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Group‐based psycho‐educational interventions offer a cost‐effective solution to meeting the very high level of demand for psychological services in primary care. This qualitative study investigated reasons for dropout from an established psychoeducational course programme in Swindon and Wiltshire. Ninety people were followed up by telephone who had attended at least one session of a course over a three‐month period. Reasons stated for dropout were more often related to personal circumstances such as other commitments and ill health (75%), than to dissatisfaction with the courses (25%). It is concluded that providing group‐based interventions for common mental health problems is acceptable to patients in primary care and that service development should focus on making such interventions flexible and accessible to patients.

An ideal learning analytics tool for programming exercises performs the role of a lecturer who monitors the code development, provides customized support and identifies students at risk to drop out. But a reliable prediction and prevention of drop-out is difficult, due to the huge problem space in programming tasks and variety of solutions and programming strategies. The purpose of this paper is to tackle this problem by, first, identifying activity patterns that indicate students at risk; and, second, finding reasons behind specific activity pattern, for identification of instructional interventions that prevent drop-out.

The authors combine two investigation strategies: first, learning analytic techniques (decision trees) are applied on features gathered from students, while completing programming exercises, in order to classify predictors for drop-outs. Second, the authors determine cognitive, motivational and demographic learner characteristics based on a questionnaire. Finally, both parts are related with a correlation analysis.

It was possible to identify generic variables that could predict early and later drop-outs. For students who drop out early, the most relevant variable is the delay time between availability of the assignment and the first login. The correlation analysis indicates a relation with prior programming experience in years and job occupation per week. For students who drop out later in the course, the number of errors within the first assignment is the most relevant predictor, which correlates with prior programming skills.

The findings indicate a relation between activity patterns and learner characteristics. Based on the results, the authors deduce instructional interventions to support students and to prevent drop-outs.

Despite the importance of increasing engagement and minimising attrition and drop‐out in parenting interventions, there is a paucity of empirical evidence examining factors related to engagement and participation. The range of factors examined in relation to engagement is generally limited in scope and variety, focusing on variables of convenience rather than utilising a theoretically‐driven approach.The aim of this article is to review the factors related to parental engagement with interventions and to describe strategies and implications for improving engagement with parenting interventions. Several policy and practice implications are identified: (1) Poor parental engagement may threaten or compromise the capacity of parenting programmes to deliver valued outcomes. Viable engagement strategies need to be a core part of prevention and early intervention parenting programmes; (2) Agencies delivering parenting services need a proactive engagement strategy, which includes strategies to prevent drop‐out, as well as strategies to actively respond to parental disengagement; (3) Research is needed to test the efficacy and robustness of different engagement enhancement strategies. Empirical tests are needed to test the effectiveness of different engagement strategies in order to ensure that the most efficient, cost‐effective and efficacious approach is used in order to engage parents. Investment of research effort to improve parental engagement is likely to have a high yield in terms of programme efficiency, utility and cost effectiveness. We conclude that research examining how to improve engagement and decrease non‐completion is needed to strengthen the population level value of parenting programmes as preventive interventions.

Presents the results of an investigation into effective methods of peer‐led sexual health promotion work with young gay and bisexual men. The study recruited a group of young gay and bisexual men from Southampton who underwent training to participate in a peer‐led sexual health intervention in which they conducted one‐to‐one interviews with a selection of their peers. Reports briefly on the key learning to arise from the process of recruiting and training peer educators, and in greater depth concerning the quasi‐experimental evaluation of the intervention the peer educators participated in to promote sexual health. The study found that rapport and familiarity between project workers and potential recruits aided the recruitment process, and that informal, confidence‐building activities were key factors in the effectiveness of the peer educators’ training. The peer educators were most effective in terms of information provision, but weaker on the exploration of attitudes and beliefs, or the encouragement of safer sexual behaviour. The advantages associated with the intervention included its ability to target individuals in a range of community settings, to stimulate in‐depth discussion about sexual health, to identify individual needs and to facilitate outcome evaluation over time.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of an individual oriented positive psychology intervention on positive emotions, self‐efficacy, and work engagement.

The online self‐enhancement intervention program consists of three types of online assignments: happiness assignments, goal setting assignments, and resource building assignments. The authors expected the self‐enhancement intervention group to show a significantly stronger increase in the outcome variables compared to a self‐monitoring control group.

The results revealed that the self‐enhancement group showed a stronger increase in positive emotions and self‐efficacy compared to the control group, but not on engagement. Additional analyses showed that the positive effects of the self‐enhancement intervention are present for employees who are initially low in engagement, but not for those medium or high in engagement.

The study was conducted via a semi‐public web site. The participants were all working in different organizations throughout the country and did not have the advantage of having the support of their supervisors and colleagues who were participating in a similar intervention.

Positive psychology interventions should target employees who are low in engagement, because they have the most unused potential and therefore have more to gain.

Traditionally speaking, individual interventions are carried out when something is wrong or malfunctioning, and with the sole objective of fixing it. The intervention presented in this paper includes the entire workforce, because it is based on the belief that improving employee well‐being is relevant for all.

A feasibility study of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) as an adjunct to individual placement and support (IPS) with adults with severe mental illness showed that fewer people who received CBT dropped out and more obtained jobs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the adjunct CBT programme worked. CBT used a problem-solving approach to address common psychological barriers to employment.

Baseline and six-month follow-up scores were compared on measures of problem solving, executive functioning, fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem, and stigma.

At baseline, the majority of the 23 participants scored within the normal range on measures. Around half of the participants showed improvement in social problem solving, executive functioning, and fear of negative evaluation. General improvements in self-esteem were seen. Change in the expected areas according to module choice was evident, however this was inconsistent.

Many participants were within normal ranges on the measures at baseline. Offering participants a choice of topics led to some people having few sessions, possibly too few to produce benefits. Although the modules on offer targeted commonly experienced problems, they may not have been the most important to these participants.

CBT does appear to enhance IPS but the mechanisms by which this occurs is unclear. To improve adjunct CBT, there is a need to clarify the most beneficial targets and identify the mechanisms by which CBT may augment IPS.

This study begins to identify the processes by which CBT can enhance IPS for adults with severe mental illness.

Based on New Nordic Cuisine and Nordic dietary recommendations, the research centre OPUS has developed a healthy, sustainable and tasty New Nordic Diet (NND) with the goal of improving public health in Denmark. In order to determine the health potential of the NND, a six-month, controlled dietary intervention trial was conducted, in which participants procured NND foods at a specially designed intervention supermarket and prepared and consumed NND meals in their homes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A qualitative sociological study was conducted among intervention participants in order to explore whether and how they appropriated this diet into their everyday food practices.

Participants appropriated the NND by becoming co-producers of this diet, tailoring it to accord with individual preferences and the demands of everyday life. Findings indicate that while the taste of the NND is likely to appeal to wider groups of consumers, the tasks of food procurement and preparation are likely to constitute barriers to its adoption. The strictly controlled intervention setting enabled participants to learn how to comply with dietary composition despite their deviations from given menu-plans and recipes. The extent to which such compliance would be achieved outside this context by other consumers is questioned. Further studies are needed to determine whether more widespread consumption of the NND would in practice comply with Nordic dietary recommendations.

The study provides insights relevant to health agencies, public health researchers and food companies regarding consumer appropriation of a dietary system, the health benefits of which are dependent upon dietary compliance.

The sustainability of higher education institutions is affected various things, particularly by student satisfaction and the financial stability of the institution. An analysis of student attrition and retention plays a vital role in assessing the sustainability of a higher education institution. Using suitable analysis techniques to do success profiling of prospective and current students is crucial for students and institutions alike. Success/risk estimation is essential for any higher education institution (HEI), because determining such factors can assist higher education institutions in fulfilling their obligation to provide support, guidance and interventions for their prospective and existing students. Strategic decisions in this regard, by both students and institutions, should be based on valid and reliable profiles. The validation of established profiles increases the accuracy of existing profiles and increases the efficiency of institutional strategic planning. This article reports on the validation of a success profile for first year Accounting students established by the authors of this article in an earlier study in an open and distance learning (ODL) environment at the University of South Africa.

Syrian refugees in the Netherlands frequently suffer from mental health problems. It is argued that mental health not only consists of the absence of psychiatric disorders but also of the presence of mental well-being. However, there is little attention to the mental well-being of refugees, and no intervention exists that focuses on fostering the mental well-being of refugees. Therefore, the new culturally sensitive positive psychology intervention “Mosaic” was developed and implemented in collaboration with the target audience and local partners. Mosaic is offered in the Arabic language, and the content is focused on (re)finding purpose in life and (re)discovering life values and subsequently acting upon these values. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of Mosaic on the mental well-being of Syrians in the Netherlands.

The effect of Mosaic on the mental well-being of Syrians in the Netherlands is assessed by conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a waitlist control group.

Postintervention within sample t-tests showed that the intervention group (n = 66) experienced significantly more overall mental well-being, emotional well-being and purpose in life right after participating in the intervention when compared to the preintervention measurement. The effect on purpose in life persisted six months later. These improvements were not found among the control group (n = 60).

Mosaic is the first positive psychology intervention in the Netherlands that was developed for and in collaboration with Syrian refugees. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is also the first study in the Netherlands and one of the first ones in Europe that assesses the effect of positive psychology for refugees specifically.

Preventing burnout and promoting psychological well-being in nurses are of great importance. In this study the effect of an online, stand-alone individualized preventive program for nurse burnout based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is described and explained.

A mixed method study with an explanatory sequential design was applied. Quantitative data were collected from September 2015 to March 2016 during an intervention study with a pretest-posttest wait-list control group design within a population of hospital nurses in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. Consecutively, 13 nurses from the intervention group who fully completed the program were interviewed.

All interviewed participants experienced some sort of effect due to working with the program. Emotional exhaustion remained stable in the intervention group and increased in the control group. However, this difference was not significant. Personal accomplishment decreased significantly within the intervention group when compared to the control group. This might be explained by the self-awareness that was created through the program, which confronted participants with their weaknesses and problems.

This study adds to the understanding of online individual burnout prevention. The results suggest the feasibility of an online program to prevent nurse burnout. This could be optimized by complementing it with organizational interventions, introducing refresher courses, reminders and follow-up. Furthermore, additional attention should be devoted to preparing the implementation in order to minimize attrition rates.