Once upon a time: A school positive narrative intervention for promoting well-being and creativity in elementary school children

Recent research highlighted the importance of incorporating programs for promoting well-being and creativity in schools. However, eudaimonic well-being received only limited attention and only few interventions aimed at its promotion in the school setting. This research aimed to compare the efficacy of an intervention based on storytelling and narrative techniques versus a control condition for the promotion of well-being and creativity in elementary schoolchildren. A total of 165 students (78 girls, 87 boys; Mage = 9.3 years; SD = 0.5) were randomized to a School Positive Narrative Intervention or to a controlled condition. Children were assessed before and after intervention and at 3-month follow-up with self-reports of well-being, anxiety, depression and somatization. A storytelling task was implemented, and specific creativity storytelling scores were calculated for the stories produced by children during the intervention. At post intervention, children assigned to the narrative intervention reported increased levels of well-being and decreased depression, anxiety, and somatization, compared to controls. These improvements were maintained at 3-month follow-up. Higher scores on creativity emerged in stories focused on fear, sadness, and happiness. The use of narrative strategies help children to identify their personal resources, to express creativity, and to assimilate the concept of eudaimonic well-being that could be difficult to process because of its abstractness and multidimensional nature. This brief intervention fostered children creativity and it produced beneficial effects on children's well-being and distress.