78

The Personal Goal Management program intends to support adults’ resilience by developing their abilities to set, plan, and realize their personal goals in order to increase their psychological well-being. The effectiveness of this intervention, which included 10 weekly group meetings, was verified in studies realized with young retirees (n = 234) and university students (n = 125). The difference between pre-test and follow-up (six months after the end of the intervention) indicated that retirees who had attended the program had improved significantly more than the control group ( p < .001) on happiness, purpose in life, serenity, distress, and in learning goal related skills. Similar results were observed with university students, who also showed a significant reduction in their anxiety toward school work by the end of the academic semester.