Re-injury anxiety is common among college student-athletes at the varsity (Podlog et al., 2011; Putukian, 2016) and club (Watanabe et al., 2023) level. Coping with sport injury has been studied in previous reviews (Putukian, 2016; Sims & Mulcahey, 2018) and literature (Kontos et al., 2013; Schlierf & Vosloo, 2020), but the relationship…

As student enrollment in colleges across the United States continues to diversify, teaching and learning practices must keep pace with demographic shifts. The growing majority of today's college student body, dubbed post-traditional learners, is older, racially and ethnically diverse, more experienced in work and life, and stretched by competing…

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an applied mental health course in a university setting in reducing distress and symptoms of depression and increasing levels of psychological flexibility. As university psychological services are unable to meet the need of their students, other methods of treatment must be explored. Participants in…

Predominant sustainability pedagogy and science largely focus on fixing existing problems via solutions external to humans (e.g. carbon sequestration, renewable energy). While external or outer interventions can support a transition to a sustainable future, internal or inner developments should also be highly valued. For this dissertation, I…

Nature-based interventions (NBI) have demonstrated positive effects on a range of student outcomes, including enhanced prosocial behaviors, decreased levels of stress, and improved mood and concentration. Further, school-aged children's participation in NBIs supports students' reconnection with the natural world. Although schools represent an…

This research study served to examine casual inferences within the relationships between social connectedness, drinking, resilience, and loneliness for both LGBTQ+ and heterosexual-identifying college students. The literature reviewed identified there is likely a relationship between these constructs whereby social connectedness was expected to…

According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA, 2018), at least 4,420,000 children between the ages of 6-12 and 2,454,000 children between the ages of 13-17 participate in outdoor soccer in the United States. Arguably, their coaches have a significant impact on these children's development. The purpose of this study was to…

This quantitative study, guided by the critical race theory theoretical framework, was conducted to investigate the relationship between academic burnout and psychosocial needs among Black doctoral students in counseling education and supervision (CES) programs. This study highlights the prevalence and patterns of perceived met psychological needs…

Although the purpose of this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study was to investigate how low-socioeconomic high school graduates describe their lived experiences in secondary schools and how their experiences influence them to graduate from high school and enroll in college. A purposeful sampling protocol was utilized to select 12…

This dissertation examined how the perception of the achievement-emotion of boredom impacted the academic agency of sixth-grade mathematics students. The study for this dissertation was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through an explanatory sequential mixed methods study, sixth-grade mathematics student volunteers from a Midwest middle…

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the experience of higher education crisis leaders while facing an unprecedented crisis. COVID-19 thrust senior student affairs professionals, who most often serve as crisis leaders on small college campuses, into the position of decision-maker guiding the campus response to the pandemic. The…

This exploratory sequential mixed methods study explored how African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino/Hispanic, and Native American (ALANA) students develop a sense of belonging within higher education at one private, Predominantly White Institution (PWIs) within the United States when co-curricular programs are offered within the…

Past research has shown that using an online student orientation can decrease anxiety for students taking online classes for the first time. This study focuses on the experience of first-time online students from a community college in South Texas using a multiple regression analysis to determine first-time online student readiness in the areas of…

Black women in higher education leadership experience complex forms of discrimination that impact how they operate in their professional roles. This study used an intersectional and ecological lens to explore the racialized and gendered experiences of Black women in leadership roles at a predominantly White institution. Using a qualitative…