Date of Completion

4-7-2017

Embargo Period

4-7-2017

Keywords

Wellness Promotion, Positive Psychology Intervention, At Risk Adolescents, Behavior

Major Advisor

Melissa A. Bray

Associate Advisor

Sandy M. Chafouleas

Associate Advisor

Nick W. Gelbar

Field of Study

Educational Psychology

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Open Access

Open Access

Abstract

This study employed the 10 core sessions of the Well-Being Promotion Program (Suldo, 2016), a multi-component Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI) with the goal of improving daily happiness and classroom behavior in a sample of high school students at risk for poor school outcomes. PPIs have increasingly been used in school settings to enhance student well-being and to foster a number of behaviors important to student success, such as a positive attitude towards learning, increased school satisfaction, improved social skills, and increased academic engagement. PPIs have also been used with children and adolescents to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and to increase positive affect. Additionally, there is some preliminary evidence of the efficacy of PPIs in preventing the development of externalizing behaviors in children and adolescents. However despite the growing use of PPIs in a variety of school settings, there are currently no published studies to date that have explored the effects of a PPI on students’ daily happiness and classroom behaviors. The current study utilized a multiple baseline design across 5 adolescents to examine the effects of a school-based wellness promotion intervention on student self-reports of happiness and teacher reports of classroom behavior.

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