(PS13-C53) Reasons to Become a Poet – Development and Application of a Positive Emotions Training (PoET)

Background: Positive psychology interventions are known to have an impact on mental health. We developed a Positive Emotions Training (PoET) in order to provide a low-threshold intervention for improving mental health factors. As one of the first holistic training programs, PoET covers eleven positive psychology constructs (e.g., optimism, gratitude and self-efficacy). The goal of this study was to test PoET’s feasibility in the general population and to assess possible effects on positive and negative mental health factors, as well as on optimism, gratitude, happiness, resilience, and self-efficacy.

Methods: After testing for feasibility within a sample of n = 101 participants, a randomized controlled trial was used to test for specific effects of the training. N = 229 participants (age range 20-78 years; M = 51.71 (SD = 12.01) and 79.9% female) were randomized to receive either PoET (n = 102) or the waiting list condition (n = 127). Participants in the PoET group completed two training sessions (3.5 hours each) that were conducted in an online format with groups of about 30 people. All participants completed positive and negative mental health measures. Assessment points were at baseline (T1), at the beginning of the second session (T2) and at follow-up assessment 30 days after training (T3). Two-factorial repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted to test for possible effects of PoET on mental health.

Results: For the control group, there were no significant improvements on all outcomes (all p > .16). Participants in the PoET group showed a significant decrease in depression (F(1, 202) = 12.57, p < .001; d = .49), anxiety (F(1, 202) = 20.06, p < .001, d = .63) and stress symptoms (F(1, 202) = 17.40, p < .001, d = .58) and a significant increase in positive mental health measures (F(2, 203) = 6.74, p = .01, d = .63).
Discussion: PoET is an applicable online intervention for improving mental health in the general population. Furthermore, the program might also be beneficial in clinical application as PoET has the potential to decrease depression and anxiety symptoms.