Duan 2019.

Study characteristics
Methods	Study design: RCT Duration of study: the time in which the study was conducted is unclear. Country: China Income classification: upper‐middle‐income country from 2010 and the date of publication Geographical scope: urban—Wuhan, China Healthcare setting: University (Wuhan)
Participants	1. Age: 17‐20 years of age 2. Gender: both 3. Socioeconomic background: not specified 4. Educational background: enrolled freshmen students Inclusion criteria: a. enrolled freshmen students; b. living on campus; c. willing to participate voluntarily; d. could understand and respond to Chinese; e. have not participated in any other similar interventions before. Exclusion criteria: students suffering severe psychotic symptoms or substance abuse (as determined by the psychological evaluation at the beginning of admission). Note: at baseline, the scores for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale of 21 items (DASS‐21) ranged from 1.33 to 1.84. Stated purpose: to investigate the efficiency of a single‐session character‐strength‐based cognitive intervention on enhancing freshmen’s adaptability
Interventions	Name: character‐strength‐based cognitive intervention Title/name of PW and number: social worker (1) 1. Selection: had practical experience in running group work and positive psychology intervention 2. Educational background: social work graduate 3. Training: “was trained and certified to deliver the intervention” 4. Supervision: “To ensure the intervention sufficiency, the instructor was required to adhere to the intervention protocol. The intervention was closely supervised.” 5. Incentives/remuneration: not specified Prevention type: universal – all freshmen students were eligible for inclusion, and their baseline scores for the DASS‐21 were well below the cut‐off for the measure. Intervention details: the intervention was offered at the beginning of the first semester of the freshmen year in the form of a 90‐min lesson. The single‐session intervention was designed with two parts (i.e. a cognition section and a behaviour section) based on CBT. The first one contained two activities: (a) identifying character strengths and (b) character strengths 360 focusing on promoting self‐awareness and helping them reconstruct the cognition of their own character strengths. The second one, including (c) signature character strengths and (d) nominate goals, aimed at helping participants use their character strengths to set goals and structure daily activities, so that they can transfer their character strengths into daily life. Control: waiting list
Outcomes	Participants’outcomes of interest for this review Depressive symptoms – DASS‐21 Distress/PTSD symptoms – DASS‐21 Quality of life – Well‐Being Brief Inventory of Thriving (BIT) Carers’ outcomes of interest for this review Nil Economic outcomes Nil Time points: baseline, post‐intervention (< 1 month)
Notes	Source of funding: the authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Wuhan University Teaching Reform and Construction Project and Wuhan University Humanities and Social Sciences Academic Development Program for Young Scholars “Sociology of Happiness and Positive Education”. Notes on validation of instruments (screening and outcomes): the DASS‐21 has demonstrated having good psychometric properties in previous investigations amongst college students in its Chinese version. Additional information: none Handling the data: not applicable Prospective trial registration number: not reported