An Internet-based positive psychology program: Strategies to improve effectiveness and engagement

Abstract

Internet-delivered health promotion/disease prevention programs need to be effective and engaging to both universal and targeted populations. We will illustrate the utility of organic programming (OP), a model to rapidly evaluate, revise, and re-deliver Internet-based programs, to achieve these aims. The project, which was conducted in two phases, included seven classes of ninth-grade student participants over two semesters. The first phase of the project examined the effects of InJoy, a psychoeducational program designed to teach skills related to positive psychology and depression prevention to adolescents. Data were compared with prespecified target benchmarks, and used to revise and recompile the program, which was then re-evaluated in the second phase. Compared to the initial version, the revised program was rated by students as higher on the targeted social learning domains and significantly more engaging, as reflected in being more helpful (d = 1.2), interesting (d = 1.1), and fun (d = 1.1). These data suggest that OP can rapidly improve engagement for adolescent student users of Internet-based prevention programs.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• depression
• Internet-based interventions
• prevention
• universal and
• targeted prevention programs

Notes

This manuscript is for the Special Issue: ‘Behavior intervention technologies in positive psychology’.