Smoking, physical activity, and insufficient fruit and vegetable consumption have been linked to increased instances of coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, hypertension, numerous cancers, and complications surrounding blood pressure and blood cholesterol. In the United States approximately 22% of college students have smoked at least one cigarette in the past 30 days; 70-85% are not meeting recommended levels of physical activity; and 75% are not consuming recommended levels of fruits and vegetables. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption behaviors of self reported smokers and nonsmokers, and to determine the predictors of healthy behaviors at a mid-sized university in the southern region of the United States using the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Health Belief Model. Students in this study (N = 461) completed a written questionnaire during March-May 2012. Results indicated that 20% of the population smoked at least one cigarette in the past 30 days, with men being more likely to smoke than women. Physical activity was found to be significant to smoking status; however, fruit and vegetable consumption was not significant. Multiple regression determined the following constructs significantly predicted smoking status: attitudes and intentions from the Theory of Planned Behavior and perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action from the Health Belief Model. The results of this study may be utilized to address differences in college student engagement in adverse health behaviors, and in the enhancement of future smoking interventions on college campuses.

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This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experiences of students working as resident assistants (RAs) in college or university housing departments during the March 2020 COVID-19 shutdown. Twelve current and former RAs participated in qualitative interviews exploring their experience as their institutions shut down because of COVID-19. Three broad categories of experience were found: RAs who were considered essential employees and required to work during the pandemic, RAs who were given the option of working during the pandemic, and RAs who were laid off at the beginning of their pandemic. The central research question was regarding the perceived experience of RAs during the pandemic. RA job duties were detailed from before the pandemic and after the shutdown had taken place. Subquestions regarding RAs’ experiences with their supervisors, their experiences with their peers, their experiences with support systems at their university, and their academic experiences were also detailed. Coding and subsequent analysis yielded the following themes: role of communication, motivation, confusion, disappointment, negative stress, residential life, and unexpected positives. The research includes a discussion about the differing outcomes based on whether or not RAs had choice in their decision to continue to work during the COVID-19 shutdown. The project concludes with recommendations for practice for staff and administrators in housing and residence life, student affairs, academic affairs, and human resource services. These recommendations included implications for RAs and their relationships, RAs as college students, the mental health of RAs, and RAs as essential personnel. Implications for further research included exploring the role of college student supervisor as advocate and caretaker, the services offered by universities during times of crisis, and the exploration of being essential personnel and student employees.

Parental influence on college students' well being is underestimated frequently in the developmental literature. College students often set social and academic goals according to their perception of what their parents expect from them. The discrepancy between college students' performance and their perceptions of parents' expectations can impact their quality of life. The purpose of this study was to examine various parent-college student expectation discrepancies and communication levels as predictors for college students' psychological well being. Results revealed that college students reported experiencing higher levels of anger, depression, and anxiety and lower levels of self-esteem and college adjustment when higher expectation-performance discrepancies were present. Results also indicated that a higher perceived level of communication, particularly by the college student, served as a predictor of distress and was related to lower levels of affective distress and higher levels of self-esteem and college adjustment. Such findings underscore the importance of teaching assertive communication skills to college students and their parents as a means of diminishing the deleterious effects of perceiving one another inaccurately.

Personalized normative feedback (PNF) has shown promise as a stand-alone intervention for reducing alcohol use among college students. PNF uses norms clarification to correct drinking norms misperceptions by highlighting discrepancies between personal alcohol use, perceived peer alcohol use, and actual peer alcohol use. Previous reviews of personalized feedback interventions have identified norms clarification as key a component, prompting researchers to study PNF as a single-component intervention for college drinking. As the number of publications focused on PNF effectiveness has increased in recent years, an empirical review of these studies is warranted to assess the potential impact of PNF as a stand-alone program. The purpose of the present study was to summarize available research and to perform a meta-analytic review of personalized normative feedback as a stand-alone intervention for college student drinking. Studies were included if they examined a stand-alone PNF drinking intervention, used a college student sample, reported alcohol use outcomes, and used a pre-post experimental design with follow-up at least 28 days post-intervention. Eight studies (13 interventions) completed between 2004 and 2014 were included. Effect size estimates (ESs) were calculated as the standardized mean difference in change scores between treatment and control groups. Compared to control participants, students who received PNF reported a greater reduction in drinking and harms from baseline to follow-up. Results were similar for both gender-neutral and gender-specific PNF. Overall, intervention effects for drinking were small but reliable. This study offers an empirical summary of stand-alone PNF for reducing college student drinking and provides a foundation for future research.

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This study examined the retention and graduation patterns of a cohort of students at one baccalaureate, public, commuter campus. Quantitative and Qualitative data were analyzed to develop a campus specific retention model (risk model). The results of this study are used to inform retention initiatives on this campus. Recommendations for a specific strategy to improve the year-to-year student retention rate and improve the 6-year graduation rate are made based on the findings of this study. / Educational Psychology