Translating Online Positive Psychology Interventions to Sexual and Gender Minorities: A Systematic Review

Sexual and gender minorities (SGM) often face worse health outcomes in comparison with their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. Positive psychology interventions (PPIs) have the potential to improve these outcomes. In this article we review 130 articles containing online positive psychology interventions and evaluate them based on effect size, length of follow-up, and sample characteristics. Based on these findings applied to the psychological mediation framework (Hatzenbuehler, 2009), we recommend the following interventions be tested in SGM samples: self-compassion, optimism, love, forgiveness, humor, and spirituality. Future research that tailors existing positive psychology interventions to the lived experiences of SGM individuals could ameliorate health disparities