Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Apr 14;16(4):e0249193. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249193. eCollection 2021.
Courses that teach evidence-based interventions to enhance well-being are a public health tool that could be used to improve mental health in the population. We compared the well-being of six cohorts of adult students before and after they completed one of two massive open online courses: The Science of Well-Being (N = 581; 441; 1,228) and a control course, Introduction to Psychology (N = 677; 480; 1,480). Baseline well-being levels were equivalent across all six samples. Students in both courses increased in their well-being from baseline to follow-up in all three samples (p < .001); however, at follow-up, students in The Science of Well-Being course had higher subjective well-being than the control course (sample 1: r = .18, d = .37, p < .001; sample 2: r = .21, d = .43, p < .001; sample 3: r = .19, d = .38, p < .001). Overall, across three samples, we found that students who completed either of these online psychology courses increased in their well-being--but that students in The Science of Well-Being course showed greater improvement. These findings suggest that large free online courses that teach evidence-based approaches to well-being could positively impact mental health at large scales.
教授基于证据的干预措施以增强幸福感的课程是一种公共卫生工具，可以用于改善人群的心理健康。我们比较了六个成人学生群体在完成以下两个大规模开放在线课程之一前后的幸福感：《幸福科学》（N = 581；441；1228）和对照课程《心理学导论》（N = 677；480；1480）。所有六个样本的基线幸福感水平相当。两个课程的学生在所有三个样本中都从基线到随访都提高了幸福感（p<.001）；然而，在随访时，《幸福科学》课程的学生主观幸福感高于对照课程（样本 1：r =.18，d =.37，p<.001；样本 2：r =.21，d =.43，p<.001；样本 3：r =.19，d =.38，p<.001）。总的来说，在三个样本中，我们发现完成这些在线心理学课程中的任何一门的学生都提高了幸福感，但《幸福科学》课程的学生的提高幅度更大。这些发现表明，教授基于证据的幸福感方法的大型免费在线课程可能会对大规模的心理健康产生积极影响。
