Indigenizing an Undergraduate Wellness and Resilience Skill-Based Course

The goal of this project is trifold: 1) to establish a committee of AI/AN undergraduates to participate in a semi-structured 3sharing circle ́ to identify the sources of stress negatively impacting their mental health on the Ut campus and the culturally-specific sources of resilience they use to cope with these stressors and cultivate wellbeing 2) to forge a partnership between this AI/AN undergraduate committee and EDUC 215 teaching team members to co-construct a culturally-centered prevention-focused resilience and wellness workshop for AI/AN undergraduates that draws upon student-identified culturally-specific sources of resilience and existing EDUC 215 curricula to address student-identified stressors and mental health challenges 3) offer actionable recommendations for inclusive practices and pedagogy to increase the relevance and accessibility of the existing EDUC 215 class for AI/AN undergraduates and other historically marginalized student groups. 

Towards these goals, this project will be implemented in three phases. First, AI/AN undergraduates will be recruited to establish a student committee and participate in the first of two sharing circles. Sharing circles are designed to facilitate the sharing of stories while upholding cultural protocols (Tachine et al., 2016). Specifically, 3sharing ́ in this context is an act of interdependence that serves to carry out a collective responsibility to produce collective stories of accumulated experiences of stressors and resilience towards the betterment of mental wellness supports for AI/AN undergraduates at UW. In order to honor cultural protocols, center kinship relationships, and ensure cultural appropriateness, an AI/AN graduate student will be recruited to facilitate the sharing circles. Second, the AI/AN student committee and the EDUC 215 teaching team will collaboratively select 4 lessons from the existing curricula aligned to target the mental health challenges identified through the sharing circles. The AI/AN student committee with participate in these lessons and after each session work with the teaching team to adapt and rewrite the lessons to incorporate identified culturally specific sources of resilience and address the specific mental health challenges of AI/AN Ut students. The resulting products will be both a brief skills-based resilience workshop curriculum by and for AI/AN college students and a series of recommendations for increasing the cultural relevance and responsiveness of the existing course. Seed grant funds will be dedicated to compensating undergraduate students for their time and work. 

College is a period marked by significant developmental, social, emotional, and academic transitions that expose students to new and acute sources of stress. Across all student groups, the prevalence and severity of mental health problems among college students is steadily increasing (CCMH, 2020). These mental health problems undermine students’ sense of belonging, academic performance, and degree completion (NAMI, 2012). Students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups attending PWIs are exposed to additional stressors that increase their risk of experiencing psychological distress and developing anxiety and depression disorders (Billingsley, 2019; Cokley et al., 2011). Racial/ethnic minority student groups have a higher prevalence of depression compared to their White peers (Eisenberg et al., 2013). Notably, public research institutions with larger White student populations exhibit a greater proportion of underrepresented students endorsing depressive symptoms (Abegase, 2019). Considering AI/AN undergraduates are the most underrepresented population in higher education, AI/AN students are likely at a higher risk of mental health problems on campus (Ginder and Kelly-Reid, 2013). According to a national health survey, 15% of AI/AN college students endorsed that they had seriously thought about suicide within the past year compared to 9.1% of their non-AI/AN peers (ACHA, 2005). In a large multi-institutional study, AI/AN college students exhibited over two times the rate of suicidal attempts than their non-AI/AN peers (Chen et al., 2019). 

The current mental health service delivery model is a wait-to-fail approach that places the heavy onus on struggling students to seek help and results in post-hoc intervention that is delayed until it is dire. This problem is further compounded by the limited human and material resources accessible to already strained counseling center. Undergraduate students encounter substantial barriers to campus-based mental health services that impede their access to timely and effective treatment (Mowbray et al., 2006). Universities have a vested interest in and institutional responsibility for the mental health and wellbeing of their college students given that psychological distress is a significant cause for student departure  (NAMI, 2012). Furthermore, as a public institution situated on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish people and located within a state with 29 federally-recognized tribes, Ut has an amplified public responsibility for addressing the unique mental health needs of its AI/AN students. Universally delivered prevention-focused interventions have the potential for three critical treatment effects: 1) improving mental health problems for the small portion of the population already experiencing difficulties (treatment) 2) preventing the development of future problems among those with elevated risk factors (prevention) and 3) promoting the resilience and wellbeing of the entire population by enhancing protective factors and training adaptive coping skills and strategies (promotion) (Greenberg & Abenavoli, 2017). 

Promoting resilience (e.g. skills, strategies, and routines) can better equip college students to adapt to change, manage stressors, navigate obstacles, and experience success and well-being across all aspects of their lives. AI/AN college students’ coping efficacy for managing the stressors within their university environment has been identified as vital to their persistence intentions (Thompson et al., 2013). Furthermore, AI/AN undergraduates transitioning to 4-year institutions report primarily relying on internal sources of resilience and coping strategies to adjust to the campus environment, navigate challenges, and manage the anxiety of the first weeks as college students (Rodriguez & Mallinckrodt, 2018). While cultivating the individual’s psychological resources must be approached warily to avoid placing the onus on the AI/AN student to cope with institutionalized systems of oppression that undermine his or her cultural identity, examining how to strengthen and expand the individual’s coping strategies offers another access point for intervention for universities to thoughtfully support their AI/AN students. 

Co-constructing a prevention-focused, skill-based resilience and wellness workshop that validates their cultural identity, creates congruence between the AI/AN students’ cultures and that of the institution, engages their natural social supports, and acknowledges and responds to their unique stressors across their ecological systems could provide a critical route for supporting the development of AI/AN students’ ability to thrive not only as students while they are within the bounds of the academic institution, but also as individuals within their communities. As such, the aims of this project seeks to reduce inequalities manifesting in substantial physical and mental health disparities among AI/AN communities (SDG #10) by ensuring inclusive and equitable holistic education (SDG #4) that incorporates socioemotional learning within higher education and integrates the promotion of health and wellbeing across the lifespan (SDG #3).