.08 −0.90 0.43 −0.72

−0.50 −0.54 −0.20 −0.28 −0.63 −0.91 −0.48 −1.15 −0.48 0.90

0.92

0.88

0.94

0.81

0.88

0.71

0.71

0.70

Kurtosis α

Skewness

Table 2 Descriptive statistics, Cronbach Alpha’s and correlation coefficients

0.39*

0.71*

−0.31*

−0.13

−0.17

−0.11

−0.10

−0.09

1

0.20

0.01

0.27*

0.27*

0.09

0.41*

−0.11

2

−0.10

0.03

−0.14

0.04

0.02

−0.09

3

0.52*

0.60*

0.73*

0.81*

0.78*

4

0.47

0.68*

0.62

−0.11

5

0.70*

0.40*

0.55*

6

0.71*

0.76*

7

0.52*

8

68 L. E. Van Zyl et al.

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Correlation analysis showed significant relationships between pre, post and postpost measures on the same constructs. Search for meaning (pre) correlated statistically significantly with post (r: 0.71; p: 0.01; large effect) and post-post (r: 0.39; p: 0.01; medium effect) assessments. Similarly, Search for meaning (postpost) correlated statistically significantly with the post assessment (r: 0.71; p: 0.01; medium). Presence of Meaning (pre) was also positively associated with its post (r: 0.78; p: 0.01; large effect) and post-post measures (r: 0.81; p: 0.01; large effect). However, no statistically significant relationship between the Presence of Meaning’s post and post-post assessments were found. Finally, significant positive relationships between Satisfaction with life (pre), post (r: 0.76; p: 0.01; large effect) and post-post (r: 0.71; p: 0.01; large effect) were established. The post and post-post assessments also correlated positively (r: 0.52; p < 0.01; large effect).

3.1.2

Repeated Measure ANOVAs

Three one-way repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted to evaluate the changes in the Search for Meaning, Presence of Meaning and Satisfaction with Life before, directly after, and three months after the intervention. The results are summarised in Table 3. The results indicated a statistically significant difference between time points on the search for meaning with the Greenhouse-Geisser correction with a large effect (F (1.635, 51.365) = 70.21, p < 0.01; η2p = 0.83; η2 = 0.34; ω2 = 0.33). Follow-up comparisons indicated a statistically significant change between Time 2 and Time 1 (Mean = 1.37; p < 0.01), as well as between Time 3 and Time 2 (Mean = − 1.28; p < 0.01). The change between Time 3 and Time 1 (Mean = 0.08; p > 0.01) was non-significant (see Fig. 1). There was thus a significant short-term increase in the Search for Meaning directly after the intervention, but returned to similar levels three months later. Similarly, a statistically significant difference between all three time points was found on the Presence of Meaning with a large effect (F (2, 51) = 79.58, p < 0.01; η2p = 0.76; η2 = 0.23; ω2 = 0.22). A significant increase in mean scores was observed between Time 2 and 1 (Mean = 1.49; p < 0.01), and albeit a decrease between Time 3 and 2 (Mean = −0.85; p < 0.01), a significant increase in Presence of Meaning was still apparent between Time 3 and 1 (Mean = 0.64; p < 0.01) (see Fig. 2). This implies a significant increase in the presence of meaning in the short term, but a marginal increase over the medium term (as compared to the baseline measure). Finally, a statistically significant difference was observed on experiences of Satisfaction with Life between all three time points with a large effect (F (2, 51) = 75.27, p < 0.01; η2p = 0.75; η2 = 0.21; ω2 = 0.21). A statistically significant mean difference on the construct between Time 2 and 1 (Mean = −1.37; p < 0.01) was observed. This implies a relative increase in experiences of Satisfaction with Life in the short term. Similarly, a statistically significant difference between Time 3 and Time 2 also occurred (Mean = −1.03; p < 0.01). This implies that there was a

79.58 (2)

75.27 (2)

Presence of meaning

Life satisfaction

0.75

0.76

0.83

η2p

0.21

0.23

0.34

η2

0.21

0.22

0.33

ω2

4.84 (1.30)

4.66 (1.33)

4.92 (0.99)

Time 1 mean (SD)

6.21 (0.89)

6.15 (0.80)

6.29 (0.56)

Time 2 mean (SD)

< 0.01; df = (2; 51); η2p = partial eta squared; η2 = eta squared; ω2 = omega squared

126.40 (2)

Search for meaning

*p

F (df )

Variable

Table 3 Repeated measures ANOVAs between pre-, post- and post-post assessment

5.18 (1.18)

5.30 (1.25)

5.00 (1.03)

Time 3 mean (SD)

T3 − T1 0.08 0.64* 0.34*

T3 − T2 −1.28* −0.85* −1.03*

T2 − T1 1.37* 1.49* 1.37*

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Fig. 1 Changes in search for meaning over time

Fig. 2 Changes in experience for meaning over time

decrease in experiences of life satisfaction directly after the intervention and 3 months later. Resultantly, a significant increase in Satisfaction of Life between Time 3 and 1 was observed (Mean = −0.34; p < 0.01) (see Fig. 3). This implies that experiences of satisfaction with life increased significantly directly after the intervention and marginally from the baseline measure to three months after the intervention.

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Fig. 3 Changes in life satisfaction over time

3.2 Thematic Content Analysis The data of the structured reflections upon the sources of meaning identified by the participants after the intervention was analysed and reported next. The findings suggest that participants in this intervention broadly identified 15 sources of meaning. Table 4 highlights the main themes, the frequency of occurrence and an example quotation. Predominantly, Relationships with Family (f = 40; 75.47%), Relationships with Friends (f = 39; 73.58%) and to a lesser extent Romantic Relationships (f = 8; 15.09%) were important sources of meaning. These three relational permutations provided a means through which individuals could derive social support, as well as provide a vehicle through which to contribute to the lives of others. Individuals further reported deriving meaning from Savouring life’s Joys (f = 16; 30.19%). Engaging in activities which were fun or enjoyable (e.g. “drinking a glass of good wine” or “eating delicious food”) provided individuals with a sense of relaxation and a disconnect from the “busy world” (f = 6; 11.32%). Some individuals also indicated that spending time in nature or feeling a sense of Unionisation with Nature (f = 15; 28.30%) was meaningful. Spending time in nature provided a means through which individuals could establish a sense of “inner calm” and a feeling that they were connected to something larger than themselves (such as ‘the universe’ [P4], or ‘God’ [P22]). Another reoccurring theme which emerged was the freedom and autonomy (f = 16; 30.19%) to live in accordance with their own plans or ideals. Having the financial means or resources necessary to do “what [one] want[s], when [one] want[s] and how [one] want[s]” was a consistent theme amongst some. Further, to invest in their own

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Table 4 Sources of meaning Category

Number of occurrences

Frequency of occurrence (%)

Example quotation

1

Relationships with family

40

75.47

“My family and the moments and memories I can share with them” [P18]

2

Relationships with friends

39

73.58

“Friendships are very important to me. This is my support system, and I will go the extra mile for these people at any time. I am really blessed to have so many friends.” [P29]

3

Savouring life’s pleasures

16

30.19

“From my images it is clear that apparently I like food a lot . Food is something that can make you feel better and is great to share with others.” [P51]

4

Freedom and autonomy

16

30.19

“Today [is a] reminder of how lucky and grateful I am to have the time, freedom and flexibility to take [my son] on play dates with his friend, where others have to work.”

5

Unionisation with nature

15

28.30

“What comes to mind in the first place is that, by nature, I am a child-of-nature … pun intended (sticks, stones, flowers & trees equals My Happy Place)” [P50]

6

Personal growth and development

14

26.42

“Self-growth through new experiences” [P9]

7

Caring for or showing kindness to others

11

20.75

“Caring and being kind towards people” [P20]

8

Fulfilling work

11

20.75

“I realise how much I value hard work, my own and others around me. I come from hard work and the apple certainly did not fall far from the tree.” [P2]

9

Creative endeavours

10

18.87

“Exploring and reflecting on ideas (music, business ideas, emotions, interactions with people and situations” [P20]

10 Relationships—romantic

8

15.09

“The companionship of my boyfriend” [P36]

11 Spirituality

7

13.21

“The grace of God for which I am immensely thankful” (continued)

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Table 4 (continued) Category

Number of occurrences

Frequency of occurrence (%)

Example quotation

12 Engaging in fun or enjoyable activities

6

11.32

“I find joy in little things in life, but more importantly I believe in having fun” [P1]

13 Caring for pets

6

11.32

“Doggos - I love animals, especially dogs and especially Pugs, they just make life that much more exciting - they love unconditionally and are really interesting to observe as well ” [P9]

14 Health

3

5.66

15 Other sources

5

9.43

“2nd reason is that health is a blessing that I must also focus on too”

personal growth and development (f = 14; 26.42%) aided individuals to feel that their lives have purpose. Caring for or showing kindness to others (f = 11; 20.75%) was another meaningful experience reported by participants. Contributing to the lives of others, acting as a mentor to younger people, or trying to “help people without expecting anything in return” made people experience meaning. Similarly, caring for pets seemed to provide a similar experience (f = 6; 11.32%). Other individuals reported that having fulfilling or meaningful work (f = 11; 20.75%) provided a sense of purpose because they were able to make a difference to the lives of others through their professions or they were able to see how their work contributes to the betterment of society. Being creative or engaging in creative endeavours was meaningful to some (f = 10; 18.87). Writing, playing music, painting or acting provided a means through which individuals could express their creative selves, which in return provided a sense of purpose and meaning. Finally, some individuals reported that spirituality (f = 7; 13.21%) and their overall level of general health (f = 3; 5.66%) was meaningful to them.

4 Discussion The purpose of this chapter was to study the effect of an online meaningful-moments photo-ethnographic intervention on the search for, and presence of meaning as well

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as life satisfaction within a multi-cultural sample. Similarly, the aim was to identify the sources of meaning participants identified during the intervention. The results showed that Instagram could be an interesting tool to consider when the aim is to enhance well-being in the short term. However, the results only showed significant changes in the presence of meaning, and life satisfaction between the Time 1 and Time 3 measures. Large effect sizes on the overall intervention were reported on the levelsof-interpretation suggested by Lakens (2013). Finally, the results showed that positive relationships with family and friends, savouring life’s joys, freedom and autonomy, a unison with nature, personal development, caring for or showing kindness to others, and purposeful work are important sources of meaning for individuals.

4.1 The Effectiveness of the Online Meaningful-Moments Intervention The present study found support for both the short- and medium-term effectiveness of an online photo-ethnographic intervention aimed at enhancing meaning and hedonic wellbeing. These results are in line with the work of Steger et al. (2014) who examined the short-term effectiveness of an offline photo-ethnographic intervention. Their results showed that the Meaningful Moments intervention was able to enhance the experience of meaning in life and well-being (life satisfaction and positive affect) in the short term. However, they found a marginally significant trend towards a decrease in search for meaning between the pre and post measures. The present study showed that the online version of the meaningful moment’s intervention was able to replicate Steger et al.’s (2014) findings, as the intervention had a positive effect on the experience of meaning in life and life satisfaction in both the short and medium term. Experiences of meaning increased significantly, directly after the intervention as participants were conditioned to find and focus on the sources of meaning in their lives. The intervention aimed at structuring the search for meaning in such a way that individuals could intuitively explore and become consciously aware of aspects which made their lives more meaningful through a process of active (mindful) self-reflection. When individuals are mindful of positive experiences, they appreciate the value and function of such in their lives more (Lyubomirsky, 2007). When individuals actively reflect upon meaningful moments, they engage in mindful reflective practices which aids them in not only reliving the positive experiences but also to become aware of the underlying factors which triggers these experiences (Nugent, Moss, Barnes, & Wilks 2011; Shapiro & Carlson, 2017). This reflective practice generates a deep level of self-insight which makes individuals aware of how they are proverbially put-together and what makes them “tick” (Nugent et al., 2011). If individuals are consciously aware of these underlying triggers (or ‘sources of meaning’), they can actively seek out such experiences to aid them in coping with set-backs, or to replenish energy. The effect of these mindful reflections is evident through the change in both the significance and the extent of the relationship

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between the two components of meaning between the pre- and post-measures. Before the intervention a non-significant relationship between such was present, however after the intervention a positive statistically significant relationship was present. This could indicate that increases in the search for meaning, during the intervention, may have resulted in increases in experiences of the presence of meaning both in the short and medium term. Further, the results showed that experiences of life satisfaction increased directly after the intervention but returned to slightly above the same levels three months later. This implies that the intervention may positively affect short term positive emotive experiences due to active efforts employed to look for and (mindfully) reflect upon the sources of meaning. However, if these practices are not sustained, the level of life satisfaction may return to similar levels later. The increases in life satisfaction is not surprising, as research shows that mindful reflections on positive experiences enhances the short-term effect thereof (Shapiro & Carlson, 2017). Further, the relative return to previous levels is also not surprising. As human-beings are biologically programmed to adapt to both positive and negative experiences, it is not surprising that hedonic expressions of wellbeing increased in the short term but returned to similar levels during the medium term (Lyubomirsky, 2007). In contrast to Steger et al. (2014), the results of the current study showed that, at least in the short term, the online version of the Meaningful Moments intervention increased experiences of the search for meaning. The active, daily reflections upon the aspects which provide experiences of meaning during the intervention coupled with a conscious effort to look for new/alternative sources thereof, may have conditioned participants to report higher levels of the search for meaning during/directly after the intervention. This was inline with the original expectation that when individuals are directly instructed to look for the sources of meaning, that active searching behaviour will be initiated (Steger, 2012; Steger et al., 2014). However, if the practice is not sustained, then the active search for meaning will take a proverbial back seat and become an unconscious process again (Steger, 2012); therefor returning to similar levels as reported before the intervention was started three months later. Although the population groups significantly differ between Steger et al. (2014) and the current study (heterogeneous students vs. a multi-cultural sample), it is believed that the differences in results could be attributable to the nature of the intervention design. It thus seems that an online environment like Instagram, in which people receive likes and feedback for sharing their meaningful moments, reinforces people to continue their search for meaning. Although this current study only provides preliminary results, they do show the importance of the usage of an online platform to share one’s meaningful experiences above and beyond that of an photo-ethnographic intervention alone. Further, seeing that the most frequently occurring themes derived from the personal reflections of participants related to positive relationships with friends and family, it is evident that the function of their support could play an important role in aiding individuals to reinforce meaningmaking behaviours.

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4.2 The Sources of Meaning Reported During the Intervention As such, Instagram could also play an important role in not only re-enforcing meaning-making behaviours through capitalising on positive relationships with friends and family, but could aid in capturing the sources of meaning which individuals could re-visit at different points in time. As such, the second objective of this study was to determine the sources of meaning which participants reported/captured at the end of the intervention. The sources of meaning reported during the Meaningful Moments Intervention were in line with the work of Damásio, Koller, and Schnell (2013), who developed a taxonomy of 26 sources of meaning, captured in four higher order constructs. The sources of meaning reported most in the current study matched with three out of four higher order constructs of that previous work. Participants reported sources of meaning in the self-transcendence domain (a unison with nature, purposeful work), the self-actualisation domain (freedom and autonomy, personal development) and in the domain of well-being and relatedness (positive relationships with family and friends, savouring life’s joys and caring for or showing kindness to others). The domain that was not explicitly mentioned is order, which captures things such as tradition, practicality, morality and reason. Although these aspects are important sources of meaning in life, they might be hard(er) to capture in a picture. This may explain why ‘order’ is not represented in the sources of meaning named most during the Meaningful Moments Intervention. Overall this study, although preliminary, showed that the Meaningful Moment Intervention can be ‘upgraded’ by the inclusion of sharing one’s meaningful photos on an online platform like Instagram. This way, people can enhance the search for and presence of meaning in life, while at the same time enhancing their satisfaction with life in the short term.

5 Limitations and Future Research Although the Meaningful Moments intervention seems promising, this study was not without limitations. First, the dropout percentage was high. While 220 people signed up for the intervention, only 67 actually uploaded photos on Instagram (dropout 69.5%). As not all participants filled out all the questionnaires, there was only complete data for 53 participants (dropout 75.9%). A possible explanation for these low levels of adherence may be found in the Facebook privacy scandal. Facebook illegally sold profile data of their users to third parties without permission. This scandal was all over the news at the time the intervention ran There were indeed some e-mails received from participants who worried about their privacy, making them hesitant or even aversive to the use of social media (Instagram). Second, selection bias cannot be ruled out. Participation was voluntary, making it likely that only those people who needed the intervention, or those who felt excited

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about it, signed up. Another reason why selection bias cannot be ruled out is related to the person-intervention fit (Lyubomirsky & Layous, 2013). In order for an intervention to be effective, it is important that both features of the activity (intervention) and personal features match. The better the fit (i.e., the extent to which the intervention matches one’s personal preferences and characteristics), the more effective the intervention will be. Since participation was voluntary, it cannot be ruled out that only those people that felt the intervention matched their personal preferences signed up. Another limitation is the experimental design. In this study a pre-experimental mixed-method longitudinal research design (without a control group) was used. This makes it impossible to compare the results of current study to a group that did not participate in the intervention. Therefore, causal inferences about the effectiveness of the intervention cannot be made. Future researchers are encouraged to replicate this study with a quasi-experimental field study, including a matching control group to determine its effectiveness. Moreover, future researchers are encouraged to examine the potential of the intervention using different social media networks. For example, would the intervention yield the same results when using Facebook? Or what would happen if people shared their meaningful moments via Snapchat? Would it make a difference? This way, the understanding of the utility of different social media platforms to enhance well-being and the presence of meaning in life can be advanced. Also, as the intervention attempted to simulate an online community through commenting and “liking” posts, the absence of such could perhaps lead to negative consequences for individuals’ well-being. Social comparison between participants on the likes/comments could negatively affect the positive social support effect which was simulated. If no one comments/likes an individual’s post, it may be perceived by the participant that “no one cares” and thus further reinforce negative behaviours, thoughts or feelings which is already prevalent. Perhaps future studies could determine the effect between online and private sharing. Practitioners should thus be cautious when attempting to utilise this intervention if a clear social support network has not been established or isn’t visibly present. A last avenue for future research may be to explore the effects of the intervention in a clinical setting. For example, as people who suffer from depression experience relative low levels of happiness, and as meaning is the most important source of happiness (Seligman, 2002), it might be worthwhile to examine the effects of the intervention in this population. This way, it can be determined to what extend the intervention is able to raise well-being in this (and other clinical) population(s).

6 Conclusions Despite the negative effects often associated with social media, this intervention showed that an online photo-intervention using Instagram can enhance overall wellbeing. Participants reported higher levels of the search for and presence of meaning in their lives. Moreover, their overall life satisfaction increased, both shortly after the

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intervention as well as over time. The sources of meaning that people photographed and described during the intervention matched earlier work on sources of meaning (Damásio et al., 2013). Therefore, the intervention seems a promising tool to enhance well-being. However, the results presented in this study are preliminary at best, as a pre-experimental mixed-method longitudinal research design (without a control group) was used. Future research is needed to further explore the potential of the intervention to be able to draw causal inferences about its effectiveness.

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Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl (Ph.D.) is currently an assistant professor of work and organizational psychology at the University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He also holds an extraordinary professorship in Industrial Psychology with the Optentia Research Focus Area at the North-West University. Academically, he has completed a Doctorate degree in the field of Industrial Psychology, specializing in the development and evaluation of Positive Psychological Interventions aimed at increasing happiness. He also holds a Master of Commerce, an Honours and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Psychology, which were obtained from the North-West University (cum laude) at the top of his class. These qualifications provided him with a means to register with the Health Professions Council of South Africa as a psychologist (cat: industrial). Professionally, Llewellyn is a respected researcher and published author of various scientific articles and specialist books. Within the scientific community he is known for his academic work as Associate Editor of the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology as well as his work on the editorial board of the Journal of Leadership and Organizational studies. Llewellyn has extensive experience within the tertiary educational environment (as a lecturer and researcher), as well as within the private and public sectors (as a consultant). Llewellyn has a passion for Online Positive Psychological Interventions aimed at talent development and consumer behaviour. As of 1 January 2017, Llewellyn holds the ranking as a C2 rated researcher with the National Research Foundation within South Africa. Inge Hulshof (Ph.D.) is currently working at the Human Performance Management Group of Eindhoven Technical University, The Netherlands. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of positive psychological interventions aimed at enhancing well-being and performance among the (un)employed, with a specialization in job crafting behavior and psychological capital. She holds a Master’s degree in work and organizational psychology and before starting her PhD, Inge worked as a consultant in the public and private sector. She owns her own company, Hulshof Career Development, from which she offers training, coaching and consultancy to organizations working on sustainable employability.

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Leah Dickens (Ph.D.) is an assistant professor of psychology at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. As a social psychologist, her work primarily focuses on the benefits of discrete positive emotional states—like gratitude and pride—for individuals and their social interactions. She studies how temporary emotional experiences can influence people’s behavior, even without their conscious awareness, and how cultivating more grateful or more proud dispositions—day in and day out—can lead to advantages for people’s well-being. Dr. Dickens currently teaches courses in the fields of social psychology, the psychology of emotions, and positive psychology.

Positive Psychological Interventions Intended for a Supportive Work-Family Culture Eileen Koekemoer and Micaela Petrou

Abstract Over the past decades, the interplay between work and family domains have been a topic of concern for not only individuals but also organisations. As a result extensive literature is available in this regard, where research suggest that a work culture that support, value, and assists with the integration of employees’ work and family lives, becomes a necessity for reducing possible work-family interference. The overall aim of this chapter is to understand the importance and presence of a supportive work-family culture; and identify how organisations can incorporate various positive psychological interventions aimed at improving or aiding in employees’ work-family needs. This chapter contributes to current work-family literature by incorporating a multi-level perspective to explain various positive work-family interventions, i.e. interventions aimed at organisational (e.g. schedule control and results orientation, work-life job analyses); group (e.g. training managers in relational skills, supportive supervisor behaviour training); and individual level (e.g. mindfulness as cognitive-emotional segmentation strategy). The chapter concludes with an evidencebased case study of current organisational work-family interventions as implemented by 30 South African organisations. The empirical study described in this chapter is based on survey data, which was obtained from a non-probability, purposive voluntary sample of 30 organisations in South Africa (including small, medium and large organisations). The survey with open-ended questions was used to understand how these organisations view their role in contributing to the work-life balance of their employees and to ascertain which interventions they currently apply in this regard. The empirical data discussed in the chapter was analysed through thematic analysis. Keywords Positive work-family interventions · Work-family culture · Work-life job analysis · Family-supportive supervisor behaviour · Mindfulness

E. Koekemoer (B) · M. Petrou Department of Human Resource Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 L. E. Van Zyl and S. Rothmann Sr. (eds.), Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20311-5_4

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1 Introduction Employees in contemporary societies are challenged constantly to strike a balance between the frequently competing demands of their work and personal lives. This takes place regardless of family status or demographic characteristics. Understanding the interplay between work and family life, has been a subject of concern not only to academic scholars but organisations as well, because of the contemporary demographic, technological, and environmental changes confronting these companies and by implication employees (Baral & Bhargava, 2010). As a result, extensive literature (including scholarly books) attempts to address this issue from a wide range of perspectives (Greenhaus & Kossek, 2014; Shockley, Shen & Johnson, 2018). In general, research on the intersection between work and family emerged from three schools of thought or advocates of three work-family notions. These can be categorised as follows: (1) Work-family conflict—the degree to which work and family roles are perceived as incompatible in some way (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). (2) Work-family positive spillover—the beneficial mutual influence of work and family lives, also referred to as work-family facilitation or work-family enrichment (Powell & Greenhaus, 2006). (3) To a lesser extent, work-family balance—the extent to which an individual effectively manages multiple roles and expectations regarding family and work simultaneously (Hill, Hawkins, Ferris, & Weitzman, 2001). Irrespective of the different work-family notions, numerous researchers concur that organisations stand to benefit from recognising and accommodating employees’ work-life needs (Morganson, Major, & Bauer, 2009; Shockley & Singla, 2011). Consequently, over the years, organisations have gradually been focusing on familyfriendly policies in an effort to help employees balance their work and family commitments (Kelly et al., 2008). The most prevalent family-friendly policies available to employees include part-time work, flexible work hours, parental leave, and access to childcare facilities (Skinner & Chapman, 2013). The extend to which employers adopt these formal or informal policies is commonly viewed as an indicator of how family-friendly they are (Brough, O’Driscoll, & Kalliath, 2007). However, an increasing number of scholars believe and provide evidence that family-friendly policies alone do not necessarily change informal social practices and traditional corporate values, which ultimately can improve employees’ workfamily needs (Major & Lauzun, 2010). Some research suggests that the success of work-family policies depends on how they are perceived by employees and whether the latter do indeed utilise these policies (Skinner & Chapman, 2013). This resonates with the call of Straub (2007) to move beyond the formulation of policies towards a change in the actual organisational culture, or as Brough and O’Driscoll (2010, p. 292) states, “Without a genuinely supportive culture, the gap between policy and practice can be striking.” Consequently, a work culture that support, value, and assists with the integration of employees’ work and family lives, becomes a necessity for reducing possible work-family interference.

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This chapter firstly, aims to provide a brief overview of the significance of a work-family culture and the results organisations can reap from having a supportive work-family culture. Understanding the consequences relating to the work-family culture in ones’ organisation is crucial, as it can serve as motivation for positive psychological interventions. However, it is also important to understand that in order to be able to assist in the work-family needs of employees, it is central to consider multi-level perspectives when it comes to interventions. Especially, when considering work-family culture, it is essential to know that individuals and groups/teams can also influence how employees experience the culture of the organisation when it comes to their work/family needs. Therefore, secondly, this chapter contributes by incorporating such multi-level perspective, by identifying various positive psychological interventions which can be implemented on organisational, group or individual level to aid in employees’ work-family needs. Thirdly, as an example case of organisation level interventions, the chapter concludes with an evidence-based case study of current work-family interventions as implemented by 30 South African organisations.

1.1 Work-Family Culture Work-family culture is widely known and cited as the “shared assumptions, beliefs and values regarding the extent to which an organization supports and values the integration of employees’ work and family lives” (Thompson, Beauvais, & Lyness, 1999, p. 394). In this pioneering study, work-family culture is characterised as threefold: (1) Organizational time demands: the expectation that time limits or restrictions may disrupt the balance between work and family life. (2) Career consequences: the perception of possible negative effects associated with the use of work-family benefits. (3) Supervisory or managerial support: beliefs concerning management’s sensitivity and empathy towards employees’ family responsibilities. There is a consensus among scholars that the construct of work-family culture is multi-dimensional. However, in 2010, Mauno (2010) proposed that work-family culture can be characterised more accurately by reducing it to only two components, namely managerial support and work-family barriers (the latter covering the initial aspect of organisational time demands and negative career consequences). Since the introduction of the concept of work-family culture in the late 1990s, considerable research has been done on this topic, all resonating possible outcomes related to work-family culture. As previously mentioned, understanding the results associated with a supportive work-family culture, can be very beneficial to organisations and employees.

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1.2 Outcomes Related to a Work-Family Culture Two significant streams of research related to outcomes of work-family culture emerge from the literature. The first stream concentrates on the relationship between work-family culture and various concepts of work-family interface (e.g. work-family conflict and work-family enrichment), while the second investigates more general outcomes. From the first stream of research, the overall notion seems: depending on how supportive employees perceive the work-family culture in their organisations, they will experience the intersection between their work and family lives as either negative or positive. In the majority of these studies, the focus is mainly on work-family conflict. Empirical evidence indicates that a supportive work-family culture causes less work-family conflict, while an unsupportive culture will increase feelings of conflict (Allard, Haas, & Hwang, 2011; Chang, Chin, & Ye, 2014; De Janasz, Behson, Jonsen, & Lankau, 2013; Fiksenbaum, 2014; Mcnamara, Pitt-catsouphes, Matz-costa, Brown, & Valcour, 2013; Peeters, Wattez, Demerouti, & de Regt, 2009). Conversely, research also indicates that the more supportive the work-family culture, the stronger the influence on the employees to experience the interaction between their work and personal life as positive. This suggests that employees who experience or perceive their employers as supportive towards their work-family situations, are more likely to experience work-family enrichment or work-family balance (Allen, 2001; Baral & Bhargava, 2010; Mauno, 2010; Mauno, Kinnunen, & Pyykkö, 2005; Mcnamara et al., 2013; Peeters et al., 2009; Wayne, Randel, & Stevens, 2006). When considering the second stream of research, which encompasses general outcomes, work-family culture seem to influence employees on an individual level, and hold certain consequences for organisations. Some of the more prominent individual outcomes linked to a supportive work-family culture are: increased life and job satisfaction (Chang et al., 2014; French & Agars, 2018; Major, Fletcher, Davis, & Germano, 2008; Mauno et al., 2005); enhanced overall well-being (French & Agars, 2018); improved positive work-related attitudes and efforts (Mauno, 2010); improved self-reported health with lower levels of physical symptoms (French & Agars, 2018; Mauno, 2010); and lower levels of psychological distress, strain, and overall stress (Mauno, Ruokolainen, & Kinnunen, 2015). For organisations, a supportive work-family culture may have the following positive results: decreased absenteeism and reduced turnover intentions (Chang et al., 2014; Mauno, Kiuru, & Kinnunen, 2011); heightened commitment and increased work motivation (De Sivatte, Gordon, Rojo, & Olmos, 2015; Mauno et al., 2011); as well as increased organisational performance/productivity and effectiveness (Chang et al., 2014). The aforementioned overview indicates that combined, perceptions about the psychosocial work environment impact employees’ experience of either work-family conflict, or work-family enrichment. This influence has various consequences for both individuals and organisations. However, scholars disagree whether work-family policies are effective on its own (Ryan & Kossek, 2008). Therefore, Kelly et al. (2008)

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underline the need to understand the work-family processes fully and to grasp how organisations can create supportive environments. One possible way is to consider a wider range of workplace changes from a multi-level perspective. According to Kossek, Hammer, Kelly, and Moen (2014), most work-family policies or practices are reactive, ad hoc, and are viewed as an individual accommodation, not mainstream practice. Thus, such policies do not pre-emptively eliminate the stress caused by work-family conflict in the general work environment of workers across an entire organisation.

1.3 Positive Work-Family Interventions Among the empirical research on organisational interventions intended to enhance work-family interface, three main groups emerge. These are: firstly, initiatives addressing working time and/or working hours; secondly, action research to improve workplace equity and performance levels; and lastly, initiatives to embed work-life balance within organisational cultures (Brough & O’Driscoll, 2010). This chapter contributes by expanding on these mentioned research by suggesting (and providing evidence of) interventions on organisational, group, and individual level to assist with employees’ work-life needs.

1.4 Organisational-Level Interventions 1.4.1

Self-rostering as a means of schedule control, new ways of work and results orientation

In the recent seminal work of Kossek et al. (2014), the “STAR” intervention is described as an innovative workplace intervention aimed at reducing work-family conflict. The main idea of the STAR intervention was to change the overall work environment by modifying the job structure for all workers. Through this type of intervention, the entire work environment is targeted to help employees adapt more readily to their schedules. The latter should fit diverse personal needs, while also ensuring employees’ work is accomplished on time. Applying some of the principles in STAR, two theoretical intervention elements are suggested for combatting workfamily problems, namely control over work time and schedule (i.e. self-rostering and schedule control), and results orientation. Thus, organisations must attempt to increase employees’ control over their work schedules and focus on results, not time. Kossek et al. (2014) states the following about the STAR intervention: “Each employee has the support they need to have control over their work and life, as long as the work gets done.” For the STAR intervention, schedule control refers to individual autonomy over when, where and at what times work is conducted, and how such control enhances

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employees’ ability to rearrange work and family roles to reduce work-family conflict (Kossek et al., 2014). In this context as an organisational intervention it can also be viewed as self-rostering. Where organisations provide employees the opportunities to have more autonomy in managing their schedules and rosters. In turn, results orientation involves the elimination of inefficient work processes, based on clear performance expectations and coaching. As suggested by Kossek et al. (2014), this may mean that rather than having a scheduler compile a master work schedule without employees’ input, all workers are allowed to propose their choice regarding time off. Such a strategy may also emphasise process issues where employees work more productively and efficiently together, rather than on a virtual basis. Also taking a bottom-up approach is encouraged where employees initiate and support the interventions. Kelly et al. (2008), agree that the latitude over when employees work, how many hours they work, and where they work (referred to as control over work time), is important as well as their perceived workload. In recent literature, new ways of working have also been suggested as means to assist in work-family interface (Demerouti, Derks, ten Brummelhuis, & Bakker, 2014). Organisations are more and more adapting to the work-family needs of the employees by altering their work weeks or hours in order to accommodate employees in this regard. New ways of working may include for example working flexi-time (which is well documented in the literature), working from home or working shorter work weeks (e.g. 6 h work day or 3 day work-week). Grawitch, Barber and Justice (2010) understand balancing work and personal life as effective allocation of personal resources across the various life pursuits. When considering this view, the aforementioned strategies of taking control over one’s worktime, working in new ways and result-oriented work, are reasonable. These authors argue that organisations can influence the process of personal resource allocation. This can be done by interventions focused on increasing employees’ pool of available resources, altering their demands, and providing sufficient resources to help increase their personal supply. This process is well research and explained in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model from Bakker, Demerouti, and Schaufeli (2003) and Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, and Schaufeli (2001) as a way to improve the well-being of employees. Although seen an individual-level theory it is important for organisations to understand how their efforts and attempts (i.e. schedule control and new ways of working) are processed and perceived by employees. The JD-R model integrates a wide range of potential job demands and resources, and proposes that the well-being of a person is the result of two relatively independent processes (Bakker et al., 2003). In the first process, the demanding aspects of work are overtaxing, and, in the long run, lead to health problems (e.g., burnout, fatigue). In the second process, the availability of job resources may help employees cope with the demanding aspects of their work. For Grawitch et al. (2010), resources may refer to time, energy, or financial means. Thus, by giving employees more control over their time, they are in fact contributing to increased allocation of resources. In addition, by considering perceptions of work overload and focusing on more efficient work, organisations are altering the demands that employees face, again increasing their supply of resources. Furthermore, when

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organisations ensure sufficient human, technological, financial, and other resources are available to achieve its goals, they are also providing optimal conditions for work-family balance. Based on the self-determination theory (SDT) of Ryan and Deci (2000), linked to the three innate psychological needs—competence, autonomy, and relatedness—organisations seemingly are essential for helping employees function optimally (ultimately ensuring successful interplay between their work and personal lives). Typically, the social contexts in which employees are embedded such as their work environment, cater for basic psychological needs (e.g. by providing employees more control over their work schedules as a means to satisfy their need for autonomy). Self-determination theory indicates that when people feel autonomous, they are more likely to feel vital (Ryan and Deci, 2000). According to the SDT, these contexts provide the appropriate developmental lattice to improve human achievements and enhance well-being. Contexts that support autonomy foster greater internalisation and integration than contexts that hinder satisfaction of those needs. According to Ryan and Deci (2000), excessive control, non-optimal challenges, and lack of connectedness undermine initiative and responsibility, which may lead to increased distress for individuals. This in this context when organisations do provide employees control over work schedules it can be viewed as a form of providing employees with more autonomy which leads to many advantages and positive outcomes. Thus, organisations that provide autonomous work environments may strengthen the work-family interface for their employees, as they satisfy their psychological needs for autonomy and improve their supply of personal resources.

1.4.2

Work-Life Job Analysis

In the work of Morganson et al. (2009), the Work-life Job Analysis (WLJA) is described as a strategic and scientifically-based tool for interventions that enable managers to accommodate specific needs of work-life balance. This tool aims to identify the components of a particular job that hinder or facilitate workers’ fulfilment of their personal life roles. This tool focuses on specific work-role requirements to mitigate work-family conflict. The applied theory underpinning the WLJA is the stress-and-strain concept, which emphasises the degree of compatibility between humans and their work in leveraging productivity. This approach considers factors of both objective stress (i.e. due to tasks and the environment) and subjective stress (i.e. on the worker, also called strain). The mentioned tool comprises three parts: work system analysis, task analysis, and job-demand analysis. The focus on work systems is the largest segment of the analyses and relates to the physical as well as the organisational and social working environments. In other words, the WLJA analyses the position of work within the organisation, operation process, as well as within the organisational structure. In essence, this tool comprises the following elements: (1) a description of the job characteristics and the context in which tasks are performed; (2) the task analyses that captures the content of the job itself; and (3) an assessment of the work’s physical demands.

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The WLJA supplements traditional job descriptions by providing a summary of the requirements for the job domain and an appraisal of the degree to which the job is likely to be compatible with employees’ personal lives. The WLJA can be used to address work-family conflict on several fronts by informing job redesign, job evaluation, training, benefit distribution and job descriptions, all which help improve the organisation. Such an analysis undertaken across the various jobs and structures in an entire organisation may prove highly positive for the employees’ work-family situation (Morganson et al. 2009).

1.4.3

Positive Relational Building

When interventions are focused on changing the work environment through organisational interventions, it is also important to consider innovations at the various levels, including those that target work-group processes and individual processes. Thompson et al. (1999) point out that managerial support is considered at a collective level as part of the organisations’ work-family culture. In essence, this refers to top management support or the way in which executives in charge view work-family issues (Major & Lauzun, 2010). From the perspective of the leader-member exchange theory (LMX), this means the leader (or supervisor) values the subordinate’s contributions and is vested in ensuring the subordinates feel valued and continues to be productive, which means helping them manage their work and family situations. From their side, the subordinates are vested in making contributions instrumental to the supervisors’ goals, trusting that the latter will provide appropriate assistance and recognition. By taking an LMX approach, the basis for support is the high-quality relationship between the supervisor and the employee and the mutual benefits from that relationship (Major & Lauzun, 2010). Bearing the aforementioned in mind, specific group and individual interventions are suggested—these are expounded below.

1.5 Group-Level Interventions 1.5.1

Training managers in relational skills (developing high LMX)

There are several positive outcomes when employees enjoy high-quality relationships with their managers. These outcomes are: greater job satisfaction, lower turnover intentions, or increased commitment. Therefore, it is important to maintain sound relations between employees and managers. Major and Lauzun (2010) suggest reasons why LMX theory is ideally suited to understand the manager’s role in addressing work-family issues. They believe that managers and subordinates are both active participants in the relational building process, where the focus is on social exchange. In other words, the LMX helps articulate what supervisors are actually doing to support their subordinates.

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Furthermore, LMX theory describes how work roles are negotiated between the supervisor and employee. Although the LMX relationship may be applied to other goals (e.g. obtaining high-profile work assignments), the idea is that through positive relational building and the negotiation of roles between employees and managers, a supportive work-family culture will follow. However, to help develop high LMX and ensure managers understand how to offer employees the opportunity to develop high-quality relationships, these managers need training. Thus, this proposed type of group-level intervention involves training on the following aspects: (1) the LMX model; (2) benefits associated with LMX relationships; and (3) a set of skills to development relationships such as active listening, methods for setting mutual expectations, and techniques for exchanging resources. Major and Lauzun (2010) summarise by recommending high-quality LMX relationships between managers and employees. Such relationships should facilitate the negotiation of appropriate actions to deal with the unique work-family needs and conflict that individuals experience. In the discussion above, managerial support is viewed as part of work-family culture. Consequently, it is recommended that managers be trained since the belief is that supportive supervisors may model and encourage supportive behaviours among co-workers. This line of thought resonates strongly with the second proposed type of group intervention, namely training supervisors in the appropriate behaviour.

1.5.2

Work-family specific social support through supervisor behaviour training

In the earlier-mentioned STAR intervention, Kossek and colleagues (2014) provide evidence that specific family-supportive specific supportive supervision may impact stronger on work-family conflict than general supportive supervision. In this sense, “family-supportive supervisors are those who appreciate and have an understanding for employees’ demands outside of the work domain and accommodate employees’ efforts to seek balance between these roles” (Kossek et al., 2014, p. 8). The STAR intervention provides evidence of how training in family-supportive supervisor behaviour (FSSB) can assist in the work-family needs of employees. This selfpaced, computer-based and behavioural self-monitoring intervention was designed to increase supervisors’ level of FSSB. The intervention focuses on the following four supervisor behaviours: • Instrumental—helping employees manage schedules and working with them to solve schedule conflicts. • Emotional—demonstrating that workers are being cared for with their feelings considered. • Role modelling—indicating how supervisors take care of their own work/life challenges to set an example. • Creative work-family management—redesigning work to support the conflicting work-life demands in a win-win situation for employees and employers.

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Hammer, Kossek, Yragui, Bodner, and Hanson (2009) also provide evidence of a supervisor work-family intervention to improve FSSB. This intervention consists of computer-based training, face-to-face training, and behavioural self-monitoring. In their intervention, the training was designed to enhance supervisors’ skills and motivation, which would increase their interpersonal contact with employees and strengthen support of employees’ needs to manage work-family interface. Overall, the findings of the mentioned authors indicate that supervisors respond favourably to the training, thus, behaviour change was achieved on the job.

1.5.3

Managers’ initiative to build a supportive, work-friendly atmosphere and culture

It should be recognised that individuals have unique needs and special challenges to create a balance between work and family. Therefore, it is not feasible to assume that all programmes focused on work-family benefits will be appropriate for all employees. As a result, Major and Lauzun (2010) propose the negotiation of workfamily idiosyncratic deals as a way to meet the specific needs of individual employees. This suggests that between the employer and the employee, individually negotiated, beneficial work arrangements are made, which fall outside of what the organisation offers as part of standard practice. Through the mentioned approach, employees’ individual needs are considered and collaboratively addressed with the manager. The key to this approach is that these negotiations are legitimate employment arrangements sanctioned by the organisation. Therefore, organisations must provide managers with both the skills and autonomy to negotiate these idiosyncratic deals with their employees. In other words, managers must be empowered properly to negotiate successfully employees’ workfamily needs during individual performance appraisals. Hammer et al. (2009) explain, “Supervisors who have a creative approach to work-family management, role model good work-life practices, and offer practical and emotional support are likely to contribute to a family-friendly work culture.”

1.6 Individual-Level Intervention 1.6.1

Mindfulness as a cognitive-emotional segmentation strategy

It is well established in the literature that when nonwork-time is taken over by workrelated cognitions, emotions, and depleted energy levels, employees find it difficult to fulfil both their private and work roles (Carlson & Frone, 2003). Thus, literature on boundary theory suggests that individuals should find their own ideal way to segment, integrate, and balance both life domains (Kreiner, Hollensbe, & Sheep, 2009). Boundary theory focuses on the ways in which people create, maintain, or change boundaries to simplify and classify the world around them (Ashforth, Kreiner,

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& Fugate, 2000). In the study of Kreiner et al. (2009) it is suggested that behavioural, temporal, physical and communicative tactics are used to separate life domains more effectively. However, although employees may use these tactics, they may still be preoccupied with work-related thoughts and feelings during nonwork times. Recently, Michel, Bosch, and Rexroth (2014) have described how mindfulness can be used as an approach to help employees cognitively and emotionally shape the boundaries between work and private life. These authors’ main notion is demonstrating how mindfulness can be implemented to detach oneself from one role while remaining in another. Mindfulness is commonly described as a way of being nonjudgmentally aware of and attentive to momentary experiences (Bishop et al., 2004). Michel et al. (2014) developed and evaluated an online self-training intervention, thereby teaching employees how to use mindfulness as a cognitive-emotional strategy to segment private life from work. This is done by preventing and surmounting disturbing work-related cognitions, emotions, and energy levels. Training individuals in mindfulness involves three specific aspects: reflecting segmentation, mindfulness and being in the present moment, and mindfulness and coping with undesired thoughts and feelings. According to the above-mentioned authors, the primary aim is creating awareness about needs for segmenting private and work life, after which mindfulness is introduced—particularly the component, self-regulation of attention. Individuals are taught that it is challenging to focus on the present moment since the human mind tends to wander. The second component is thus, focusing on mindful experience. This entails keeping one’s distance from thoughts and feelings by enabling a nonjudging and non-striving attitude, which helps individuals accept, and eventually release, distractions. The overall findings indicate how training in mindfulness could impact positively on work-life balance. Taken together, the aforementioned indicates how positive psychological interventions can assist to provide more supportive work-family culture. This chapter contributes further by using an example case to further understand work-family culture and psychological interventions. In general, literature always points to how employees experience work-family interface and make recommendations to organisations based on the employees’ experiences of their work family situations. In such vein, work-family issues are mainly researched from the employees’ perspective, with rarely researching how organisations view work-family issues in this regard and what they are doing. This chapter contributes by providing an evidence-based case study of what 30 South African organisations are currently doing to assist employees with their work-family situations. The overall aim of this case study was to identify what (if any) interventions organisations are currently implementing to provide a supportive work-family culture and how this relates to the proposed interventions discussed so far.

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2 Evidence-Based Case Study 2.1 Methodology of the Case The case described involved 30 South African organisations ranging from small to large enterprises—11 Small (50–100 employees); 8 Medium (100–500 employees); 11 Large (500–1000 employees). By using a convenience sample, organisations were contacted through email and invited to participate in a research study on work-family interventions. Organisations were informed that the study aimed to gather information on how organisations view their role and contributions towards employees’ work-family interface. Selected gatekeepers were asked to identify the best-suited employee in the organisation who could provide information in this regard. Employees answering on behalf of their organisations ranged from HR managers (15), HR business partners (4), CEO’s (3), to an industrial psychologist (1). Participating organisations were from various industries: insurance, financial services, IT, mining, and government sectors. Respondents had to complete an open-ended survey that posed questions on what organisations do to assist employees with their work-family balance. A cover letter accompanied the survey, explaining the purpose of the study. Completed surveys were analysed using thematic analyses. To maintain the anonymity of the participating organisations, a systematic use of coding was employed by numbering each organisation based on industry (Insurance-I, Financial-FS, IT, Mining-M, Government-G) and size (S, M, L).

2.2 Findings from the Case Study Based on the question: “What do your organisation do to contribute or assist with your employees’ work-life balance?”, the participating organisations mentioned specific initiatives, interventions, or actions (summarised in Table 1). It is evident from Table 1 that the participating organisations do attempt to assist with the work-life balance of their employees. Taking into account the aforementioned proposed individual, group and organisational level interventions, it was interesting to see that participating organisations did mention strategies, which could be categorised on such levels. For example, flexi-time seems to be the most prominent way the participating organisations endeavour to help their employees. Taken from the proposed organisational level intervention of Self-rostering as a means of schedule control, the participating organisations indicated how they provide employees with autonomy to schedule and arrange their own ways of working. Taken from the case study, flexitime in this sense do not only imply being able to enter the office early and leave early but also allowing employees to be flexible with their time and commuting. If employees experience a problem at home, they have the option of working from

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Table 1 Actions organisations take to assist employees with their work-life balance Example

Associated meaning

Direct excerpts from survey

Number of organisations mentioning these

Provide flexi-time

Allowing flexible working hours and schedules

Flexible work arrangement—where operational requirements can facilitate this, i.e. subject to role e.g. working from home, working hours. (IS, Org 13, L)

14

Encourage usage of wellness and counselling services

Educate and inform employees about the programmes and facilities available to them. The organisations provide facilities for counselling and wellness initiatives as well as encourage employees to use these services freely

As mentioned above, we have an entire wellbeing strategy that focuses on holistic wellbeing of individuals that work at Org 12. Some of the areas that we focus on include (but are not limited to), physical wellbeing, financial wellbeing, emotional wellbeing and social wellbeing. (FS, Org 12, M) We educate staff on the availability of these offerings, and we encourage usage of these services. (FS, Org 21, L)

12

Allow adequate time off

Allow time off to attend to personal matters and if employees have worked overtime, they are compensated with time off. Ensure leave is taken and special leave is allocated when needed

There are times that employees need to attend to a personal matter(s) during office hours and we assist our employees by giving them one afternoon off every month to attend to these matters without using their leave. (LS, Org 4, M)

10

(continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Example

Associated meaning

Direct excerpts from survey

Number of organisations mentioning these

Adhere to BCEA

Provide fair working conditions, stating clear job descriptions and allow an open-door policy

The organisation supplies employees with the necessary amenities as well as implements the BCEA (Basic conditions of employment act). (FS, Org 20, L) Encourage staff to take advantage of the EAP and our ‘open-door’ policy whereby any staff member can discuss any personal issues with direct manager or HR manager. (IS, Org 11, S)

8

Provide monetary and non-monetary benefits

Benefits may include medical-aid advantages and assistance provided by the organisations to improve well-being. Financial assistance is provided to staff where required. This could be for further studies or purely bonuses for work well done

Our employees receive a 50% bonus in their birthday month as well as in December; we look after our employees and always help where needed. In some cases, we assist our employees or the families with a donation or legal services (free of charge) when needed, so that they do not have to stress about it which can/will have a negative influence on their work. (LS, Org 4, M)

5

Assist with time management and scheduling

Understand that employees need time to keep their lives balanced and construct efficient schedules to accommodate WLB and personal growth

Manage time and scheduling in conjunction with personal growth and finance. (AD, Org 5, S)

2

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home. This resonates with the literature on new ways of working as a means to improve work-family interface. The Basic Conditions Employment Act (BCEA) plays an important part in conditioning work requirements for employees. Besides the legislated working hours, employees are offered additional time off, which helps them attend to personal matters. Coupled with providing flexi-time, organisations encourage employees to utilise wellness and counselling services. These also emerged as prominent initiatives organisations take to assist employees with their work-life balance. In this sense, it is may be regarded as very similar to the proposed group intervention of Managers’ initiative to build a supportive, work-friendly atmosphere and culture. From the responses it seems that organisations or by implication the managers, are concerned about the wellbeing of their employees and do encourage them to utilise programmes intended for overall well-being. Other initiatives are: providing employees with medical-aid and other non-monetary benefits to enhance their overall well-being. It should be noted that the initiatives or actions the participating organisations take to assist their employees are limited and mainly time-related: flexi-time, additional time-off, or by facilitating time management. This is very much in line with the proposed organisational level interventions mentioned earlier, which advocate autonomy and control. Nevertheless, the respondents were very persistent that they share the associated benefits. Participating organisations mentioned specific benefits they perceive as being the result of assisting their employees with work-life balance. Table 2 outlines these mentioned benefits. Table 2 indicates the benefits that participating organisations perceive they reap from assisting with their employees’ work-life balance. If employees are encouraged to use wellness services provided to them, their overall wellness improves. Organisations seem to benefit from positive, holistic employees who are content to come to work, are loyal to the organisation, and thus, function more productive. Organisations also benefit by retaining staff and attracting more talent as a result of their wellness initiatives. From these findings, it is evident that the more committed the employees are, the stronger their loyalty will be to the organisation. As a result, productivity increases as well as profits.

3 Discussion, Conclusion and Limitations The overall aim of this chapter was to discuss the importance and presence of a supportive work-family culture; and identify how organisations can incorporate various positive psychological interventions aimed at improving or aiding in employees’ work-family needs. Early on this chapter, the significance and outcomes related to having a supportive work-family culture was indicated based on recent literature. Subsequently, various interventions aimed at organisational (e.g. schedule control and results orientation, work-life job analyses); group (e.g. training managers in relational skills, supportive supervisor behaviour training); and individual level (e.g. mindfulness as cognitive-emotional segmentation strategy) were proposed. In addi-

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Table 2 Perceived benefits associated with work-life balance interventions Benefits

Brief explanation

Excerpt from survey

Increased performance, productivity, and profit

Employees are more productive, waste less time, and focus on their performance

The organisation benefits in multiple ways. The organisation uses the focus on wellness and work-life balance as a lever to attract talent, retain employees and increase the productivity. An employee who is engaged and well, is more productive than one who is not. Thus, a tangible benefit is the triple bottom line. (FS, Org 20, L)

Reduced absenteeism and use of sick leave

Employees who are happy to come to work will be less absent from work, which also reduces the use of sick leave

Productivity is not compromised, there is greater commitment from employees who are allowed to have flexibility, and sick-leave days have reduced significantly in the past year due to support employees receive. (IS, Org 16, L)

Highly motivated, engaged and balanced workforce

Employees know they are understood and looked after; therefore, they have more enthusiasm to work harder and stay committed to the organisation

The company as well as the employees benefit from the wellbeing ‘services’ that we offer. The employees benefit in that they understand that they are more than just a number here at our organisation. They understand that we value them as individuals and we care about them outside of the workplace as well as within the workplace. In return, we have engaged, motivated and committed employees that enjoy work and want to do their very best when they are at work. (FS, Org 12, M)

Lower turnover

If the employees feel that they are being taken care of and their talents are acknowledged, they will less likely leave the organisation, which reduces turnover rate

Our people feel trusted, treated as adults and are more engaged. We have a very low turnover rate, despite the industry we are in and this is due in part to the allowances we make in terms of flexible working. (FS, Org 14, S)

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tion to these theoretical contributions, the chapter concluded with a comparison of these proposed interventions with what currently is being implemented by 30 South African organisations in this regard. When comparing the positive work-family interventions described earlier in this chapter with the findings from the case study, interestingly only certain proposed interventions seem to receive attention in the 30 participating South African organisations. Based on the sample in this case study, organisations mainly help employees by assisting them with time management, either in the form of providing flexi-time or additional time-off, or facilitating time scheduling. Schedule control and self-rostering was proposed and described as the first organisation-level intervention where organisations provide autonomous work environments through which they satisfy their employees’ psychological needs for autonomy and improve their supply of personal resources. The only other mentioned intervention, which to a certain extent is also described in the case study, is the Negotiating idiosyncratic work-family deals with employees. The last initiative described in Table 1 in the case study, entails organisations’ understanding that employees need to balance work and personal life and should be assisted by accommodating their needs when constructing work schedules. However, the participating organisations did not specify ways to assist the managers or employees. None of the interventions described in the case relate to or resonate with the described group-level interventions aimed at positive relational building. In most of the case examples, the focus was on time, or interesting wellbeing and counselling services, not necessarily interventions in work-life balance per se. No mention was made in the case of support by or training of supervisors, or to build relational skills. A limited overlap was found between the described interventions, which were based solely on literature, and what is actually being done by this sample of South African organisations. In this regard, certain practical implications are worth mentioning. One main area of concern is organisations’ lack of knowledge about actual ways to assist employees; this is coupled with the limited number of initiatives the companies in the case do take. Inferred from literature, flexi-time is the mostly-used and well-known intervention to assist with work-life balance—seemingly remaining the most popular form of assistance that organisations provide. In effect, organisations fail to realise the role managers can play in work-family interface and how training and relational building is almost as important on a group level in organisations. One particular area of interest where the findings in the case relate strongly to what is known from the literature, is the outcomes related to a supportive workfamily culture. All the benefits the organisations mentioned in the case are already found in the literature as outcomes related to supportive work-family cultures. It should however be noted, that these outcomes are perceived outcomes related to work-family interventions according to the participating organisations. Given the scope and goal of the study, it is not possible to establish if these benefits are in fact a result of the work-family interventions the organisations provide.

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4 Implications for Future Research Based on this chapter and findings from both the literature and case study, it is evident that interventions on various organisational levels are known and described to assist employees with their work-family needs. However, there seems to be a lack of interventions at individual level to help guide employees in this regard. Although the strategy of mindfulness has been suggested, more research is necessary, since seemingly organisations are still focused on time management as their main form of intervention. The sample of organisations used in this case was limited. Therefore, similar research projects with a larger scope are suggested to gain richer information about organisations’ actual interventions to help their employees. Although the literature records interventions, these have not been implemented fully and tested across various organisations, and for the most part, is still only suggested forms. More specific research projects should be done, where these interventions are implemented and tested empirically in a variety of organisations. This leads to a further recommendation that organisations should be informed and educated regarding the possible interventions as investigated in this chapter.

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Mauno, S. (2010). Effects of work-family culture on employee well-being: Exploring moderator effects in a longitudinal sample. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 19(6), 675–695. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320903106588. Mauno, S., Kinnunen, U., & Pyykkö, M. (2005). Does work-family conflict mediate the relationship between work-family culture and self-reported distress? Evidence from five Finnish organizations. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78(4), 509–530. https://doi.org/ 10.1348/096317905X37082. Mauno, S., Kiuru, N., & Kinnunen, U. (2011). Relationships between work-family culture and work attitudes at both the individual and the departmental level. Work and Stress, 25(2), 147–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2011.594291. Mauno, S., Ruokolainen, M., & Kinnunen, U. (2015). Work-family conflict and enrichment from the perspective of psychosocial resources: Comparing Finnish healthcare workers by working schedules. Applied Ergonomics, 48, 86–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2014.11.009. McNamara, T. K., Pitt-Catsouphes, M., Matz-Costa, C., Brown, M., & Valcour, M. (2013). Across the continuum of satisfaction with work-family balance: Work hours, flexibility-fit, and workfamily culture. Social Science Research, 42(2), 283–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch. 2012.10.002. Michel, A., Bosch, C., & Rexroth, M. (2014). Mindfulness as a cognitive-emotional segmentation strategy: An intervention promoting work-life balance. Journal of Occupational and Organization Psychology, 87, 733–754. Morganson, V. J., Major, D. A., & Bauer, K. N. (2009). Work-life job analysis: Applying a classic tool to address a contemporary issue. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 12(4), 252–274. https:// doi.org/10.1080/10887150903316305. Peeters, M., Wattez, C., Demerouti, E., & de Regt, W. (2009). Work-family culture, work-family interference and well-being at work: Is it possible to distinguish between a positive and a negative process? Career Development International, 14(7), 700–713. https://doi.org/10.1108/ 13620430911005726. Powell, G. N., & Greenhaus, J. H. (2006). Is the opposite of positive negative? Untangling the complex relationship between work-family enrichment and conflict. Career Development International, 11(7), 650–659. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430610713508. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. The American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https:// doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68. Ryan, A. M., & Kossek, E. E. (2008). Work-life policy implementation: Breaking down or creating barriers to inclusiveness? Human Resource Management, 47, 295–310. Shockley, K. M., & Singla, N. (2011). Reconsidering work-family interactions and satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Management, 37(3), 861–886. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0149206310394864. Shockley, K. M., Shen, W., & Johnson, R. C. (Eds.). (2018). The Cambridge handbook of the global work-family interface. Cambridge University Press. Skinner, N. J., & Chapman, J. (2013). Work-life balance and family friendly policies. Doctoral Dissertation. The University of South Australia. Retrieved from http://apo.org.au/system/files/ 37224/apo-nid37224-47686.pdf. Straub, C. (2007). A comparative analysis of the use of work-life balance practices in Europe: Do practices enhance females’ career advancement? Women in Management Review, 22(4), 289–304. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420710754246. Thompson, C. A., Beauvais, L. L., & Lyness, K. S. (1999). When work-family benefits are not enough: The influence of work-family culture on benefit utilization, organizational attachment, and work-family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 54(3), 392–415. https://doi.org/10. 1006/jvbe.1998.1681. Wayne, J. H., Randel, A. E., & Stevens, J. (2006). The role of identity and work-family support in work-family enrichment and its work-related consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(3), 445–461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.07.002.

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Eileen Koekemoer (Ph.D.) is an associate Professor in the Human Resource Management Department in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She is a registered Industrial Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). Her areas of research include work-life interaction, career success and the wellbeing of employees. She is involved in various research projects investigating the interaction between employees’ work and family life and how it influences their career success and/or wellbeing. She is the mother of three daughters and constantly juggles her own work-life balance between her children and her career as academic and researcher. Micaela Petrou is a registered Master student in the Human Resource Management Department in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She is currently employed as an Intern in Industrial Psychology at ITD, which is a consulting organization based in Gauteng, South Africa.

Happy Together: The Development of Dyadic Functioning and Individual Well-Being Among Heterosexual Couples Through a Positive Psychological Intervention Pascal Antoine, Eva Andreotti and Emilie Constant Abstract Distress and discord within couples lead to several impairments, including physical and psychological deterioration, and dramatically reduce life satisfaction levels. This chapter raises the following question: Is it possible to maintain and improve a dyadic bond, individual well-being and life satisfaction through a specific intervention? Although much literature has already addressed this issue via positive psychology interventions (PPIs) at the individual level, the involvement of couple dynamics is understudied. This chapter addresses the theoretical background and practical details of the implementation of a four-week theory-driven preventive selfhelp dyadic PPI called Couple+, which was adapted for heterosexual couples living in France. A preliminary study was conducted to assess the innovative multicomponent Couple+ intervention, which encompassed daily activities designed for the members of the dyad. The aim of Couple+ was to encourage romantic relationship development and maintenance by improving the couple’s functioning. The effect of this intervention was measured and compared with a control group on a waiting list. The preliminary results showed significant improvements in positive emotions, communication patterns, and dyadic adjustment. Considering Couple+ as a success in terms of feasibility and implementation, as well as both dyadic and individual outcomes, this study appears to be the first step toward the development of self-help positive psychology activities dedicated to improving the lives of couples. Keywords Emotion · Couple · Communication patterns · Dyadic adjustment · Self-help

P. Antoine (B) · E. Andreotti · E. Constant CNRS UMR 9193—SCALab—Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Univ. Lille, 59000 Lille, France e-mail: [email protected] E. Andreotti e-mail: [email protected] E. Constant e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 L. E. Van Zyl and S. Rothmann Sr. (eds.), Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20311-5_5

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1 Introduction 1.1 Couple’s Adjustment, Health and Well-Being An ongoing romantic relationship is a space in which individuals can flourish, develop resources, build upon their partner’s resources, and exchange effective support. Furthermore, the subjective well-being, happiness, and general health of the dyad’s members interact in various ways (Kiecolt-Glaser & Wilson, 2017). Partners in a romantic relationship have a strong mutual influence on each other’s trajectories of mental and physical health. The partners’ well-being is colored by the quality of the romantic relationship and their relationship satisfaction (Hilpert, Bodenmann, Nussbeck, & Bradbury, 2016). Moreover, satisfaction in the dyad influences the partners’ health. A recently identified protective factor of health is the extent to which individuals feel understood, cared for, and validated by their partner, also known as perceived partner responsiveness (Kiecolt-Glaser & Wilson, 2017). This factor draws on the interpersonal model of intimacy developed by Reis and Shaver (1988) that explains how couples develop and maintain intimacy in their relationship. According to this model, partners’ self-disclosure and responsiveness during interpersonal interaction promote intimacy development within close relationships, and this development is reinforced when partners perceive their significant other as responsive. Because of this mutual dyadic influence, when one or both partners of a romantic relationship are distressed, they are at high risk of developing poorer mental and physical health. Furthermore, couples’ distress has been linked to individual psychological distress, mood disorders and predicted impaired life satisfaction (Doss et al., 2016). What would be the optimal intervention for a couple either to reduce distress or to enhance positive attributes that would prevent distress from arising? Several relationship distress prevention interventions and couple therapy approaches have been created essentially based on psychoeducational interventions aimed at helping couples improve adaptive communication, coping, and conflict-resolution skills as well as develop problem-solving abilities (Hilpert et al., 2016). Research has shown that improving couples’ interactions through a couples prevention program increased individual happiness and that this improvement was predicted by skills enhancement and relationship satisfaction (Hilpert et al., 2016). Thus, interventions treating the dynamic of the dyadic system, instead of an isolated partner, represent a purposeful area of well-being study (Hilpert et al., 2016). The field of positive psychology is another theory-driven approach to accompany couples toward a greater dyadic functioning and a greater individual well-being.

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1.2 Positive Psychology: A Comprehensive Approach that Embraces Subjective Well-Being The positive psychological approach studies the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing and optimal functioning of individuals, groups, and institutions (Gable & Haidt, 2005). Positive psychology aims to promote mental health, happiness, and well-being. It believes in human happiness growth through the realization of deliberate activities that encourage engagement with strengths as well as pleasant and meaningful moments (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005). Positive psychology invites people to adopt salubrious behaviors and practices (Gable & Haidt, 2005). With regard to happiness and well-being, several concepts are approached. Wellbeing is perceived here as subjective well-being. Subjective well-being considers the presence of pleasant experiences (i.e., positive emotion) and the absence of unpleasant experiences (i.e., negative emotion), referred to as the affective component (Antoine, Poinsot, & Congard, 2007), and the presence of life satisfaction (i.e., the cognitive component; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). In particular, the presence of positive emotion matters because of its fundamental role in the broadening of the scope of individual thoughts and actions. Because of their effect on building resources, people can implement them in various situations; for instance, social and romantic bonds can be tightened. Moreover, positive emotion creates an upward spiral that contributes to a more pleasant experience and an “undoing effect” of unpleasant negative emotion (Fredrickson, 2013). The question is raised whether the completion of intentional activities designed to enable a single individual to flourish through positive cognition, emotion or behavior is truly effective (Bolier et al., 2013; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). In fact, several meta-analyses based on heterogeneous interventions found an effect on the reduction of depressive symptoms and improvements in well-being with small-to-moderate effect sizes. Moreover, specific moderators were identified, such as increased benefits with age and initial motivation, whereas multicomponent interventions seemed to have more success than unidimensional approaches (Bolier et al., 2013; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). This last information is relevant to the “person-activity fit” model because, among multicomponent interventions, individuals are more likely to encounter activities that are congruent with their own features (Schueller & Parks, 2012). The aforementioned findings were mostly drawn from studies conducted at the individual level. Researchers still must understand if, when taken into account, deliberate activities can also improve the relational aspects implied by a couple.

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1.3 Happiness as a Dyadic Quest Positive relationships are one of the PERMA well-being theory’s five cornerstones (Seligman, 2012). In fact, individual happiness is highly related to positive social relationship outcomes (Hilpert et al., 2016). The other cornerstones of the PERMA well-being theory are positive emotions, engagement, meaning, and accomplishment. All of these categories represent complementary paths to deliberately develop and attain a more fulfilling, happier life. Strength and virtue enhancement can serve any category; thus, individuals can fully engage in their activities (i.e., engagement), achieve something for its own sake (i.e., accomplishment) or belong to something that is bigger than themselves (i.e., meaning). In addition, positive relationships can be enhanced by a wide range of activities such as random acts of kindness, gratitude, forgiveness, shared moments, and active and constructive responses (Seligman, 2012). A few positive psychological interventions have been designed for couples, although most were based on a single component. Among these studies, Woods, Lambert, Brown, Fincham, and May’s (2015) work consisted of inviting participants to respond in an active-constructive manner (i.e., in a supportive and enthusiastic way) to their partners’ capitalization attempts (i.e., shared good news) for four weeks. Compared with couples in a control condition, couples who benefited from the intervention showed an increase in perceived gratefulness and relationship satisfaction. Another study consisted of injecting gratitude expressions within the couple and comprehensive responses to the partner’s self-disclosure during a one-month time period (Algoe & Zhaoyang, 2016). Outcomes encompassed improvements in daily relationship satisfaction, positive emotions, and life satisfaction as well as decreases in negative emotion (Algoe & Zhaoyang, 2016). Coulter and Malouff (2013) conducted a four-week online intervention to enhance romantic-relationship excitement toward activities practiced 90 min a week. The results revealed positive affect and relationship satisfaction enhancements, with effects maintained during a four-months follow up compared with a wait-list control (WLC) group. Some of the previously mentioned positive psychological interventions were conducted in a lab with specific training and continued at home by the participants (Algoe & Zhaoyang, 2016; Woods et al., 2015), whereas the other was essentially an online self-help intervention (Coulter & Malouff, 2013). In their clinical practice and case study work, Kauffman and Silberman (2009) illustrated that positive psychology activities designed and adapted for couples are implementable. Their work was based on an organizational framework intended to (1) balance the focus and gain in emphasizing relationship strengths and goals, (2) increase the couple’s access to positive emotion, and (3) build a list of strengths and cultivate each other’s awareness of qualities. Hence, encouraging flourishing and adjusted dyadic relationships through intentional activities is relevant and efficient. However, the most adaptive form to display such an intervention remains unclear.

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1.4 The Dissemination of a Couples’ Intervention Although development in preventive intervention and couples’ therapy is encouraging, their population-level effect is limited. In fact, it does not seem that couples looking for relationship improvement, distress prevention, or release are aware of these possibilities. Furthermore, empirically supported interventions are marked by a lack of availability for couples and imply several obstacles (e.g., coordination with work and school schedules, extensive time and financial costs, childcare alternatives, and transport to the care center; Doss et al., 2016). To overcome these issues, interventions should be developed that can be easily distributed throughout the population to efficiently improve couples’ functioning. Therefore, developing an empirically validated self-help intervention, either through a workbook or the Internet, would constitute a promising and affordable resource for people seeking romantic relationship improvement (Doss et al., 2016). Such a task must be carefully conducted because previous studies have shown that self-help relationship education interventions based on books or online programs lack in efficacy for relationship quality (d = 0.032, ns) and yield small effects for communication skills (d = 0.16) when couples are not guided by a professional (McAllister, Duncan, & Hawkins, 2012).

1.5 A Brief Introduction to the Couple+ Self-help Intervention To encourage flourishing at both the individual and relational levels, we adopted a preventive approach based on empirical work within positive psychology. We believe that simple activities injected into one’s daily life can significantly improve everyday relationship functioning and individual well-being and that interpersonal and intrapersonal benefits can be drawn from them (Algoe & Zhaoyang, 2016). Therefore, the target audience of the Couple+ intervention was not directly distressed couples but couples with a relatively satisfying relationship. Through the four-week Couple+ intervention, couples were offered an autonomous workbook tool teaching them how to enhance attuned communication patterns and dyadic adjustment as well as how to nurture positive emotion and strengths. Couple+ aims to cultivate resources that will improve the quality and stability of couples’ relationships. Activities that elicit positive emotions (i.e., savoring and capitalizing) and that are likely to enhance an upward spiral of positive interactions within the relationship (Fredrickson, 2013) were prioritized for inclusion in Couple+ . Table 1 presents the Couple+ content.

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Table 1 Positive psychological practice table: The content of Couple+ Week.Day Type

Title

Description

Reference

1.1

Savor and share enjoyable moments

Each person tells his or her partner the good things that happened to him or her that day.

Adapted from Seligman et al. (2005)

1.2

Share one’s daily concerns

Ms. explains her daily concerns (i.e., facts and emotions). Mr. reacts with a compassionate, empathic, and active constructive response.

Adapted from Gable et al. (2006) and Woods et al. (2015)

1.2

Expectations

Each partner notes his or her expectations regarding the program.

1.3

Gratitude letter (1st act)

Each partner writes a letter about what he or she felt about a time when his or her partner did something important for him or her.

Adapted from Algoe and Zhaoyang (2016) and Seligman et al. (2005)

1.4

Create positive events (1st act)

Each partner identifies and lists five dyadic activities that somehow differ from the usual activities.

Adapted from Coulter and Malouff (2013) and Kauffman and Silberman (2009)

1.4

Gratitude letter (2nd act)

Partners talk to each other about what they have written and what they have felt during this activity.

Adapted from Algoe and Zhaoyang (2016) and Seligman et al. (2005)

1.5

Share one’s daily concerns

Mr. explains his daily concerns (i.e., facts and emotions). Ms. reacts with a compassionate, empathic, and active constructive response.

Adapted from Gable et al. (2006) and Woods et al. (2015)

1.6

Create positive events (2nd act)

Partners share with each other the list of activities. They pick one to schedule in the near future.

Adapted from Coulter and Malouff (2013) and Kauffman and Silberman (2009)

1.7

Relax and release the tension

The couple engages in a ten-minute mindful breathing meditation session.

Atkinson (2013)

(continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Week.Day Type

Title

Description

Reference

2.1

Share unpleasant events and Nurture tenderness

Ms. shares with Mr. 2 or 3 unpleasant events of the day, and Mr. seizes the opportunity to be tender, whether it is through words or gestures.

Created within the frame of this intervention

2.1

Pave a path to happiness

Each partner identifies an activity that makes him or her happy and schedules it.

Adapted from Coulter and Malouff (2013) and Kauffman and Silberman (2009)

2.2

Together, let us pave a path to happiness

Each partner independently notes three recent enjoyable couple activities.

2.2

Relax and release the tension

The couple engages in a ten-minute mindful breathing meditation session.

Atkinson (2013)

2.3

Nurture a positive relationship

Each partner writes the story of the couple including highlights (e.g., joys, ordeals endured, pleasures, and so on). Then, they may share these texts in the evening.

Created within the frame of this intervention

2.4

Tame the grudge (1st act)

Individually, partners write one grudge that they hold against the partner, its associated emotions and feelings and analyze the partner’s behavior in light of its positive aspects. This activity seeks to expand focus and elicit forgiveness.

Adapted from Kauffman and Silberman (2009)

2.5

Tame the grudge (2nd act)

Taking turns, while one partner expresses a grudge, including what he or she feels and understands, the other practices nonjudgmental active and empathetic listening. (continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Week.Day Type

Title

Description

Reference

2.6

Aware of one’s well-being (1st act)

Individually, the partners list the pleasant situations encountered during the day as well as associated emotions and their intensity.

Adapted from Seligman et al. (2005)

2.7

Aware of one’s well-being (2nd act)

Each participant looks at the list of the previous day’s pleasant situations and reminisces about them as vividly as possible.

Adapted from Bryant, Smart, & King (2005) and Seligman et al. (2005)

3.1

Share unpleasant events and Nurture tenderness

Mr. shares with Mrs. 2 or 3 unpleasant events of the day, and Mrs. seizes the opportunity to be tender, whether it is through words or gestures.

Created within the frame of this intervention

3.2

Notice your partner’s strengths

Individually, the partners discover the strengths inventory and identify their partner’s five main strengths.

Adapted from Kauffman and Silberman (2009) and Seligman et al. (2005)

3.3

Use your strengths

The partners share with each other the selected strengths. They are discussed and a strength is picked that each partner is able to experiment with as much as possible over the week.

3.4

Breath awareness training

Throughout the day, brief but repeated mindful breathing are practiced in any situation (during a commute, in the workplace, and so on).

3.5

Atkinson (2013)

Break (or one previous activity) (continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Week.Day Type

Title

Description

Reference

3.6

The happiness pie chart (1st act)

The couple draws a “current” happiness pie chart: A circle represents their overall happiness, divided into portions that define specific joyful areas in their lives. Sizes should indicate the time and energy currently allocated.

Inspired by Harris (2010)

3.7.

The happiness pie chart (2nd act)

The couple draws a “desired” happiness pie chart (where each slice size matches the true amount of time they want to allocate to each area). If discrepancies are noted, the couple can opt for a minimal change.

4.1

Play the humor card

Schedule a moment for humor (humor as a strength).

Inspired by Coulter and Malouff (2013)

4.1

Play with our differences

Watch a humorous show on gender differences (humor as a strength).

Inspired by Coulter and Malouff (2013)

4.2

Relax and release the tension

The couple engages in a ten-minute mindful breathing meditation session before they debrief.

Atkinson (2013)

4.3

Objects of the future

Individually, participants find objects that symbolize what they imagine for their couple in five years.

Inspired by Kauffman and Silberman (2009)

4.4

Nurture the couple’s strengths

On a schema, couples report individual and dyadic strengths that make them strong and united.

Adapted from Kauffman and Silberman (2009) and Seligman et al. (2005) (continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Week.Day Type

Title

Description

Reference

4.5

Metaphor game

Create sayings and adages around the couple and subjects regarding love.

Inspired by Coulter and Malouff (2013)

4.6

Share the objects of the future

Share objects that symbolize the couple’s future and have the partner guess the meanings.

Inspired by Kauffman and Silberman (2009)

4.7

Program conclusion

Individually, read initial expectations and assess your participation. With each other, pick the most stimulating activities and choose the one you want to pursue.

1.6 Research Objectives and Hypotheses This preliminary study investigated the feasibility of Couple+, a couple-designed self-help positive psychological intervention. We expected that the implementation of Couple+ in participants’ daily lives would be feasible based on the literature. Our second aim was to investigate the effect of Couple+ on relationship functioning (i.e., communication patterns and dyadic adjustment) and on several variables of individual well-being (e.g., satisfaction with life and emotions). We hypothesized that Couple+ would initiate improvements in both relationship functioning and individual well-being. Finally, we explored the extent to which changes in individual well-being and functioning variables lasted. We hypothesized that this program would confer mediumterm changes based on a four-week follow-up period after the intervention ended.

2 Methodology 2.1 Participants To be eligible, partners had to be over 18 years of age and in a committed heterosexual relationship for at least one year. They also had to be free of any mental disorder. Psychology students from the University of Lille recruited participants from their social

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networks. A total of 49 French couples volunteered to participate in the Couple+ intervention. The couples were randomly assigned to two groups based on their age and number of children: the Couple+ intervention group (n = 48, 24 couples) and a wait-listed control group (n = 50, 25 couples). At the immediate posttest, n = 40 participants (20 couples) remained in Couple+ intervention group, and n = 36 participants (18 couples) remained in the control group. In the intervention group, individuals were 37.5 years old (range = 21–80 years; SD = 11.9 years) on average, whereas in the WLC group, participants were 39.8 years old (range = 22–68 years; SD = 13.9 years). Comparative analyses showed no significant differences between the two groups.

2.2 Procedure This study received ethical clearance from the Ethical Committee of the University of Lille Human and Social Sciences. Written consent was obtained from both partners in each couple. In the WLC group, randomly selected couples were invited to individually complete a paper version of the baseline questionnaires in a pretest, follow their usual routine, and complete the same questionnaires four weeks after the initial assessment. Then, they received the Couple+ four-week positive psychology self-help workbook. The same questionnaires were completed after the Couple+ intervention. In the Couple+ intervention group, couples individually completed the same paper version of the baseline questionnaires as in the pretest. Then, they received the Couple+ self-help workbook for four weeks. The immediate posttest questionnaires were completed after four weeks, and then a deferred posttest was completed eight weeks after the initial assessment. Figure 1 presents the experimental procedure used to evaluate the Couple+ program.

Fig. 1 Experimental procedure

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Overview of Couple+

Couple+ is a multicomponent self-help intervention supported by a positive psychological approach that encourages romantic relationship development, maintenance, and adaptive functioning. Couple+ was especially designed to represent a preventive alternative for couples wishing to enhance their dyadic functioning (i.e., communication patterns and dyadic adjustment) and improve their individual well-being. To promote participant autonomy, each partner received an individual version of the Couple+ workbook. Guidelines regarding participation and the flow of the intervention were provided on the first page of the workbook. States of mutual openness, self-awareness, and nonjudgmental respective engagement were suggested to the participating couples during the course of the activities. Then, all of the instructions for the implementation of the activities were presented, and space was provided for participants to write notes about specific activities. To facilitate reader understanding of Couple+, a detailed overview is available below (see Table 1). Couple+ encompassed four weeks of daily activities conceived of as individual or dyadic (e.g., week 1, day 1; each person tells his or her partner the good things that happened to her or him that day). Individual activities could be similar (e.g., week 3, day 2; discover the strengths inventory and identify the partner’s five main strengths) or complementary (e.g., week 1, day 2; partner A was invited to share an event with partner B, whereas partner B was invited to learn how to give a constructive and active response). The activities intended to take less than 20 min per day to complete. Most activities were drawn from the literature and adapted to the self-help context of the population of French couples (see Table 1). Couple+ was created according to a balanced view on positive psychology, that encompasses the value of both positive and negative aspects of the human experience (Wong, 2011), as they occur in real life settings. Therefore, some activities were meant to develop understanding and mastery at the couple level over so-called ‘negative experiences’.

2.3 Measures Participant Characteristics Sociodemographic variables such as participant age, sex, family composition, marital status (i.e., married, civil union, or cohabitation), years of committed relationship, years of cohabitation, and educational and professional status were collected during the baseline assessment. Participant Observance The amount of activities completed during the program was returned along with the immediate posttest questionnaire. Participants indicated on the last page of their individual workbook (on a table representing each day of the Couple+ intervention) whether they had engaged with each daily practice.

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Satisfaction with Life Scale This scale measures overall satisfaction with life using five items on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to 7 “strongly agree”. The internal consistency of the French version varies from 0.80 to 0.84 (Blais, Vallerand, Pelletier, & Brière, 1989; Diener et al., 1985). Emotional Valence Measure The frequency with which respondents experience 23 emotions is rated on a 7-point scale from “never” to “several times a day”. This scale identifies positive and negative valences with internal consistencies of 0.81 and 0.92, respectively (Antoine, Poinsot, & Congard, 2007). Communication Patterns Questionnaire This questionnaire identifies four factors that represent the interaction strategies a couple uses when a conflict arises: coercion (blame, threat, physical and verbal aggression), mutuality (mutual discussion, understanding, and lack of avoidance), destructive processes (patterns of demandwithdraw, pressure-resist, and criticize-defend) and post conflict distress (guilt, hurt feelings, and withdrawal; Lecocq & Antoine, 2014; Noller & White, 1990). Dyadic Adjustment Scale This 16-items scale assesses two dimensions: the degree of agreement in the couple’s relationship (DA) and the quality of the dyadic interactions (IQ). SMG refers to the quality of the marital adjustment. Partners answered using a 6-point Likert scale and first indicate their degree of agreement on several domains (from “never agree” to “always agree”). Second, they share to what extent items match their current experience (from “never” to “always”). Finally, they indicate their degree of happiness within the relationship (from “extremely unhappy” to “extremely happy”; Antoine, Christophe, & Nandrino, 2008; Spanier, 1976). Subjective Information After they completed the Couple+ intervention, the couples were invited to share their experiences using an open-ended questionnaire. Therefore, we collected their subjective evaluations of the activities that they most and least appreciated, why at the individual and dyadic level, and whether they perceived any change in their relationships during the course of the intervention.

3 Results 3.1 Feasibility and Attrition Rates The results showed that couples were able to implement Couple+ activities into their daily lives. In fact, 70–100% of the activities were completed (M = 92.2%; SD = 9), revealing the feasibility of Couple+ . The attrition rate was 12% in the intervention group at the immediate posttest (n = 2 participants withdrew participation and n = 4 did not return the questionnaire) and 35% at the deferred posttest (n = 9 did not return the questionnaire). The attrition rate of the control group was 28% at the immediate posttest (n = 22 withdrew participation, n = 4 dropped out of the study for personal reasons and n = 8 did not

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return the questionnaire). This rate is relatively low considering the self-help nature of the intervention (Bolier et al., 2013).

3.1.1

Immediate Outcomes

Baseline variables were equivalent in the pretest, except for negative emotions, which were more prevalent in the WLC group than the intervention group (t = − 2.073, p < 0.05). An ANCOVA showed improvements in the Satisfaction with Life, Positive Emotion, Mutuality subscale of the Communication Patterns Questionnaire and the Degree of Agreement, Quality of Interaction and the overall Dyadic Adjustment Scales among the Couple+ intervention group compared with the WLC group. No significant improvements were found for Negative Emotion, Coercion, Post-Conflict Distress or Destructive processes (see Table 2). The coercion aspect of the Communication Patterns Questionnaire decreased significantly in the Couple+ intervention group (t = 2.295, p < 0.05, Cohen’s d = 0.36). No interaction effect was found with regard to the intervention group compared with the WLC group for this variable. Figure 2 shows the descriptive plots for the significant variables.

3.2 Follow-up Outcomes Within the Couple+ intervention group, repeated-measure ANOVAs revealed that the level of Positive Emotion was significantly improved and maintained (F = 3.938, p < 0.05), whereas the level of Negative Emotion dropped during the course of the study (F = 4.303, p < 0.05). Communication Patterns such as Coercion (F = 3.359, p < 0.05), Postconflict distress (F = 4.366, p < 0.05) and Destructive processes (F = 6.343, p < 0.01) dropped during the course of the study, whereas Mutuality increased (F = 3.735, p < 0.05). Dyadic Adjustment also significantly improved (F = 7.295, p < 0.01).

3.3 Couples’ Subjective Evaluations Of those who completed Couple+ intervention (n = 20), thirteen returned their feedback. The most appreciated activities were the Gratitude Letter (13%), the Creation of Positive Events (21%), the Mindful Breathing Meditation (8%), Tame the Grudge (10%) and the Strengths-oriented activities (23%). Through the Gratitude Letter, specific memories were retrieved, participants felt reassured of their partners’ feelings, and couples’ motivations were clarified. The Mindful Breathing Meditation activity, which was perceived as a novel experience, relieved stress. The Identification of the Partner’s Strengths task became a new way to interact between partners. Activities

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Table 2 Between-group differences at posttest Variable

Group

T2–T1 Between-group differences

Pretest (T1)

Posttest (T2)

Mean (SD)

Mean (SD)

25.02 (5.3)

25.05 (4.7)

0.03

Couple+ 26.32 (5.5)

27.52 (4.6)

1.20

WLC

39.14 (7.2)

38.13 (6.8)

−1.01

Couple+ 40.72 (6.9)

42.42 (5.5)

1.7

WLC

52.08 (14.1)

48.05 (15.8)

−4.03

Couple+ 44.77 (16.0)

41.60 (17.8)

−3.17

WLC

15.83 (8.0)

14.91 (6.6)

−0.92

Couple+ 16.05 (8.6)

13.52 (6.4)

−2.53

WLC

53.22 (11.9)

51.75 (11.1)

−1.47

Couple+ 53.65 (9.3)

56.62 (9.3)

2.97

18.63 (8.2)

16.22 (8.3)

−2.41

Couple+ 17.92 (8.0)

15.40 (8.6)

−2.52

27.22 (12.7)

23.97 (13.5)

−3.25

Couple+ 26.95 (13.4)

22.90 (13.4)

−4.05

WLC

47.08 (5.9)

47.11 (5.7)

0.03

Couple+ 49.27 (4.4)

50.52 (4.6)

1.25

Quality of interaction

WLC

26.05 (4.4)

25.33 (5.0)

−0.72

Couple+ 26.90 (4.5)

27.85 (3.9)

0.95

Dyadic adjustment

WLC

73.13 (8.9)

72.44 (9.9)

−0.69

Couple+ 76.17 (7.8)

78.37 (7.6)

2.2

Satisfaction WLC with life

Positive emotion

Negative emotion

Coercion

Mutuality

Postconflict WLC distress

Destructive WLC processes

Degree of agreement

F

ηp2

Cohen’s d

6.368*

0.08

0.33

14.336***

0.17

0.51

0.08

0.45

4.444*

0.06

0.36

6.597*

0.08

0.44

6.537*

0.08

0.40

0.147 (ns)

1.694 (ns)

6.631*

0.043 (ns)

0.188 (ns)

Note WLC Wait-listed control group (n = 36), Couple+ Couple+ intervention group (n = 40) *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 df = (1.71); ηp2 = Partial eta-squared

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(a) Positive Emotion

(d) Coercion

(b) Satisfaction with life

(e) Quality of the Dyadic Interaction

(c) Mutuality

(f) Dyadic Adjustment

Fig. 2 Descriptive plots (Notes White dots represent the intervention group, and black dots represent the WLC group. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals)

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were perceived within the couple as opportunities to gain in mutual understanding, exchange and to step back from emotional involvement. Most couples positively viewed a large majority of the activities. Each couple reported a singular attraction for certain activities and only a slight interest for others. Most couples identified changes in their functioning in terms of emotional expression, management of difficult situations, mutual recognition, communication improvement with tolerance and complicity with the partner (74%) as well as an increased rate of shared moments and activities (28%). No major changes were reported by 24% of the sample. Table 3 provides quotations of selected participant feedback.

4 Discussion This preliminary study investigated the feasibility of Couple+ , a couple-designed self-help positive psychological intervention. To our knowledge, Couple+ is the first preventive intervention for couples based on positive psychology developed and evaluated in France. Consistent with our expectations and with the literature (e.g., Kauffman & Silberman, 2009), the results highlight the feasibility of Couple+ implementation in participants’ daily lives, with participants perceiving a subjective positive effect. The findings are also consistent with our second aim: to investigate the efficacy of Couple+ on both interpersonal and intrapersonal levels. In fact, Couple+ initiated significant improvements in both relationship functioning (i.e., more mutuality in communication patterns and dyadic adjustment) and individual well-being (i.e., improvements in positive emotion and satisfaction with life) compared with the WLC group. Moreover, within-group comparisons for the Couple+ intervention group showed significant decreases in a coercion communication pattern. These outcomes are consistent with the findings in the literature (Algoe & Zhaoyang, 2016; Bolier et al., 2013; Coulter & Malouff, 2013; Hilpert et al., 2016). Finally, follow-up analyses enabled us to confirm our third hypothesis. In fact, changes were maintained and some even improved four weeks after the Couple+ intervention with regard to individual well-being (i.e., more positive emotion and less negative emotion) and dyadic functioning (i.e., improvements in dyadic adjustment and communication patterns such as more mutuality as well as less coercion, postconflict distress, and destructive processes). These findings are consistent with Seligman et al.’s (2005) experiment, in which maintenance of happiness was observed when participants expressed their gratitude, savored three good things on a daily basis and used their signature strengths after four weeks. These are activities that partially inspired the Couple+ intervention. Seligman et al. (2005) postulated that participants continued the activities even though the study had ended. This effect might also explain our findings, especially because certain activities were well implemented in participants’ lives and might have become habits that were introduced by the Couple+ specific self-help format, which encourages couple autonomy.

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Table 3 Couples’ feedback on activities Activity

Quotation

Gratitude Letter

“the exercise allowed [me] to retrieve distant memories” “listening to my partner’s gratitude letter reassured me about his feelings” “it forced me to clearly articulate the motivations that bring us closer”

Mindfulness meditation

“breathing exercises helped me better handle my stress” “I had never done meditation, and I find it very interesting”

Identifying strengths

“it validated our strengths as a couple”

Nurture the couple’s strengths

“allows us to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of our relationship” “allows us to understand our strengths as a couple” “we realized [that] we have the same expectations for the future”

Tame the grudge

“by talking calmly about our grudges, I felt that I was understood and that I had listened more to my partner about his feelings” “the expression of our grudges has allowed us to better understand each other and move forward” “difficult to tell my grudges because I was afraid to hurt him”

Create positive events

“we took the time to do activities that are out of the ordinary” “since then, we have done more activities together”

Share unpleasant events and nurture tenderness

“cultivating tenderness [and] happiness to see the positive side of each of us [that] has embellished our love” “I am not used to his special touches”

Share one’s daily concerns

“to be able to express our concerns on a daily basis without accumulated anger; it’s been great, because before we used to accumulate [negative feelings] and it was difficult; it exploded”

The happiness pie chart

“It was difficult to give the right size to the slices. I felt like the pie was too small” “made it possible to take note of the areas that constitute our happiness and become aware that it was important to do more things that go beyond the family frame (hobbies, outings)” (continued)

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Table 3 (continued) Activity

Quotation

Couple+ overall

“I can more easily express my emotions” “I notice that my partner better expresses his emotions, and I better manage difficult situations” “We take more time to listen to each other and share moments together. Try to vary the activities on a daily basis” “no major changes, most of the proposed exercises, we were already doing them before starting the study” “more dialogue and tenderness” “it allowed us to live a new experience, and that’s a benefit” “more exchanges between us, more confidence and especially the feeling of having rediscovered my wife” “more complicity, more communication, more understanding of the other and the functioning of the couple” “little change because we’re already very happy together”

5 Practical Implications The Couple+ intervention contributed to the literature in this field by emphasizing that romantic relationships can be fertile ground for improving individual well-being and turned into an opportunity to develop, enhance, and maintain adaptive communication patterns and resources within the dyad. The Couple+ intervention follows the interpersonal model of intimacy developed by Reis and Shaver (1988) by focusing on its key components (i.e., self-disclosure and partner responsiveness) to contribute to perceived partner responsiveness within a relationship. Through the dyadic activities targeted within the Couple+ program (e.g., sharing one’s daily concerns or unpleasant events, writing a gratitude letter, creating positive events), partners were able to foster intimate experiences and practice their mutual understanding with attuned communication patterns. In addition, these activities might have improved communication sensitivity and dyadic sharing (Algoe & Zhaoyang, 2016). The effects observed at the level of positive affectivity, enhanced by the realization of the activities meant to improve well-being, might also have been part of the deployment of expanded dyadic bonding resources (Fredrickson, 2013; KiecoltGlaser & Wilson, 2017). In fact, the social sharing of emotion associated with perceived partner responsiveness within the intimate relationships might have nurtured a reciprocal influence and a shared an upward spiral that sustained the strengthening of the couple’s intimacy (Algoe & Zhaoyang, 2016). Moreover, the positive emotion

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experienced might contribute to a favorable evaluation of life extended to the couple’s functioning (Aron, Norman, Aron, McKenna, & Heyman, 2000). Thus, through this self-help intervention, couples might have been able to expend expand the perceived spectrum of their ongoing relationship and deliberately include its positive features (Kauffman & Silberman, 2009).

6 Limitations of the Current Study Additional empirical work should overtake overcome this preliminary study’s drawbacks. A first limitation concerns the recruitment of the couples. Specifically, intimate partner violence history or plans for separation or ongoing affairs was realized not vetted. Although the current study participants did not report such features, future studies should make sure to consider these variables to redirect participants to direct support instead of a self-help workbook. Second, this study was based on self-report questionnaire, a method whose appropriateness is discussed in the literature. Although we only used validated tools, observational data might have added valuable and complementary information to evaluate couples’ interactions before and after the intervention (Doss et al., 2016). Third, although most activities were previously validated (at least at the individual level), they were adapted for couples from a French community sample. Moreover, no validated activities were added to this 4-week intervention, which limits our ability to generalize the findings.

7 Future Directions 7.1 Couple+ Perspectives Couple+ encompassed numerous activities according to the person-activity fit model (Lyubomirsky & Layous, 2013). This bias did not allow us to precisely determine the intervention’s active components (Kazdin, 2007), however it created different opportunities for the participants to acknowledge, develop and use positive emotions, strengths and dyadic skills. Thus, participants were able to determine the type of strategy that was more efficient for them and whether they preferred past-, presentor future-oriented activities (Quoidbach, Mikolajczak, & Gross, 2015). To further improve Couple+ , more dyadic activities could be added to create even more opportunities for couples to spend time together, develop attuned communication patterns, and increase their mutual understanding. Because sexuality is central to the intimate relationship (Péloquin, Brassard, Lafontaine, & Shaver, 2014), future interventions should also integrate this dimension. Future studies should also address moderators of the Couple+ intervention’s effects (e.g., amount of time dedicated per activities, and dosage). In fact, some

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participants noted in their subjective feedback that they would have preferred a longer intervention. In addition, activities could be planned further or suggested as weekly rather than daily activities, so that couples could implement them when they wished in their weekly routines. However, as some participants indicated, Couple+ should continue to alternate cognitive and experimental experiential activities. The outcomes showed that Couple+ participants retained significant effects at the four weeks follow up. Thus, it would be of interest to expand the posttest length to assess whether the effects are maintained further.

7.2 Implication for Future Research Future research might seek the most appropriate methodological and statistical approaches for estimating partners’ interdependent trajectories that remain be determined (Kiecolt-Glaser & Wilson, 2017). Perhaps longitudinal daily measurements such as the Ecological Momentary Assessment would highlight these dynamic changes (Botella, Banos, & Guillen, 2017). Moreover, capturing within-dyad information rather than individual information might be an asset to consider the disparity within couples and diminish between-couple variability (Robles, Slatcher, Trombello, & McGinn, 2014). Differential approaches based on intraindividual variables (e.g., gender, age, and baseline characteristics) might also be used to highlight specific patterns of changes and differences in response to interventions (Woodworth, O’Brien-Malone, Diamond, & Schüz, 2016). For instance, Baucom, Hahlweg, Atkins, Engl, and Thurmaier (2006) found that the improvement of immediate positive communication skills in a subsample of women led to a decline in relationship satisfaction over the forthcoming years. As noted by Kiecolt-Glaser and Wilson (2017), in this line of research, implications of gender and sexual orientation in romantic relationships and health processes must be investigated further. Although Couple+ was conceived and validated using a sample of heterosexual French couples, it would be of interest to determine whether certain people tend to benefit more from this intervention than others based on gender. For instance, regarding effectiveness prevention program research among heterosexual couples, women improve dyadic coping, communication skills, and conflict behavior and became happier with their relationships, whereas the evolution of men was less pronounced (Bodenmann, Hilpert, Nussbeck, & Bradbury, 2014). Furthermore, one study highlighted that prior changes within one partner might occur across partners in a so-called “partner effect” (i.e., prior changes in women’s affective well-being might affect a later change in men’s; Hilpert et al., 2016). These gender effects can be understood in light of an intervention’s contents, perhaps addressing the priority of women’s needs and interests with a greater activity-fit than for men or in the way that the intervention was addressed to the participants (Thompson, Peura, & Gayton, 2015). Thus, future dyadic interventions should answer such questions and consider gender specificities.

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Couple+ might also be adapted for homosexual couples. Although differences were found between homosexual and heterosexual couples in the ways that emotional and sexual intimacy are expressed and experienced (with less partner discordance in the provision of emotional support for homosexual couples), studies show an equivalent overall level of relationship satisfaction regardless of sexual orientation (Umberson & Kroeger, 2016). Future studies should also measure the degree of intimacy and control of perceived partner responsiveness within activities when partners reveal themselves to each other. In fact, this perception of partner responsiveness appears to be more important for the development of intimacy than for either the partner’s disclosure or the actual responsiveness of the listener (Laurenceau, Barrett, & Pietromonaco, 1998; Reis, Margaret, & John, 2004; Reis & Patrick, 1996; Reis & Shaver, 1988). Finally, future research should establish whether contraindications exist to follow self-help format interventions or distant couple interventions. Highly distressed couples might fall within this frame, and we recommend that a trained professional accompany them during face-to-face sessions. Then, when the initial distress is overcome, we hope that these stabilized couples will benefit from the Couple+ intervention to find ways to improve their dyadic functioning and individual well-being.

8 Conclusions The Couple+ intervention is the first preventive approach for couples based on positive psychology developed in France. The feasibility and efficacy of Couple+ regarding the dyadic functioning of and individual well-being within a sample of heterosexual couples was highlighted. Thus, positive psychology appears to be a promising approach for heterosexual couples seeking to enhance and maintain their dyadic functioning and individual well-being. Based on the current findings, additional empirical work might enable a better understanding of the mechanisms, dosage, and potential risks linked to self-help interventions based on positive psychology. Furthermore, adapting Couple+ to homosexual couples would also represent an interesting line of research to examine the scope of this empirically validated self-help dyadic intervention.

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Pascal Antoine Ph.D., is professor of psychopathology and clinical health psychology at the Cognitive and Affective Sciences Laboratory (SCALab) at the Department of Psychology of the University of Lille, France. His main fields of interest are (i) couples’ experiences with disease or health issues (neurocognitive disorders, cancers, eating disorders, …), and (ii) the development of affect regulation trainings and dyadic support strategies for caregivers and patient/caregiver dyads. Eva Andreotti is a Clinical and Health Psychologist. She currently works as a Research Engineer at the Cognitive and Affective Sciences Laboratory (SCALab) at the Department of Psychology of the University of Lille, France. Her main research interests consist in creating and assessing wellbeing enhancement activities through Mindfulness and Positive Psychology-based interventions. Eva is also interested in understanding the differential effects of therapeutic interventions, so on a clinical perspective, practitioners may better adjust their interventions to patients’ features. Her current project is geared towards the development of a multicomponent self-help intervention for family caregivers of patients with neurocognitive disorders. Emilie Constant is a Clinical Psychologist and she has a Ph.D. in Health and Clinical Psychology. She is actually working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cognitive and Affective Sciences Laboratory (SCALab) in the Department of Psychology of the University of Lille, France. She specialized in couple relationships and partners’ adjustment during emotional interactions within the general population and couples confronted with the disease such as Cancer or Parkinson. Emilie is interested in understanding dyadic adjustment to these emotional contexts through a multidimensional approach (i.e., subjective, observational, and psychophysiological methods). The purpose of her research projects is to propose clinical interventions adapted to patients with a somatic disease and their partner.

The Effects of Using Socio-culturally Targeted Communications on the Uptake and Adherence to Positive Psychology Interventions Jason Moran, Zelda di Blasi and Annalisa Setti

Abstract Younger populations are less likely to engage with Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) while potentially benefiting from them; and socially disadvantaged individuals have been shown to have lower levels of well-being, therefore also potentially befitting from PPIs. Online dissemination could be a means to reach these populations, however adherence to such interventions is often low. We aimed to test whether tailoring the message to the target demographics socio-cultural characteristics can promote adherence to the Three Blessings PPI, more-so than the expert heuristic. Participants (n = 261) were randomly assigned to one of three videos explaining the PPI, and then self-reported uptake and adherence rates were recorded. Video 1 was the original PPI video by Martin Seligman. Video 2, utilized the similarity heuristic, matching the target demographics using visual socio-cultural markers (clothes style)—but not linguistically. Video 3 matched the target demographics linguistically (slang/swear language) in addition to the visual markers used in Video 2. Greater uptake and adherence was expected for Video 1, if the expert heuristic was more effective. Greater uptake and adherence was expected for Video 2, and more-so Video 3 if the similarity heuristic was more effective. Results suggest that the similarity heuristics utilized in the study influenced adherence for younger cohorts, but not uptake. This finding has important implications when targeting specific groups for PPIs. The response rate data also provides useful insights for both researchers and positive psychology practitioners. Future research is needed on different samples representative of different sub-cultures and demographic characteristics in the population. Keywords Expert heuristic · Similarity heuristic · Targeting · Online intervention · Uptake · Adherence · Positive interventions · Three blessings

J. Moran · Z. di Blasi · A. Setti (B) University College Cork, Cork, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 L. E. Van Zyl and S. Rothmann Sr. (eds.), Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20311-5_6

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1 Introduction 1.1 The Benefits of Wellbeing, Positive Emotion and Gratitude Positive Psychology’s focus, rather than being the minimization of suffering, is on understanding and increasing wellbeing (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). Psychological wellbeing has a host of positive consequences: recent meta-analytic reviews of wellbeing suggest it has a positive relationship with physical health (Howell, Kern, & Lyubomirsky, 2007), longevity (Diener & Chan, 2011) and ‘success’ in other life domains such as marriage, friendship, employment, income levels, work performance, skill acquisition and sociability (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). The advantages of wellbeing are not just ‘happiness for happiness sake’—but the provision of advantages in quality of life and productivity (Achor, 2011). Seligman (2011), in the PERMA Model of wellbeing, outlines five dimensions, one of which is the cultivation of ‘Positive emotion’: the general level of positive affect an individual possesses, encompassing happiness and life satisfaction. Positive emotions include pleasure, ecstasy, joy, comfort and warmth. Positive emotion also has many benefits in terms of health (Cohen, Alper, Doyle, Treanor, & Turner, 2006) and personal, professional and social behavior and performance (Ashby, Isen, & Turken, 1999; Cunningham, 1988a, 1988b; Fredrickson, 2013; Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005; Frijda & Mesquita, 1994; Harker & Keltner, 2001; Isen, 1987; Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987; Mauss et al., 2011). Positive emotion is thought to imbue its many benefits by encouraging a broadened thought and action repertoire, which in turn allows the accruement of personal (e.g. health, mindfulness, resilience) and psychosocial (e.g. social relationships; work skills) resources. Thus, positive emotions are thought to gradually change who people are, both internally and externally (Garland et al., 2010). Consider the positive emotion of gratitude: a general tendency to recognize the positive outcomes and experience one has, and respond with positive affect (Seligman, 2011). Gratitude appears to have a strong causal relationship with wellbeing (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002; Wood, Joseph, & Maltby, 2009; Wood, Maltby, Stewart, Linley, & Joseph, 2008). A large body of research suggests a strong relationship between gratitude and positive health and social outcomes (Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010). If positive emotions, such as gratitude are partly volitional and can modulate subjective wellbeing (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005), ways to foster them should be investigated. Indeed, the cultivation of gratitude is an example of one such Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI) which has been the been the focus of an extensive body of research (Davis et al., 2016). However, recent meta-analyses suggests effect sizes are small for PPIs (Bolier et al., 2013; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). Interestingly, the same meta-analytic research suggests that certain characteristics of the individual influence effect sizes. These include age; one’s current level of positive effect; and method of participant selection. Younger participants were reported as benefiting less from PPIs compared to older

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ones. This is thought to be due to a lesser ability to regulate emotion (Mitchell, VellaBrodrick, & Klein, 2010), as well as younger cohorts taking the interventions less seriously (and thus applying less effort) (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). Participants with low levels of positive affect benefitted more from PPIs, as they had more ‘room to improve’. Finally, those who self-selected for studies benefit more thought to be due to greater motivation and expectancy regarding their wellbeing improvement. Additionally, certain characteristics of the intervention itself, namely duration and format, also appeared to influence effect sizes. When interventions were performed more often and for a longer period of time—PPIs were found to be more effective (Bolier et al., 2013; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). This is in line with other longitudinal findings (Lyubomirsky, Dickerhoof, Boehm, & Sheldon, 2011). For example, the ‘Three Blessings’ exercise outlined by Seligman et al. (2005) was found to only begin to have positive effects on wellbeing and depression scores after one month’s practice, while the greatest effect was reported after six months of continued use. In sum, younger people with low levels of positive effect, and presumably wellbeing, may potentially have the most to gain from PPIs. However, there may be barriers to how these groups access PPIs and consider their potential benefits. The present study focuses on younger cohorts and those classified as of low socioeconomic status (SES). Those classified as of lower SES have been found to have lower levels of wellbeing, thought to be due to increased levels of stressors, less material resources and less perceived levels of support (Argyle, 2003). Considering the importance of early life circumstances in determining health and life expectancy (Hayward & Gorman, 2004), it is important to investigate factors which may encourage participation and persistence of wellbeing interventions generally, and gratitude interventions more particularly, in younger and more disadvantaged cohorts.

1.2 Online PPIs, Attrition and Strategies to Minimize It Online self-help methods might be an avenue to encourage uptake and adherence as they offer many advantages such as accessibility, sustainability, anonymity and convenience (Schueller & Parks, 2014). Thus they have the potential to reach out to cohorts that would be difficult to reach otherwise. In addition, online messages are often personalized. One can capitalize on this to provide content in a way which aims to increase identification of the user with the presented material (Mitchell et al., 2010), which has potential further benefits, which we will discuss in detail below. However one potential limitation of an online approach to PPIs is the ‘digital divide’. The digital divide refers to certain segments of society having lower Internet access/usage, whereby particular groups may have more limited access to online interventions (Mitchell et al., 2010). One example of the digital divide with regard to age is Facebook—an online social networking website—which is the most popular social media platform (Anderson, Fagan, Woodnutt, & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2012). When older cohorts are considered (45+ and 65+) Facebook usage is considerably less than that of younger cohorts (Facebook, 2017). Our study focuses on young

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and middle aged adults, therefore, the risk of age digital divide issues should be mitigated. The other, potentially more relevant problem, is attrition. Christensen, Griffiths and Farrer (2009) outline two common forms of attrition. Firstly, disengagement can take the form of non-response or ‘drop out’ attrition—which refers to the loss of participants from a study, through the noncompletion of the study’s assessment aspect. Secondly, attrition can take the form of non-usage attrition (Eyensbach, 2005), the level of which is otherwise known as adherence. Adherence “refers to the extent to which individuals experience the content of an Internet intervention” (Christensen, Griffiths, & Farrer, 2009). The terms ‘non-response’ and ‘adherence’ will be used for the remainder of this article when referring to ‘drop out’ and ‘non-usage’ attrition. Non-response and adherence rates for online interventions generally are high (Christensen et al., 2009; Eysenbach, 2005; Wangberg, Bergmo, & Johnsen, 2008). A systematic review of demographic effects on adherence suggests that most variables including age, level of education and ethnicity do not reliably predict adherence. However, gender does appear to have an effect—female gender predicts greater adherence (Beatty & Binnion, 2016). Non-response rates for online PPIs are also high. An analysis of five online PPI studies, by Mitchell et al. (2010), reported nonresponse rates that ranged from 29 to 83% (Mean 50.32, SD = 19.89). Another point highlighted in Mitchell et al.’s study was the issue of low adherence to online PPIs affecting efficacy compared to in person PPIs (as well as being a limitation of certain studies). Seligman et al. (2005) report adherence to be related to the efficacy of certain online PPIs, with greater levels of adherence predicting better outcomes for PPIs such as the ‘Three Blessings’ exercise and ‘signature strengths’ exercise. In a similar vein to PPIs, there is a dose-response relationship for online interventions more generally (Christensen, Griffiths, & Jorm, 2004; Christensen, Griffiths, Mackinnon, & Brittliffe, 2006; Eysenbach, 2002). One method of increasing adherence is the use of persuasive technologies—interactive systems designed for changing attitudes and behaviors (Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2008). Persuasive technologies aim to form, alter or re-enforce attitudes or behaviors, often focusing on using social influence to enhance motivation. Also, recent research suggest persuasive technologies are effective. A systematic review of the persuasive technology literature suggests positive results in 54% of included studies, while another 37.9% of studies reported at least a partially positive result (Hamari, Koivisto, & Pakkanen, 2014). Kelders, Kok, Ossebaard, & Van GemertPijnen (2012) report that 55% of the variance in adherence to web-based health interventions to be attributable to persuasive technology. The use of automated follow up emails is one persuasive technology stratagem that has been used to some effect in terms of limiting attrition (Seligman et al., 2005) and increasing adherence (Wangberg, Bergmo, & Johnsen, 2008). Mobile phone text messaging has also been suggested as a means of reminding participants to adhere to interventions (Wangberg, Arsand, & Andersson, 2006). Two of the key elements of persuasive design are tailoring and personalization (Kelders et al., 2012; Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2018a) and these have been suggested as potential strategies to improve adherence to online PPIs, (Mitchell et al., 2010). Numerous

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studies suggest that tailoring and personalization enhance engagement and adherence (Brug, Oenema, & Campbell, 2003; Johnson et al., 2008; Kreuter & Skinner, 2000; Oenema, Brug, Dijkstra, de Weerdt, & de Vries, 2008; Oenema, Brug, & Lechner, 2001; Strecher, 1999; Strecher, Shiffman, & West, 2006; Walters, Wright, & Shegog, 2006; Wangberg et al., 2008). Tailoring involves individualizing communications to users, based on information about those users, so as to attempt to increase the effectiveness of these communications (Hawkins, Kreuter, Resnicow, Fishbein, & Dijkstra, 2008). Tailoring can involve who delivers the content, the specific content being delivered, and how that content is framed (Rimer & Glassman, 1998). Targeting is a ‘broadened’ version of tailoring, wherein message characteristics are designed to increase interaction with the intervention based on demographic subgroups such as age, SES and gender (Kreuter & Wray, 2003). However the terms are often used interchangeably (Kreuter & Skinner, 2000). Targeting of demographics has been shown to increase efficacy of interventions for various groups (Kreuter, Strecher, & Glassman, 1999)—such as those based on age (Morgan et al., 1996; Rimer & Orleans, 1994) and SES (Skinner, Strecher, & Hospers, 1994) as well as sex (Davis, Cummings, Rimer, Sciandra, & Stone, 1992). A common method of tailoring is personalization (implicitly or explicitly inferring the message is meant for the recipient), contextualizing the message, i.e. framing it in a context meaningful to the recipient (Hawkins et al., 2008). The effectiveness of tailoring/targeting is thought to relate to the fact that they modulate our ability and motivation to process communications, which in turn makes us more likely to be influenced by it (Hawkins et al., 2008). Tailoring is also thought to solicit the use of heuristics, or ‘mental shortcuts (Hawkins et al., 2008). Recent studies of persuasive technology which use social influence heuristics report successful behavioral change in areas such as exercise and smoking (Sohn and Lee, 2007) and adherence to a voice therapy regime (van Leer & Connor, 2012). Familiarity is one social influence heuristic (Cialdini, 2001). When the visual content of an intervention (such as image, models used and color) reflects or expresses the social and cultural environment of the target group—the content is more familiar and thus received more comfortably (Bechtel & Davidhizar, 1999). This ‘language’ of images and pictures is perceived immediately (unlike text for example) (Schiffman, 1994) and can create interest (i.e. garner attention) and credibility (Moriarty, 1994). Matching an interventions ‘surface’ characteristics to that of the audiences—may enhance that groups receptiveness and acceptance of such materials (Resnicow, Baranowski, Ahluwalia, & Braithwaite, 1999). Other relevant heuristics that could potentially enhance the efficacy of online PPIs are based on the principles of ‘social proof’ and ‘liking’ (Cialdini, 2001). These principles state that to determine what is appropriate behavior we look to others, and we are more influenced by people that are more similar to us (Festinger, 1954) and who we like more (Cialdini, 2001). Thus, we are more likely to comply with suggestions from similar others (Burger, Messian, Patel, del Prado, & Anderson, 2004). For example, similar clothing (Emswiller, Deaux, & Willits, 1971; Suedfeld, Bochner, & Matas, 1971) and backgrounds and interests (Brewer, 1999) have been found to increase persuasion and influence.

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It is also proposed that, another way to make the presenter of an intervention more similar, and thus more relevant, to certain groups, is to manipulate the language used. Linguistic strategies involve manipulating language to match that of the target demographic so as to make the intervention more accessible (Kreuter, Lukwago, Bucholtz, Clark, & Sanders-Thompson, 2003). Language is a social tool as well as a product, and is often used in a similar vein to physical displays of group membership such as clothing (Guy, 1989). However different classes may use linguistic tools for different reason. For example, Labov (1972a, b) documents how higher classes use overt linguistic norms with high prestige, and are thus promoted by actors such as the mass media and education systems. Conversely, lower class linguistic norms are considered by those who use them to have covert prestige—their use signifying belonging to the group and solidarity with it. One linguistic tool that is used more predominately by younger cohorts and those of lower SES are swear words (Jay, 2009). Swear word usage peaks at 25, and declines linearly with age from that point (McEnery, 2009). Social class also has a negative linear relationship with swearing. Those of higher SES tend to swear less frequently than those in lower socioeconomic groups, i.e. one’s social ranking tends to predict the level of taboo language use (McEnery, 2009). Thus it is proposed that in order to increase the emotional impact and relevance (through similarity) of PPIs for younger low SES individuals, swear language may be used as a tool. However, it should be noted that there are other heuristics in effect when deciding whether to act on a communication such as liking (e.g. being persuaded due to attractiveness), cognitive consistency (inconsistency is often unpleasant) and ‘referral to authority’ (Cialdini, 2001; Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2018a). Regarding referral to authority, individuals are more likely to obey commands when they come from an authority figure (Blass, 1999; Milgram, 1963). One of the key reasons why figures of authority are thought to influence individual’s behavior is the belief that the authority figure has expertise, i.e. they possess legitimate expert authority (Blass, 1999). Numerous studies have shown that merely symbols of authority have been shown to influence behavior. Titles (e.g. ‘doctor’), clothing (e.g. traffic warden uniforms) and props (e.g. a luxury car) have all been shown to influence individuals to act in ways one would not expect (Bickman, 1974; Doob & Gross, 1968; Hofling, Brotzman, Dalrymple, Graves, & Pierce, 1966; Peters & Ceci, 1982).

1.3 The Current Study: Incorporating Tailoring in an Online PPI for Younger and Lower SES Cohorts The aforementioned theory and studies suggest PPIs are effective, however effect sizes are small and certain groups such as younger cohorts and those of lower socioeconomic status may benefit from their increased use. The present study is aimed at promoting a PPI (the Three Blessings exercise) to this demographic online, utilizing tailoring, in particular through the use of the similarity heuristic. The intervention

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was promoted through an online video, in which a model explained the intervention. We manipulated the similarity and authority of the source to assess whether uptake and adherence to the PPI were affected more so by one than the other. To this end, we also manipulated the source linguistically to help increase perceived similarity. By manipulating the similarity in appearance and language of the model used to explain a PPI to adhere more to that of the target demographics, the study hopes to increase uptake and adherence of the PPI among participants. It is hypothesized that participants will be more likely to try and persist (adhere) to the PPI if the intervention is presented by a model more similar in appearance to their demographic group (Video 2), and a model more similar in language and appearance (Video 3), when compared with the original video which is presented by an expert (Video 1). Alternatively, if the expert heuristic applies, the PPI that is presented by a clearly recognizable expert (Video 1) should be associated with greater uptake and adherence.

2 Method 2.1 Design The study employed an experimental design, whereby participants were randomly assigned to watch one of three videos that described and promoted a PPI—the Three Blessings Exercise: (1) Seligman’s original ‘Three Blessings’ video; (2) a modified version with a young, Irish Actor with low SES markers (e.g. accent); (3) a modified version with a swearing-taboo language translation of the Seligman original video transcript in addition to Video 2’s manipulations. Participants were then asked at two time points whether they attempted (t1) or persevered (t2) with the Three Blessings intervention or not.

2.2 Participants Both a convenience sample and snowballing sampling were utilized. A total of 265 individuals participated in the study. Of these, four were omitted due to incomplete information regarding their demographics and contact information. Table 1 outlines the demographics of the entire sample, and the sample with social media connections of the first author omitted, as having online personal connection may have influenced the findings.

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Table 1 Demographic information for entire sample and sample with social media connections of the first author removed Grouping variable

Level

Entire sample (n = 261)

Sample with social media connections removed (n = 201)

Age

Mean (SD)

32.75 (8.24)

31.45

n

%

n

%

Age

Young adulthood (18–31)

111

42.5

106

52.7

Adult (32–44)

43.8

136

52.1

88

Middle and late adulthood (45+)

14

5.4

7

3.5

Sex

Male

87

33.3

67

33.3

Female

174

66.6

134

66.6

Nationality

Irish

147

56.3

108

54.0

Non-Irish

114

43.7

93

SES

46

Low

114

43.7

94

46.8

Intermediate

103

39.5

77

38.3

44

16.9

30

14.9

High Note: SES Socioeconomic status

2.3 Ethics The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork. Initial pages of the study’s website contained an information and consent section. Therein, participants were informed of the nature of the study, and that the study may involve exposure to swear language, while also requiring participants to indicate whether they had read and understood the information presented. Data was collected and stored confidentiality through using a password protected folder on the first author’s computer.

2.4 Apparatus and Materials 2.4.1

Experiment Website

A website was constructed which included several steps necessary for participants to partake in the study. After participants had navigated the initial information and consent pages, they were then directed to a page that recorded their demographic (age, sex, occupation, father’s occupation, and nationality) and contact (mobile phone number and email) information. Then participants were randomly assigned and directed

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to one of three conditions/videos explaining the theory in layman’s terms behind the Three Blessings exercise (outlined below). After watching the assigned video, participants were then directed to written instructions for the Three Blessings intervention. Instructions explained that participants were to list and record three things that went well, and why those things went well, daily, for a period of one week. Following this, a page was then presented which thanked participants for their participation and provided the contact information of the researcher for any further query. The website also recorded the date of participation of participants.

2.4.2

Videos Utilized in the Study

Video 1: Seligman Original Seligman (2009) outlines the theory and reasoning behind the Three Blessings PPI in a YouTube video. Visually the video shows Seligman, a 50+ man wearing a dark suit and necktie, facing the camera. Surrounding the video is a banner detailing a website address. Thus, the model (Seligman) is imbued with props or symbols indicating that he is an expert in line with the findings in the expert/authority literature referred to in the literature review. Additionally, linguistically Seligman is ‘well spoken’ and speaks with a slight American accent. He also refers to scientific research twice in the video (“Research bares out” 0.07; “We have determined in well-designed research studies…” 01:22). Seligman’s attire and language are thus symbolic of an expert. The video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT2vKMyIQwc&t=12s. Video 2: Seligman transcript with younger lower SES model Video 2 also explains the Three Blessings exercise using a word for word transcript of the above Seligman (2009) video. However the age, SES and nationality of the model used to narrate the explanation was manipulated. The model is 22 years of age, is dressed casually and speaks with a north inner city Dublin accent—an area of associated with the ‘working class’ or lower SES groups (Ilan, 2011; Punch, 2005). Although the camera is slightly further away from the model, it is shot in a similar fashion, with the model facing the camera throughout (Fig. 1). The intervention has also been re-titled ‘Three Good Things’—an alternative name mentioned by Seligman (2011), which was thought to be more neutral. Although the age, SES and nationality of the model have been manipulated to be more similar (and theoretically more persuasive) to the target demographics (younger cohorts and those of lower SES), the factors of style of the video and the language used were kept constant. The full video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FuClmlBouw. Video 3. Less formal transcript including swear words, with young, Irish, low SES model Video 3 utilizes the same model and style as Video 2, but the language used was also manipulated so as to better match the target demographics (younger and lower SES cohorts). A new transcript was created that used less formal/academic sounding

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Fig. 1 Screenshot of Video 2, model of younger age and lower SES

language than the Seligman original, and which also contained some taboo/swearing language. This is in line with the literature regarding the norms of language of the target demographics discussed in the literature review. Initially, the original Seligman (2009) transcript was broken down sentence-by-sentence and transcribed into less academic language by the author. Then, two individuals from the target demographics (including the model) were asked how they might express the content (i.e. in their own words) and a script was decided upon by consensus. Thus, Video 3 manipulated both characteristics of the model and the language used to increase similarity (and thereby theoretically increase persuasiveness). Videos 2 and 3 were then piloted to a range of individuals across demographics. Generally feedback was positive. However, as some individuals had issues understanding the models accent, subtitles were added to both videos.

2.4.3

Measures

Independent Measure Socioeconomic Status (SES) The socioeconomic status (SES) of participants was defined in line with the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) categorization system outlined by Rose, Pevalin and O’Reilly (2005). The SES of participants was determined by asking respondents their occupation, and their father’s occupation, in the demographic questionnaire section of the experiments website. Occupation is used as a proxy for SES. The NS-SEC defines 14 levels of SES ranging from employers in

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large organizations/higher managerial occupations (highest level) to the long-term unemployed/never employed (lowest level). These fourteen levels can be nested so as to create 3 levels: Managerial and professional occupations (High SES); Small employers/self employed and intermediate occupations, for example administrative staff and intermediate management occupations (Intermediate SES); and routine and manual occupations (Low SES). If participant’s indicated they were a student, then their father’s occupation was used as a proxy to define SES – on the recommendation of Rose et al. (2005). Nationality and age Nationality and age of participants were assessed within the demographic questionnaire. Dependent Measures Uptake Uptake was measured by asking participants to indicate how many times they had attempted the Three Blessings/Three Good Things exercise in the week following their visit to the website (t1). Post-test data collection was conducted through email or mobile phone text. Thus scores ranged from a possible 0–7, with zero indicating they had not attempted the exercise at all, while seven indicated that they tried the exercise every day of that week. Adherence Adherence was measured by participants indicating how many times they had tried the exercise in the month following their visit to the website (t2). Respondents were asked the following question: One last question which requires just a one word answer. Again there is no right or wrong answer - the idea behind the experiment was to encourage you to try and persist with the exercise using different technologies and videos. How often do you think you practiced the three good things exercise in the last month i.e. how many times did you try and think of three good things and why they happened? 1) - not at all 2) - rarely less than 4 times 3) - occasionally - between 4 and 8 times 4) - often - more than 8 times Please answer between 1 and 4

Thus adherence scores ranged from 1–4, with 1 indicating participants had not persisted with the intervention at all, and a score of 4 indicating they had participated with the intervention twice a week or more.

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2.5 Procedure Participants were contacted through the author posting on social media (Facebook) and asking potential respondents to take part in the experiment by visiting the experiment website. Social media connections of the author were asked to share the post—so that that the sample would also incorporate respondents who were not known to the author. Additionally, the author posted on the social news, discussion and forum website Reddit (www.reddit.com) in the psychology research forum (r/sample size), positive psychology forum (r/positive psychology), and coaching psychology (r/life_coach) forum asking for participants to partake in the study. Additionally, in order to increase the numbers in the target demographic groups (i.e. those of low SES and the younger age group) a targeted sampling strategy was utilized. Local university Access programs, cafes, bars and restaurants were approached to recruit participants due to the expected low SES of these students/employees. Once participants had visited and negotiated the website, they were then contacted one week later by email to ascertain uptake. If no response was received after 2 days, participants then received a text message to ascertain uptake (in case they did not check their email regularly). Again, if no response was received a second, final, email was sent enquiring to their uptake. Similarly, after one month participants were emailed with regard to their adherence (see above), which, if no response was received after 2 days, was followed by a text message. Again, if no response was received after 1 week, participants were sent a final reminder e-mail.

3 Results 3.1 Sample and Response Rates Firstly, it was ascertained whether the sample might have been biased by personal knowledge of the researcher. Participants who were connected on social media (Facebook friends) were compared to those who were not connected (non-Facebook friends). No significant differences were found in uptake (t (170) = 0.73, p = 0.46) between social media connections (M = 2.85, SD = 2.51) and non-social media connections (M = 2.57, SD = 2.26). Similarly there was no significant difference in adherence scores (t(152) = −0.36, p = 0.718) between social media connections (M = 2.21, SD = 1.04) and non-social media connections (M = 2.28, SD = 1.08). Response rates were also calculated by determining the percentage of participants who visited the website, but did not respond to any of the emails/texts requesting information on uptake or adherence. When Facebook connections were removed from the full sample, the data exhibited a markedly lower response rate than the original complete sample. However, as the demographic makeup of the sample did not differ markedly if social media connections of the first author were included, and uptake and adherence levels between social media connections and non-social media

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Table 2 Non response rates for entire sample of participants, and sample with social media connections of the author removed Group

Level

Non-response rate Entire sample

Overall nonresponse rate

Non-facebook connections

Uptake (%)

Adherence (%)

Uptake (%)

Adherence (%)

34.1

41.0

41.3

44.3

If participant was connected on social media

Yes

21.70

–

–

No

41.8

46.80

–

–

Video watched

Video 1: Seligman original

33.70

41.00

46.8

51.7

Video 2: Seligman transcript with young SES model

36.30

39.60

40.0

41.4

Video 3: Non academic/slang/swearing transcript with young SES model

32.20

42.5

38.0

40.8

Younger group (18–31)

43.20

49.50

43.8

48.6

Age

Middle group

8.30

(32–44)a

26.50

33.10

37.5

38.6

Older groupa (45+)

38.50

53.8

57.1

57.1

SES

Low

36.80

39.50

43.6

44.7

Intermediate

33.00

43.70

40.3

44.2

Nationality

Irish

31.50

34.9

39.8

38.0

Non-Irish

36.80

48.20

42.4

51.0.

Male

44.80

47.10

55.2

55.2

Female

28.70

37.90

34.3

38.8

Gender

Uptake: Number of times participant attempted the intervention in first week Adherence: Number of times participant attempted the intervention in the first month a These groups were merged for the subsequent analyses

connections of the first author were not significantly different—it was decided to retain social media connections of the first author in the sample for the main analysis (Table 2).

144 Table 3 Reported uptake and adherence scores for participants based on which video was watched

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Group

Uptake

Adherence

n

Mean

SD

n

Mean

SD

Video 1

55

2.35

2.18

49

2.33

0.96

Video 2

58

3.26

2.57

55

2.29

1.08

Video 3

59

2.37

2.16

50

2.16

1.15

Uptake: Number of times participant attempted the intervention in first week Adherence: Number of times participant attempted the intervention in the first month Video 1: Seligman Original Video Video 2: Seligman Transcript with young SES model Video 3: Non academic/swearing transcript with young SES model

3.2 Uptake and Adherence Levels Mean uptake and adherence scores based on which video a participant watched are detailed in Table 3. There was no significant difference in either uptake (F(2,172) = 2.91, p = 0.057) or adherence (F(2,172) = 0.33, p = 0.336) scores dependent on which video a participant watched in the overall sample. We tested whether there was an overall difference in uptake and adherence when considering our variables of interest: which Video the participant watched, nationality, age, and SES. As the speaker in the tailored versions of the videos was Irish, with an Irish accent, nationality was grouped so as to create two groups: Irish and Non-Irish. Participants that were classified as being of intermediate or high SES were grouped together into one demographic group (High SES)—as the number of participants in the original high SES group was small (n = 30, 14.9% of sample). In line with Levinson’s (1986) development period model, who approximates 32 years of age as the end of early adulthood, participants were also divided into young adulthood and adulthood categories, creating two groups wherein participants were ≤31 years (Young Adult) and 32 years and older (Adulthood), therefore our three initial groups were merged into two groups. Males (M = 2.56, SD = 2.40) and females (M = 2.70, SD = 2.32) did not differ significantly in uptake (t(170) = 0.34, p = 0.727). Similarly, Males (M = 2.25, SD = 0.99) did not differ significantly from Females (M = 2.31, SD = 1.10) in reported adherence (t(152) = −0.82, p = 0.415). To adequately test the hypotheses a 3 (Video: Video 1, 2 or 3) × 2 (age group: young adult vs. adult) × 2 (nationality: Irish vs. non-Irish) × 2 (SES: high vs. low) Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) on uptake and the same ANOVA on adherence were conducted and any interaction effects tested. For participant uptake there was no significant main or interaction effects for any of the variables of interest. Regarding adherence to the intervention there was a significant main effect for age (F(1,154)= 6.419, p = 0.012). The young adult group (M = 2.52, SD =I.01)

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reported greater adherence than the adult group (M = 2.11, SD = 1.07), although the effect size was small (partial η2 = 0.047). Additionally, there was a significant interaction effect between participants age and which video they watched on adherence scores (F(2,148) = 4.02, p = 0.02, partial η2 = 0.055). Specifically, analysis of simple effects showed adherence levels were not significantly different between the young-adult group (18–31) (M = 2.50, SD = 0.98) and adult group (32+) (M = 2.16, SD = 0.94) if they had watched Video 1 (F(1,148) = 1.32, p > 0.05). Similarly, there was no significant difference between the young-adult group (M = 2.21, SD = 0.97) and adult group (M = 2.33, SD = 0.97) if they had watched Video 2 (F(1,148) = 0.18, p = 0.677). However, the young-adult group (M = 3.00, SD = 0.91) reported significantly higher adherence levels than the adult group (M = 1.86, SD = 1.08) when they had watched Video 3 (F(1,48) = 11.55, p = 0.001, partial η2 = 0.08). This represents a mean difference of 1.14, Cohen’s d = 1.09, or very large effect size (Sawilowsky, 2009). Looking at the interaction (Fig. 2), these effects reflect that for Video 3, the young-adult group reported higher adherence levels compared to the adult group, while no such effect exists when participants watched Video 1 or Video 2.

4 Discussion 4.1 Results in Relation to the Hypotheses The current study aimed to promote a PPI online, i.e. the Three Blessings, to younger and low SES cohorts, through the use of tailoring of an explanatory video. We manipulated the similarity and authority of the source to assess whether uptake and adherence to the PPI were affected more-so by one than the other. It was hypothesized that participants would be more likely to try and persist with PPI if the intervention were presented by a model more similar linguistically and in appearance to their demographic groups. An alternative hypothesis was also proposed predicting that if the expert heuristic applies, a video presenting a PPI utilizing a clearly recognizable expert would be associated with greater uptake and adherence. In order to test these hypotheses, participants were presented with one of three videos, which described a PPI and its benefits. Video 1, the original YouTube Video recorded by Martin Seligman, utilized the expert heuristic through the use of an older, American academic model describing the exercise. Video 2 utilized the similarity heuristic by using a younger, Irish model of low SES, and an identical transcript to Video 1. Video 3 also utilized the similarity heuristic, using the same model, but also manipulated the language utilized so as to be more similar to that used by the target demographic. Uptake and adherence to the PPI were then measured and results were compared dependent on which video a participant watched. Importantly, younger participants reported greater adherence to the PPI when they had watched Video 3. Overall this provides partial evidence to support the claim that

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4.5

young adult group 4

Mean Score for Adherence

3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Which Video Particapant watched

Fig. 2 Mean reported Adherence scores for participants, dependent on whether they watched Video 1 (Seligman original), Video 2 (Seligman transcript with young, Irish, low SES model), or Video 3 (Slang transcript with young, Irish, low SES model), and differentiated by age group. Error bars display the standard deviation of the means

the use of a similarity heuristic increases adherence (but not uptake) to a PPI in this instance. The results suggest that for younger participants a younger model disseminating a PPI and showing similarities to the target audience may help with increasing adherence. This result is in line with the social influence literature that suggests that those more similar to us provide more effective social proof to influence our attitudes and behaviors (Festinger, 1954), whether that be similarity through dress (Emswiller et al., 1971; Suedfeld et al., 1971) or backgrounds and interests (Brewer, 1999). This is also in line with the literature on the effectiveness of persuasive technology, tailoring and personalization (e.g. Hamari et al., 2014; Brug et al., 2003; Kreuter & Skinner, 2000; Hawkins et al., 2008). This finding may be important when both the benefits of PPI’s (e.g. Seligman et al., 2005) and wellbeing (e.g. Howell et al., 2007; Lyubomirsky, King, et al. 2005; Achor 2011) are considered, as well the increased efficacy that greater adherence allows (Eysenbach, 2002) and the lower levels of

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engagement with PPIs for younger cohorts that are reported in the literature (Sin and Lyubomirsky, 2009). In order for the study to fully support the similarity hypothesis it would have been expected that those of younger age, lower SES and of Irish origin would have reported progressively greater uptake and adherence when exposed to Video 2 and Video 3 respectively—due to the greater and increasing congruence to their demographics created through the manipulations of model attributes and language, however such a dose-response pattern was not found. These inconsistencies with the finding for younger adults watching Video 3 are now considered. The lack of effect for uptake scores in younger adults is surprising considering the large effect size with regard to adherence. It appears that the similarity heuristic was not more effective than the authority heuristic in influencing younger adult participants to try the intervention—but appeared to be more effective in terms of their tendency to continue its use. The results suggest that a model that was more similar, encouraged the young adult participants to persist more-so than older adult participants, with an intervention that Seligman et al. (2005) reported to not show significant effects until after one month continued practice. This might explain why participants who were not age congruent with the model from Video 3 (i.e. the older adult group) reported significantly lower adherence scores, although Beatty and Binion (2016) found that age alone does not reliably predict adherence. The lack of similarity perhaps meant they were not persuaded to persist with an intervention that may not have appeared to be having a noticeably positive effect on their wellbeing. Conversely, the young adult group may have been influenced to persevere, due to their similarity with the model in video 3. The use of tailored language may have been particularly effective for this younger cohort, independently from SES, as Video 2, also displaying a younger model, with no tailored language, did not show age differences. The effect of other heuristics may also help to explain the apparent lack of effect of the similarity heuristic for participants who watched Video 2. If the similarity hypothesis were correct, it would have been expected that uptake and adherence scores for the different demographic groups (young adult vs. adult, low-SES vs. high-SES, Irish vs. non-Irish) would have differed significantly for participants who watched Video 2 (albeit with a smaller effect than if they had watched Video 3). A proposed reason for this lack of effect is the presence of a lack of consistency between the model (young, low SES, Irish) and the transcript used (which was originally spoken by an older, high SES, American model). A lack of consistency or congruence is often unpleasant (Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2018b) which may have led to a lack of ‘liking’ and thus lack of engagement and/or adherence with the intervention. The lack of effect regarding the use of similarity heuristics with participants identified as of lower SES is disappointing considering the lower levels of wellbeing such groups report (Argyle, 2003) and the greater benefits PPIs appear to have on groups with lower levels of wellbeing (Bolier et al., 2013; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). One possible limitation of this study in drawing conclusions on SES is the lack of a low SES/older model condition in the study. If a video with an older low SES model was included in the study, this would have allowed the investigation of

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the similarity heuristic effects for SES while controlling for age, by allowing the comparison of uptake and adherence scores with this low-SES/high-age condition and Video 1 (high-SES/high-age condition). If the expert heuristic hypothesis were true, one would have expected greater levels of uptake and adherence generally for Video 1 compared to Videos 2 and 3, due to the presence of an authority in line with the literature (Bickman, 1974; Doob & Gross, 1968; Hofling et al., 1966; Peters & Ceci, 1982). One reason for the apparent lack of effect may be due to one of the major limitations of the study—the lack of a neutral control condition, if such a condition can be actually achieved (a potential more neutral video with a middle aged casually dressed model using the original language). The study compares an expert heuristic condition (Video1) with two similarity heuristic conditions (Videos 2 and 3). As noted in the literature, the influence of experts on behavior can be substantial (e.g. Cialdini, 2001; Milgram, 1963; Blass, 1999), while tailoring interventions to increase similarity was hypothesized to increase engagement through heightening relevance. Thus, it is impossible to surmise from the current study if either condition increased uptake or adherence among participants relative to a condition that did not employ any heuristics. It should be noted however that the rationale for using the Seligman original video explaining the intervention as a control, is that it was an already existing piece of persuasive technology used to promote PPIs, which happened to use the expert heuristic. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate whether similar persuasive technology, using the similarity heuristic instead, was more effective. The finding that males and females did not differ significantly in uptake and adherence scores contrasts with the literature, which reports greater adherence levels for females (Beatty and Binion, 2016). The lack of similarity effects around nationality are also surprising, but may perhaps be explained by the effects of another heuristic, such as the ‘liking’ heuristic. Future research should explore these variables with a larger sample and manipulation of the sex of the actor in the videos.

4.2 Response Rates When response rates (Table 2) are considered there are some interesting findings that relate to the literature, and may prove useful for future researchers and disseminators of positive psychology interventions. General response rates for uptake and adherence for the study were well within the range of 29–83% reported in the literature for online PPIs (Mitchell et al., 2010). The relatively high rate of response may partly be due to the number of follow up emails/texts send to participants—a strategy which has proved successful in other studies (e.g. Wangberg et al., 2008). The greater non-response rate for non-Irish nationals for both uptake and adherence, compared to Irish participants, might be explained by linguistic differences. Many of the non-Irish participants were from countries where English is not the first language (e.g. Brazil, France, Germany) and thus may possibly have found the

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intervention, instructions, or email/text communications more difficult to understand. This suggests that the nationality and linguistic capabilities of target demographics may be important considerations when disseminating PPIs. The young adult group (