A ‘PERMA’ Response to the Pandemic: An Online Positive Education Programme to Promote Wellbeing in University Students
Open Access
- 18 May 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Education
Abstract
Pre-existing issues regarding the wellbeing and mental health of university students have subsequently been compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Research signals that anxiety and depression symptomology has increased in university students’ following the COVID-19 outbreak, and mental wellbeing has declined. In response to concerns around mental health of students in Higher Education (HE), and to support the transition to remote working during the pandemic, we designed and implemented an 8-week wellbeing program based on positive education frameworks and practices. The online program was delivered in a West Midlands-based university in the United Kingdom, to undergraduate and postgraduate psychology students. The weekly sessions [ran through a virtual learning environment (VLE)] aimed to 1) provide students with a community and an opportunity to feel connected with other students, 2) introduce students to key concepts of wellbeing, and 3) equip students with knowledge and resources that would help sustain/improve their wellbeing. In this paper we outline how positive education, and specifically the “PERMA” wellbeing framework, has inspired the development of this wellbeing program (including the accompanying VLE webpages and sources of support) and future plans for evaluation. We further describe the content and delivery of this program alongside practical implications, lessons learned and important constraints. We situate this discussion alongside consideration of ongoing wellbeing support requirements following the pandemic and issues regarding wider integration of PERMA approaches in university contexts.Keywords
This publication has 79 references indexed in Scilit:
- Positive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studiesBMC Public Health, 2013
- Positive Psychology and Positive Education: Old Wine in New Bottles?Educational Psychologist, 2012
- Flourishing Across Europe: Application of a New Conceptual Framework for Defining Well-BeingSocial Indicators Research, 2011
- A Review of School-Based Positive Psychology InterventionsAustralian Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 2011
- Understanding school responses to students’ challenging behaviour: A review of literatureImproving Schools, 2011
- The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta‐Analysis of School‐Based Universal InterventionsChild Development, 2011
- Perceived barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young people: a systematic reviewBMC Psychiatry, 2010
- Learning to BREATHE: A Pilot Trial of a Mindfulness Curriculum for AdolescentsAdvances in School Mental Health Promotion, 2009
- Stress and Health: Psychological, Behavioral, and Biological DeterminantsAnnual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2005
- The Effects of Economic Circumstances on British Students' Mental and Physical HealthJournal of American College Health, 1999