1 Introduction

Higher education institutions around the world are facing tremendous challenges with regard to student well-being [64]. Indeed, a decrease in university students’ subjective well-being (SWB; i.e., one’s affective and cognitive appraisal of and satisfaction with one’s life; [34] is apparent around the world [21, 22]. Fortunately, university educators and administrators can catalyze positive changes in student SWB by redesigning both curricula [56] and university learning environments [4]. One curricular change educators and administrators can make to foster student SWB is the integration of positive education,Footnote 1 which are courses grounded in positive psychology, the study of optimal human functioning [55]. However, little attention has been devoted to exploring the students’ experiences and perceptions of changes in overall SWB as a result of taking a positive education course, a gap this study aimed to fill.

Positive psychology courses at higher education institutions be an accessible and affordable way to target student SWB as they can be offered to students of any age who wish to complete course credits without additional costs. Moreover, positive psychology courses have the potential to be intrinsically rewarding for students [45, 53], as they learn evidence-based strategies to improve their SWB while having the unique opportunity to put them into practice. As such, positive education courses have emerged across the globe, including the positive psychology courses offered at Harvard and Yale University, which were rated as the largest university class with 855 and 1182 students, respectively [51, 54].

Although positive education courses are not new, there is limited empirical evidence on the role of positive education in higher education institutions. The few studies that have reported on the impact of positive education on university students are promising [12, 13]. For example, in a sample of undergraduate psychology students, individuals who took a positive education course (n = 112) reported larger well-being gains compared to individuals who took another psychology course (n = 176, [58]). Three additional studies demonstrated that online positive education improved university students’ SWB [32, 65, 67], while two others showed that participating in an in-person undergraduate positive psychology course brought about increases in student SWB [41, 58]. Notwithstanding, most of these studies used quantitative designs to assess changes in SWB; thus, the students’ experiences and perceptions were not captured.

In addition to qualitatively exploring the experiences of students taking positive education courses, it has been recommended to identify the “ingredients” that contribute to positive education [58]. For example, as there are various topics taught in positive education courses that could influence SWB, it is crucial to explore them in detail. Better understanding the role of core concepts within positive education can be helpful for future replication of such courses. There are a few topics that researchers have reported consistently across studies on positive education and thus we chose to shed light on in our study. In fact, researchers have reported the SWB benefits of positive education are significantly positively associated with self-compassion [29], mindfulness [70], and optimism [66]. Self-compassion refers to the ability to treat oneself kindly in moments of failure, understanding that pain is a universal phenomenon, and being mindful of one’s thoughts and emotions [44]. Mindfulness is defined as one’s moment-to-moment awareness [11]. Finally, optimism is an indicator of SWB [17] that is characterized by having positive expectations for one’s future and striving to achieve one’s goals even when progress is slow or challenging [52].

To extend the existing literature, the present study sought to provide an in-depth exploration of university students’ experiences in a positive education course along with their perceptions of its influence on their SWB immediately after taking the course. As self-compassion, mindfulness, and optimism are three topics that were addressed in the course as well as mechanisms that could help explain the students’ changes in SWB, their perceptions of changes in these three variables were also assessed. This study will provide support for the beneficial role of positive education for student SWB. Practice and policy implications are also provided.

2 Methods

2.1 Philosophical paradigm and research design

This study was guided by a pragmatic stance, which allows researchers to use philosophical and methodological approaches that are most appropriate to answer the research question [30]. A pragmatic approach is ultimately focused on solving practical problems in real-world settings [25]. Functional pragmatism or “knowledge for action” [26], p. 90) is a form of pragmatism that views the purpose of knowledge as a practical tool to improve action [39]. As such, a generic qualitative research design and semi-structured interviews were employed to answer the research question.

2.2 Participants

Seventeen undergraduate students who had taken a Quality of Life (QOL) course during the Winter term of 2020 (January–April) at a large Canadian university volunteered to participate in this study. The participants must have completed the course, been absent for less than two classes, and completed all assignments to partake in the study, which was confirmed through an online learning platform.

2.3 Quality of life course

The positive education course under investigation was offered in both English and French in the Winter 2020 (January–April) semester for twelve weeks. The members of the class met once a week for a 3-h period. The course was taught in person for most of the semester until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the instructor to teach the last two classes online. The weekly topics and Quality Living Experiences (QLEs) included (1) happiness ingredients, (2) smiling, laughing, posture, touch, and slowness, (3) rest, breathing, sleeping, and mindfulness, (4) other therapeutic approaches (i.e. acceptance and commitment therapy and self-compassion), (5) stress management (i.e. thought control and time management), (6) leisure, physical activity, and yoga, (7) nature and screens/social media, (8) relationships, (9) gratitude and journaling, and (10) random acts of kindness, volunteering, and forgiveness. With each week and topic, there was an associated QLE that the students had to practice outside of class hours and complete a reflection on.

2.4 Procedures

Once ethical approval was obtained from the principal researcher’s Research Ethics Board, an email was circulated the last week of the course to obtain the emails of the students who were interested in participating. Once the final grades were submitted for the course (i.e. one month after the last class), the students who had given their emails were contacted to confirm their interest. After the students provided informed consent to partake in the study, an interview was scheduled at their convenience, which took place within three months following course completion. To ensure the safety of the participants due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all interviews were conducted via Zoom and audio-recorded with the participants’ permission.

The steps of data handling and management were as follows: (1) Data collection via semi-structured interviews, (2) data transcription from recorded interviews, and (3) data analysis by means of reflexive thematic analysis (TA; [9]. Semi-structured interviews were the chosen data collection method as they entail a set of pre-determined questions that guide the interview yet allow the researcher to elaborate, probe on topics relevant to the research question, and ask follow-up questions when needed [15]. A structured environment was created whereby the participants were aware of the study purpose and able to ask questions for clarification [1]. To maintain integrity throughout the data collection process, the researcher reiterated the participants’ experiences to ensure that the ensuing data are complete and undistorted. The interview guide comprised three primary questions created by the research team (Appendix A). For each variable (i.e. SWB, self-compassion, mindfulness, and optimism), the participants were asked to consider their experience taking the QOL course and describe in detail any changes, if any, they noticed in each variable from the class while giving examples of how they changed. Participants were given as much time as they needed to answer the questions. Saturation was achieved when redundancy occurred in new data, which signaled the end of data collection and the beginning of data analysis [27]. The interviewer also concluded each interview by asking the participants if there was anything else they wanted to add to provide them with a final opportunity to share their thoughts about the course. Demographic variables (i.e. gender, age, ethnicity, and the presence/absence of a mental illness) were collected at the end of the interview (Table 1).

Table 1 Participant demographic variables
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2.5 Data analysis

The interviews were transcribed verbatim, yielding 123 single-spaced pages of text. Reflexive TA was conducted to thoroughly explore the participants’ experiences during and after the course. An accessible and theoretically flexible tool, TA allows researchers to identify, analyze, and interpret patterns of meaning (or themes) within qualitative data [7]. Reflexive TA is characterized by a subjective analytical process that requires researchers to be both interpretative and reflexive of their preconceptions and how these may shape the coding and theme development [8]. To maintain reflexivity throughout the research process, the principal investigator kept a personal journal of their reasonings and emotional reactions to the data [63], which allowed them to monitor subjectivity, unpack their positionings, and reflect on their role in the data construction.

We adhered to Braun and Clarke’s [9] six stages of reflexive thematic analysis (Table 2). An abductive approach was employed to analyze the data. First, a deductive (i.e. a priori) analysis was conducted during which the data were coded considering the study’s variables (i.e. SWB, self-compassion, mindfulness, and optimism) and relevant topics (i.e. QLEs, class content, and lessons). Next, an inductive (i.e. a posteriori) analysis was employed wherein data were coded to explore in greater depth the meaning the participants gave to their experiences [62]. The data were then numerically coded by counting how often certain codes related to our themes were evident in the participants’ responses (Table 3). To promote consistency, the researchers met during the coding process to discuss gathered codes, which resulted in the modification and elimination of existing codes as well as the production of new ones.

Table 2 Employment of Braun and Clarke’s [9] stages of reflexive thematic analysis
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Table 3 Code frequency table
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3 Results

By engaging in the QLEs, class discussions, and self-reflections, all participants appeared to have experienced immediate SWB benefits by taking the QOL course. The reported benefits have been grouped by study variable, which double as overarching themes, and summarized in a conceptual model (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Generated themes grouped by overarching theme

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3.1 SWB

The participants described how changes in their well-being during and after the course manifested in their lives. The following subthemes were found to contribute to changes in SWB within the QOL students: increased Implementation and Appreciation of “Happiness Ingredients”, Enhanced Social Connection, and Cherished Solitude.

3.1.1 Increased implementation and appreciation of “happiness ingredients”

The first sub-theme that appeared to have improved the QOL students’ SWB is their awareness and increased implementation of their “happiness ingredients.” Specifically, the participants reported being more conscious of what made them happy. For instance, after jotting down their list of happiness ingredients, one participant “realized that the things that made [them] happiest were the things [they] didn’t do often enough.” Another participant came to the revelation that they too were neglecting their happiness ingredients: “[The class] made me realize how much I was maybe unhappy because I didn’t think about certain things or I wasn’t incorporating certain things in my life that I liked.” Becoming aware of one’s happiness ingredients called forth another type of reflexivity in a student: “When I do something, I kind of ask myself like ‘does this make me happy?’ And if not like ‘how can I make it like make me happier?’”.

This self-reflection, catalyzed by increased awareness, motivated many students to take their well-being into their own hands and begin including activities that bring them joy in their daily routine. Indeed, one of the participants explained: “This class made me realize how important it is to incorporate our happiness ingredients every day.” Parallel with this view, another participant reported learning through the class to “do something that makes you happy every day… just do one little thing for me, just for happiness.” By the end of the course, students had taken action and made changes to their schedules to increase their daily doses of happiness: “I am working on what gives me satisfaction or pleasure in life. Whenever I do find those moments, I keep them close. I do them again or I try to integrate them more into my life” said one participant; and “In my day, in general, I’ll do more things that make me happy than I used to” expressed another. Many students found this change relatively easy to make, as “there is always something you can do in the moment to make you happier, whether that’s like smiling or thinking of happiness ingredients and choosing to do one of those” mentioned one of the participants.

Learning to intentionally integrate positive activities into their calendars not only brought about favourable affective changes within the students (“I was a little more moody and like not always as joyful as I am now, but now I catch myself like smiling more and laughing more”), but also seems to have instilled a sense of appreciation for their own happiness ingredients. That is to say, many reported recognizing the importance of putting their happiness first. For example, one participant described “learning to place more value on what matters to you and what makes you happy” as not only their biggest happiness lesson from the course, but the takeaway that has benefited them the most. Likewise, another participant disclosed: “The small mundane things I do in my day that bring me happiness… if I know they bring me happiness, you know, I’ll like value them before many things.”

In addition to fueling positive emotions, valuing one’s happiness ingredients seemed to have promoted a healthy school-life balance for the students. For instance, after one participant had incorporated intentional positive activities in their schedule, they realized that they “had more than enough time to do [their] schoolwork, even with all [their] ingredients of happiness” and described this experience as “a really awesome wake-up call.” Another student mentioned realizing throughout the course that “school is important, but it’s not the most important thing in the world. Your well-being—physically, emotionally, and mentally—comes first. And, I honestly did not recognize that importance until I began [the QOL course].”

3.1.2 Social connection

One of the happiness ingredients several participants began to prioritize as the course progressed was their interpersonal relationships. For instance, one participant admitted that they did not make an effort to socialize prior to the course, as academic performance was of the utmost importance:

The last like three years, I was just focusing too much on school and just prioritizing that over everything and not actually seeing anybody for a bit, and I realized like it’s good to have a balance… It would be easy for me to say no to people if I didn’t take the class, because I didn’t realize how important it is to be with people.

For many, discovering that “a determinant of happiness is to be around people that you love” and that “it’s important to be surrounded by people… that you love and that love you back” consisted of another watershed moment that motivated the students to not only strengthen the social relationships they hold dear, but also let go of the ones that do not serve their happiness. For example, when asked to reflect on their top happiness lessons from the class, one participant responded “working hard to maintain good relationships and treating them like precious gems”. Along the same vein, another student mentioned learning during the course the benefits of “surround[ing] yourself with happy people” and revealed: “I have kind of distanced myself from [my group of friends] because I found myself not really to be included and that was having a negative impact on me.”

Aside from teaching the students to prioritize their social relationships and invest energy in the people who appreciate and reciprocate it, the class also promoted vulnerability and intimacy as key components of quality interpersonal relationships. When one participant described the helpfulness of the class during the pandemic, they confessed: “It has definitely opened me up a lot more… I was able to just finally let my feelings out and be super truthful and honest with the people closest to me.” Following the same train of thought, a student who had a history of being emotionally distant recalled a stressor they had experienced during the semester and shared: “To calm myself down, I talked to my parents about it, which was kind of a big deal because, before… anything to do with my feelings, I wouldn’t really talk about.”

3.1.3 Cherished solitude

Learning to take and cherish time for oneself was another prominent theme within the participants’ experiences that may explain their increases in SWB. Drawing on slowness and savouring, both of which were discussed in the course, students learned to embrace solitude and even treasure this restorative alone time. For example, when asked to explain how the students implemented the lessons from the course, a participant described their new ritual of slowing down and solitude: “Making coffee and appreciating the smell and the process behind that, making a good breakfast, doing some stretches, giving myself time before jumping right into my work.” Relatedly, another student reported now enjoying what they call “relax nights” characterized by reading books in a candle-lit environment devoid of electronics and social media. Other participants mentioned meditation and mindful walks (i.e. two QLEs presented in the course) as essential elements to their alone time. Another participant reflected: “I don’t necessarily feel bad now about taking care of myself… I'm more accepting of my decision to take this time for myself.” Thus, participants were taught that, just like interpersonal relationships, solitude plays an imperative role in one’s well-being. Quality alone time is an act of self-love that requires one to not only cherish solitude, but also allow self-compassion (in lieu of self-judgment) to take the lead.

3.2 Self-compassion

During the interviews, almost all participants discussed the course’s positive impact on their self-compassion and its three subcomponents. Indeed, having a gentle stance towards oneself during moments of suffering, recognizing one’s shared humanity, and being mindful of one’s painful thoughts and emotions were commonly acquired within the group.

3.2.1 Self-kindness

Before learning about self-kindness, many participants reported being self-critical. For example, one participant spoke about the changes they had noticed in their self-compassion as the class progressed and said: “I learned to be not so hard on myself lately… If something is unattainable for me, I would usually say ‘I’m not good enough for it’ or ‘why would you do this to yourself?’ or ‘why are you like this?’” Relinquishing unrealistic expectations, perfectionism, and self-induced pressure is a means by which many students appeared to express self-kindness: “I’m not super hard on myself when I don’t know what I’m going to do next week or next month or by the end of the year when it comes to school or work or family life” divulged one participant. Another shared they were “not expecting so much out of everything [they do], not holding any prior opinions or doubts that [they] may have about something [they are] about to do” after taking the course. The following general statement also upholds the class’s anti-perfectionistic teachings: “It’s taught me to be kind to myself, be compassionate as well, and remind myself I’m doing my best.”

Some participants learned to be gentle with themselves by taking breaks and resting regularly without feeling guilty. As one student was discussing their recent change of being okay with taking days off, they added: “I’ve learned I come back the next day, the next two days stronger. So, I find I’ve been kinder to myself in that way.” Later in the interview, they recounted “remembering that it’s okay to be down, it’s okay to feel frustrated, it’s okay to just feel so restless with everything going on” while facing pandemic-related stress, which is another way they and other participants put self-kindness into practice throughout the course.

3.2.2 Common humanity

Most of the participants demonstrated an understanding of one’s shared humanity along with an ease to connect their flawed condition to the human condition. Rather than feeling isolated in their pain, many perceived personal hardships as part of the human experience. “We all go through something… suffering is part of being human”, “knowing, kind of, you’re not alone in it. Like, everyone has bad days”, and “I take more time to acknowledge that everyone feels like that, we’re all the same. When I realize that, I don’t feel as bad anymore” are a few of the numerous extracts that denote the participants’ newly acquired sense of common humanity. Recognizing the shared human experience also led to increased acceptance of the self and one’s life circumstances. As one participant expressed: “I know everyone, all my friends, pretty much everyone in the world has those thoughts about themselves and I know it’s okay to feel like that.”

The class discussions appeared to foster the students’ ability to see pain as a universal phenomenon, and the following participant quotations attest to this: “I loved it when people shared stuff because I was able to connect with them”, “It’s cool to be able to relate with other students… and to like go through the same struggles have the same questionings”, and “Just the fact that we were all there as a family, sharing our stories, was really fun and empowering.” According to several participants, the professor and teaching assistants played an instrumental role in creating this collaborative, receptive environment in which the students were invited (and felt comfortable) to share their reasonings and experiences: “[They] did a great job fostering engagement and conversation. I found it was important… I love to talk about things like, the good parts of my week, the bad parts of my week, and like listen to everyone else’s story.”

Considering “there was no judgement and everyone was so open and willing to share” in class, a genuine camaraderie seemed to have developed between the students as the semester progressed: “We have feedback from people who are going through very similar situations, who are somewhat in the same stage of life. And, it was fun to be able to really relate with other students.” This sense of homogeneity interwoven with belonging that arose from the heart-to-heart discussions in the classroom promoted a connection with not only their fellow students, but arguably humanity. Indeed, such discussions reminded the students: “Things happen and this is part of life and I know I’m feeling like this in the moment but it’ll pass.” Here also lies a newfound wisdom that propelled the students on the path of mindfulness.

3.2.3 Mindfulness

As the students learned to be both kind to themselves during moments of suffering and cognizant of those moments as part of the human experience, they also cultivated an openness to this suffering. By the end of the course, most participants were able to acknowledge and hold their pain with mindful awareness. Foremost, they began catching their negative self-talk in the moment and heartening the tone of their inner voice: “You’re not treating yourself nicely. Maybe you can reword that in your mind to be a little bit nicer, more encouraging” one of the participants reported telling themselves after noticing their unkind thoughts. Another participant who often dealt with similar thoughts reported being able to “reverse those thoughts and think, you know, ‘it’s okay that this happened’ and then um ‘it’s okay to think these things even if they’re not necessarily true’” due to teachings in mindfulness. As shown in these responses, students could combine and apply self-kindness and mindfulness when facing difficult thoughts in their daily lives to enhance their SWB.

As a result of being more mindful, participants also came to embrace reality and personal inadequacy with acceptance. For instance, one student confessed: “I kind of learned how to be more accepting of what I was considering to be flaws and realizing they were not as big as I actually thought they were” while another stated “not beating [them] self up for having intrusive thoughts… and just telling [them]self ‘it’s okay.’” In line with this view, one student emphasized: “It’s okay to feel a certain way, just be more aware of those thoughts, don’t try to fix them.” As conveyed by the frequent use of the words “It’s okay.”, participants learned throughout the course to welcome their painful thoughts and feelings with open arms.

With this acceptance came a willingness to truly feel and embrace one’s unpleasant emotions. Just like the students were taught to give themselves permission to be vulnerable, they were also taught to let themselves get in touch with their feelings: “I’ve never allowed myself to… after we had seen what self-compassion was, I was like… ‘it’s okay to, like, feel these emotions’” said one participant. Similarly, another participant shared: “Any time I’m super anxious or more so when I’m really sad or a really sad thing happens… I’ll allow myself to feel those emotions.” During the interviews, it became clear that the students were able to apply this mindful awareness to not only their thoughts and emotions, but also their present moment experience.

3.3 Mindfulness

Mindfulness was undoubtedly one of the most discussed topics during the participant interviews. In fact, multiple students reported practicing mindfulness formally and informally as a result of the class, which enhanced their present moment awareness of both internal and external events.

3.3.1 Awareness of internal events

Numerous students reported developing an ability to maintain a moment-by-moment awareness of their internal states, including their thoughts and emotions. First, “learning more about introspection and paying attention to what you’re thinking when you’re thinking it” seemed to have helped students improve their relationship with their thoughts. This skill was also useful when the students found themselves thinking about the past or future: “It’s helped me to… stay grounded and stay in the present. Not worry too much about the future because there’s only so little I can control and not worry about the past, because it’s gone.” Several participants also learned to remain calm and undisturbed by negative experiences rather than get swept away by undesirable emotions. As one participant noted:

Before the class, I was used to focusing so much on all the small things and all of the emotions and every bad event that came. Because I’d focus on it, it would kind of blow up and be more than it was. Now, I am learning to dial that down a little bit and see them as clouds passing by.

Evident in the participant’s account, the course also appeared to promote emotional awareness. A few excerpts that display this acquired awareness are the following: “I’m more aware if I get like angry”, “I am able to control better that thought pattern, and just stop myself from spiraling out of control”, and “If something goes wrong, instead of freaking out, I try to, like… take a moment, pause.” As can be observed, the participants were not only more in tune with their emotions, but also better able to regulate them by taking a step back when they feel triggered. For example, one participant reported asking themself during challenging circumstances: “May I chose happiness? Do I want to choose happiness?”, acknowledging that “there are times when it’s okay to be sad” and that “it’s important to have that discussion with yourself.” With an increased receptiveness to the reality of the present moment, students developed their interoceptive awareness, which also translated into a greater mindfulness and appreciation of their external experiences.

3.3.2 Awareness of external events and savouring

In addition to gaining an awareness of their internal events, several participants also became more aware of their surrounding environment. Rather than living life on autopilot, participants mentioned intentionally focusing on where they are and who they are with, listening to the sounds around them, and being generally more mindful while eating, cooking, gardening, spending time outdoors, sitting on their patio, and especially walking. With awe walks being one of the most popular QLEs among the participants, many noticed a positive shift in their present moment awareness when they ambled outdoors: “I remember kind of vividly like walking to and from class… I used to just zone out and walk, but after we did that class, I found myself paying attention to how I was walking, what I was looking at…” Furthermore, the screen detox played a significant role in fostering students’ mindfulness as well. As one participant said:

If I’m going for a walk, I’ll put in more of an effort to like put my phone away, like… not be like texting or anything while I’m on that walk, you know, kind of watching my surroundings and like appreciating the things around me a bit more.

With a focused attention on the here-and-now (and a distance from their devices), the students were better able to not only tap into their senses and attend to external stimuli, but also “be happy in the moment and, like, with the process” and savour life’s small joys. By “living in the present moment and enjoying every moment of it, rather than worrying and thinking about the what ifs or what will happen next” or “stressing and living a fast-paced life”, many students acknowledged and appreciated the little things in life more, as portrayed by the following extracts: “The class really helped me find more joy in the little things and not overlooking them or neglecting them”, “I recognize these little things that really give me a lot of happiness… in the moment”, “During the semester, I found I was more enjoying the small things”, and “going outside for a walk and just being thankful for these little things around me.” Imbued with mindful appreciation, these responses vouch for the students’ discovery that “happiness doesn’t have to come from big things”, which compelled them to savour the small joys they once mindlessly took for granted and get more out of their day-to-day experiences. It is not surprising that one of the participants described “being more engrossed in” and “enjoying the activities that already brought [them] pleasure, even more” thanks to the class.

In sum, engaging in mindfulness helped students become aware of what was happening in their mind, body, and environment. This gained awareness motivated participants to pay attention to internal and external events and, when needed, “make the right changes so that [they] can be happier.” For many, this included having a more positive outlook on life.

3.4 Optimism

The course’s optimism-enhancing qualities stroke as being a shared perspective among many of the participants. Indeed, most students experienced a positive mindset shift from taking the class, which enabled them to broaden their perspective and view trials and tribulations from a positive vantage point.

3.4.1 Big picture thinking

A large portion of the participants’ accounts were characterized by a sense of positivity and hopefulness. For instance, “[I] look at every positive side of every situation”, “I try to see like the good side of things”, “I envision positive things and I have a positive outlook on [the future]” and other sentences along those lines were uttered by multiple participants. Viewing life through a brighter lens appeared to have offered numerous advantages to the students, such as widening their perspective. In fact, many participants reported “not caring as much for the smaller details and looking at the bigger happy picture” and taking a “step back from the situation and see[ing] the grander scheme of things” in the face of difficulties.

This capability to gain perspective and see the entire picture when adversity strikes likely stemmed from the students’ newly acquired mindfulness skills, which entails acknowledging the impermanence of life circumstances: “I knew this would be a short-term thing and was optimistic I was gonna get out of that situation. I reminded myself it was just temporary” expressed one participant; and “things happen and this is part of life and I know I’m feeling like this in the moment but it’ll pass” said another. By adopting a mindful awareness of their unpleasant feelings and their evanescence, the students were better equipped to face obstacles and remain positive. As one student disclosed: “Whenever I’m going through, like, an episode or something that’s just not going well, I just think… ‘this is not permanent, just deal with it, just embrace it, and then just know that it’s going to be a brighter day.’” In addition to broadening their perspectives, the students also demonstrated an ability to reframe tough situations and engage in positive self-talk.

3.4.2 Positive reframing and self-talk

Students learned to employ an optimistic inner voice to overcome misfortunes: “You’re doing great, like, things are maybe not as great now, but they’re never as bad as, like, you think they are” and “you’re gonna be okay and you’ll find a light at the end of the tunnel” are two more participants’ inner monologues that exemplify their use of positive self-talk as a coping mechanism during tough situations. Thanks to the course, participants showed a tendency to perceive challenging situations from a positive standpoint. As a matter of fact, most participants appeared to believe that one grows through adversity, as “there is always something good that comes from the bad.” One response marked by an adeptness to think positively during hardships is the following:

If something stressful were to happen to me, I would say ‘well, you know what? I’m thankful that I have a nice support system that’s there to help me out through these harder times’ or if university gets hard I’ll think about how I’m doing this for a reason and even though things get a little more difficult… it made me become a stronger person in general.

Espoused through the class, this half-glass-full mentality not only changed the way students perceive their painful experiences, but also improved their ability to cope with and recover from them. Detecting their unhelpful thoughts and reframing them in a positive light is one of the means by which participants bounced back from their setbacks. This can be done by leveraging one’s self-compassion (e.g. “I used to blame myself for a lot of things. And I always try to, like, spin it around, like have a sort of like a constructive, positive mindset”) or mindfulness:

I just find myself being more aware of negative thoughts when they are in my mind and I am able to tell if they are constructive or destructive. If I do find they are not helpful, I am able to switch them to a positive.

Hence, positive reframing helps the students see the good in difficult situations and, consequently, goes hand in hand with big picture thinking. Fostering a broadened and brighter perspective of everyday challenges, both techniques promote students’ positivity. This optimistic attitude, in turn, complements the students’ self-compassion and mindfulness skills in improving their SWB. It is therefore tenable that the class was designed to fill up students’ toolboxes with techniques that can be not only applied individually but combined to optimize their overall SWB.

4 Discussion

In this study, we sought to qualitatively explore the impact of an undergraduate positive education course on student SWB, self-compassion, mindfulness, and optimism. Our discussions with university students provide support for positive education’s effectiveness in promoting all SWB, with self-compassion, mindfulness, and optimism all being key contributing topics. Upon further examination, our data revealed that students increased their SWB by virtue of greater awareness, implementation, and appreciation of what brings them happiness. This finding speaks volumes considering 35% of the participants identified as having a mental illness. Moreover, our results are especially relevant considering the high prevalence of mental health problems among university students [35, 43].

A novel finding from our study is the positive role of self-reflection in student SWB. According to the construal theory of happiness, happiness is determined by what people make of their experiences and how they interpret the world around them [38]. Moreover, cognitive processes such as self-reflection have been shown to mediate the effects of one’s experience and perceived happiness [23, 31]. Our findings extend existing literature by showing that self-reflection can be developed through positive education and may create a positive feedback loop between intentional positive activities and perceived happiness. Considering the beneficial role of self-reflection on student SWB, positive education instructors ought to incorporate self-reflective activities within class discussions and individual evaluation assessments.

Another noteworthy contribution of our study is the identification of key topics or ingredients that contribute to student SWB from the course. Two key topics that were evident as SWB facilitators among our participants were improved social connection and cherished solitude. By valuing and building their interpersonal relationships while also carving out time for themselves, participants demonstrated assimilation of key course topics. For example, two of the class topics and QLEs that are oriented towards building strong relationships with the self and others are slowness and random acts of kindness, which have been found to generate SWB benefits [14, 24]. Our results shed light on the importance of developing a balance between social connection and quality alone time. While there is a wealth of evidence on the benefits of social connection, solitude as a construct appears to be understudied in positive education research. Given that solitude can reduce stress, anxiety, and anger as well as increase relaxation and calmness [46], our results not only contribute to the literature, but also provide further credence to the effectiveness of positive education in ameliorating SWB.

Other key ingredients in the course for student SWB were self-compassion and mindfulness. Although learning in the classroom and completing the related QLEs likely played a role in augmenting the students’ self-compassion and mindfulness, the class environment could have also played a positive role. This finding is supported by other programs and courses on self-compassion, which are predominantly conducted in a group setting to foster a sense of common humanity [2, 60]. Regarding mindfulness, an important mental skill that some of the participants appeared to have acquired through the course is cognitive defusion, which involves observing one’s thoughts from a distance rather than immersing oneself in them [37]. Unsurprisingly, engaging in cognitive defusion rather than dwelling on one’s thoughts has been linked to increased SWB [19].

The course also seemed to have promoted emotional intelligence within the students, which includes being aware of one’s emotions and harnessing this emotional awareness to manage one’s responses to various situations and people [40]. For many, this newfound emotional intelligence translated into decreased emotional reactivity to stressors, which appeared to have improved the students’ overall self-regulation (i.e. one’s capacity to adjust one’s behaviour to a wide range of social and situational demands [5]. Our findings are promising as both self-compassion and mindfulness have been empirically linked to SWB [10, 28, 68] and negatively correlated with depression [20, 36]. Overall, the participants’ improvements in self-compassion and mindfulness—despite the few classes focused on these topics—suggest positive education’s ability to support these two SWB indicators.

The last key topic that the participants reported on was being more optimistic as a result of taking the QOL course. This big picture thinking yields many SWB benefits, such as fostering emotional balance in response to stressors [42], which goes hand in hand with self-regulation. Participants also developed an ability to cast negative experiences in a positive light (i.e. positive reframing; [16] and engage in positive self-talk, two coping strategies that are associated with enhanced SWB [48, 49]. Our findings add to the literature that appraises the associations between optimism and positive education and are promising given the plethora of advantages that accompany having an optimistic perceptive. For example, optimism is positively correlated with decreased levels of distress, as well as improved quality of life [59], longevity [33], and academic achievement [61], the latter being particularly important for university students.

4.1 Practice and policy implications

This study provides support for the beneficial role that positive education plays on student SWB. This finding is especially relevant today as students score lower on SWB compared to students 20 years ago [57]. Moreover, Donald and Jackson [22] reported that SWB scores dropped dramatically in university students in the United Kingdom between March 2020 and September 2021. Having positive education courses embedded within university programs could alleviate the stressors of doing additional work to enhance SWB beyond schoolwork. In fact, high academic demands and financial instability are two primary stressors for university students [47, 50], Rather than paying for and taking the time to enroll in and complete additional courses or programs to improve one’s SWB, positive education could provide a viable alternative. Ultimately, positive education could improve alarmingly high student mental health disorder rates [3], thereby helping alleviate financial burden on clinical services and the healthcare system at large (e.g. by preventing long-term disability [69].

Our study also provides insight into the “ingredients” to positive education (as recommended by Smith et al. [58]). It is important to note that the key facilitators for student SWB identified in our study can be easily replicated in other institutions offering positive education courses. For example, self-reflection activities can be incorporated into individual evaluation assessments. Additionally, different types of learning strategies can be incorporated into the course such as practical activities to implement topics learned and group discussions. Overall, positive education has the potential to be scaled at large and provide benefits to not only students, but also higher education institutions. Good quality schools, in turn, make for mentally healthier students.

4.2 Limitations and future research

A noteworthy limitation of this study is that it was conducted with a specific cohort of students from a human kinetics program, which prevents us from generalizing the results to the broader university student population. Future researchers may want to include students from other faculties in their sample to analyze the potential influence of study program on SWB benefits from the course. It is also possible that the research participants volunteered to participate in this study because they had a more positive class experience than those who did not. To avoid this self-selection bias, researchers could resort to simple random or systematic sampling methods in similar future inquiries [6]. Finally, the present study’s design did not allow for the experimental examination of the mechanisms for change in positive education with regard to student SWB. Future researchers ought to adopt a mixed methods approach and experimentally analyze the associations between helpful class components and student SWB, self-compassion, mindfulness, and optimism.

5 Conclusion

In seeking to qualitatively explore university students’ experiences in and perceptions of a positive education course, it was found that the course promoted SWB, self-compassion, mindfulness, and optimism, as reported by the participants. The students’ overwhelmingly positive experience in their QOL class uphold the importance of providing structured positive education-based courses to improve SWB across university campuses. Considering the QOL course under investigation improved all student well-being variables after one semester, positive education is an effective SWB promotion strategy to implement in postsecondary contexts. University professors and academic staff may consider offering positive education courses or imbedding well-being programs in extant classes to foster student SWB. The discussed mechanisms that were found to underpin the relationship between positive education and its perceived benefits will be useful for shaping future interventions, theories, and research geared towards student SWB.