The effectiveness of positive education intervention on happiness, depression, academic satisfaction, and academic achievement

Introduction: Positive psychology is a type of psychology focuses on a topic beyond illnesses and disabilities. Unlike other approaches that focus on problems and weaknesses, it focuses on positive emotions and quality of life. This study was performed to determine the effectiveness of positive education intervention on happiness, depression, academic satisfaction, and academic achievement. Materials and Methods: This clinical trial conducted on high school female students in Shahroud city in the academic year of 2015-16. The participants were selected voluntarily among students of two schools then they divided into experimental group (n=15) and control group (n=15) randomly. The experimental group received 14 sessions of positive education. After intervention, both groups completed the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, and Hubner Academic Satisfaction. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance. Results: Findings showed that positive intervention had a significant effect on happiness (P=0.005), depression (P=0.037) and academic achievement (P=0.031), but it had no significant effect on academic satisfaction (P=0.058). Conclusion: It seems that positive intervention is a good strategy to increase happiness and academic achievement and decrease depression in students.