Vol.18 No.2 2015 AJPSSI AFRICAN JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF SOCIAL ISSUES pg. 77 EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF A PSYCHOSOCIAL WELL-BEING PROGRAMME FOR STUDENTS AT A TANZANIAN UNIVERSITY J. RUGIRA 1 , A. W. NIENABER 1 , M. P. WISSING 1,2 1 School of Psychosocial Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences North-West University, Republic of South Africa 2 Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research (AUTHeR) Faculty of Health Sciences, North West University, Republic of South Africa Please address correspondence to Dr J Rugira Optentia Research Focus Area P.O. Box 1174 North-West University Vanderbijlpark, 1900 South Africa E-mail: janrugira@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This study investigated the efficacy of a new psychosocial well-being promoting programme for university students in Tanzania. Participants were adult university students (N = 82; 42 married and 40 single; 46 females and 36 males) of 19 to 40 years of age with a mean age of 29.5. Four standardised scales (the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form MHC-SF; the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale – CSE; the Trait Hope Scale (THS); and The Patient Health Questionnaire: Depression Symptoms -PHQ-9); were administered before and after the programme to determine the effect thereof. Quantitative findings indicated that the programme had a significant positive effect on problem-focused coping, social well-being and hope. Married participants were more effective in suppression of unpleasant emotions in the experimental group than in the control group. Gender-based differences were noted on emotional well-being scores, where an increase in the experimental group is noted for females on areas such as problem-focused coping, suppression of unpleasant emotions, total self-efficacy, and social well-being. The programme was specifically effective on suppressing unpleasant emotions to married participants in the experimental group. Keywords: Tanzania, well-being, university students, positive psychology, promotion, programme evaluation.