The efficacy of positive psychology interventions from non-Western countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Recently, there has been a sharp increase in the number of studies of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) from non-Western countries. The aim of this study is to review and evaluate the efficacy of these PPIs. Databases, including PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus, were searched up to December 2017. In addition, we performed hand searches and reference checks. After removal of duplicates, 7,516 studies were screened and finally 28 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in the meta-analysis. A random effects model was used to compare group effect-sizes at post-test. Results showed that PPIs from non-Western countries have a moderate effect on subjective wellbeing (g = 0.48) and psychological wellbeing (g = 0.40), and a large effect on depression (g = 0.62) and anxiety (g = 0.95). However, caution is warranted for the interpretation of the effect sizes in light of the study quality, which was assessed as low. This indicates the possibility of biases, which may explain why PPIs from non-Western countries report larger effect sizes than PPIs from Western countries.