Tarli Young

The University of Queensland | UQ · School of Psychology

Aid workers operate in stressful environments and tend to experience high psychological distress, but not enough is known about their wellbeing and how to improve their mental health. We surveyed 243 aid workers in 77 countries undertaking humanitarian and development work. They reported lower wellbeing and higher psychological distress than genera...

Universities must prepare students for a complex world, but current mental health levels impair student outcomes. Increased concern over student wellbeing has fostered the demand for positive education interventions – a relatively new topic requiring more research. We tested a positive psychology wellbeing intervention imbedded in undergraduate psy...

This study examines fifteen possible risk and protective factors for aid worker mental health under the categories of job context, work conditions and demographics. Many of these factors have not been examined previously. We use a cross‐sectional survey with 369 participants in 77 countries. Results indicate job context risk factors include emergen...

The Mindfulness Based Flourishing Program (MBFP) is a new program which combines mindfulness and positive psychology approaches to increase wellbeing (Ivtzan, Young, Martman, Jeffrey, Lomas, Hart, & Eiroa-Orosa, 2016). To date it has been tested with over 500 participants and found to have many beneficial outcomes including enhanced wellbeing and m...

Mindfulness can be successfully combined with adventure education but the area is understudied. This longitudinal quasi-experimental study investigated whether an 8-day Outward Bound Mindfulness Program in nature would increase levels of positive affect, savouring, and mindfulness. Results indicate the experimental group experienced a statistically...

The Mindfulness Based Flourishing Program (MBFP) is an online 8-week intervention developed for enhancing wellbeing with the use of mindfulness practices, through targeting a range of positive variables. The efficacy of the MBFP has been demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial, and in order to further establish it as an intervention with wide...

Abstract Aid workers experience elevated levels of stress which has a detrimental impact on individuals, organisations and the aid sector; however, there is limited qualitative research capturing aid worker’s views on stressors and coping strategies. This study used thematic analysis to examine aid workers’ views on three research questions: their...

The purpose of the present study was to test the efficacy of an 8-week online intervention-based Positive Mindfulness Program (PMP) that integrated mindfulness with a series of positive psychology variables, with a view to improving well-being scores measured in these variables. The positive mindfulness cycle, based on positive intentions and savou...

This chapter investigates how mindfulness increases both hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. It summarises previously established mechanisms and then makes additional suggestions using past research and positive psychology concepts. Suggested mechanisms include: hope, meaning, savouring, gratitude, self-acceptance, autonomy, positive reappraisal, and...