The Kids aren’t alright: A Brief Positive Psychological Intervention at high-school to increase wellbeing and academic motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have altered adolescents’ daily life and previous studies have reported that they are at high risk for mental health disorders given their needs and characteristics of this developmental period. Accordingly, we designed and implemented a brief Positive Psychological Intervention (PPI) to be delivered in high school classrooms to promote adolescents’ mental health and motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic. A pre-post experimental study design, with an intervention and a control group, was carried out to compare the two groups in terms of anxiety, academic motivation and performance. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) showed that participants in the PPI reported both a reduction in anxiety and an increase in global motivation levels compared to the control group. Regression analyses showed how anxiety was as a predictor of failing and reduced motivation at post-intervention, while the PPI was a significant predictor to explain increases in motivation, decreases in anxiety and failed subjects. These findings suggest that PPIs delivered at high-school classrooms could be a cost-effective and systemic solution to prevent mental health problems among adolescents during and after periods of pandemic restrictions.