Education Commons^™

A Qualitative Inquiry Into Female International Doctoral Students Challenges And Stressors, Sameer Ahmed, Maya Jaber

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

Objective: A qualitative inquiry to explore the challenges and stressors female international doctoral students experience. Background: Student challenges and stress result in attrition and non-completion of doctoral programs. Using Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory framework, the study connected the theory subsystems to the challenges and stressors female international doctoral students experience. Method: The study analyzed the lived experiences of five female international doctoral students at an Illinois research institution, using a qualitative approach (phenomenology). The participants were interviewed using themed theoretical framework questions. Results: The results identified concerns related to all subsystems. Academic (microsystem and mesosystem) challenges included a lack …

Exploring Staff Burnout In College Access And Retention Programs, Yajaira Nunez

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of my research was to develop ways to support staff working in access and retention programs in higher education, who are experiencing or prone to burnout. The guiding questions were (a) How could collaboration with administrators working in access and retention programs in higher education facilitate learning to cope with burnout? and (b) How could strategies be developed collaboratively to address burnout in both current and future staff? I conducted three cycles using appreciative inquiry as a guide with six participants from different institutions between January and March 2024. The cycles included a GroupMe chat, a Zoom retreat, …

Academic Cheating And Stressors At The University Level, Samuel Borge

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine why academic cheating occurs. Prior studies have investigated students’ reasons for their academic cheating, and this study aimed to further this research by trying to determine variables that might influence the behavior. A total of 56 Assumption University undergraduate students participated. Self-report measures included the Survey on Academic Dishonesty (SAD) (McCabe & Trevino, 1997), the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983), and a measure of self-control (Tangney et al., 2004). In addition, a novel probability discounting task was created as a second measure of academic cheating. This task assessed participants’ likelihood …

Physically, Mentally, And Emotionally Drained, Kaitlin Medina

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Hormonal cycles play an essential role in the development and maturation of young boys and girls into men and women. As teenagers enter their late teens and early twenties, their hormonal cycles are primarily responsible for functions related to fertility and hormone production. During this period of time, these men and women are often in their collegiate years. Overall, the college experience is enjoyable for many students, but it can also be a very stressful time due to a difficult class load and the students’ need to balance their academic, social, and personal lives. Recent studies have analyzed the effects …

Music And Perceived Stress: An Investigation Into The Effects Of Music On Chemistry Students' Perceived Stress Levels, Alice Young, Eric Malina

Honors Theses

Music has long been a prevalent intervention when trying to lower stress in certain populations (Thoma et al., 2013). This study aimed to explore the possible usefulness of music as an intervention for students experiencing stress in the chemistry laboratory setting. Students in general chemistry laboratories were surveyed regarding their stress at the ends of periods in which music was or was not played in their laboratory classes. While the results were not statistically significant, mean stress scores did lower in those groups where music was played. Further research into this topic should focus on type of music, the effects …

A Preliminary Investigation Into The Impact Of A First-Year Stress Management Seminar, Lisa B. Smith, Mary E. Ignagni

Perspectives In Learning

Research reveals that high stress levels in undergraduate students may negatively impact their emotional and physical well-being. Short-term approaches to introducing stress management on college campuses have been explored. The purpose of this preliminary study was to determine whether a first-year stress management seminar course helped students reduce their stress a year after completing the course, identify which stress management skills students preferred, and assess the effectiveness of specific teaching techniques on student learning. Participants included students enrolled in two sections of a first-year stress management course. A survey was administered in 4 waves during the 2020 to 2021 academic …

A Qualitative Study Exploring Teachers’ Perceptions Concerning Involvement In Professional Organizations And The Decision To Remain In The Profession, Cynthia D. Villalovos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Teacher retention was a grave situation prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that has since become a global epidemic. Losing early career educators has had a cost that hinders the U.S. public school system. There have been previous studies detailing the plight of teacher retention throughout the years indicating the causes of teacher attrition. Each study gave examples of the detrimental costs of teacher retention from the perspective of the school district. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis study was to explore the perceptive phenomenon of teachers’ involvement activities in professional organizations and the decision to remain in the …

Prevalence Of Depression, Anxiety And Stress After The Covid-19 Pandemic Period Among Students At The Medical University Of Sofia; Significance Of Demographic, Educational, And Pandemic-Related Variables, Nadya Avramova

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among undergraduate dental students at Sofia Medical University and to investigate its associations with some demographic, educational and pandemic-related variables. A self-reported questionnaire that included the validated DASS-21 scale was administered to a group of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th year students (n=70, response rate 95.7%). Results indicated abnormal levels of depression, anxiety, and stress in 34.3%, 65.7% and 59.7% of the participants, respectively. A much larger proportion of females suffered from abnormal levels of anxiety (56.6%) as compared with males (9%), p=.003. Single students exhibited significantly …

Exploring Methods To Reduce Stress In College Students: Dog-Assisted Therapy, Ashley A. Green

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Many young adults find their college years to be highly stressful. The American College Health Association (2021) found 48% of college students reported moderate to severe levels of psychological stress. Research has found that chronic stress, commonly found in the college population, can adversely affect the health and academic performance of college students (Campbell & Svenson, 1992). Universities have begun experimenting with and adopting a variety of strategies to help students manage stressors associated with college attendance. These initiatives have included relatively well-researched procedures such as meditation and yoga as well as emerging practices. Recently, some colleges have begun testing …

Perceptions Of Student Loan Debt And The Decision To Pursue Higher Education: A Qualitative Case Study Of African American High School Students, Adrian J. Wilkins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study was to examine African American high school students’ perceptions surrounding potential student loan debt burden and its perceived influence on the decisions to enter HEIs. The purpose of this study stems from the current status of student loan debt as a significant factor in the decision-making process for potential higher education students as well as current students and those who have graduated. The central research question of this study was what are African American high school student perceptions of student loan debt, student loan debt burden, financial aid, and how are those perceptions influencing …

Women In Higher Education: A Brief Report On Stress During Covid-19, Dimple S. Johnson, Aaron D. Johnson, Kristen B. Crossney, Emily Devereaux

Public Policy & Administration Faculty Publications

Higher education institutions have evolved into a more stressful environment. Women have been experiencing higher levels of stress than their male counterparts. With higher education adopting to the onset of the pandemic, this brief report studied women’s perceived stress in relation to perceived organizational and supervisory support, and age during times of crisis. In an era of social distancing, quarantines, and lockdowns, the findings suggest that women’s perceived stress is negatively related to age, perceived organizational support, and perceived supervisory support. Society as we once knew it pre-pandemic will never be the same. Higher education is inevitably going to have …

A Scoping Review Of Campus-Based Animal-Assisted Interactions Programs For College Student Mental Health, Tanya K. Bailey

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

Background: People have long found support by interacting with animals, which has developed into a health care modality called animal-assisted interactions (AAI). In the past 10 years, AAI has increased as a way to support college students’ mental health; however, there is no comprehensive evidence on the effectiveness of these programs.
Method: A scoping review was conducted using the JBI and PRISMA-ScR criteria. Empirical articles were identified through Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost), PsychINFO (Ovid), and Web of Science using three groups of keywords: AAI, college students, and mental health.
Results: Of the 1,195 publications identified, 37 met this study’s eligibility …

Promoting Well-Being Among Intercollegiate Student-Athletes: A Gratitude Intervention Using Positive Psychology, Laura Kruger

Dissertations and Theses

Intercollegiate student-athletes face rising stress and pressures which challenge their well-being and mental health, and sometimes with alarming concerns. Over the years, supportive services and resources specifically available to student-athletes have not evolved at the same pace as student-athlete needs. Also, barriers and stigmas hinder student-athletes from readily accessing supportive mental health services. The high stress of student-athletes can contribute to the development of negative mental health symptoms and impairs positive well-being. Evidence supports how outreach initiatives help student-athletes. Positive psychology, including gratitude as a positive psychological state, has shown benefits to well-being. This experimental study design researched if the …

Supporting The Covid Freshmen: An Exploratory Study Of The Teaching Aspects That Supported The Executive Functioning Of Undergraduate Freshmen During Covid-19, Jennifer Lynn Pusateri

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Transitioning from high school to higher education is one of the most stressful times in a person’s life. But, for the undergraduate students who were freshmen during the fall of 2020 (in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic), this predictable stress was compounded by additional stressors related to the pandemic. While there were undoubtedly many teaching factors that made learning more difficult during the pandemic, there were also many aspects of teaching that these freshmen found helpful. This exploratory study of secondary data sought to discover which aspects of teaching were most helpful to the COVID Freshmen (the students who …

Stress In College Kids' Lives, Jennifer Latawiec

COR 101 Slides

First-year college students are not alone in experiencing stress.

Psychological Experiences During Previous High School Sport Participation Predict College Students’ Current Psychological Health, Jonathan D. Defreese, Amanda Visek, Nikki E. Barczak-Scarboro

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

Adolescent sport participation has been positively associated with psychological health outcomes. Yet, further research is needed to explore how psychosocial health benefits from sport may be maximized or minimized based on one’s psychological experiences during previous sport participation. The present study examined associations among retrospective psychological experiences of high school sport participation and markers of current college students’ psychosocial health. American college students (N = 300) self-reported retrospective high school sport experiences (i.e., burnout, engagement, and stress) and current psychosocial health outcomes (i.e., social support, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction) via an online interface. Moderated multiple regression analyses showed high …

Working Full Time And Earning An Engineering Degree: Wellbeing In A Co-Op-Based Engineering Program, Catherine Mcgough Spence, Luke Nyberg, Justine Chasmar, Jodi Nelson, Marissa Tsugawa

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

The purpose of this research paper is to describe how stress manifests in undergraduate engineering students who are working in paid engineering positions while completing their upper-division coursework, through the analysis of reflective prompts on wellbeing, and engineering belongingness. Previous research has identified the culture of “suffering and shared hardship” where heavy workloads and stressful situations are expected in engineering programs and engineering as a discipline. Stress, specifically feelings of being overwhelmed with workload, has far reaching implications for an individuals’ wellbeing beyond academic performance.

We focus on the frameworks of self-determination theory, engineering belonging, identity, to better understand undergraduate …

Engineering Stress Culture In Project-Based Engineering Programs, Lin Chase, Catherine Sleezer, Robert Sleezer, Michelle Soledad

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

Background: This research paper examines engineering stress culture in the context of project-based learning engineering programs at the university level. Multiple authors have reported that the culture of engineering and engineering education can be stressful and exclusive. A study conducted by Jensen and Cross [9] found that measures of inclusion such as "Department Caring" and "Department Pride" were negatively correlated with stress, anxiety, and depression. We used the approach developed by Jensen and Cross to examine stress culture in the context of three project-based learning engineering programs.

Purpose: Our goal was to establish a baseline of measures of mental health …

Assessing Stress In College Students After Breathing Meditation With And Without Music, Joshua L. Le Clerg

Graduate Theses

College students face increased levels of stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which can adversely affect their academic performance. Therefore, it is critical for students to have access to practices that reduce stress, such as breathing meditations and listening to calming music, which are cost effective and require minimal time commitment. This study aimed to examine the efficacy of combining breathing meditation and listening to music for five minutes a day, five days a week, for two weeks. Fifteen undergraduate students completed the study and were randomly assigned to a control group who completed the breathing meditation without music (n=8) …

Impact Of The Resident Mentor Role On Student Worker Mental Health, Lauren Cartwright

Senior Theses

What do stress and burnout look like for RMs at a flagship university in the southeast during the early Covid-19 epidemic? How would the average student worker rate the RM role in terms of satisfaction, recommending the role to others, and weekly workload?

To answer these questions, I surveyed 51 Resident Mentors (RM) at the University of South Carolina (UofSC) in Spring, 2021 to gather information on their general backgrounds, workload, and overall satisfaction with the RM role. Results generally showed high workloads and stress levels. I argue that these findings may be reflective of role ambiguity and changes in …

Stressors And Coping Of Mexican American College Undergraduates, Jeanette Calvario Perales

Dissertations

Empirical literature indicates that current mental health practices with Mexican American college students are lacking. Mexican American undergraduates have unique challenges that need to be addressed by counselors within the university context and in community settings. This study addressed the dearth of empirical literature on stressors and coping strategies by exploring the experiences of Mexican American students at a predominately White institution (PWI) in the Midwest region of the United States. Through grounded theory, a theory was generated from multiple in-depth interviews using a comparative analysis process to enhance understanding of how Mexican American college undergraduates at PWIs cope with …

Exploring The Impact Of Stress On Healthcare Student Competency: A Cognitive Model For Self-Regulating Performance During High-Stakes Scenarios, Michael J. Teachey

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Stress and anxiety are part of healthcare and are experienced not only by patients but also by clinicians. This work explores an issue prevalent in healthcare education, outlining the detrimental effects of stress-induced anxiety on student performance during practical assessments. Included in this paper are the research and investigative details that elaborate on the process taken towards resolving the issue. Research conducted in the fields of education, law, and medicine is used to explore how these areas address stress with regard to performance. Through the various processes of research and engagement, this action research project uncovers the underlying issue of …

“It’S Just A Lot They Are Asking From Us”: College Athlete Experiences Of Division Iii To Division Ii Reclassification, Alexandra R. Mitchell, Martin Barrett

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of college athletes who were directly impacted by their institution’s pursuit of gaining membership to a different NCAA division (i.e., divisional reclassification). More specifically, this study sought to understand specific changes that accompany the Division III to Division II transition, which include: 1) divisional philosophy, 2) financial aid, 3) level of competition, 4) athletically related activities, and 5) academic standards. Conceptually, this study was guided by the stress appraisal and coping process. The Brief COPE inventory of coping responses was applied as a framework from which to understand how college …

Disrupted Learning During Covid-19: A Survey Of Student Experience, Celia Szelwach, John Cordes, Alia Sheety, Vinayak Mathur, Maia Magrakvelidze, John Doyle, Gifty Key, Joseph Cimakasky

SoTL Commons Conference

Navigating unexpected disruption caused by COVID-19 in Higher Education required immediate and flexible response by faculty and students as they pivoted to other learning modalities. In Spring Semester 2021, we administered a 40-question survey including several open-ended questions to 795 undergraduate and graduate students (master and doctoral level) in multiple disciplines across four Schools at a private university in Pennsylvania to capture student perceptions of learning experience in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online environments. Ninety-nine students completed the survey. Lessons learned for teaching and learning include sensitivity to students’ stress and understanding learning environment design preferences and effectiveness.

Mental Health And Online Learning - Systematic Review Dataset, Stephanie L. Moore Phd, George Veletsianos, Michael Barbour

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

While there has been a lot of debate over the impact of online and remote learning on mental health and well-being, there has been no systematic syntheses or reviews of the research on this particular issue. In this paper, we review the research on the relationship between mental health / well-being and online or remote learning. Our review shows that little scholarship existed prior to 2020 with most studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We report four findings: (a) pandemic effects are not well-controlled for in most studies; (b) studies present a very mixed picture, with variability around how mental …

Yoga, Stress, And College Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Study, Lori Klein

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

College students have experienced exponential increases in stress and mental health concerns that continued to rise during the global coronavirus pandemic. Yoga is a popular, well-regarded method for improving psychological wellbeing, and this study explored how students’ perceived stress improved during a semester-long introductory yoga course upon returning to in-person instruction after a period of remote learning as a result of coronavirus restrictions. This study used an explanatory sequential mixed method design to first measure perceived stress scores and then compare this data to student-reports of wellbeing. College students (n = 121) enrolled in 8 sections of Yoga 1 completed …

First-Generation College Student Baccalaureate Attainment: Investigation Of A Psychological Model Of College Student Retention, Timothy Wasserman

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examined predictors of retention and graduation for first-generation (FG), first-year students at a selective, private, residential university in the northeastern United States. The theoretical framework was Bean and Eaton's (2000, 2001/2002) Psychological Model of College Student Retention. The purpose of the study was to test the Bean and Eaton model and ascertain how students' entry characteristics, experiences, psychological outcomes, attitudes, and intent to return impacted retention and graduation outcomes. Previous research shows that FG students face challenges in persisting (Cataldi et al., 2018; Choy, 2001; Ishitani, 2016); yet it is through graduating from a prestigious four-year institution that …

Stress Among Ncaa Division Ii Head Coaches, Dee Gerlach

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify factors that create stress among head coaches at the National Association Athletic Association Division II level. Data was collected through a demographic questionnaire and the Coaching Issues Survey (CIS), a tool used to measure specific factors that may create stress among coaches. The factors of the CIS include four subscales: Athlete-Concerns, Time-Role, Program-Success, and Win-Loss. Participants (N=416) consisted of head coaches representing the following sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s and women’s golf, softball, women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s tennis. The independent variables for this …

The Multicultural Distress, Depression, Anxiety, And Stress Levels Of Black Undergraduate Students As Compared To Asian, Latinx, And White Undergraduate Students, Franklin Dickerson Turner

Journal of Research Initiatives

College students who experienced poor academic performance, depression, and anxiety reported having higher levels of stress than those students who were more successful academically (Andrews & Wilding, 2004; Bennett, 2003). It is also known that marginalized students have a higher tendency to experience stress. This study took a systematic look at levels of Multicultural distress, stress, depression, and anxiety as reported by Asian, Black, Latin, and White students at a major urban university. The findings indicated no significant differences in the general stress, depression, and anxiety levels based on a students’ race. However, Asian, Black, and Latin students had a …

The Grizzly, April 22, 2021, Simra Mariam, Layla Halterman, Gillian Mccomeskey, Craig Schrager, Julia Paiano, Jenni Berrios, Ava Compagnoni, Claire Vance, Morgan Grabowski

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Meet Dr. Abigail Kluchin • Change is Coming • Student Photo Essays • Opinions: Music Recommendations; Studying for Finals 101 • Bears, Green Terror and Devils Recap • The Reality of Students and Stress