Positive affect journaling (PAJ) encourages individuals to focus on positive aspects of life experiences. To test its efficaciousness on hedonic well-being, college students (N=119) were asked to remember transitions during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in one of three conditions: (i) positive affect journaling (PAJ), in which participants were instructed to journal about positive changes, (ii) control journaling, in which participants were asked to journal about any changes, or (iii) a no journaling condition. Emotional outcomes were explicitly and more subtly assessed after only thinking about the COVID-19 transition period and after journaling about it. Those in the PAJ condition had enhanced positive emotion compared to those in the control journaling condition after only thinking about the COVID-19 transition period. However, even when controlling for this difference in reflection, PAJ continued to be efficacious on a more subtle indicator of positive emotional well-being. Implications for integrating PAJ with clinical interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]