Call for Submissions Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice Special Issue – Health and Wellbeing

The Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice (JSARP) is planning a special issue for 2020 which will feature articles on the theme of “Health and Wellbeing.” 

 

Please review the information below and consider submitting abstracts for this special issue no later than the extended deadline of March 16, 2020.

 

Abstracts should be limited to 500 words and describe the proposed article and which category of publication it best matches:

•       Innovations in Research and Scholarship
•       International Features
•       Innovations in Practice
•       Media Features and Reviews

 

In your abstract, please include the following information:

•       Research purpose or question(s)
•       Methodology (instrument, participants, variables, analytic techniques)
•       Principle findings
•       Significance to student affairs practice

 

Selected authors will be notified by March 24, 2020 of their invitation to submit a full manuscript by May 1, 2020 for consideration through the standard editorial board review process. Please adhere to all requirements for JSARP submissions and mindful of the vision of the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice (JSARP)—to publish the most rigorous, relevant, and well-respected research and practice making a difference in student affairs practice. JSARP especially encourages manuscripts that are unconventional in nature and that engage in methodological and epistemological extensions that transcend the boundaries of traditional research inquiries.

 

Topics for the special issue could include, but are not limited to:

•       Health and wellbeing of college students
•       Health outcomes as it relates to:
•       Demographic trends and challenges in impacting the health behaviors of students
•       Innovations in campus-community partnerships that support college student health and wellbeing
•       Intersection of academic success, physical health, and mental health
•       Strategies to support individual and institutional practices to improve health and wellbeing
•       Resiliency
•       Anxiety
•       Sleep
•       Spirituality and mindfulness
•       Supporting students on the autism spectrum
•       Trends and best practices in mental health services
•       Trends and best practices in all facets of college student health including, but not limited to:
•       Alcohol and other drugs, sexually transmitted diseases and testing, infectious disease, physical activity
•       Strategies for and effectiveness of health promotion techniques
•       Health of International Students

 

Submit abstracts and send any questions to the guest editors for this special issue of JSARP:

Scott Silverman, Associate Dean of the Emeritus Program, Santa Monica College, silverman_scott@smc.edu  and Shay Little, Special Assistant to the President, Kent State University, shaydlittle@gmail.com

 

Background

 

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services championed the Healthy People 2030 framework for the coming decade. One principle of the framework notes, “Health and well-being of all people and communities are essential to a thriving, equitable society” (ODPHP, 2020). Further, one goal of Healthy People 2030 includes a call to, “Create social, physical, and economic environments that promote attaining full potential for health and well-being for all” (ODPHP, 2020). Higher education leaders have great potential to impact the health and wellbeing of the collegiate community while integrating the best programmatic strategies and research on their campuses.

 

Advancing the health and wellbeing of college students is not a novel idea. Even in 1937, student affairs leaders in higher education articulated the importance of the whole student.  “The student personnel point of view encompasses the student as a whole. The concept of education is broadened to include attention to the student’s well-rounded development- physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually,-as well as intellectually” (American Council on Education, 1937, p. 2). In 2014, the Bringing Theory to Practice Project outlined models for cross-functional strategies that positively impact the health and wellbeing of campus communities. 

 

And efforts are underway to implement pedagogies, curricular structures, co-curricular programs, and civic engagement, all in the service of advancing our students’ Well-being. This is great— certainly a good start. But think about how much more effective and efficient we could be if our efforts were coordinated within and across campus and our results were disseminated in publications that reached across our disciplinary silos. How much more effective we could be if our academic and student life and civic centers were all talking the same talk, consolidating resources, and working together to build programs for which student Well-being was the focus and reason for acting.  (Bringing Theory to Practice Project, 2014, p. 2)

 

Successful students are healthy students. The health and wellbeing of students is most certainly correlated with their academic success. More scholarship documenting best practices and the health outcomes of implemented strategies is needed. Sponsler and Wesaw (2014) surveyed higher education leaders and noted a number of health related issues such as mental health, substance abuse, and sexual violence were top of mind for senior student affairs officers. Through December 2019, more than thirteen professional associations have endorsed the Health and Wellbeing in Higher Education joint statement, supporting more collaboration and strategic thinking to promote health and wellbeing in higher education. In January 2019, the Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) in Higher Education released a cross-functional framework noting professional standards to collaborate for a healthier student and healthier campus environment.

 

Given recent discussions surrounding the physical and mental health of college students, the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice has planned a special issue for 2020 to address health and wellbeing and the role that student affairs in higher education plays in championing healthy campus environments.

 

References

American College Health Foundation (2019).  Framing well-being in a college campus setting.

Silver Spring, MD: Author.  Retrieved from https://www.acha.org/documents/ACHF/Framing_Well-Being_In_College_Campus_Settings_Whitepaper.pdf

American Council on Education. (1937). The student personnel point of view. (American Council on Education Studies, series 1, no. 3). Washington, DC: Author.

Bringing Theory to Practice Project. (2014).  The well-being and flourishing of students. Washington, D.C: Author. Retrieved from https://www.naspa.org/images/uploads/kcs/WHPL_Canon_WB_BTtoPWellbeingInitiative.pdf

Council for the Advancement of Standards. (2019). Advancing health and well-being: Crossfunctional framework. Retrieved from https://www.cas.edu/blog_home.asp?display=86

Health and well-being in higher education: A commitment to student success (2019).

Retrieved from https://nirsa.net/nirsa/wp-content/uploads/health-and-wellbeing-in-higher-education-statement.pdf    

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2020). Healthy people 2030 framework.  Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/About-Healthy-People/Development-Healthy-People-2030/Framework

Sponsler, B. A. & Wesaw, A. J. (2014). The chief student affairs officer: Responsibilities, opinions, and professional pathways of leaders in student affairs. Washington, D.C.: NASPA Research and Policy Institute.