Features of the Self-Directed Education Environment

Mental health among university students has become a growing concern, largely due to the distinct pressures and expectations tied to academic learning. The increasing prevalence of mental health challenges within this demographic reflects the complex interplay between academic demands and students' personal well-being. This study investigates how specific academic-related factors—namely social support, academic pressure, and financial stress—influence the mental health and overall well-being of university students. A total of 113 undergraduate students from a public university in Northern Malaysia participated in the study. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The results revealed that all three factors significantly affect students’ mental health, underscoring the critical role of the academic environment in shaping psychological outcomes. These findings emphasize the need for university stakeholders—including educators, administrators, and policymakers—to address the mental health implications of academic learning and to implement strategies that foster a more supportive and balanced learning environment.

Purpose: Clinical supervision is an incredibly meaningful endeavor that has a significant impact on the lives of graduate students. Despite the codification of supervisory standards and requirements, as well as a growing list of training and resources related to clinical supervision, there has been little focus on the effect that individual supervisors can have on student well-being. This article describes the role that supervisors play in supporting student growth and well-being and introduces seven essential supervisor characteristics meant to serve as a self-reflective guide to ensure supervisor readiness to support the whole student. Conclusion: When preparing to engage in clinical supervision, supervisors consider these seven essential supervisor characteristics as a guide to reflect on their readiness to effectively foster student growth, mental health, and well-being.

To Editor, Regular exercise and/or physical activity have long been recognised for their numerous benefits on physical health, but their impact on mental health and mood, particularly in older people experiencing cognitive decline, is equally profound. Cognitive decline, which may manifest as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or progress to conditions like Alzheimer's disease, is often accompanied by mood disturbances such as depression, anxiety and irritability (Ismail et al. 2018). Engaging in consistent physical activity has been shown to mitigate these issues, offering both physiological and psychological benefits that enhance overall quality of life (Kim and Lim 2022). Depression and anxiety are common symptoms in older people with cognitive decline. These mood disorders can worsen cognitive symptoms, creating a vicious cycle of poor mental and emotional health, and chronic stress is a significant risk factor for both cognitive decline and mental health in older people. Regular exercise and/or physical activity act as a natural stress reliever by lowering levels of cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, and physical activity also helps manage emotional issues associated with cognitive impairment by providing a constructive outlet for tension and frustration (Smyth et al. 2020; Quinn et al. 2016). The effectiveness of regular exercise and/or physical activity in improving mood and mental health depends on its consistency and suitability for the individual. Older people with cognitive decline may have physical limitations or comorbid conditions that require tailored exercise programmes. Consistency is crucial for reaping the mental health benefits of exercise and/or physical activity. Even moderate physical activity—as little as five 30-min bouts of moderate intensity or three 25-min bouts of vigorous intensity per week—can lead to noticeable improvements in mood and cognitive function. Regular exercise and/or physical activity are powerful tools for improving mood and mental health in older people experiencing cognitive decline. Through physiological mechanisms such as increased neuroplasticity and reduced inflammation, as well as psychological benefits such as stress reduction and enhanced social connections, exercise addresses multiple dimensions of mental well-being (Lee et al. 2021). By incorporating consistent and individualised physical activity into their lives, older people with cognitive decline can experience significant improvements in mood, resilience and overall quality of life. This underscores the importance of promoting exercise as a key component of holistic care for this vulnerable population. This study was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022S1A5B5A16055088). The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Bibliography of recent journal articles

Genes, environment, and mental health wellness.

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the mental health and well-being of students. An effective method that can enable students to cope with difficult times is to help them realize their inner potential. Following the stimulus-organism-response model, this study developed a theoretical framework that deepens our understanding of an environmental stimulus (fear of COVID-19) that is experienced by students; struggle within the organism (learning stress, learning involvement, and academic concerns); and the psychological response (psychological well-being). The findings clarified how the fear of COVID-19 affects the psychological well-being of university students and revealed the moderate role of academic self-efficacy in this process. Some systematic practical advice was provided to higher education institutions to develop effective interventions to protect the mental health of college students and establish strategies to promote their inner potential.

Background: College students undergo a developmental transition from adolescence to adulthood, which can be challenging and make them more vulnerable to mental health problems. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the benefits of hanging out as a meaningful leisure occupation to deal with stress in college students and how hanging out can improve the mental health and well-being of college students. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological approach was applied. Data were collected using Focused Group Discussion with eight students who hanging out regularly 1-2 times a week. Results: There were two themes identified in this study: The first theme is hanging out meaningful leisure occupation with three sub-themes namely students’ perception of hanging out, hanging out as leisure among students, and benefits of hanging out as a meaningful leisure occupation. the second theme was the impact of hanging out on students with two sub-themes namely the impact of hanging out on student mental health and the impact of hanging out on student well-being. Conclusion: Hanging out provides many benefits for students, especially to reduce academic stress, and hanging out can have a positive impact on students' mental health and well-being.

Background: A growing body of research has indicated the importance of implementing community mental health initiatives in universities to promote student mental health and well-being. Designing and implementing community-based initiatives on campus can facilitate improved student well-being in a cost-effective way. Purpose: This paper provides a description of the implementation of a graduate-level university course grounded in a community mental health framework, which gave students the opportunity to become peer-mentors for other students within the university in exchange for course credit. Approach: The course took place over two semesters. In the first half of semester one, students engaged with theoretical and practical content that teaches them how to be a peer-mentor and support students’ needs. In the second half of the first semester, and over the course of the second semester, students used what they have learned to engage in experiential learning, where they acted as peer-mentors to their fellow university students. Conclusion: This university course provided mental health and well-being benefits to university students in a cost-effective manner while providing hands-on experience to students enrolled on the course to be peer-mentors. Implications: Experiential learning opportunities can be used to support student well-being while reducing the need for more specialist forms of mental health service provision.

Introduction Aim : To explore the mental health and factors that impact on the wellbeing of Pacific students in their first year at University. Methods : Twenty Pacific students who enrolled to study in the Health Sciences First Year at a University in New Zealand in 2015 were randomly selected to participate in this research. Participants were interviewed three times during their first year at University. The Pacific research methodology Talanoa was used for the data collection process. Of the 60 planned interviews, 59 were able to be completed. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and uploaded to NVivo to assist data management. Data was analysed using a thematic approach. Results Pacific students reported on their experiences of various stresses during the year. Some stress was related to their own personal expectations and others due to expectations of others. Students experienced a range of emotions and symptoms in response to these stresses. Many had developed skills or effective management strategies to deal with these stresses. For many, resilience contributed to maintaining wellbeing. In addition, families, friends, peers, mentors, supportive staff and targeted Pacific support services played critical roles in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of Pacific students in the first year at University. Conclusion There is increasing concern worldwide about students’ mental health and wellbeing in higher education. Pacific students felt stressed for many reasons which affected their mental health in the first year at University. Their resilience and other coping skills and connecting to a wide support network enabled them to maintain wellness. Pacific students or those from minority groups are likely to require different and or more support to enable them to adapt to the higher education environment. Strengthening and facilitating access to support networks and culturally relevant services, and increasing connectedness and sense of belonging, are important for Pacific students’ mental health and wellbeing in the tertiary environment.

BackgroundMental health tends to worsen over the course of medical school, with steep declines in well-being in students’ clerkship year (M3). Positive emotion promotes adaptive coping to stress and may help preserve medical student well-being.ObjectiveThis study describes the development of LAVENDER (Leveraging Affect and Valuing Empathy for Nurturing Doctors’ Emotional Resilience), a program aimed at increasing positive emotion to preserve well-being in medical students.MethodsWe conducted a single-arm pilot of LAVENDER, a positive psychology intervention developed for medical students delivered in an interactive classroom format to a cohort of 157 third-year medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Our primary outcome was the acceptability of LAVENDER. We also examined preliminary efficacy using measures of emotion, stress and burnout collected at each intervention session.ResultsLAVENDER showed good acceptability: 76% of participants agreed that the LAVENDER skills were useful and 72% agreed that they would recommend the LAVENDER program to others. Qualitative feedback suggested that medical students enjoyed the program and found the skills to be useful for coping with stress, but also reported the following barriers to engagement: lack of time to practice the skills, resistance to the mandatory nature of the wellness sessions, and difficulty integrating the skills in daily life. We did not find support for the preliminary efficacy of LAVENDER for improving medical student well-being in students’ clerkship year. Participants showed decreases in positive emotion and increases in symptoms of burnout over the intervention period (ps < .01).ConclusionThe current paper describes the development and a single-arm pilot test of LAVENDER, a positive psychology program tailored for medical students. Although we found preliminary evidence for the acceptability of LAVENDER, we did not find support for the preliminary efficacy. Lessons learned and next steps for the program are discussed.

This article considers current concerns with promoting student mental health and wellbeing against the backdrop of critiques of the ‘therapeutic turn’ in education. It begins by situating accounts of ‘therapeutic education’ within broader theorisation of therapeutic culture. In doing so, the importance of this work is acknowledged, but key assumptions are questioned. The emergence of concerns about self-esteem and wellbeing are then examined through an analysis of changing educational aims in Australia. This enables consideration of the broader context for policy reforms and emergent ideas about the importance of fostering wellbeing and attending to the social and emotional aspects of learning. Finally, the article argues for the salience of historicising both educational policy and scholarly critiques of therapeutic education in order to: (1) situate the contemporary emphasis on student wellbeing within a longer history of educational reforms aimed at supporting young people; (2) unsettle taken-for-granted ways in which mental health and wellbeing are currently foregrounded in contemporary schooling; and (3) develop new perspectives on the therapeutic turn in education.

Background Health and Safety Executive data show that teachers are at heightened risk of mental health difficulties, yet few studies have attempted to address this. Poor teacher mental health may impact on the quality of support provided to young people, who also report increased mental health difficulties themselves. Objective To test the effectiveness of an intervention aiming to improve secondary school teachers’ well-being through mental health support and training. Design A cluster randomised controlled trial with embedded process and economic evaluations. Setting Twenty-five mainstream, non-fee-paying secondary schools in the south-west of England and South Wales, stratified by geographical area and free school meal entitlement, randomly allocated to intervention or control groups following collection of baseline measures (n = 12, intervention; n = 13, control) between May and July 2016. Participants All teachers in the study schools at any data collection. All students in year 8 (baseline) and year 10 (final follow-up). Intervention Each intervention school received three elements: (1) a 1-day mental health first aid for schools and colleges training session delivered to 8% of all teachers; (2) a 1-hour mental health session delivered to all teachers; and (3) 8% of staff trained in the 2-day standard mental health first aid training course set up a confidential peer support service for colleagues. Control schools continued with usual practice. Main outcome measures The primary outcome was teacher well-being (using the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale). Secondary outcomes were teacher depression, absence and presenteeism, and student well-being, mental health difficulties, attendance and attainment. Follow-up was at 12 and 24 months. Data were analysed using intention-to-treat mixed-effects repeated-measures models. Economic evaluation A cost–consequence analysis to compare the incremental cost of the intervention against the outcomes measured in the main analysis. Process evaluation A mixed-methods study (i.e. qualitative focus groups and interviews, quantitative surveys, checklists and logs) to examine intervention implementation, activation of the mechanisms of change outlined in the logic model, intervention acceptability and the wider context. Results All 25 schools remained in the study. A total of 1722 teachers were included in the primary analysis. We found no difference in mean teacher well-being between study arms over the course of follow-up (adjusted mean difference –0.90, 95% confidence interval –2.07 to 0.27). There was also no difference in any of the secondary outcomes (p-values 0.203–0.964 in the fully adjusted models). The average cost of the intervention was £9103 (range £5378.97–12,026.73) per intervention school, with the average cost to Welsh schools being higher because of a different delivery model. The training components were delivered with high fidelity, although target dosage was sometimes missed. The peer support service was delivered with variable fidelity, and reported usage by teachers was low (5.9–6.1%). The intervention had high acceptability, but participants reported low support from senior leadership, and minimal impact on school culture. Limitations Participants and the study team were unblinded, self-report for the main outcome measures and inaccurate measurement of peer support service usage. Conclusions The Wellbeing in Secondary Education (WISE) intervention was not effective at improving teacher or student well-being, or reducing mental health difficulties, possibly because of contextual barriers preventing it becoming embedded in school life. Future work Identification of ways in which to achieve system-level change and sustained support from senior leaders is important for future school-based mental health interventions. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN95909211. Funding This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 9, No. 12. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. Intervention costs were met by Public Health Wales, Public Health England and Bristol City Council.

This dissertation presents three studies on learning in children museums. The first study is a literature review of the research that was done on learning in children’s museums between 2010 and 2021. In this review, I focused on presenting a current state of the field with insights into what research has been done and where there may be gaps in the literature. In order to evaluate the research, I first analyzed the implicit and explicit use of major learning theories to ground the papers. This showed that most researchers are currently using sociocultural learning theory as a lens through which they evaluate intergenerational learning and interactions in these spaces. From there, I investigated which participant behaviors the researchers focused on, what types of exhibits were being studied, and how researchers were evaluating learning. Doing so showed that there was an abundance of research adult behaviors in STEM exhibits using objectivist-aligned measurements of learning. The review concludes with recommendations for future research on how to design and evaluate children’s museum exhibits based on sociocultural learning theory. The second study aims to understand adult behavior in children’s museums and the roles they take on during a visit. In doing so, I build off Falk’s (2009) museum visitor identity framework, developing one for use specifically in children’s museums. I use Falk and Storksdieck’s (2004) Contextual Model of Learning as a framework for understanding how a visitor’s personal, sociocultural, and physical contexts shape and influence their experience. I gathered observation and interview data from four adult during a visit to a local children’s museum. I then analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis to develop four major adult roles: Chaperone, Playmate, Educator, and Playful Teacher. Adults move between these roles as they interact with their children based on the interactions between their personal, sociocultural, and physical contexts. Although all of the contexts are important, parent’s entry narratives and their personal context have greater influence and often lead to prevailing roles, roles that the adult is most likely to take on during their visit. The third study is an investigation into parent’s perspectives on children’s museum visits. It aims to identify parents’ entry narratives (i.e., their reasons for visiting the children’s museum) and their understanding of the educational value of their visit. I distributed an online questionnaire to recent visitors and asked them to recount why they visited, to describe how they and their children interacted at two of the exhibits, and to evaluate each exhibit based on its educational value. I then used a mixed methods approach to evaluate the data. To do so, I performed a thematic analysis of short answer questions, then quantified the data, and used t¬-tests to compare parents’ ratings of the exhibits. Through this analysis, I argue that parents typically have two complimentary entry narratives. First, they come to the children’s museum to have a Child-Centered Experience during which their children can practice autonomy as well as play and learn. Second, parents expect to have Parent Leisure Time. I argue that this is a form of family leisure time in which the parents are present but are not required to be fully engaged with their children for the entire visit, creating opportunities for the parents to relax from the full duties of parenting. Finally, I argue that parents take a Broad View of Learning. When describing their children’s learning, parents talked about both academic and non-academic learning. These themes can be used to improve adult visitors’ experiences.

This research analyzed the implementation of self-management (SM) strategies, an intervention to facilitate academic and non-academic students’ learning processes. This systematic literature review used an application named, the Publish or Perish 8 program, with a Scopus index. In this research, the applied inclusion criterion was - recent 5-year published articles from 2017-2022. The researchers used PRISMA 2020 concept model with some stages: 1) identifying the articles, 2) screening the articles, 3) checking the eligibility, and 4) using the articles. The researchers applied meta-synthesis data analysis. The results showed that SM strategy implementation could overcome academic problems, and influence learning continuity, balance, motivation, on-task behavior, and learning outcomes. SM strategy could also manage the students' non-academic problems, such as improving self-confidence, future-decision responsibility, and social involvement. The effectiveness of the SM strategy should also consider the student achievement levels, the experience of disability, and general and specific circumstances at schools. Thus, this strategy could deal with certain situations so SM strategy formulation must consider the student's needs.

Objectives: University students represent a vulnerable population to mental health and wellbeing issues. However, young people are likely to delay or fail to engage in help-seeking behaviours. Embedding mental health learning opportunities in curriculum design may improve the mental health and wellbeing of students, but there are challenges to embedding this material in non-health disciplines where students’ intrinsic interests may not align with mental health–themed coursework. To explore this challenge, the present study involved embedding mental health literacy learning into an Event Management course through an experiential learning opportunity. Design: A quasi-experimental design involving university students divided into intervention groups ( n = 40) and control groups ( n = 83). Setting: Students in the intervention groups managed events across campuses of a major Australian university in support of a University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day. Students in the control groups managed non-mental health events. Method: Pre- and post-event surveys compared students’ perceptions of experiential learning, of the effectiveness of student-led events in promoting mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviours in themselves and peers, and of embedding mental health learning into an experiential learning framework. Results: Results suggest that experiential learning opportunities that contain mental health literacy content in addition to course content can be valuable without interruption to core learning aims. Conclusion: This study is one of the first to evaluate the impact of innovative curriculum designs that embed mental health literacy in non-health disciplines, highlighting the opportunities for creative approaches to improving mental health education in universities.