A Timely Intervention to Support Teenage Mental Health
This free course on happiness uses “TikTok-length videos to highlight common misconceptions about happiness and teach about the behaviors, feelings, and thoughts that produce mental well-being.”
A Washington Post reporter investigated the impact of a free course available through Yale, The Science of Well-Being for Teens. The course, a retooled version of Yale’s most popular course-- Psychology and the Good Life, has been accessed by hundreds of thousands of teens. Expectations for the course include exploration of what the field of psychology teaches us about how to be happier, how to feel less stressed, and how to thrive in high school and beyond. Additionally, students apply the scientific strategies they learn in their day-to-day routines. “The ultimate goal is for [teens] to feel better and build healthier habits."
The key concepts in the course include the following
- Rethinking what happiness means. Like many adults, teens believe they will be happy when they get perfect grades or accepted into the best college, or when they have a certain number of likes on social media, or when they have a significant other. Instructor Dr. Laurie Santos notes that oftentimes, teens are “going about [being happy] the wrong way or putting effort into the wrong things.”
- Being more “other” focused. Santos focuses on things teens can do to feel happier like showing kindness to others, volunteering, and ensuring free time for themselves, to name a few.
- Learning self-compassion. Through the course, teens learn to tune out their inner critic and change their thought processes to feel happier.
- Breaking anxiety cycles. Teens learn strategies to and tools to regulate their emotions. Santos offers questions like “What are five things you can see right now? What are four things you can hear right now? What are three things you can feel right now?” These types of prompts redirects attention and “can slow down the anxious voice in your head.”