Abstract
Increasing rates of mental illness among college students over the past 10 years suggest a collective deficit in meaning and purpose unattended to by many university campuses. Psychopathology among young adult college students is associated with developmental tasks such as spiritual individuation, suggesting that interventions aimed at spiritual wellbeing may support the stated need for comprehensive mental health services. The aim of this pilot service assessment study is to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and helpfulness of spiritually integrated programs at a Spirituality Mind Body (SMB) Wellness Center at a graduate-level academic institution. Wellness Center demographic and attendance data of N = 305 adult graduate students (M = 27.7 years, SD = 6.05) were used to assess acceptability and feasibility. To evaluate helpfulness, measures assessing symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress (PTS), spirituality, mindfulness, and psychological inflexibility were completed before and after eight-week programs on a subset of participants (n = 141). SMB users completed a total of 64% of sessions and reported significant pre/post gains in spirituality and mindfulness and decreases in psychological inflexibility, symptoms of depression and PTS. The preliminary findings of this open-trial are encouraging but inherently limited by the design; foremost, the results offer support for future research, which might draw on a larger sample and a study design involving a comparison group.
Highlights
The Case for an On-Campus Spirituality Mind Body (SMB) Wellness CenterEvidence suggests there are growing rates of psychological distress and mental illness in post-secondary education, with the increase in demand for mental health services outpacing enrollment growth by five times (Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2016)
Our data on a university-based SMB Wellness Center show: (1) that SMB users show rates of psychopathology commensurate with rates of psychopathology found in nationally representative samples of university students; (2) SMB treatment may be associated with decreased rates of mild to moderate symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress; and (3) concomitant with decreases in symptoms of psychopathology, we found increases in personal spiritual awareness, along with mindfulness and psychological flexibility
The results indicated that specific aspects of psychopathology, symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress, may be improved via these SMB programs, it is important to note that these services do not replace clinical services for individuals who meet the criteria for psychiatric disorders
Summary
Evidence suggests there are growing rates of psychological distress and mental illness in post-secondary education, with the increase in demand for mental health services outpacing enrollment growth by five times (Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2016). With the ratio of counselors to students widening to 1 to 1737 (LeViness et al 2017), service expansion has not kept pace with elevated rates of enrollment Statistics [NCES] 2019) and increases in prevalence rates of students with severe psychological problems, increasing the burden on campus counseling centers (Brunner et al 2014). These unmet needs place an unforeseen onus on students such that those who exhibit symptoms of psychopathology drop out of college at a rate three times higher than those without symptoms (Eisenberg et al 2009). The consequences for students who do not receive support and remain in school may be steep, as 80–90% of students who die by suicide have not received services from college counseling centers (SafeColleges 2019)
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