Wellness Issues for Higher Education

A Guide for Student Affairs and Higher Education Professionals

David S. Anderson, David S. Anderson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317695523
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Administration

Wellness Issues for Higher Education is an essential resource that addresses a range of student wellness issues confronting professionals in college and university settings. Organized around five dimensions of Wellness—Emotional, Social, Intellectual, Physical, and Spiritual—this book comprehensively covers key topics that contribute to students' success in college. Each topical chapter includes proactive wellness advice, and is designed to prepare the reader to better understand the facts, issues, and strategies appropriate for addressing the issue.

Each Chapter Features:

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• Background information, theory, and research

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• Historical and emerging issues

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• Common questions, controversies, challenging situations, and misconceptions

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• Practical applications for the campus

This practical guide prepares practitioners to understand and deal with the wellness and health promotion issues contributing to their students' overall success and well-being. Armed with this valuable resource, higher education and student affairs professionals can work to improve academic performance, retention, satisfaction, and quality of life. This thorough resource will guide those working at any level in residence life, student activities, orientation, health education, student leadership, advising, instruction, and other areas of student development.

1
Introduction

A Mandate for Higher Education

DAVID S. ANDERSON

Overview

College students’ health and wellness are, to a large extent, vital for the overall success of students while enrolled as a student. Called “survival skills,” “approaches to enhance college success,” or simply “wellness strategies,” positive results with these issues can make a difference with students’ growth and goal attainment in various areas, from intellectual success to emotional balance, from life health skills of exercise, nutrition, and sleep to study skills and stress management approaches.

Further, students’ success with wellness affects the achievement of their college’s mission. Institutions of higher education have the growth and development of students as a central part of their missions, regardless of institutional size, religious affiliation, private or public status, urban or rural setting, or years of existence. Typical mission statements articulate the development of sound minds, critical thinking, strong values, career-oriented skills, a worldview, cultural appreciation, and skills, all designed to last a lifetime. Thus, students’ skills surrounding wellness issues and topics are beneficial to both the individual students as well as to the institution itself.

Attention to the lives of students outside the academic classroom has long been rooted within the academy in the United States. The traditional role of the faculty serving all aspects of students’ lives, to the highly fully developed profession of student affairs found throughout higher education institutions, has been a continuous evolution over decades and even centuries.

American higher education as we know it today represents the end product of a long period of interaction between the Western European university heritage and the native American physical and social environment. From this process of transplantation and continuous adaptation have emerged those aspects of academic culture which we have come to recognize as “characteristically American.”

(Brubacher & Rudy, 1968, p. 390)

The evolution of supportive services, meaningful activities, prepared professionals, and healthy engagement of students in their institutions of higher learning will undoubtedly continue. This evolution is not necessarily one of increased activities and services (although that may be part of a redesigned future), particularly during years of financial constraints and a reexamination of services; the evolution anticipated, and needed, is based on a careful assessment of the nature and scope of interaction between the students and the institution where they are enrolled. Drawing upon the mission statements found at our colleges and universities, it is appropriate and timely to assess ways in which students can be supported, and encouraged, to maximize the opportunities they have for education and growth. The evolution, then, is one of determining how best to achieve these needs, and how best to facilitate students’ actualization of their own potential.

The opportunities and responsibilities of institutions of higher education were highlighted well by Sanford (1962) over a half-century ago: “If our culture and our society are to be changed at all by the deliberate application of intelligence and foresight, no agency has a better chance of initiating change than our institutions of higher learning” (p. 19).

College Students

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), over 21 million individuals are enrolled in degree-granting institutions in the United States. This is a significant increase over the nearly 16 million enrolled in 2001, which was up 11% over 1991. During the 2001–2011 decade, full-time students increased 38%, and the number of part-time students rose 23%. During this same time period, the percentage of traditional-age college students (18 to 24 years old) enrolled in college reached a level of 41% from a level of 36% in 2001. For students over age 25, enrollment rose by 41 over the 2001–2011 decade. The NCES estimates, for the decade 2011–2021, an enrollment rise of 13% for students under age 25, and 14% for those age 25 and above.

The “traditional” college student arrives on campus having recently graduated from high school. This young person is eager to participate in the academic, social, cultural, recreational, and personal life opportunities and challenges that abound on the college campus. Many college students live on a residential campus, having experiences in the residence halls and much that a life on campus offers. Many other students are commuters, sometimes traveling to campus solely for classes, and often becoming involved with campus life at varying levels. Many college students work, sometimes remaining as full-time students, and other times managing college studies as a supplement to their full-time employment. Some students transfer from one school to another, sometimes enrolling in a community college for the first year or two before relocating to a four-year institution. Still others are what is referred to as “nontraditional,” including those who have provided service to the nation and arrive at, or return to, college as a veteran; some students work after high school, and/or were not prepared to attend or desirous of attending college, and then arrive on campus at an older age.

Regardless of the background of the student, and whether the individual is a first-generation college student or comes from a family where enrollment in college has been a way of life for many generations, students have health and wellness needs. The issues associated with student success or nonsuccess in college abound; these include, but are not limited to, handling the newfound stress, developing appropriate ways to study and write, gaining new understanding about such common topics as sleep or nutrition, and learning about alcohol or drugs in ways not previously heard. Ultimately, the aim is to succeed in college, and to make the investment of time, money, and effort worthwhile.

While the aims of academic, social, cultural, and personal growth abound for students, various factors can get in the way. For students who seek academic success or progress in various other areas of their lives, any of a range of concerns can block the attainment of these goals. While some of these can be anticipated, others are totally unexpected.

• Consider study skills: Could a student do better on exams or with written assignments if greater time was taken or academic preparation was more appropriate? Absolutely.
• Consider a student whose participation with an athletic team or student organization is important to his or her self-esteem, and believes that drugs or alcohol are necessary to succeed; is this an appropriate or helpful strategy? Definitely not.
• Could students be provided with skills and attitudes that aid them in these and similar situations, on campus and throughout life? Definitely.
• Alternatively, the unexpected loss of funding for college, whether through personal employment or parents’ or others’ financial assistance being dropped, is a challenge for which few are prepared.
• Similarly, stressors abound with changes in assignments, new grading criteria, departure of friends and trusted mentors, health issues, and even fluctuations in the weather.

Each of these issues, anticipated and unanticipated, affects the lives of our students, the culture of our campuses, and the lives of professionals. College professionals, whether student affairs, faculty, staff, or other individuals, are well served to be as acquainted as possible with the issues facing students, and identifying ways of minimizing the impact of these on the lives of students. This doesn’t mean making things easier or negating many aspects of the “real world”; it means that it is appropriate, and, in fact, the obligation of college professionals, to connect students with the resources and services that do exist, and to facilitate their engagement with these resources. This doesn’t translate to a guarantee that everything will go well, and that the student will demonstrate exemplary work and skills in all aspects of life in college; what it does do is connect students with resources, and further reminds them of the importance of self-responsibility for maximizing their own success.

What Is Wellness?

Before turning to specific needs surrounding wellness, it is helpful to provide a brief overview of wellness. Wellness is a concept that goes by varying definitions. Some view wellness as the state of not having disease or not being ill; that is, if someone is not sick then they must be well. Others view wellness as a measure of reducing the incidence of negative behaviors or attitudes, such as stress, low self-esteem, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, drug abuse, or sleep disorders.

A starting point is with the World Health Organization, which nearly 70 years ago articulated, “Health is a state of complete positive physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, 1946). Further, its Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states the following:

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1)
• Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (Article 25 [1])
• Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. (Article 24 [1])
• Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (Article 27 [1])

All of these elements are important parts of wellness.

Over three decades ago, health was reconceptualized as being not the absence of disease but rather overall fitness that applies to the body, mind, and spirit. This quality health concept was named “wellness” and emphasized healthy living. Powers and Dodd (2003, p. 8) define wellness as “a state of healthy living” and emphasize that it is “achieved by the practice of a healthy lifestyle, which includes regular physical activity, proper nutrition, eliminating unhealthy behaviors, and maintaining good emotional and spiritual health.”

The focus with wellness is on optimum health and well-being, and includes multiple dimensions. Emotional wellness addresses feelings and ways of problems and situations that occur throughout one’s daily life. Intellectual wellness emphasizes cognitive abilities, problem-solving, adaptability, creativity, and critical thinking. Occupational wellness blends one’s professional productivity and skills with making a living and contributing to society as a whole. Social wellness includes communications and relationship skills. Spiritual wellness links one’s personal needs to the larger societal and world context.

A more forward-looking view is espoused by Seligman (2008, p. 3), with an emphasis on positive health that combines “excellent status on excellent biological, subjective and functional measures.” In essence, wellness is about being positive and proactive. Wellness is preventive. Wellness is optimistic. Wellness is never-ending. Wellness is a journey. While wellness doesn’t have a defined “endpoint” (e.g., a person is never completely “there”), a state of wellness is one of relative balance and productivity in a person’s life. It’s about actualized potential, knowing that one can always get better and be better throughout the range of aspects of life.

The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1977 to 1983, William Foege, MD, summed up prevention well decades ago. He said, “The rationale for prevention is clearly the improvement of life quality; nonetheless, when prevention programs can be shown not only to improve life quality but also to reduce health-care expenditures and provide savings in other ways, a decision by budget makers to avoid adequate funding of such programs is already a decision to increase expenditures for that condition and simultaneously to increase human suffering. It is a decision to tolerate fraud, waste and abuse.”

Student Issues With Wellness

Just as a range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes can be helpful for students to achieve their goals and dreams, a range of issues can also get in the way of their success. A helpful starting point is to understand the nature and scope of some of the issues facing students today. Undoubtedly, numerous other issues are not currently assessed or identified, thus providing a tremendous research opportunity.

One of the primary sources of information and data about college students’ health and wellness is the American College Health Association’s (ACHA) National College Health Assessment (NCHA). Conducted since 2000, the data provides a rich compilation of students’ issues surrounding health (ACHA, 2014). Noteworthy, as a starting point, is that over one-half (58.6%) of students described their health as very good or excellent, and over 9 in 10 students (91.2%) described it as good, very good, or excellent.

Students were asked about the extent to which various factors affected their academic performance, all within the last year. For 2014, top among that listing were stress (30.8%), anxiety (21.8%), sleep difficulties (21.0%), cold/flu, sore throat (15.1%), work (13.8%), depression (13.5%), Internet use/computer games (11.6%), concern for a troubled friend or family member (10.9%), and participation in extracurricular activities (10.5%). While some may not have been identified as particularly high (e.g., relationship difficulties were 9.5%, alcohol use was 4.1%, and finances were 6.2%), these issues may actually be having greater impact, yet not be acknowledged by students through this self-report survey process.

Among the students citing alcohol use, over one in five (22%) reported consuming seven or more drinks at a time, with the average number of drinks being 4.82 per person. Nearly one in seven (14.0%) students reported using one or more prescription drugs not prescribed for them during the last year, with 8.3% reporting the use of stimulants, 6.2% using pain killers, and 3.6% using sedatives. This is consistent with other data, from the Monitoring the Future Study, which documents that, on a monthly basis, 63.1% of full-time college students drink alcohol, 14.0% use tobacco, and 20.6% use marijuana; further, 35.2% of students consumed five or more drinks at least once in the past two weeks (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2012).

From an overall contextual perspective, students reported feeling, in the last two weeks, overwhelmed by all they had to do (51.4%), feeling exhausted, and not from physical activity (50.1%), feeling very sad (24.7%), feeling very lonely (24.1%), feeling overwhelming anxiety (22.1%), and feeling things were hopeless (16.6%). Reflecting on the past year, six in seven students (86.4%) reported feeling overwhelmed, and four in five (82.1%) felt exhausted. One in six students (17.3%) reported having received a verbal threat over the past year, with 1 in 11 (9.1%) citing an emotionally abusive intimate relationship. Beyond this, nearly one-half (49.1%) of students reported 3 or more of 12 issues being traumatic or very difficult to handle during the past year. These issues included academics (with 47.4% citing this one alone), finances (33.2%), intimate relationships (30.7%), family problems (27.6%), and sleep difficulties (27.1%). Noteworthy is that less than one in four (24.9%) cited none of these issues. Translating that slightly, three in four students reported having some issue, over the past year, that was traumatic or very difficult to handle.

Similar results surrounding wellness issues are found with the well-regarded research done by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA, founded by Alexander Astin. HERI’s studies provide insights regarding freshmen as well as seniors enrolled at colleges and universities nationwide. Among freshmen, one-third (33.1%) reported being overwhelmed by all they had to do, 8.9% felt depressed, at a level of “frequently” during the past year; further 45.1% reported falling asleep in class, “frequently” or “occasionally” during the past year (Eagan, Lozano, Hurtado, & Case, 2013). Approximately two-thirds of respondents, however, cited as “a major strength” or “somewhat strong” their critical thinking...