Plenary Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Bringing positive psychology home: Positive families and strength-based parenting (#74)

Lea Waters 1
  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

“A healthy family is necessary for a healthy society” (Shapiro, 2004, p. 27). Of all the settings where positive psychology interventions are being applied and tested, families are arguably one of the most important given the sheer number of families in our society and given the research showing that family happiness has a significant impact on both parent and child wellbeing, has a demonstrated spillover effect into the parent’s work life and the child’s school life and has a long term legacy on the child’s mental health as they grow into adulthood. This presentation will showcase the research findings on family happiness and strength-based parenting collected from Australia, Turkey, Peru, Isreal, USA, Germany, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan using a host of different methods including survey research, vignette studies, dyadic studies, intervention studies, longitudinal studies and panel designs. Studies will be presented that explore the role of strength-based parenting in everyday life, in parental happiness, in children’s academic grades, in the life satisfaction of teenagers, in LGBTQ+ people coming out, in people recovering from trauma and in the aftermath of Covid-19. This presentation will also showcase some of the practical positive psychology family interventions for audience members to take home with them.

  • Keywords: Family, Parenting