Positive psychology and school-based interventions

Conceptual Foundations and Value of Positive Psychology and Public Health Perspectives The contemporary zeitgeist in the fi eld of psychology refl ects both positive psychology (Linley, Joseph, Harrington, & Wood, 2006; Peterson, 2006; Snyder & Lopez, 2007) and a public health framework (Hunter, 2003; Merrell & Buchanan, 2006; Strein, Hoagwood, & Cohn, 2003). Positive psychology emphasizes that wellness is more than the absence of disease symptoms (Huebner & Gilman, 2003; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) and advocates a change from a preoccupation with addressing defi cits to also promoting mental health and well-being (Miller, Gilman, & Martens, 2008). Th e public health framework emphasizes the collective well-being of populations, including the social aspects of health and preventive education. Th us, within a public health framework, both risk and protective factors of populations are nested within community levels and interact with individual factors to infl uence risk for or protection from deleterious outcomes (Strein et al., 2003). Th e intersection of positive psychology and public health frameworks is refl ected in the increasing focus on the promotion of health and wellness, in contrast to an exclusive focus on the reduction of disease (Mason & Linnenberg, 1999; Masten, 2001; Miller et al., 2008).