TY - JOUR
T1 - Happy family kitchen
T2 - A community-based research for enhancing family communication and well-being in Hong Kong
AU - Ho, Henry C Y
AU - Mui, Moses
AU - Wan, Alice
AU - Ng, Yin lam
AU - Stewart, Sunita M.
AU - Yew, Carol
AU - Lam, Tai Hing
AU - Chan, Sophia S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2016/9/1
Y1 - 2016/9/1
N2 - Urban families worldwide are often characterized by busy working lives which leave little time for family gatherings and communication. The Happy Family Kitchen project, which emphasized cooking and dining with family members, was conducted in a deprived district in Hong Kong. We hypothesized that the community-based family intervention, derived from a positive psychology framework, can improve family communication, family well-being, and subjective happiness. Twenty-three social service units organized and delivered the intervention programs for 1,419 individuals from 612 families. The core intervention was developed with emphasis on 1 of 5 positive psychology themes: gratitude, flow, happiness, health, and savoring. Intervention outcomes were assessed at preintervention, immediate postintervention, and 6 weeks and 12 weeks postintervention. Results showed that family communication, family well-being, and subjective happiness improved with small effect sizes which were sustained up to 12 weeks. The gratitude intervention improved all of the outcome measures. Qualitative data provided additional evidence for effectiveness with in-depth insights into family dynamics. We concluded that this brief intervention was a low-cost and simple approach to improve family communication and well-being.
AB - Urban families worldwide are often characterized by busy working lives which leave little time for family gatherings and communication. The Happy Family Kitchen project, which emphasized cooking and dining with family members, was conducted in a deprived district in Hong Kong. We hypothesized that the community-based family intervention, derived from a positive psychology framework, can improve family communication, family well-being, and subjective happiness. Twenty-three social service units organized and delivered the intervention programs for 1,419 individuals from 612 families. The core intervention was developed with emphasis on 1 of 5 positive psychology themes: gratitude, flow, happiness, health, and savoring. Intervention outcomes were assessed at preintervention, immediate postintervention, and 6 weeks and 12 weeks postintervention. Results showed that family communication, family well-being, and subjective happiness improved with small effect sizes which were sustained up to 12 weeks. The gratitude intervention improved all of the outcome measures. Qualitative data provided additional evidence for effectiveness with in-depth insights into family dynamics. We concluded that this brief intervention was a low-cost and simple approach to improve family communication and well-being.
KW - Community-based intervention
KW - Family communication
KW - Family well-being
KW - Positive psychology
KW - Subjective happiness
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U2 - 10.1037/fam0000233
DO - 10.1037/fam0000233
M3 - Article
C2 - 27513284
AN - SCOPUS:84985942525
SN - 0893-3200
VL - 30
SP - 752
EP - 762
JO - Journal of Family Psychology
JF - Journal of Family Psychology
IS - 6
ER -