Great news! We have even more proof that sharing You Matter cards matters!
As you may recall, this year we reached out to Professor Kim Daubman and her psychology students, Maddie English, Kristin Munley, and Emma Mustion at Bucknell University to study the impact of participating in the You Matter Marathon (YMM).
In the study, YMM participants were compared to a control group of adults who did not participate on several psychological measures. Both groups received a pretest before the YMM began (late October) and a posttest after the YMM ended (late November). It was 
predicted that YMM participants, but not control participants, would report greater happiness, social connectedness, compassion, and gratitude at posttest compared to pretest. That’s exactly what was found on the compassion measure. In addition, YMM participants who shared more cards showed a bigger increase in compassion than did those who shared fewer cards. Unexpectedly, both YMM and control participants showed an increase in happiness, social connectedness, and gratitude from pretest to posttest. This might be because the posttest occurred right after Thanksgiving. It could be that both the YMM and the control participants were affected positively by the holiday, which emphasizes time with family and friends and giving thanks.
Also, you may not be surprised to hear that YMM participants scored higher than the control group on all measures. Overall, YMM participants appear to be happier, more socially connected, compassionate, and grateful than the average person (at least the average person in our control group)!
Thanks to those of you who participated in the YMM research study! And here’s a copy of the full Report: Exploratory Study Of The You Matter Marathon
Please help us ensure that more people can receive the benefits of participating in the You Matter Marathon and DONATE today ⤵︎
