Promotion of individual happiness and wellbeing of students by a positive education intervention

Abstract

In usual educational practice, it is common to observe a separation between the “academic” curriculum of the students from that of their personal and social development. Nonetheless, an increasing recognition of the value of the students’ personal and social development in the classroom, called “Positive Education”, is now in progress. Based on such efforts we elaborated a Psycho-Educative Intervention (PEI), with the purpose of integrating professional learning with Happiness and Wellbeing (H&W) through the teaching of healthy lifestyles in students of Universidad Veracruzana (UV). The positive effects of PEI upon the students’ H&W were found to be significant. Herein we report the effects of PEI on the students’ “academic” curricula, and on their duration over time, as well as try to explain their effects under the light of Positive Education. The effects of PEI on H&W were higher after PEI, but decreased four months later, although the scores were higher than those before PEI. Also, PEI improved the students’ school performance. One way to explain these effects of PEI is through the perspective of the three points (pleasant life, engaged life and meaningful life) raised by Positive Psychology, which were worked within the 15 Sessions of PEI to promote positive emotions and traits in the students.