Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement (ENHANCE)

Over the past several decades, a new science of subjective well-being has produced insights into the factors that make people happy-from cultivating strong relationships to pursuing the right goals. Drawing on these empirical findings, the investigators created a comprehensive 12-week intervention program, ENHANCE: Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement. The investigators multimodal program is designed to teach people essential skills in order to produce sustainable changes in behavior and, as a result, long-lasting increases in happiness. To test the effectiveness of ENHANCE, the investigators designed a six-month randomized clinical trial. Participants will be assigned to an active treatment group or a waiting group control. They will complete baseline assessments, and follow-up assessment at three and six months after the start of the intervention. These assessments will contain measures of subjective well-being and objective measures of health, as well as a variety of psychological mediators (e.g., psychological needs) and moderators (e.g. personality). The investigators will thus be able to explore not only whether ENHANCE works to improve well-being, but also why and how ENHANCE works.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Happiness
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: ENHANCE: Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 154
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • British Columbia
    • Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, V1V1V7
      • University of British Columbia
• United States
  • Virginia
    • Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, 22904-4400
      • University of Virginia

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 25 years to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants ages 25 to 75

Exclusion Criteria:

• Major Depression

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment; ENHANCE (Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement) is a 12-week program that includes an introductory session, 10 weekly sessions focusing on different happiness principles, and a final session focusing on integrating aspects of the program and continuing to practice these principles moving forward. Through completing this program, participants will gain an education on a wide-range of happiness principles and an arsenal of strategies for developing happiness boosting habits and skills.	Behavioral: ENHANCE: Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement; ENHANCE is a skill-based intervention to teach people a wide variety of strategies that have been shown to boost happiness. Each session of ENHANCE follows a similar format targeted to address three central goals. First, in each session, participants will complete an active learning module designed to educate participants about one of the ten overarching topics featured in this program (e.g., goals, close relationships). Next, participants will engage in activities that put these principles into practice. Finally, this program is designed to encourage a skill-building mindset by helping participants develop habits to integrate these principles into maintained activity in their daily lives moving forward.
No Intervention: Waiting Group Control; The waiting group control will complete the same assessments as the experimental group but without receiving the intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline Satisfaction With Life	Satisfaction With Life Scale	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline in Positive Affect	Scale of Positive and Negative Experience: SPANE	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline in Negative Affect	Scale of Positive and Negative Experience: SPANE	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline in Meaning in Life	Meaning in Life Questionnaire	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline in Thriving	Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving	Baseline, 3, 6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline Positive and Negative Memories Generated by Participants	In this task, participants list as many positive (and then negative) life events and then as many negative life events as they can in three minutes. Relative quantities of positive to negative life events that are listed demonstrate accessibility of positive and negative memories, which is an indicator of Subjective Well-Being.	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Healthy Behaviors	Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Perceived Stress	Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Depression	Patient Health Questionnaire-9	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Self-Esteem	Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Psychological Need Satisfaction: Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness	Need Satisfaction Scale	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Positive Behaviors	Peers will be asked to evaluate the participant on how frequently they engaged in a series of affect-related displays over the past week: smiling, laughing,	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Satisfaction With Life		Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Positive Affect		Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Negative Affect		Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Negative Behaviors	Peers will be asked to evaluate the participant on how frequently they engaged in a series of affect-related displays over the past week: crying, frowning, complaining, and criticizing.	Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Body Mass Index: BMI		Baseline, 3, 6 months
Change from Baseline Blood Pressure		Baseline, 3, 6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Virginia
• Collaborators: University of British Columbia

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Kushlev K, Heintzelman SJ, Lutes LD, Wirtz D, Kanippayoor JM, Leitner D, Diener E. Does Happiness Improve Health? Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial. Psychol Sci. 2020 Jul;31(7):807-821. doi: 10.1177/0956797620919673. Epub 2020 Jun 24.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 7, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 24, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): May 25, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 13, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 11, 2018
• Last Verified: April 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Emotion; Affect; Health; Happiness; Well-Being; Meaning in Life; Subjective Well-Being; Life Satisfaction; Behavioral Change; Goals; Psychological Flourishing
• Other Study ID Numbers: 20160044

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES