University of Padova, Italy.
Appl Psychol Health Well Being. 2017 Nov;9(3):261-284. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12091. Epub 2017 Sep 6.
Several studies have shown that psychological well-being (PWB) can be promoted through positive psychological interventions (PPIs). Although these interventions have shown promising results in clinical settings, only a few studies have investigated their effectiveness in older adults, and they have rarely considered an active control group. In addition, generalisation effects of the PWB training to quality of life (QoL) and to untrained cognitive abilities have never been considered.
In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a six-session PWB intervention aiming specifically to improve PWB, and sought any transfer effects on an aspect related to PWB, QoL. Transfer effects on a high-level cognitive process, working memory (WM), were also investigated.
Thirty-two older adults (61-82 years old) volunteered to take part in the study and were randomly assigned to either a training group or an active control group.
Only the trained group, once controlled for variability, reported larger gains in PWB and in WM performance after the training.
This pilot study suggests that PWB training can be effective in older adults, with a positive generalisation effect on cognition (WM). The discussion focuses on the need to develop PPIs tailored to older adults' needs and resources.
多项研究表明，心理幸福感（PWB）可以通过积极的心理干预（PPIs）来提升。尽管这些干预措施在临床环境中显示出了有前景的效果，但只有少数研究调查了它们在老年人中的有效性，而且它们很少考虑到积极对照组。此外，PWB 训练对生活质量（QoL）和未训练认知能力的泛化效果从未被考虑过。
在这项研究中，我们评估了一个六节 PWB 干预课程的有效性，该课程专门旨在提高 PWB，并寻求对与 PWB 相关的方面（即 QoL）的任何转移效应。还调查了对高级认知过程（工作记忆，WM）的转移效应。
32 名老年人（61-82 岁）自愿参加研究，并随机分配到训练组或积极对照组。
仅受过训练的组，在经过训练后，在 PWB 和 WM 表现方面报告了更大的收益，而且控制了变异性。
这项初步研究表明，PWB 训练对老年人有效，对认知（WM）有积极的泛化效应。讨论的重点是需要开发针对老年人需求和资源的 PPIs。
