ArticleJournal of happiness studies2023
The Effectiveness of Positive Psychology Interventions for Promoting Well-being of Adults Experiencing Depression Compared to Other Active Psychological Treatments: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Article in Journal of happiness studies, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of well-being-focused interventions.Nature human behaviour · 2026Pooled it
- Positive Psychology Interventions in Patients With Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Pooled it
- Positive changes in daily life? A meta-analysis of positive psychological ecological momentary interventions.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2025Pooled it
- Application of Positive Psychology in Digital Interventions for Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Trials.JMIR mental health · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy of expressive writing versus positive writing in different populations: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Nursing open · 2023Pooled it
- Trial
- The effect of group counseling based on positive psychology on the WhatsApp social media platform on the severity of premenstrual syndrome symptoms: a randomized clinical trial.BMC women's health · 2024Trial
- The effect of mandala coloring and free coloring on the happiness in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder in the Covid-19 pandemic: a randomized clinical trial.BMC psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Behavior change: from neurobiology to behavioral change theories and back - part 2.Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria · 2026Review
- From Happiness to Resilience: Asymmetric Temporal Links Among Subjective Well-Being, Hope, and Depressive Symptoms in Late Childhood.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Article
- Co-Design of a Depression Self-Management Tool for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors: Rapid Qualitative Analysis of Interview Feedback on a Prototype.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Long-Term Effects of Positive Psychotherapy Compared to Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Clinical Depression: An 18-Month Follow-Up Randomized Controlled Trial.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Loneliness, quality of life, and life satisfaction among older adults: the mediating role of resilience.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- A pilot study: virtual reality-based intervention to boost optimism and alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression in undergraduates.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Complex Intervention Programs Integrating Multiple Intervention Strategies Were Not More Effective than Active Control Groups: Evidence from Randomized Controlled Trials.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Co-Design of a Depression Self-Management Tool for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors: User-Centered Design Approach.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Enhancing employee well-being through a culturally adapted training program: a mixed-methods study in South Africa.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Neural efficiency in EFL learning and positive psychology.PloS one · 2025Article
- Psychological aspects of rehabilitation nutrition: A position paper by the Japanese Association of Rehabilitation Nutrition (secondary publication).Journal of general and family medicine · 2024Article
- Neurogenetics and Epigenetics of Loneliness.Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This systematic review assesses if positive psychology interventions (PPI) are more effective than other active psychological interventions for increasing the well-being of depressed adults. A review of randomised trials that compared PPI to other active interventions was conducted. A systematic search was undertaken using PsycInfo, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, two trial registries, and a manual search. The outcomes were happiness and depression. Ten studies, totalling 1341 participants, were included in the review. The small effect sizes for depression (Hedge's g = 0.15) and happiness (Hedge's g = 0.20) favoured PPI but were not significant, indicating no difference between PPI and other active interventions for the outcomes. Heterogeneity was high mainly due to differences in trial implementation. Risks of bias ranged from moderate to high. The results should be interpreted with caution because of the small number of included studies, high heterogeneity, and presence of bias. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-022-00598-z.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.