Introduction: Understanding how students thrive-not just achieve-in college is an important psychological and social question. This study examines the social systems in students' lives and their relationships with student well-being and academic achievement. Methods: Using a mixed-methods approach integrating psychology and social work perspectives, we analyzed 90 student ecomaps to investigate the number and qualities of students' identified social systems and examined their predictive value across measures associated with student well-being and achievement. Results: Ecomap analysis provides deeper insight into the relational and environmental contexts shaping students' experiences, highlighting the importance of relationship quality, strength, and reciprocity within their ecological systems. Discussion: The findings reinforce the importance of adopting a holistic, systems-oriented approach to understanding student well-being, recognizing that students' experiences extend beyond individual characteristics and academic performance.
Objective: College students, specifically student athletes, experience environments that can support and create barriers to flourishing, a form of well-being reflecting positive functioning in relationships, self-esteem, purpose, and optimism. Sleep is one factor that can have implications for student athletes' flourishing. This study explored whether sleep characteristics, including duration, quality, and napping, accounted for part of the association between athlete status and flourishing, as measured using the eight-item Flourishing Scale. Participants: Using the Fall 2022 National College Health Assessment (N = 28,608), structural equation models assessed these associations. Results: Compared with non-athletes, athletes reported better sleep quality, smaller weekday-weekend differences in sleep duration, and longer sleep duration. Athletes also reported more frequent and longer naps. These sleep factors were associated with flourishing although indirect associations were small (beta < .06). Conculsion: Overall, athletes reported several favorable sleep characteristics relative to non-athletes, alongside more frequent and longer naps. Sleep remains important in understanding student athletes' flourishing.
Objective Four motives address reasons people eat palatable foods: to enhance social experiences (social), experience rewarding effects (enhancement), conform to pressure (conformity), or alleviate negative emotions (coping). It is unknown whether motives change following college entry.Participants College freshmen (N = 103) at a large university.Methods Participants attended three laboratory visits.Results Linear mixed models indicated that enhancement and social motives were significantly lower at the middle (b values = -0.241 to -0.197; p values = .004-.027) and end (b values = -0.326 to -0.239; p values = .003-.022) of year relative to baseline. There were no significant changes in coping or conformity. Some students had significantly higher coping motive endorsement than their peers at baseline (p = < .0001).Conclusions Eating motives remained consistent (coping, conformity) or decreased slightly (enhancement, social) during the first college year. Some students entered college with higher-than-average coping motive endorsement, indicating reliance on a maladaptive coping strategy that could be targeted by prevention efforts.
OBJECTIVE Assess participant knowledge and comfort with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use following implementation of the American Heart Association CPR Anywhere® curriculum. PARTICIPANTS 738 university students, faculty, and staff. METHODS A pre-post study design assessed knowledge and comfort outcomes after participating in the CPR Anywhere® program. RESULTS Significant improvements at the α = .001 level were observed in both knowledge and comfort scores following the intervention. Mean knowledge scores increased from pre- to post-intervention by 1.73 points on the 7-question survey, and the percentage of participants feeling comfortable performing CPR increased from 63% to 97%. CONCLUSION A campus-wide CPR/AED educational initiative improved participants' knowledge and comfort with CPR/AED use and supported broader cardiac arrest preparedness efforts. The program was associated with increased AED availability across campus and the creation of a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan, underscoring the value of replicating such initiatives in university settings.
