Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement (ENHANCE)

• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02782611
• Recruitment Status: Completed
• First Posted: May 25, 2016
• Last Update Posted: April 13, 2018
• Sponsor: University of Virginia
• Collaborator: University of British Columbia
• Information provided by (Responsible Party): Kostadin Kushlev, University of Virginia

Study Description

Brief Summary:

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.

Condition or disease	Intervention/treatment	Phase
Happiness	Behavioral: ENHANCE: Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement	Not Applicable

Study Design

• Study Type: Interventional (Clinical Trial)
• Actual Enrollment: 154 participants
• Allocation: Randomized
• Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)
• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Official Title: Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement
• Study Start Date: April 2016
• Actual Primary Completion Date: June 2017
• Actual Study Completion Date: June 30, 2017

Arms and Interventions

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.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures :

1. Change from Baseline Satisfaction With Life [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   Satisfaction With Life Scale
2. Change from Baseline in Positive Affect [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   Scale of Positive and Negative Experience: SPANE
3. Change from Baseline in Negative Affect [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   Scale of Positive and Negative Experience: SPANE
4. Change from Baseline in Meaning in Life [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   Meaning in Life Questionnaire
5. Change from Baseline in Thriving [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving

Secondary Outcome Measures :

1. Change from Baseline Positive and Negative Memories Generated by Participants [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   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.
2. Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Positive Behaviors [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   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,
3. Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Satisfaction With Life [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
4. Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Positive Affect [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
5. Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Negative Affect [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
6. Change from Baseline Peer Reports of Negative Behaviors [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   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.
7. Change from Baseline Healthy Behaviors [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
8. Change from Baseline Perceived Stress [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
9. Change from Baseline Depression [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
   Patient Health Questionnaire-9
10. Change from Baseline Self-Esteem [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
    Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
11. Change from Baseline Psychological Need Satisfaction: Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
    Need Satisfaction Scale
12. Change from Baseline Body Mass Index: BMI [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]
13. Change from Baseline Blood Pressure [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3, 6 months ]

Eligibility Criteria

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

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants ages 25 to 75

Exclusion Criteria:

• Major Depression

Contacts and Locations

Locations

United States, Virginia

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, 22904-4400

Canada, British Columbia

University of British Columbia

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, V1V1V7

Sponsors and Collaborators

University of Virginia

University of British Columbia

More Information

Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):

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.

• Responsible Party: Kostadin Kushlev, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Virginia
• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02782611
• Other Study ID Numbers: 20160044
• First Posted: May 25, 2016
• Last Update Posted: April 13, 2018
• Last Verified: April 2018

Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:

• Plan to Share IPD: Yes

Keywords provided by Kostadin Kushlev, University of Virginia:

Happiness; Subjective Well-Being; Psychological Flourishing; Well-Being; Health; Behavioral Change; Life Satisfaction; Affect; Emotion; Goals; Meaning in Life