Objective: This study sought to understand how climate change anxiety may moderate the association between perceived direct experiences with climate change and substance use behaviors in a college student sample. Participants: Undergraduate students (N = 184) at a private, urban university in the United States Mountain West region. Methods: Students self-reported substance use behaviors, perceived direct experiences with climate change, and climate anxiety. Using multiple linear regression, a composited substance use variable was regressed onto perceived direct experience with climate change, with climate anxiety as a moderator. Results: The interaction between perceived direct experience and climate anxiety was associated with riskier substance use (beta = 0.02, standard error = 0.01, t-value = 2.87, p = .005). Conclusions: Should these findings replicate across contexts, college students who experience climate change impacts and heightened climate anxiety may be susceptible to increased substance use.
Objective: This study investigated how sense of community (SOC) relates to symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress in college students. Participants: Survey responses from first-year and first-year transfer students (n = 247) at a small college were analyzed. Methods: Students completed the Brief Sense of Community Scale and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Spearman correlations and unadjusted linear regression analyses were used to examine associations due to non-normality in several variables. Results: Greater SOC was significantly associated with fewer symptoms of depression (r = -.41), anxiety (r = -.25), and stress (r = -.27), all ps < .01. In unadjusted regression models predicting depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, group membership (a dimension of SOC) was the only significant predictor and was associated with fewer depressive symptoms (p = .014). Conclusions: These findings underscore SOC's relationship to symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Results can help inform campus-level strategies to strengthen community.
Objective: Universities face psychological distress, while mental health services remain inaccessible to marginalised populations. This highlights the need for low-threshold mental health interventions beyond clinical care. Wellness rooms offer spaces for stress reduction, yet few have been developed through participatory approaches or evaluated systematically. This study documents the co-design and restricted implementation of an inclusive, multisensory wellness room in a Canadian university. Participants: University students and staff participated in the co-design and implementation process. Methods: Guided by Living Lab and action-research principles, the project was conducted in two phases using a mixed-methods design. Analyses examined feasibility, acceptability, facilitators, and barriers to implementation and use. Results: Facilitators included multisensory environments, flexible usage, and participatory design. Implementation challenges highlighted organizational and contextual constraints affecting accessibility and sustainability. Conclusions: Findings support wellness rooms as low-threshold mental health promotion interventions and underscore the importance of participatory, context-sensitive approaches to their implementation in university settings.
Objective: To examine patterns of change in global mental health within a collegiate integrated primary and behavioral healthcare (IPBH) model, in order to optimize counseling outcomes under a session limit policy amid scarce university counseling center resources. Participants: Participants included 1,571 college students (59.2% female) who received services at a collegiate IPBH center between 2011 and 2018. Methods: Clients were classified into two subgroups reflecting the clinic's policy: short-term (seven or fewer sessions) and long-term (more than seven sessions). Growth curve modeling examined overall trajectories of change, while linear mixed model analysis compared rates of change between the two subgroups. Results: Growth curve analysis indicated that both short- and long-term groups showed therapeutic improvement, with clients presenting lower distress at intake showing slower improvement than those with higher distress. When comparing the two subgroups directly, the short-term group showed a faster rate of change than the long-term group, despite having lower distress at intake. Conclusions: Findings support an equity-based approach to session limits, suggesting that focused, time-limited counseling services can benefit clients even under resource constraints. Results have implications for how university counseling centers structure care within integrated primary and behavioral health models.
OBJECTIVE:This study examined how Latine undergraduates at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) experience campus food environments and sustain traditional foodways, focusing on eating behaviors, emotions, barriers, supports, and resilience strategies. PARTICIPANTS:Thirty-two Latine students living on or near campus participated. METHODS:Six semi-structured focus groups were conducted, and notes were thematically analyzed using deductive and inductive approaches. RESULTS:Participants described shifts from traditional foodways to nontraditional convenience foods, evoking shame and disconnection alongside curiosity and enjoyment. Barriers included limited kitchen space, financial strain, stigma, and isolation. Support included cooking confidence developed through family experiences and peer networks that shared costs, space, and advice. Participant-identified strategies included practical foodway adaptations, more opportunities for communal meals and open dialogue to rebuild trust and challenge stigma. CONCLUSION:Campus food environments offer HSIs a lever to reduce isolation and support cultural identity, belonging, and other crucial developmental needs of Latine students in emerging adulthood.
Objective: To examine how U.S. college students who abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs make sense of their abstinence within campus environments where substance use is normative. Participants: Participants included 30 college students aged 18-25 (M = 19.9) recruited from two large southeastern U.S. universities. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using the constant comparative method and axial coding, guided by sensemaking theory to examine how students interpret and sustain abstinence. Results: Five interrelated themes emerged: abstinence as control and success, breaking cycles of harm, religious or moral commitment, an unremarkable lifestyle choice, and a form of peer influence and leadership. Conclusions: Abstinence functions as an active and sustainable health behavior shaped by social context. Findings highlight opportunities for colleges to better support substance-free students and incorporate their perspectives into prevention and health promotion efforts.
Objective: This study examined effects of exposure to a campus mental health promotion exhibit (Send Silence Packing®; SSP) on changes in college students' help-seeking intentions. Participants: College students (n = 576) from six campuses completed online surveys (baseline, 1-month, 6-month follow-up) assessing exposure to their campus' SSP exhibit (fall, 2022) and mental health help-seeking intentions, psychological distress, and service utilization. Methods: Fixed effects regression models examined associations between exposure to SSP (any vs. no) and changes in help-seeking intentions. Results: Relative to baseline, SSP exposure was associated with increases in intentions to seek help from informal sources (friend; family) at 1-month (B = 0.22, SE = 0.08, p = 0.006) and 6-month follow-up (B = 0.20, SE = 0.08, p = 0.01) but not from a mental health professional. Conclusions: Peer-informed campus mental health promotion exhibits may increase students' intentions to leverage informal sources of support when experiencing a mental health challenge.
Objective: This study aimed to measure the effect of a Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)-based, urban gardening, cooking, and nutrition education intervention on health behavior mediators and fruit and vegetable intake in food-insecure college students. Methods: In a 6-week, randomized controlled trial, 89 food-insecure students at a southeastern university (86% female, 59% Hispanic), randomized into a controlled 107 (n = 42) or intervention group (n = 47), attended once a week, cooking/gardening sessions, that incorporated nutrition education, recipes, and at home garden materials. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline and post intervention and included anthropometrics, health behavior mediators such as nutrition knowledge (Dickson-Spillmann Consumer Oriented Nutrition Knowledge Survey), Dewar's SCT construct subscales: self-efficacy, outcome expectations, reciprocal determinism, and fruit and vegetable intake using the National Cancer Institute's Fruit and Vegetable Screener. Linear regressions and ANOVA's were conducted. Results: Intervention participants increased fruit and vegetable intake (F = 19.19, p < .001) and health behavior mediators: self-efficacy (F = 17.65, p < .001), reciprocal determinism (F = 4.16, p = .045), An increase in reciprocal determinism was significantly associated with an increase in self-efficacy (β = .392, t = 2.66, p = .011). Intervention mediators did not have a significant effect on change in fruit and vegetable intake (F = . 580, p = .679, R2 = . 061). Conclusions: An SCT-based cooking and gardening nutrition program tailored to food-insecure college students improved health behavior mediators and increased fruit and vegetable intake. A nutrition education program that utilizes a hands-on, interactive approach may be an effective intervention to promote fruit and vegetable intake and health behaviors among food insecure college students.
Objectives: To identify patterns in psychological distress, mental healthcare stigma, and mental healthcare utilization between medical learners across gender and sexual orientation. Participants: 1,588 students (975 allopathic, 448 osteopathic, and 165 physician assistant students) from all ten Florida medical schools. Methods: Respondents completed an anonymous online survey. Results: Cisgender female and LGBQ+ medical learners reported higher levels of psychological distress, higher mental healthcare utilization, and greater expected benefits of mental healthcare compared to their cisgender male and heterosexual peers. Men reported significantly greater mental healthcare stigma, and LGBQ+ students reported stronger beliefs that seeking treatment could harm future licensing/career opportunities. The indirect pathway by which stigma was associated with utilization of counseling and psychiatric medication via expected benefits of mental healthcare was moderated by gender. Conclusions: Tailoring medical school-based wellness programs to specifically address mental healthcare stigma, encourage help-seeking, and facilitate access to care may improve outcomes for medical learners.
Objective: This secondary analysis of a randomized controlled pilot trial examined whether a brief, hybrid trauma-informed acceptance and commitment therapy intervention, Present and Open for Values (POV), improved perceived stress, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and self-compassion among college students relative to an active control condition, and whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) moderated effects. Methods: Seventy-eight undergraduates were randomized to POV or control and completed assessments at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up. Results: Compared with control participants, POV participants reported greater reductions in perceived stress at post-intervention, with a medium interaction effect. This differential effect was not maintained at follow-up. Self-compassion increased at follow-up in both conditions, with no evidence of differential change. No differential effects emerged for posttraumatic stress symptoms. ACE scores moderated follow-up self-compassion scores, such that higher ACE scores were associated with higher self-compassion in POV but lower self-compassion in control. Discussion: Findings underscore the potential of trauma-informed ACT interventions for college students.
Objectives: To describe the development and content of a comprehensive healthcare literacy course for transition-aged adolescents in university settings. Description: We developed a healthcare literacy course at Boston University (BU) for the fall of 2025 semester in conjunction with the university's Student Health Services offered as a 0-credit pass/fail Hub cocurricular offering students a general education requirement. The 14-week experience covered topics including but not limited to health insurance, medical emergency navigation, electronic medical record access, patient legal rights, and more. Discussion: When designing strategies to promote healthcare literacy among adolescents on university campuses, we recommend highlighting the benefit of partnering with student health services and offering general education requirements to attract student enrollment. Conclusion: Healthcare literacy levels among university students is generally inadequate. Introducing formal courses in educational settings will nurture students' abilities to navigate the healthcare system and take better care of their health.
Objective: This study explored the link between racial trauma and substance use (alcohol and drug use) among racially and ethnically minoritized college students, with a focus on two key psychological factors: experiential avoidance as a risk factor and ethnic identity as a protective factor. Participants: Racially and ethnically minoritized college students. Methods: We examined the mediating role of experiential avoidance and the moderating role of ethnic identity in the association between racial trauma and substance use. Results: Results showed that higher levels of racial trauma were associated with greater experiential avoidance and increased substance use. Experiential avoidance mediated the relationship between racial trauma and alcohol use but not drug use. Also, ethnic identity moderated this pathway: students with a stronger sense of ethnic identity were less likely to engage in experiential avoidance in response to racial trauma, which in turn reduced their likelihood of using alcohol as a coping strategy. Conclusions: These findings suggest that promoting ethnic identity development and addressing experiential avoidance may be effective components of culturally responsive substance use prevention and intervention programs on college campuses.
Objective: This study examines how time pressure (subjective sense of rush) and time scarcity (lack of weekly non-committed hours) relate to mental health and academic performance. Participants: The sample included 646 undergraduates (65.3% female; mean age = 19.4). Method: Participants completed a mixed-methods survey assessing time use, time pressure, mental health, and academic performance at a single time point. Results: We found that time pressure predicts increased anxiety and depression, whereas time scarcity predicts decreased depression. Time pressure predicts poorer academic performance, whereas time scarcity predicted improved academic performance. There was equivocal evidence that time pressure predicts decreased help-seeking for mental health problems. We found preliminary support for the hypothesis that trait mindfulness moderates the relationship between time pressure and mental health symptoms. In addition, qualitative data provided expanded insight into undergraduates' perspectives on time. Conclusions: This study suggests theoretical and practical implications on time perspective and time use.
Objective: To examine the association of the number of campus food pantry visits during the 2023-2024 academic year with the cumulative grade point average (GPA) among undergraduate students. Participants: Administrative records from 573 identified pantry users were linked to registrar GPA data; 485 met the inclusion criteria alongside 3619 nonusers. Methods: Participants using the food pantry were linked to their GPAs obtained from administrative records. Exploratory analyses suggested a curvilinear relationship between the number of food pantry visits and GPA. Results: GPA was lower among students who visited the food pantry 1-9 times than among non-users, though those using the pantry more than 9 times had GPAs similar to non-users. Conclusions: These results highlight the possibility that food pantry use may serve as both a signal of material hardship and a nutritional intervention. Frequent use was not associated with academic decline, raising the possibility that consistent access to resources helps maintain academic continuity.
Background: Indigenous students face adverse conditions when attending college, such as elevated levels of stress and lower rates of retention when attending college. Methods: University students were recruited through community networks and in person communication. This survey included the Perceived Stress Scale, the Multiethnic Identity Measure, and the Conor-Davidson Resilience Scale. We conducted a general linear model analysis to examine the association between resilience (continuous) and perceived stress (categorical), and ethnic identity (continuous). Results: Among 153 Indigenous college students (118 female, 31 males, 4 other), the model significantly explained variance in resilience. Ethnic identity positively predicted resilience (F (1, 134) = 7.46, p = .007), while perceived stress was a negative predictor (F (2, 134) = 9.84, p < .001). Conclusion: This study found that Indigenous students' reported level of resilience is linked to a stronger Indigenous identity and lower perceived stress. Institutions should support Indigenous students in ways that reinforce their identities.
Objective: Engagement in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is one of the strongest risk factors for suicide attempt. However, the specific mechanisms underlying the relationship between NSSI and suicide attempt is not well-understood and limits the ability to predict future suicidal behaviors among people who engage in NSSI. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of NSSI and suicide attempt based on the integrated motivation - volitional model1 (IMV; O'Connor, 2011) that might have a salient impact on informing suicide prevention in a U.S. college student sample using a qualitative, narration-based design approach. Method: Participants were 4 college students (Mage = 24) who have engaged in NSSI in the past. Interviews were conducted via Zoom. Reflective thematic analysis2 (Bruan & Clarke, 2019) was applied to identify key themes in the transcripts. Results: Analysis yielded nine major themes related to the following: (a) characteristics of NSSI, (b) relationship between NSSI and suicidal behaviors and moderators, and (c) resources and future direction. More specifically, it was worth noting that burdensomeness and impulsivity each played a prominent role in NSSI behaviors and suicidal behaviors which aligned with the IMV model that posits burdensomeness as a motivational moderator while impulsivity as a volitional moderator. Early intervention and interdisciplinary care are needed to prevent and reduce these behaviors. Conclusion: Findings from the present study are expected to assist service providers in implementing risk assessments when working with college students with poor self-image and impulsive behaviors and continue developing effective interventions to minimize future risks.
Objective: Examine mental health service utilization among college men and explore reasons for unmet need between men that do and do not sign up for a university-sponsored digital wellness platform. Participants: Undergraduate men (N = 398) at two schools completed an online survey in Fall 2022. Concurrently, male-identifying students were invited to join MANUAL, a digital wellness platform offering gender-specific resources. Methods: Two-sample tests of proportions estimate group differences in reasons for avoiding mental health treatment and supplemental logistic regressions predict each reason by account activation and respondent characteristics. Results: Men that signed up for MANUAL more often avoided treatment because of embarrassment than those who did not activate their account. Conclusions: Because of their appeal over traditional in-person services, online platforms designed for and by young men may be able to bridge the gap between college men's underutilization of mental health services and the resources they need.
OBJECTIVE:This study examined the unique contributions of five health practices to mental health well-being among college students and tested whether resilience and perceived social support shape these associations. METHODS:Undergraduate students (N = 177) at a large Hispanic-Serving Institution in South Texas completed measures of health practices, resilience, perceived social support, and mental health well-being during Spring 2025. RESULTS:Of the five health practices, only adequate sleep and adaptive care-seeking uniquely predicted mental health well-being. Resilience partially mediated the association between sleep and mental health and fully mediated the association between avoiding substance use and mental health. Perceived social support moderated the association between sleep and resilience, with stronger associations observed among students with moderate or high support. CONCLUSIONS:Findings suggest that campus mentalhealth efforts may be most effective when they promote healthy behaviors in combination with building resilience and strengthening students' social support networks.
