Abstract
BackgroundFirst-year students entering postsecondary education must navigate a new and complex academic and social environment. Research indicates that this transition and developmental period can be challenging and stressful – academically, emotionally and socially – and that mental health and wellbeing can be compromised. Additionally, mental health disorders can also compromise students’ ability to successfully navigate this transition. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the incoming 2020 cohort of first-year students face heightened and new challenges. Most will have spent the conclusion of high school learning virtually, in quarantine, in an uncertain and difficult time, and are then experiencing their first year of university while living, learning and socializing off-campus, virtually and remotely. In response to COVID-19 and with an appreciation of the considerable stresses students face generally and particularly in 2020-21, and the potential effects on mental health and wellbeing, McMaster University, a mid-sized research intensive university with approximately 30,000 students, has developed an innovative program to support students, called Archway. This initiative has been developed to help to prevent and to intervene early to address common transitional issues students experience that can influence mental health and wellbeing, with the ultimate goals of increasing student connectedness, supports, and retention.MethodsThe current study will use a mixed-method design to evaluate Archway and gain a better understanding of the transition into first-year postsecondary for students who engage and participate in Archway at various levels. The study will not only help to determine the effect of this program for students during COVID-19, but it will help us to better understand the challenges of this transition more broadly.DiscussionFindings have the potential to inform future efforts to support students and protect their mental health and wellbeing through the use of virtual and remote platforms and mechanisms that meet their increasingly diverse needs and circumstances.
Highlights
First-year students entering postsecondary education must navigate a new and complex academic and social environment
Archway is a program which intends to meet the unique needs of first-year students by helping them to engage and cultivate a sense of belonging to the student and university communities, and by providing each student with the necessary support, information and services to help them with the transition to postsecondary, with particular attention to their mental health and wellbeing during COVID-19
Study 1 will be a longitudinal cohort study to determine if participants enrolled in Archway experience sustained or improved academic retention, social connectedness, mental health and well-being and use of supports when compared to first-year students who do not enroll into Archway
Summary
Research design The study will use a mixed-method design, with two studies to evaluate effectiveness for the Archway program. Data analyses To answer our primary research question on program effectiveness, we will use mixed effects modeling to examine changes in each of our primary measures of interest (i.e., mental wellbeing, resiliency, psychological distress, sense of belonging, social isolation, and academic support) between baseline and follow-up, testing for differences based on students’ enrollment in Archway (i.e., enrolled vs not enrolled) and levels of engagement with Archway among those who enroll (i.e., high, moderate, or low users). Interviews with non-enrollees will be conducted primarily to understand barriers for participation in Archway, to solicit their feedback to better engage students, and to identify the salient domains (e.g., mental wellbeing, resiliency, psychological distress, sense of belonging, social isolation, and academic support) in which these students might have benefited from intervention efforts. The identified themes will be the strengths and limitations of Archway in relations to: (a) student health and wellbeing and (b) the school experience
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