Strength, Happiness and Compassion
The research group Strength, Happiness and Compassion works at the Public Health Research Center and researches positive psychology. We work to strengthen the well-being of children and young people, parents and school staff. Proven methods are needed to systematically build young people's psychological resources and strengths. Through interventions based on research, we can increase their well-being, support their experiences of meaning and commitment, and encourage goal setting and creative problem solving as they support in life challenges.
Through theory, new research findings and practical tools from the area of positive psychology and neuropsychology our main goal is to develop intervention programs that work to strengthen psychological well-being and mental resources in children and youth. We also work to strengthen the well-being of parents and school staff.
In all our studies we follow a rigorous randomized control design and evaluate our interventions with a broad scope of methods, including questionnaires, experience sampling techniques, physiological measurements, focus groups and interviews.
Since 2016 we have performed the following well-being intervention studies:
1) Flourishing Students for 11-12 year-old school children
2) Flourishing Families for parents
3) Flourishing Schools for school staff
We have also performed a smaller clinical pilot group study called Tweens. In Tweens our participants were 11-14 year old anxious, depressed and lonely youth as well as their parents.
Our group is at present (2019) starting up a new intervention program for upper secondary school students called Study with Strength (Studera starkt).
For more information regarding the studies and results please contact Åse Fagerlund (below).
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Åse Fagerlund, PI, PhD, child neuropsychologist, CBT psychotherapist
Mari Laakso, MScs, PhD student
Stefania Fält, PhD student
Pehr Jakobsson, study coordinator
Julia Simonsen, assistant (part-time)
Rejane Figueiredo, study statistician (part-time)
University of Helsinki (Department of Behavioral Sciences)
Åbo Akademi University (Teacher education)
Hem och Skola Förbundet - The Home School Association for Swedish Schools in Finland
VIA Institute on Character Strengths, USA
Geelong Grammar School, Australien