This dissertation investigated relevant issues among undergraduate students at two institutions and how these issues could be incorporated into an introductory personal health course. By illustrating how these issues can attract student attention, relevancy, confidence, and satisfaction, educators can make these introductory personal health courses more responsive, thereby increasing student motivation to learn. This study used a qualitative research design. Focus groups and interviews were conducted in order to gain insight into issues students felt were relevant to their lives, their satisfaction with their personal health course, and how these courses could be updated in terms of content and delivery. The ARCS Model of Motivation was used as a theoretical framework for development of questions as well as to organize emergent themes. This model has been shown to increase student motivation to learn, and the current study aimed to expand this to include health courses, which could lead to an increase in adopting healthier or risk-reductive behaviors. After five focus groups and two interviews, data saturation was met, and analysis was conducted. Findings indicate a strong desire among undergraduate students for a larger focus of content to include mental health issues (e.g., stress, time management, pressure, and healthy coping mechanisms), physical health issues, and harm reductive issues surrounding the areas of sexual health and alcohol and substance use. Additionally, students reported better recall and a preference for active learning over a more didactic method of instruction. By understanding relevant issues facing college students and incorporating those within an introductory personal health course, educators can enhance the responsiveness of these courses by illustrating relevancy of topics and teaching students how they can confidently learn to adopt healthy behaviors and practice harm reduction. This is particularly useful among undergraduate students as they are in a time of transition and emerging adulthood and are willing to learn and establish new patterns of behaviors. If educators can balance what they as experts want students to know and what students say are relevant to their lives and what they want to know, these introductory personal health courses could be an effective tool for increasing overall health and wellness of students.

The purpose of this research study was to describe course content on unintentional injuries in undergraduate personal health and wellness courses at four year public and private colleges and universities identified by the Eta Sigma Gamma directory in the United States. An instrument was created, validated and tested for reliability, and used to assess course content areas related to unintentional injuries in undergraduate personal health and wellness courses. The sample for the study included 106 participants (N=106) from public and private colleges and universities in 36 states. Chi-square analysis, ANOVA, factor analysis, and MANOVA tests were used to determine if significant differences existed in course content areas based on selected demographic characteristics. Results indicated that college and university faculty members report teaching about unintentional injuries. Findings indicated that significant differences do exist in unintentional injury course content areas. The top five content areas identified by faculty members include water-related injuries, firearm safety, motorcycle injuries, motor vehicle passenger safety, and motor vehicle impaired driving. Factor analysis results revealed that unintentional injury course content areas can be categorized into three groups: personal content, motor vehicle content, and injury content. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05.