College student journal最新文献

Problem: The college years mark a critical period for experiencing multiple stressors and mental health problems. This study applied minority stress theory to examine adverse childhood events (ACEs) and experiences of racial discrimination, and their relationships to depressive symptoms among racially/ethnically diverse college students.

Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data from 2,685 college students attending seven colleges/universities in the state of Georgia. Measures included sociodemographics, ACEs, experiences of racial discrimination, and depressive symptoms.

Results: Participants' average age was 20.51 (SD=1.94) years; 63.9% were female, 21.9% Black, and 7.8% Hispanic. Multivariable regression indicated that more ACEs predicted more experiences of racial discrimination, and both ACEs and discrimination experiences predicted greater depressive symptoms (p's<.001). Experiencing more ACEs was associated with being older, female, sexual minorities, White (vs. Asian), Hispanic, having less educated parents, and students at public colleges/universities or technical colleges (vs. private colleges/universities, p's<.05). More reports of racial discrimination were associated with being sexual and/or racial/ethnic minorities (p's<.05). Greater depressive symptoms were associated with being younger, female, sexual minorities, White (vs. Black), and students from public (vs. private) colleges/universities (p's<.01).

Conclusions: College campuses should provide resources to address ACEs, racial discrimination, and mental health to support students' academic and psychosocial success.

The importance of clarifying personal values has gained popularity in brief interventions recently, but little is known about factors that predict clarity in values or the benefits of values clarity in non-clinical populations. First-year college students and their mothers (99 dyads) completed an online survey where they rated the importance of 20 values and students indicated how they thought their mothers would rate each value. An overall values clarity score was created for both dyad members by taking the mean across the 20 values. Students reported their alcohol use in the past 30 days and their emotional wellbeing. Results revealed that students who perceived their mothers to have strong values clarity reported having greater values clarity themselves and consistent with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles, students with higher values clarity scores reported drinking less frequently, fewer instances of binge drinking, and greater positive affect.

Problem: Cyberbullying is common among adolescents, and emerging studies also describe this phenomenon in college students. Less is known about specific cyberbullying behaviors and roles in cyberbullying incidents experienced by college females.

Methods: 249 female students from 4 colleges completed online surveys assessing involvement in 11 specific cyberbullying behaviors in any of the following roles: bully, victim, or witness.

Results: Nearly half (n = 110, 44.2%) of participants had experienced cyberbullying in college as a bully, victim, witness, or combination of the three. The most commonly witnessed behaviors included "posting degrading comments or hate speech" and "posting explicit or unwanted pictures." Over one third of the witnesses were classified as bystanders who purely observed cyberbullying without participating.

Conclusions: Cyberbullying is common among college women, with more people witnessing behaviors than participating. Given the large proportion of witnesses, mobilizing bystanders is a potential target for cyberbullying in the college population.

Facebook use is nearly ubiquitous among college students. Studies have shown links between Facebook displays of depression or problem drinking and risk of these problems. This project aimed to determine whether Facebook could be used to help Resident Advisors (RAs) identify college students at risk for depression or problem drinking. Interviews were conducted with college freshmen to investigate whether they were Facebook "friends" with their RA. Focus groups were conducted with RAs to determine their views on Facebook friending their dormitory residents and using Facebook to help identify at-risk students. 72 freshmen were interviewed and 25 RAs participated in focus groups; both agreed it is common for RAs and residents to be Facebook friends. RAs commonly noted references to depression and problem drinking on residents' Facebook pages, which often led to in-person discussions with the resident. This study provides support that RAs use Facebook to identify issues that may impact their student residents. RAs emphasized benefits of in-person interactions in order to provide support and obtain additional details about the situation. Universities could consider whether providing RA education about Facebook interactions with residents merits encouragement within their existing RA training programs.

Students report drinking for social reasons, yet the social benefits of alcohol use are less understood. Associations between social drinking motives, drinking behaviors, and college friendships were examined via in-person interviews with 72 college freshmen from a large Midwestern University. Social drinking motives were significantly associated with drinking behaviors; however, drinking behaviors were not associated with the number of new casual or close friends students made at college. Consistent with previous research, social motives predicted drinking behaviors; however drinking behaviors were unrelated to friendship outcomes. Drinking prevention campaigns might incorporate these findings in an effort to alter college freshmen's social alcohol expectancies.