Three good deeds and three blessings: The kindness and gratitude interventions with Chinese prisoners

BACKGROUND: Studies have found lower well-being among prisoners than in the general population. Positive psychological interventions provide fruitful ways of enhancing people's well-being, but little is known about whether these contribute to prisoners' well-being. AIMS: To test the effects of two typical positive psychological interventions - kindness and gratitude - on Chinese prisoners' well-being. METHODS: One hundred and forty-four participants were randomly assigned to three conditions: kindness or gratitude groups in addition to 'treatment as usual' and a control condition of treatment as usual alone, with 48 men in each condition. Participants completed established well-being measures before and after the 6-week intervention and a similar period in control conditions. RESULTS: Both kindness and gratitude interventions significantly increased prisoners' well-being compared to the control group. The kindness intervention promoted higher well-being than the gratitude intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Although both kindness and gratitude interventions enhanced prisoners' happiness and mitigated negative affect, the weaker effect of the gratitude condition reflects Chinese strongly communal culture, so further cross-cultural studies would be of interest. Future research should also include longer term follow-up and expand the work to include women in prison.