Law-students wellbeing and vulnerability

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is compelling evidence that law students in the UK, USA, and Australia are subject to low levels of wellbeing. There is also compelling evidence that university students in the UK are also subject to low levels of wellbeing. Low wellbeing is produced by difficulties responding to stressors and life events, or low resilience. Therefore, law students are a sub-group of a larger group of young people with low resilience, however, law students have lower self-reported wellbeing than the overall student group. The trend for student wellbeing is downwards. Vulnerability theory offers a theoretically coherent heuristic that can enable us to think constructively about the problems of law students and students generally and to generate ideas for potentially beneficial courses of action. With such widespread phenomena, for law students across three continents and over many years, it is unrealistic to posit individualistic explanations as causes. Resilience, and consequent wellbeing, is not best understood as a characteristic of individuals but as generated or degraded by life histories, family and community resources, institutional supports or stressors, and social factors. We need to look at institutional and cultural factors if our response is to be coherent and effective. We need to seek a responsive law school in a responsive university in a responsive state.