Who engages in well-being interventions? An analysis of a global digital intervention study

Abstract

Despite growing interest in interventions aimed at enhancing emotional well-being, little research has addressed the question of engagement. This study explored engagement in a 7-day online well-being intervention study involving 24,180 participants from 195 countries/territories (78% female, Mage = 49, 62% White). Following an onboarding survey, participants completed a morning well-being practice and an evening follow-up survey for the week. Overall, 76% of the participants initiated the intervention (i.e. returned to the platform after enrollment to start the intervention), completing an average of four daily practices. Several demographic (e.g. being older, White) and psychological variables (e.g. lower financial strain, higher life satisfaction) emerged as common predictors of initiating the intervention and completing more practices. Age was a particularly important predictor across outcomes. These findings offer novel insights into how individual characteristics relate to engagement in online well-being interventions and have implications for both designing the interventions and interpreting findings.