The first year of college can be full of difficult transitions: moving to campus, establishing a new routine, and adjusting to new expectations. Given all these changes, it’s no surprise that many first-year students struggle. These challenges often lead to students feeling stressed or overwhelmed, which can quickly escalate to more significant mental health and well-being concerns.
Students’ resilience and coping skills influence their behaviors when responding to setbacks and impact the outcomes of challenging scenarios. Generally, students with low resilience and coping skills withdraw and see their concerns intensify, while students with high resilience and coping skills seek help from peers or campus resources and persevere through challenges.
This resource is part of the Develop Student-Centered Well-Being Support Roadmap. Access the Roadmap for stepwise guidance with additional tools and research.
Most colleges and universities have several touchpoints built into the first year that they can easily enhance with resilience and coping skills, including orientation, common reading programs, and first-year experience courses. This paper outlines three recommendations for engaging first-year students in developing these essential skills.
Pre-semester exercises provide an opportunity to prepare students to encounter setbacks and introduce them to strategies or ways of thinking that will help them overcome challenges. At the University of Texas at Austin, psychological researcher David Yeager partnered with chemistry professor David Laude to introduce a an exercise students complete before arriving on campus to prime them with growth mindset concepts.
EAB recommends institutions extend conversations about resilience and coping skills beyond orientation to help students learn the content and skills they need to succeed on campus. See how Susquehanna University used input from faculty, students, and staff, to develop…