The Efficacy of Positive Psychology Interventions on the Subjective well-Being of Institutionalized Orphaned and Abandoned Females

Abstract

Positive psychology interventions have long been used in the West to increase the overall happiness or Subjective well-being of individuals and have also proven to be effective however; this form of treatment has largely been neglected in the East. The present study aims at working on the subjective well-being of oiphaned and abandoned females, a group that ranks themselves low on this component The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of positive psychology interventions on the subjective well-being of institutionalized abandoned and oiphaned females. It was hypothesized that positive psychology interventions would increase the subjective well-being of institutionalized abandoned and oiphaned females and females positive psychology interventions would report greater subjective well-being as compared to those females who received no interventions. The sample included 60 oiphaned and abandoned females from two private oiphanages in Karachi. The average age of the participants was 14.15 years and their stay at the institute came up to an average of 5.71 years.The sample was equally divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group received 6 group sessions utilizing positive psychology interventions focusing on increasing the subjective wellbeing of the participants. Pre and post-tests comprising of the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience were conducted on both the groups to test the efficacy of the interventions. The independent samples t-test and paired t-test were used to test the hypotheses for between and within group comparison Both hypotheses were highly significant at p<0.05. This indicates that positive psychology interventions are effective in increasing the subjective well-being of institutionalized abandoned and orphaned females. The present study makes important implications regarding the use of positive psychology interventions as a complementary strategy in mental health promotion and treatment. Avenues for future research have also been suggested and the limitations have also been discussed which can be valuable to overcome.