Objective
The current study evaluated the comparative implications of self-weighing and calorie counting versus intuitive eating (IE) on the eating disorder (ED) severity of college students.
Methods
...In this cross-sectional study, college students in the US
N
= 902; 68% female; mean body mass index (BMI) = 24.3 completed the web-based Healthy Bodies Study in 2015.
Results
A hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that elevated BMI, more frequent self-weighing and calorie counting, and lower IE scores predicted increased ED severity. The results of Kruskal–Wallis H tests indicated that participants with elevated weight statuses engaged in self-weighing and calorie counting more frequently, and possessed lower IE scores, than their lower weight counterparts.
Conclusion
Engaging in self-weighing and calorie counting was adversely associated with ED severity among the present sample of college students. Cultivating IE within health promotion efforts may, instead, lead to favorable eating-related outcomes that may translate to the holistic health of this population.
Level of Evidence
V cross-sectional descriptive study.
One hundred sixty‐two resident assistants (RAs) at a large southeastern university were randomly assigned to attend either a specialized 1‐hr training program in suicide prevention (intervention ...group) or a stress and time management skills training program (control group). The results failed to show the suicide prevention training program had any impact on RA intervention behaviors, resident help‐seeking behaviors, or RA perceptions of resident distress and suicidality 4 months following training. Results are interpreted and discussed in relation to strengthening suicide prevention training programs on college campuses.
Academic enrichment programs seek to address the challenges first-generation students face, but research tends to focus on academic outcomes. In this study we investigated first-generation students' ...perceptions of how a program addresses their mental well-being. A total of 25 undergraduate students who were enrolled in an academic enrichment program participated in focus groups and interviews. A thematic analysis of the focus groups and interviews revealed that students reported the program promoted their mental well-being by helping them to feel cared for, cultivating a sense of belonging, preventing and remediating distress, and helping them become resilient.
Student-athletes are susceptible to mental health problems that disrupt optimal functioning and well-being. Despite having many protective factors, student-athletes represent an at-risk subgroup of ...college students who experience mental health concerns due to the distress of balancing multiple obligations. However, many student-athletes underutilize psychological services. Stigma is the main barrier preventing student-athletes from seeking help, and mental health literacy (MHL) interventions addressing knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders have traditionally been used to destigmatize mental illness. This study investigated the impact of a 4-week program on stigma, MHL, and attitudes and intentions toward seeking help with 33 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I student-athletes. The program was composed of four science-based interventions—MHL, empathy, counter stereotyping, and contact—delivered face-to-face within a group setting. MHL, attitudes toward seeking help, and intentions to seek counseling improved from preintervention to postintervention and to 1-month follow-up. Self-stigma was reduced from preintervention to postintervention.
This study explored the prevalence of stressors and their impact on distress for international students who did not seek help, those who sought either informal or professional help, and those who ...accessed both informal and professional help. Results indicated that international students underutilize professional support services when faced with serious stressors, such as assaults, and often do not seek help from any source for those stressors contributing most to their overall distress. Those endorsing higher levels of belonging, sense of coherence, mindfulness, academic and social integration and their sense of connection to their university tend to turn to informal sources of support, while those with lower levels tend to turn to professional supports. Implications for prevention, outreach, and clinical practice are discussed.
College students respond to stressful experiences along a continuum of distress and suicidality. This study investigated, from students' perspectives, the contributors to stress, nature of stress, ...coping strategies used, and role of drugs and alcohol during stressful periods-all with particular relevance for suicidality. Undergraduate and graduate students were sampled on an online survey from 73 institutions, totaling 26,292 respondents. The pervasiveness of stressful experiences students endorse appears to be more than traditional clinical interventions can manage on their own. Recommendations are, therefore, made about how to utilize population-based prevention to reduce students' distress and suicidality and improve their mental health.
This study examines the experiences of transgender college students in coping with stress in comparison to their cisgender peers. Undergraduate and graduate students from 73 colleges, totaling 26,292 ...participants, of which 47 identified as transgender completed an online survey. Transgender students reported greater exposure to trauma and higher rates of suicidal experiences, as well as different precipitants to reported stressful periods and sources of support than their cisgender peers. Implications for individual and group counseling as well as outreach and prevention to better support transgender students are explored.
This study explored the prevalence of stressors and their impact on distress for international students who did not seek help, those who sought either informal or professional help, and those who ...accessed both informal and professional help. Results indicated that international students underutilize professional support services when faced with serious stressors, such as assaults, and often do not seek help from any source for those stressors contributing most to their overall distress. Those endorsing higher levels of belonging, sense of coherence, mindfulness, academic and social integration and their sense of connection to their university tend to turn to informal sources of support, while those with lower levels tend to turn to professional supports. Implications for prevention, outreach, and clinical practice are discussed.
This study explored the mental health influence on resident assistants associated with their training in suicide prevention and their subsequent role as campus mental health gatekeepers. Despite ...considerable prior personal experience with their own suicidal thinking as well as with others who have thoughts of suicide, a multiple regression analysis revealed that resident assistants in this study appear resilient to situational stress experienced with resident mental health interventions. Implications for campus gatekeeper training are discussed.
The focus on helping students transform their lives has emerged as part of the mission of many colleges and universities. Campus-based student affairs personnel contribute to this endeavor through ...their efforts to create a campus ecology conducive to supporting and promoting well-being and by their engagement with students in their time of need. These two types of involvement with students necessitate that graduate studies programs in student affairs educate future student affairs professionals in the knowledge base and, at times, the skill base essential to being effective in both population-focused and individual assistance. This article delineates several aspects of the counseling and health promotion knowledge base and related competencies students should acquire during their graduate program in student affairs. It divides the knowledge and skill base into activities that are primarily growth and prevention oriented and those that are focused on helping students resolve existing challenges commonly encountered during enrollment in college.
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