Roundtable Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Onward and Upward: Strategies to Boost Need Satisfaction in Emerging Adulthood (#228)

Susan Mangan 1 , Kendall Cotton Bronk 1
  1. Claremont Graduate University, Alhambra, CA, United States

The purpose of this presentation is to discuss which Positive Psychology Interventions most effectively increase Psychological Need Satisfaction and well-being in emerging adults (18-30). Emerging adults may be vulnerable to reduced well-being, and need satisfaction represents one promising path to increased hedonic well-being (Mackenzie et al., 2017). To help foster need satisfaction in emerging adults, modified interventions will be tested to determine which most increases each feeling of need satisfaction, including competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Results indicate that participants in the treatment conditions will have greater gains in well-being, overall need satisfaction, and competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Additionally, the modifying roles of self-concordant motivation, demographic factors, and intervention modifications (peer testimonials and autonomy support messages) are discussed. In a pretest-posttest experimental design, participants were randomized to one of four experimental conditions (random acts of kindness, character strengths, self-affirmations, or best possible selves) or a control condition. This study offers a new, exciting battery of interventions that foster psychological need satisfaction and hedonic well-being in emerging adults and contribute information about how to foster need satisfaction in emerging adulthood. Additionally, this study extends previous literature by adding knowledge about whether common demographic factors impact for whom each intervention is most effective.