Wellbeing Matters in Kuwait: The Alnowair’s Bareec Education Initiative

Wellbeing is predictive of improved learning outcomes, better mental health, prosocial and civic behavior, higher work productivity, and enhanced life satisfaction. Given that literature in support of wellbeing is robust, it is incumbent on local communities to put this research into practice and develop culturally-competent programs that promote the skills to increase it. In collaboration with Alnowair, a non-profit organization committed to increasing wellbeing in Kuwait, a semester-long positive psychology program, called Bareec, was designed to generate positive emotions and increase levels of flourishing in university and secondary school students. The Bareec program consisted of 15-min weekly instructions in positive psychology and positive psychology interventions. To test the program’s efficacy, Bareec was implemented in the national public university and in 10 secondary schools (total N = 977). Relative to control groups, Bareec university participants showed greater levels of flourishing (eudaimonic wellbeing; d =.32), while secondary school participants showed enhanced positive affect (hedonic wellbeing; d =.27) in addition to a small improvement in flourishing (d =.15).