Suicide is the second leading cause of death in college students, making it a significant public health concern on college campuses. Perceived stress, depression, and mental health stigma are established risk factors for engaging in suicidal behaviors; however, their interrelationships are unknown. In a sample of 913 college students, we examined the role of depressive symptoms as a potential mediator of the relation between stress and suicidal behavior, and mental health stigma as a moderator of that effect. In bivariate analyses, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, mental health stigma and suicidal behaviors were all positively correlated. Additionally, depressive symptoms partially mediated the relation between stress and suicidal behaviors, such that greater stress was related to more depression and, in turn, to greater engagement in suicidal behavior. Further, mental health stigma significantly moderated this mediating effect, exacerbating the deleterious relations between perceived stress and depression, stress and suicidal behavior, and between depression and suicidal behaviors. Negative, unaccepting attitudes toward mental health treatment, such as fear of social repercussion, may contribute to a worsening of symptoms and suicide risk in students experiencing distress. Our findings may have clinical and public health implications. At the individual level, addressing stress and depression, perhaps by bolstering coping efficacy via Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and, at the community level, implementing strategies to reduce mental health stigma, perhaps via awareness messaging campaigns, may reduce risk for suicide.

Colleges and universities continually seek to foster the leadership development of undergraduate students through curricular and co-curricular opportunities and experiences. This study examined the effects and potential contributions of participation in campus-based leadership trainings on college students' leadership development with special consideration for gender and racial background. To better understand the relationship between campus-based trainings and leadership development, data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS) was utilized. The WNS was a multi-institutional, longitudinal dataset made up of 47 four-year colleges and universities from 21 states throughout the United States. This study mark's one of the first multi-year, multi-institution longitudinal studies to investigate the relationship between campus-based leadership trainings and leadership development. The results of the study pointed to several over-arching themes. The first theme was that a student's background and leadership experience prior to college matter. Next, a student's curricular success matters, and influences their leadership gains throughout all aspects of the SCM. The interactions students have with peers who are different from themselves matters. Leadership development opportunities need to be intentionally designed. Finally, campus-based leadership trainings offer a potential programmatic option for institutions to help develop their students as socially responsible leaders, regardless of backgrounds and other experiences.

The purpose of this study was to investigate what effect, if any, an outdoor orientation program conducted at a comprehensive public institution in the Northwest school had on first-year students' self-efficacy relative to success in their first year of college, measured as academic and social integration. A random sample of students who registered for the raft/hike option of the FOOTsteps program and a random sample of students not registered for FOOTsteps or for the university's orientation class were sent surveys through campus mail. These surveys asked them to rate their confidence in completing tasks associated with academic and social integration into the college setting. While no statistically significant difference between the groups was found, time was a significant factor in increasing efficacy expectations for both groups. Additionally, the study looked to see if there were any differential effects of the treatment program on participants' self-efficacy depending on the participants' prior outdoor adventure experience. Again, no statistically significant differences were found. Despite these insignificant statistical results, it was found through focus groups and participant journals that the outdoor orientation program aided in the participants ability to develop social connections and make friends, thus moderating the anxiety of the beginning of college. / Graduation date: 2003

This interpretive study uses hermeneutic phenomenological methodology to understand the experience of six college students in Taiwan who participate in TV talk show as studio audience. Texts were collected from in-depth interviews. The result indicated a dramatic interaction framework toward the whole experience: participants as performers must ¡¥act¡¦ like undergraduate students, though the show ¡V from script, setting to personal front ¡V must be ratified by producer. Furthermore, two transformative effects are found in participants. First, they were socialized in the studio through the performance, and learned more social-performing skills and scripts. Second, they are bothered by mixing up their drama-roles with social-roles. It was the producer¡¦s purpose to represent ¡¥a world beneath¡¦ of college students in University. However it became ¡¥a public trial¡¦ on TV after excessive entertainment manipulation.

The main purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between life experiences, creative personality and creative thinking of college students in Taiwan. Investigation method was employed in the study. The employed instruments included College Student Life Experiences Questionnaire, Creativity Test (Verbal-bamboo chopsticks, figure-¤H), and Creative Personality Scale developed by H. G. Gough (1978). The participants were college students in Taiwan. 2443 college students were sampled to finish College Student Life Experiences Questionnaire, and 456 students of them also had to finish Creativity Test and Creative Personality Scale at the same time. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way MANOVA , and canonical correlation. The main findings of this study were as following¡G 1. Life experiences of college students in Taiwan could been classified eight kind of styles which including ¡uexploring experiences¡v, ¡uadventure experiences¡v , ¡uteam works¡v,¡uculture experiences¡v,¡ufashion life¡v ,¡umaking money¡v, ¡uinformation getting¡vand¡urisk seeking ¡v. The study present team works was the most students ever tried. 2. There were significant differences of life experiences and creative thinking in different gender, grade, college (Art College, Science College, Social Science College) and school type (University, The Normal University, Technical and Vocational College) students in Taiwan. 3. There were significant canonical correlation among the college students¡¦ background, creative personality and life experiences. The study finding revealed the junior and senior of The Normal University have more different kind experiences, than any others, especially in¡uadventure experiences¡v, ¡uteam works¡v, ¡uculture experiences¡v and ¡urisk seeking ¡v. They also had more creative personalities and didn¡¦t think they were interest narrow and commonplace. 4. There were significant canonical correlation among eight life experiences styles and creative thinking. The result present¡uexploring experiences¡v, ¡uteam works¡v, ¡uculture experiences¡v, ¡ufashion life¡vand ¡uinformation getting¡vhad positive effects on the verbal and figure creative thinking, especially on verbal creative thinking. 5. There were significant canonical correlation among the college students¡¦ background, creative personality and creative thinking. The finding revealed the junior or senior, art college and the normal university female students present better in creative thinking than any others. They also had more positive creative personalities for example, confident, resourceful and original.

This qualitative study sought to describe and understand the experiences of female students attending engineering colleges in Mexico and the sources of support and strategies that helped them persist in their programs. The participants were 20 women engineering students enrolled in at least their third year in selected colleges of engineering in Mexico, in both public and private universities, and pursuing a variety of engineering majors. Findings focus on the experiences of female students that helped them stay in their programs. Participants described their experiences in college as very challenging and perceived the environment as hostile and uncertain. In addition, patriarchal Mexican cultural values and stereotypes were identified by students as influencing and helping shape the engineering environment. However, in this context, participants were able to find sources of support and use strategies that helped them remain in their majors, such as a strong desire to succeed, a perceived academic self-ability; and support from their families, peers, institutions, and?most importantly?their professors. Furthermore, the fact that participants were able to persist in their programs gave them a sense of pride and satisfaction that was shared by their families, peers, and faculty. In addition, participants experienced contradictory forces and were constantly negotiating between rejecting traditional gender norms and upholding the norms that are so deeply engrained in Mexican society. Finally, as the students advanced in their programs and became ?accepted to the club,? they tended to reproduce the maledominated value system present in engineering colleges accepting their professors? expectations of being ?top students,? accepting the elitist culture of engineering superiority, and embracing the protection given by their male peers. Retention of Mexican female engineering students is important for all engineering colleges, but cultural factors must be taken into consideration. The dominance of machismo attitudes and values in Mexican culture present specific challenges to achieve an environment more supportive of women in Mexican engineering colleges. Institutions need to be proactive and creative in order to help faculty and administrators provide an environment in which female engineering students can be successful.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-169). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--East Carolina University, 2008. / Presented to the faculty of the Department of Educational Leadership. Advisor: Michael Poock. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed May 21, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

This study explored college students’ perceptions of Facebook, focusing on their views of Facebook as an informal learning environment, how the features of Facebook motivate students’ learning, and the relationship between motivation and interest triggered when using Facebook. Participants were surveyed via an online survey program in order to examine whether their perceptions and experiences with Facebook (Madge, Wellens, & Hooley, 2009) and how the features of Facebook motivated users’ learning. This study provides evidence to support the idea that interest and motivated actions on Facebook are related. For example, students mostly read (click) posts that are related to things they are learning and therefore they are mostly self-motivated to reply to posts in which they are interested. In addition, in support of the four-phase model of interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006), students’ positive feelings, which is interest, plays a crucial role in developing individual interest which leads to self-regulated learning. / text

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