Alan M. Schwitzer

• Old Dominion University

The development and validation of the 29‐item Understanding Mental Health Scale (UMHS) is described. This new questionnaire measures college students' understanding of mental health issues. The authors also identified significant demographic differences in students' understanding of mental health issues. A principal factor analysis revealed a 2‐fac...

This brief study reports on health center visits for psychotropic medication prescriptions and academic success. We analyzed records for students with mental health needs from 2000 to 2008. Building on previous research, we found two significant variables predicting post-treatment 6-year graduation among health center mental-health clients: returni...

We examined first-semester adjustment among students in and out of an honors college because honors college participants receive relatively little attention in the advising literature. As expected, honors college students earned relatively high grades and were associated with high retention rates. Two noncognitive factors predicted these difference...

In this study, we examined college counseling experiences and academic outcomes. About 10% of college students seek counseling for mental health needs, and many would be unable to persist without support. Building on previous research, we found that participating in counseling was beneficial to academic success. Students who visited the counseling...

This article briefly reports on the needs of students with diagnosed psychological disorders who are enrolled in 2-year colleges and studying at a distance. A six-feature descriptive model was constructed that included three areas of need (Hurdle of Self-Disclosure, Hurdle of Personal Connection, Hurdle of Time Management) and three corresponding r...

This article focuses on counseling research in the community college context. The article suggests the need for a robust community college knowledge base, describes some limitations of the current community college literature, and suggests a framework for more effective work in this area. The authors' own experiences and selected examples of publis...

This chapter provides a framework for counseling young adult women with Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). It discusses the populations most affected by EDNOS and considers diagnostic criteria, assessment guidelines, and case conceptualization. The chapter also discusses the counseling responses for prevention, early intervention, an...

A Reading List on and about Your Brain

A consistent diagnostic profile describing college women with eating disorders has been well established in the college health and mental health literature. This diagnostic framework traditionally has been associated with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision(1) Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Speci...

This article presents research and evidence‐based practices for identifying, understanding, diagnosing, conceptualizing, and providing a continuum of treatment for the most commonly experienced types of eating‐related counseling concerns—namely, eating disorders not otherwise specified—among the population most likely to present these types of need...

Community colleges often are catalysts for economic and workforce development in localities with high unemployment or large numbers of dislocated workers. Increasingly, dislocated workers—individuals who have experienced job loss due to occupational closings, reduced workforces, or severe local economic downturns—are enrolling in educational and re...

This study examined the effects of on-campus residence, in comparison with commuter status, on academic performance, vocational commitment, self-efficacy, and perceptions of the college environment among female and male Iranian students at Shiraz University, Iran. The study sought to extend previous work investigating the effects of college residen...

This article builds on earlier discussions about college health research. The author suggests a 5-step framework that research practitioners can use to build models of practice that accurately address the needs of diverse campus populations. The author provides 3 illustrations, drawn from published research examining college women with eating-relat...

Because susceptibility for eating-related concerns exists along a continuum, this manuscript first introduces a framework for intervention that offers a continuum of responses for addressing such concerns in young adult women. The mental health strategies needed range from early identification and interventions for subthreshold problems to more adv...

Resources for the entire process

Previously, the researchers proposed and tested a diagnostic framework for women with eating-related concerns who seek college health and mental health treatment. The framework emphasized moderate problems characterized by frequent binging, occasional purging, and frequent exercise; rumination; body image and self-esteem concerns; ambivalence about...

This is the 2nd of 2 articles in which the editors provide suggestions for authors who are considering submitting manuscripts to the Journal of College Counseling (JCC). The editors describe guidelines for writing manuscripts for the Professional Issues and Innovative Practice sections of JCC.

College psychotherapists and student development professionals need to better understand which students utilize available supports on campus, when positive outcomes are due to intervention effects versus participant self-selection, and whether supportive experiences have different effects depending on developmental differences among participants. T...

This article provides information and several recommendations that the authors (the journal's editors) believe will be helpful to researchers and practitioners who wish to contribute to the college counseling knowledge base by submitting research manuscripts to the Journal of College Counseling (JCC). The authors hope that the comments made in this...

When Old Dominion University created a summer institute to allow adult distance learning students to enroll in accelerated on-campus courses, typical college transition issues were, at first, left off the schedule. Over the years, the institute has evolved to provide these students with the same kind of personal and academic support needed by their...

College psychotherapists and student development professionals need to better understand which students utilize available supports on campus, when positive outcomes are due to intervention effects versus participant self-selection, and whether supportive experiences have different effects depending on developmental differences among participants. T...

The use of clinical supervision is central to mental health work. In this article, the authors propose using practice cases drawn from characters found in literature, popular fiction, biographies, television, and movies as one method for clinical supervision and professional development in the mental health skill areas of client assessment, case co...

This qualitative study combined descriptive written instruments and focus group data to investigate heterosexual college students' current attitudes toward gay and lesbian peers, a distinctly at-risk population. Overall, participants were generally supportive, but participants felt public pressure to hide or shield the support they felt for gay mal...

Although most psychotherapists have limited experience dealing with large scale catastrophic incidents, college and university counseling centers today need to be prepared for crisis events such as terrorist attacks, war, and local catastrophes. This article presents a conceptual model for designing counseling center responses to large scale trauma...

Student personnel professionals are beginning to have key roles and increased involvement in distance learning programs, by administering distance education systems and supporting distance student adjustment, learning, and development. This article presents a work sample exercise for use when interviewing and hiring college student personnel admini...

The authors describe a method for preparing novice counselors for professional environments by using classroom meetings of semester-long courses to simulate college student affairs divisions, community agencies, school counseling offices, and other work settings.

The authors examined a proposed profile of eating-related behaviors, associated features, developmental issues, and help-seeking behavior among college women, using an eating disorder response program. The most common symptom scenario was a pattern of regular binge eating, together with daily exercise and occasional purging. The most common associa...

This study examined the identity development of college students with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other minority sexual orientations. A descriptive model was constructed that identifies six sequential stages of identity development experienced by individuals with minority sexual orientations: (1) Recognizing a Difference, (2) Reflective Observing,...

Using qualitative research methods, the authors investigated African American college students' social climate experiences. Ss were 22 traditionally aged African American college seniors who participated in focus group discussions. Results expanded previous research on the college transitions and counseling needs of African Americans in predominant...

Using qualitative research methods, the authors investigated African American college students' social climate experiences. Results expanded previous research on the college transitions and counseling needs of African Americans in predominantly White campus environments. A descriptive model was constructed that identified 4 features of African Amer...

Researchers examined the effects of personality construct, goal instability, peer affiliation, and teacher support on 79 (87% female; 78% White, 11% Africian American, 6% Native American) undergraduate distance learners' quality of learning experiences and academic outcomes. Participants demonstrating high goal instability had more positive learnin...

College counseling centers are responding to institutional demands for greater accountability. Increasingly, institutions require that student services demonstrate intended student outcomes as part of their planning and funding process. Two challenges when evaluating outcomes of counseling center activities are (1) conducting assessment so that it...

Eating-related problems, particularly among college women, represent a significant health concern on university campuses. Body image dissatisfaction, weight preoccupation, and unhealthy weight management are prevalent among even normal-weight students, but discussions of broad college health interventions in this area have been limited. Two concept...

African-American students at a predominantly white university who participated in a freshman peer mentor program received peer counseling from upperclass student mentors in order to address first-year adjustment concerns. In contrast to the difficulty usually found when promoting help-seeking among at-risk freshmen, participants were likely to rais...

With the advent of the two-way televised interactive classroom, more and more campuses are expanding their distance learning programs, reaching a growing population of students for whom traditional classes were an impossibility. How can campuses support these students? What are their special needs and concerns? And what can campuses do to foster co...

Describes a program evaluation measure for assessing college student development intervention outcomes. Outlines the management, student-centered, and implementation approaches of the measure and examines the model's application in student development. Uses two case examples in which the model is applied to student services assessment projects to i...

Contemporary psychodynamic constructs are often used to make inferences about college psychotherapy clients. Heinz Kohut's “Self Psychology” is one particularly useful model for understanding counseling in the college setting. This article presents a method for applying self theory constructs to individual case conceptualization. The “inverted pyra...

This article describes a method that was used as a supervision and teaching tool to assist student counselors in developing client conceptualization skills.

131 college sophomores, identified as "at risk" because of financial aid status and cumulative freshman GPA below 2.3, participated in university-mandated, brief counseling. Ss completed the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes and the Cooperative English Reading Comprehension Test and then met for 1 semistructured interview with a counselor. Ss wh...

Investigated the interaction effects between goal instability (GIS) and social support (SCS) in 113 college freshmen enrolled in an orientation-to-university-life course. Ss were assessed for their perceived consolidation of goals, their appraisal of aspects of the psychosocial environment of a classroom experience, the perceived availability of ps...

The utilization-focused evaluation model of M. Q. Patton (1978) was used to evaluate outcomes of an orientation seminar on early adjustment to college life for 113 17–23 yr old entering freshmen. Findings support the use of a freshman seminar as an intervention for promoting early academic and social adjustment to college life. The seminar seemed s...

Investigated the validity of S. Robbins and M. J. Patton's Superiority Scale (SS) and Goal Instability Scale (GIS) as predictors of adjustment to college life among freshman women. Data obtained from 178 Ss throughout their freshman year show that the SS was not a consistent predictor of adjustment; the GIS was a consistent, although limited, predi...