Stress reduction in a high stress population: A service-learning project

Abstract

Psychology students delivered stress and coping workshops to homeless adolescent mothers as part of a college service-learning project. In this vulnerable and underserved population, stress reduction is critical. Service-learning was used as an avenue to enhance student learning and growth while helping meet this need in our community. The psychology students developed deeper learning, professional skills, and social awareness. The adolescent mothers developed stress reduction skills that they were able to successfully implement. Challenges and recommendations for the implementation of similar service-learning projects are discussed.Keywords: service-learning, action teaching, stress reduction, homeless, adolescent mothers, health psychology, social justice Non-Technical SummaryStudents in a Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine course completed an action teaching assignment for which they taught workshops on stress and coping to homeless pregnant and parenting teens in a temporary shelter. Students visited the shelter weekly for four weeks. The primary objective of the assignment was to develop two interactive workshops, one on stress research and one on coping research, which would be tailored to the needs of the residents.The goal of the project was to deepen student learning about health psychology through the application of research findings and to help local women who were going through challenging times in their lives.Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2017, Vol. 5(2), 463-476, doi:10.5964/jspp.v5i2.813 Received: 2017-06-21. Accepted: 2017-08-28. Published (VoR): 2017 Handling Editor: Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Department of Psychology, Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA *Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, 14618, USA. E-mail: kmcclure@sjfc.edu This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. jspp.psychopen.eu | 2195-3325 Project Background and Description Journal of Social and Political Psychology Course ContentStress and coping theories are commonly taught in Health Psychology courses. Stress can be very harmful for mental and physical health, especially when stress is chronic (Kemeny, 2003;Segerstrom & Miller, 2004). Stress compromises many systems of the body, leading to higher likelihood of disease and shortened lifespan (Mathur et al., 2016;Segerstrom & Miller, 2004). However, coping effectively with stress can serve to reduce the likelihood of these adverse effects. The important role of stress and coping in the human experience warrants considerable course coverage in Health Psychology courses.A popular technique for teaching stress and coping theories is to have students apply these theories to their own lives. According to Bloom's taxonomy, application of concepts leads to a higher level of lear...

A service-learning program assessment: Strengths, weaknesses and impacts on students

“…Assuming that they are capable of helping others through professional learning related to their future labor activity favors a positive selfconcept, which is a hypothesis also supported by Levkoe, Friendly andDaniere (2020), Trigos-Carrillo et al (2020), Cotten and Thompson (2017) and Menéndez-Varela and Gregori-Giralt (2017). This is in addition to greater self-esteem, recognition and personal satisfaction, confirming the studies by Gerholz, Liszt and Klingsieck (2018), Saylor et al (2018), Tee and Kalidas (2016) and Rondini (2015), thus promoting the professional growth of the students (Blanco-Cano & García-Martín, 2021;Miró-Miró et al, 2021;McClure Brenchley & Donahue, 2017;Kohlbry & Daugherty, 2015;Folgueiras, Luna & Puig, 2013;Fuertes, 2013;Celio, Durlak & Dymnicki, 2011). These positive effects lead to increased student motivation with regard to the course, as shown by the results of this case study, and corroborating the research by Rodríguez-Izquierdo (2019) and Li, Guo, Yao, Wang and Yan (2016).…”

“…However, degree course specifications and university teaching guides normally neglect those aspects related to social competences, with the integration of sustainability, ethics, values and sustainable development in order to deal with the social, cultural, economic and environmental problems of our century. Various studies highlight the possibilities that service-learning methodology offers for the participation and collaboration of educational communities in improving social problems, providing the opportunity to understand and experience what has been studied in the classroom (McClure Brenchley & Donahue, 2017;Mergler, Carrington, Boman, Kimber & Bland, 2017), connecting theory and practice by allowing students to practice what they have learned in activities based on community needs (Resch & Schrittesser, 2021), and favoring reflection and fostering empathy (Herrmann, 2020;Chang, Karin, Davidson, Ripp & Soriano, 2019).…”

El impacto del aprendizaje-servicio (ApS) en diversas variables psicoeducativas del alumnado universitario: las actitudes cívicas, el pensamiento crítico, las habilidades de trabajo en grupo, la empatía y el autoconcepto. Una revisión sistemática

“…Es decir, es una práctica educativa en la que el alumnado aprende los conocimientos mientras colabora para solucionar una necesidad real de su entorno social. Por ello, el ApS constituye un método efectivo de aprendizaje, ya que ofrece la oportunidad de darle sentido a lo que se estudia en el aula al utilizarlo para contribuir a mejorar la vida de otras personas (McClure-Brenchley y Donahue, 2017;Mergler et al, 2017).…”