An examination of college student wellness: A research and liberal arts perspective

Abstract

Promoting wellness within academia reduces disease frequency and enhances overall health. This study examined wellness factors among undergraduate students attending a research university (n = 85) or a small liberal arts college (n = 126). Participants were administered surveys which measured physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and occupational wellness. Significant institutional differences emerged on measures of physical and social wellness. When collapsed across academic institutions, students who were gainfully employed reported greater self-efficacy compared with unemployed students. Gender differences emerged on measures of physical and social well-being. Our findings support the need for targeted interventions that facilitate enhanced college student development and well-being.

Examining Student Wellness for the Development of Campus-Based Wellness Programs

“…One study demonstrated an increase in students' level of wellness with class standing (Oleckno & Blacconiere, 1990), while others noted a decline in nutrition and stress management during the first year (LaFountaine et al, 2006). Another showed students attending a liberal arts college were more physically active, compared to those attending a research college (Baldwin et al, 2017); however, the researchers note that these findings could be attributed to gender.…”

“…These units offer frequent events tailored to specific subpopulations (e.g., year of study, gender, sexual orientation), on a particular health topic (e.g., smoking, vaping, drinking). The programs are designed to improve students' physical and mental health (Slavin, Schindler, & Chibnall, 2014), promote psychosocial and stress management techniques (Conley, Travers, & Bryant, 2013), decrease depression and anxiety (Dvořáková et al, 2017), and develop positive health behaviors to enhance students' quality of life (Baldwin, Towler, Oliver, & Datta, 2017). For example, participation in a mindfulness-based program has been shown to increase first-year college students' life satisfaction, and decrease their depression and anxiety (Dvořáková et al, 2017).…”

“…Previous researchers have examined wellness differences between traditional and non-traditional students (Myers & Mobley, 2004), year of study (LaFountaine et al, 2006), gender (Baldwin et al, 2017;LaFountaine, 2009;Wharf Higgins et al, 2010;Stock et al, 2001), institution type (Baldwin et al, 2017), and college athletics (Beauchemin, 2014;LaFountaine, 2009). Such studies have yielded mixed results.…”

“…Significant differences have been reported for gender. Males are consistently noted to be more physically active compared to females (Baldwin et al, 2017;LaFountaine, 2009;Myers & Mobley, 2004), reported higher levels of wellness, specifically those related to physical, emotional, and social wellness than their female counterparts (Myers & Mobley, 2004), and scored higher in their sense of worth and social relationships compared to females (LaFountaine, 2009). These findings contradict other studies that report females are more knowledgeable and better at practicing health prevention behaviors than their male counterparts (Wharf Higgins et al, 2010;Stock et al, 2001), and experience a greater feeling of belonging due to their social relationships (Baldwin et al, 2017).…”

Mining Social Media Data of Philippine Higher Education Institutions Using Naïve Bayes Classifier Algorithm

“…Noticeably, discourses of SM user are also on health. As cited by [31], students reported that stress and sleep difficulties negatively impacted their academic performance. Moreover, many college students engage themselves in unhealthy behaviours, making them at risk for developing serious problems in health in the future.…”