With mental illness a growing concern within graduate education, data from a new survey should prompt both academia and policy makers to consider intervention strategies. This article from March 2018 in Nature Biotechnology can inform specific mental health protection strategies for graduate students.

Click here to access the full article through your institution’s subscription to Nature Biotechnology.

Readers offer perspectives on how low-income young people can be helped to finish college.

Click here to read the full article on the New York Times website.

From April 2016:

Higher education campuses all over the country are focused on diversity initiatives. UC Santa Cruz recently announced the hiring of a new Campus Diversity Officer for Staff and Students. And it’s not the only one. UConn also hired its first Chief Diversity Officer.

Additionally, students are also raising awareness for diversity. Earlier this month, students at Penn State organized a walk to promote inclusion on campus. And UW-Madison announced plans to start a pilot program with the goal of addressing cultural competency and community building.

So to help your campus make its diversity program a success, we’ve put together a list of 20 different strategies you can implement right now.

Click here to read the full article on Campus Answers.

A robust body of scientific evidence has indicated that being embedded in high-quality close relationships and feeling socially connected to the people in one’s life is associated with decreased risk for all-cause mortality as well as a range of disease morbidities. Despite mounting evidence that the magnitude of these associations is comparable to that of many leading health determinants (that receive significant public health resources), government agencies, health care providers and associations, and public or private health care funders have been slow to recognize human social relationships as either a health determinant or health risk marker in a manner that is comparable to that of other public health priorities. This article evaluates current evidence (on social relationships and health) according to criteria commonly used in determining public health priorities. The article discusses challenges for reducing risk in this area and outlines an agenda for integrating social relationships into current public health priorities.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Click here to access the full article on PsycNET.

This research note applied self-determination theory to the study of social leisure and well-being among collegiate emerging adults. Self-determination theory posits that individuals seek out environments that promote basic psychological needs; among these needs is the need for relatedness. We examined the relationship between social leisure engagement (conceptualised as an environment that promotes connections to others) and emerging adults’ depressive symptomology. More specifically, we hypothesised that this need-supportive environment would be related to higher levels of peer support (a form of relatedness) and would promote better mental health. Participants (N = 270) were between the ages of 18 and 25. Using path models, we found that there was a significant negative relationship between social leisure engagement and depressive symptomology. Furthermore, peer support served as a significant linking mechanism between social leisure and depressive symptomology. Results provide evidence for the application of self-determination theory to the study of social leisure engagement as a need-supportive environment that can facilitate relatedness and better mental health among emerging adults.

Click here to access the full research note via your institution’s subscription to Taylor & Francis Online.

Research suggests that loneliness and isolation are risk factors for suicide, suicidal behavior and mental health problems, while supportive social relationships serve as protective factors against these outcomes.  The authors also suggest that experiencing a higher quality of social supports is more protective than having a large number of social contacts. Further, minority students, international students and those with low socioeconomic status are at greater risk of social isolation.  This information may help administrators and health providers identify these students and develop programs that that address these issues. Published in 2009 in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 

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This study explores means of managing first generation college student attrition—looking at the risk factors for attrition such as academic preparation, financial strain, identity and social capital—by offering the following recommendations: making university systems apparent, promoting student mentoring, training faculty towards first generation college student retention, recognizing the positive attributes of first generation students status towards identity, and including and respecting families.

You can view the study here from the Penn State University Division of Undergraduate Studies website.

Developing problem-solving abilities may buffer the negative impact of stress in regard to suicidal ideation. This study’s findings are consistent with a problem-solving deficit diathesis-stress model, in which adolescents who have difficulty generating and implementing solutions to problems are at a heightened risk of suicidal behaviors when they experience stress.

Click here to access the article through your institution’s Wiley Online Library subscription.

This research defines connectedness as “the degree to which an individual (or group) possesses a subjective sense of emotional interrelatedness (belonging, caring, value, and trust) and a willingness to share with and seek resources from the individuals and communities in which he/she is socially or geographically embedded.” From this definition, this review describes the effects of student connectedness to peers, as well as to adults who are perceived as supportive and engaged, in reducing STB (suicide thoughts and behaviors).

Click here to access the article through your institution’s subscription to Wiley Online Library.

This research, published in 2014 by the Personality and Social Psychology Review, looks into recent student changes in attachment styles (defined in the study as Secure, Dismissing, Preoccupied, and Fearful). Percentages of students with Dismissing, Preoccupied, and Fearful styles have increased, while the percentage of students with Secure styles have decreased. At the same time, college students’ positive views of others have also decreased. The study looks into implications and possible explanations.

Click here to view the full article through your institutional access to SAGE Journals.

In this article from Rice University, researchers identify three competencies that most frequently showed evidence of supporting students’ college persistence and success, as measured by grades, retention and graduation: A sense of belonging, a growth mindset and personal goals and values. This article can be helpful as you promote social connectedness on your campus.

View the article here.
Purchase the full report of the research here.