Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

School-Wide Positive Interventions: Lessons Learned And Tips For Success (#704)

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

As positive psychologists learn more about what makes people feel happier, more productive, and more connected, it is natural to wonder how these lessons can be applied to our youngest citizens. Many believe that our schools should do more than teach basic math and English skills, but should also help produce youth who are grateful, full of purpose, and who give back to the world around them Seligman, Ernset, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009). To this end, the Adolescent Moral Development Lab has a combined 6 years of intervention experience learning how to foster some of these positive qualities in youth from within the school setting. However, there are many elements of school-wide interventions that can inhibit success with implementing a program like this. In this presentation, we will use our original empirical data to highlight five issues in school-wide interventions, including teacher buy-in, stopping the drop, motivating students to get involved, having developmentally (and culturally) appropriate scales, and logistics of where/when your intervention is taking place. We hope that discussing these barriers to intervention success and providing important implications for researchers will help others design their own school-wide interventions with the highest chance of success.