Drewery, D. W., Cormier, L. A., Pretti, T. J., & Church, D. (2019). Improving unmatched co-op students' emotional wellbeing: Test of two brief interventions. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 20(1), 43-53.
Previous research suggests that going unmatched in the competitive co-op job search process might have an emotional cost. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of interventions for improving unmatched co-op students' emotional wellbeing. Participants (n = 74) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a positive psychology based writing task, a toolkit with materials and information about coping with stress, or a control condition. They completed a measure of emotional wellbeing before and after the intervention period (one week long). Controlling for pre-intervention emotional wellbeing, statistically significant gains in emotional wellbeing were reported only by those in the writing task condition. Administering positive interventions such as instructions to focus on "good things" may be particularly feasible and effective in the co-op context. Implications for co-op practitioners and future research are presented.