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Proof of Concept Corner
Syllabus Tone, More Than Mental Health
Statements, Influence Intentions to
Seek Help
Regan A. R. Gurung
1
and Noelle R. Galardi
1
Abstract
Background: Mental health issues are increasing in higher education and finding ways for students to get help when needed is
important. Objective: We tested if the tone of a short syllabus and the presence of a special statement addressing mental health
would increase intentions to approach instructors for help. Method: We used a 2 (Tone: warm vs. cold) 2(Statement: present
vs. absent) experimental design. Participants (N ¼257) read one of four, two-page syllabi, and rated intentions to reach out for
help and the instructor. Results: We found a main effect for tone on three Reach Out statements and ratings of the instructor.
Presence of the statement influenced likelihood to reach out for help with personal problems. Conclusions: Both the tone of a
short syllabus and the presence of statements normalizing reaching out for help can influence student intentions to contact
instructors for help. Teaching Implications: Writing a warm toned syllabus and addressing stress and mental health with a
university statement may increase student’s intentions to ask for help.
Keywords
syllabi, tone, mental health
Mental illness cases on campus have risen significantly over
the years, with diagnosis increasing from 21.9%to 35.5%from
2007 to 2017 (Lipson et al., 2018). The severity of mental
illness has also risen (Xiao et al., 2017). The COVID-19 pan-
demic has made matters worse with especially high levels of
perceived stress identified listed in April 2020 (Hoyt et al.,
2020). Communicating mental health support to college stu-
dents during COVID-19 is especially challenging (Seidel et al.,
2020). With the effects of COVID-19 with us for the immediate
future it is critical to identify factors that may increase how
often college students utilize psychological services. The goal
of this study is to assess if the tone of a course syllabus and the
positioning of a university “Reach Out for Success” statement
on syllabi can increase students’ self-reported intentions to
seek help from their instructor and also relate to ratings of the
instructor.
The majority of college-aged individuals with psychiatric
disorders do not seek treatment (Blanco et al., 2008) and treat-
ment seeking is more difficult since COVID-19 (Son et al.,
2020). Psychological service utilization on campus differs by
gender, with women significantly more likely than men to
access various forms of professional treatment, including psy-
chotropic medications and therapy (Eisenberg et al., 2011).
Utilization also varies by race and ethnicity. White students
are substantially more likely to receive treatment than those
who are Asian, Black, or Latinx (Eisenberg et al., 2013). To
better understand this lack of utilization, researchers have iden-
tified several barriers to help-seeking behaviors among college
students experiencing mental health issues.
There are various perceived barriers to seeking mental
health care, including embarrassment, denial, stigma, and
being unsure of where to go for help (Corrigan et al., 2003;
Li et al., 2014; Vidourek et al., 2014). Attitudes toward seeking
professional help predict actual use of services (Kahn & Wil-
liams, 2003). A lack of perceived need, unawareness around
insurance coverage or available services, lower SES, and not
believing in the effectiveness of treatment are all predictors of
not utilizing services (Eisenberg et al., 2007). Due to these
barriers, many students are left with untreated mental health
issues. As a result, these students are at higher risk for lower
GPA, school dropout, and unemployment (United States Gov-
ernment Accountability Office, 2008). Depressive symptoms in
particular can negatively impact academic performance, per-
sonal relationships, and overall well-being (D’Amico et al.,
2016).
1
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
Corresponding Author:
Regan A. R. Gurung, Oregon State University, Reed Lodge, 2950 SW Jefferson
Way, OR 97331, USA.
Email: Regan.Gurung@oregonstate.edu
Teaching of Psychology
1-6
ªThe Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0098628321994632
journals.sagepub.com/home/top
Although stigma to seeking treatment has decreased, it is
still a significant barrier to help-seeking behaviors among col-
lege students (Hogan, 2003). Stigma can be both public—the
ways in which the larger social group labels and discriminates
against those with mental illness—and personal—the interna-
lization of these negative beliefs (Corrigan, 2004). Many col-
lege students report high perceived public stigma but low
personal stigma (Eisenberg et al., 2009).
If seeking help was made more normative by featuring it
explicitly in course syllabi, would the stigma to seek help be
reduced and result in higher intentions to seek help? Instructors
are in a position to make help seeking normative given they are
often looked up to by students and are in positions of authority.
Specifically, instructors may be able to help reduce help seek-
ing stigma and increase awareness around psychological ser-
vices available to students through their course syllabi
(Goldman, 2018).
Syllabi play many roles. A syllabus can serve as a contract
between students and professor, a permanent record of the
course, a cognitive map, and a learning tool (Richmond
et al., 2016). A growing body of research has examined the
effectiveness of different types of syllabi and focused on how
syllabi reflect campus culture (Stanny et al., 2015), their opti-
mal length (Harrington & Gabert-Quillen, 2015) and level of
detail (Saville et al., 2010), the usefulness? of visuals (Over-
man et al., 2019), and their utility in skill development
(Appleby et al., 2019). Key elements of effective syllabi are
writing them to be student or learning centered (Cullen &
Harris, 2009; Richmond et al., 2019) and using a warm and
friendly tone (Slattery & Carlson, 2005; Waggoner & Veloso,
2018). Participants who read a friendly syllabus perceived the
instructor as more caring, motivating, and approachable (Den-
ton & Veloso, 2018).
In a direct test of the effectiveness of tone, Harnish and
Bridges (2011) modified two syllabi to reflect either a warm
or cold tone. Criteria used to classify a syllabus as warm-toned
included using positive or friendly language, providing a ratio-
nale for assignments, using humor, conveying compassion,
sharing personal experiences, and showing enthusiasm for the
course. Participants who read the warm syllabus perceived the
instructor as being more approachable, and more motivated to
teach the course. Furthermore, warm-toned syllabi do not nega-
tively influence ratings of competence of either male or female
instructors (Waggoner & Veloso, 2018). Given how tone also
underlies learner-centered syllabi, we focused on this element
and tested whether a warm-toned short syllabus would be more
likely to have students reach out for help from the instructor.
Beyond tone, there are also more direct ways of getting
students to reach out for help. Some universities have begun
requiring or suggesting that instructors include a statement on
course syllabi addressing student mental health. For example,
Oregon State University recently required all instructors
include a “Reach Out for Success” statement in syllabi. This
statement, developed by the office for student services and
endorsed by the faculty senate, was designed to show the
instructor’s and university’s commitment to students’ mental
health. Does including such a statement have any effect on
students’ likelihood to ask for help or their ratings of their
instructors?
Teachers have been evaluated in a number of different ways
and a wide variety of measures exist to evaluate and rate teach-
ers (Richmond et al., 2016). One of the most commonly used
scales in this arena is the Teacher Behavior Checklist (TBC,
Keeley et al., 2006). Coming out of a long line of active
research aiming to determine the characteristics of strong
teachers, the TBC is easy to use and well-validated. It features
ideal teacher behaviors and requires students to rate how fre-
quently their instructor exhibits each behavior. The TBC cor-
relates with both measures of how learner-centered a syllabus
is, and student-professor rapport (Richmond, 2021).
Given the increasing rates of mental health issues on campus
and the documented resistance of students to get help, our main
research question was: Does creating a warm-toned syllabus
and including a mental health statement increase student inten-
tions to contact a faculty member for help? Based on past
research showing tone also influences the student-teacher rela-
tionship (e.g., Harnish & Bridges, 2011; Richmond et al., 2016)
we also asked: Does syllabus tone and presence of a mental
health statement influence how an instructor is rated (personal
characteristics and effectiveness). Because of existing gender
differences in support seeking (Mart´ınez-Hern´aez et al., 2016)
and the role of attitudes in predicting behavior (Lundquist &
Gurung, 2019), we measured attitudes toward seeking profes-
sional psychological help and gender and controlled for both in
our analyses We predicted that syllabi containing the “Reach
Out” statement and written in a friendly tone would contribute
to greater intentions to ask for help and more positive instructor
ratings.
Method
Participants
College students from an introductory psychology course at a
large state university volunteered to take part in this study in
exchange for research credit. The sample consisted of 257
students, 199 women (76%) and 56 men (21%). Participants
were between 18 and 52 years old (M¼22.05, SD ¼6.21). The
majority of the sample were European American (89 students,
34%) with large groups of Asian American (59 students, 23%)
andLatinx(61students,24%) participants. Ten percent of
participants did not list their ethnicity (28 students) and 8%
represented a variety of different ethnic groups. A large portion
of the sample were 1st year students (95 students, 37%) with
near equal second (58 students, 23%) and 3rd year (60 students,
23%) students, and a smaller group of seniors (37 students,
14%).
Measures and Materials
Syllabi. We modified two syllabi from Harnish and Bridge
(2011), one of which was warm-toned and the other was
cold-toned. They were corrected for grammatical errors and
2Teaching of Psychology XX(X)
then duplicated. To facilitate a 2(Tone: warm vs. cold) by
2(Statement: present vs. absent) design we added a “Reach
Out” statement to both a Warm and Cold syllabus. The
warm-toned syllabi differed from the cold-toned syllabi by
providing a rationale for assignments, using positive or friendly
language, sharing personal experiences, using humor, showing
enthusiasm for the course, and conveying compassion. For
example, in the warm-toned syllabi, the instructor in response
to missing assignments states “Such life events are unwel-
comed and because I understand how difficult these times
are, ...I will be happy to give you a make-up exam.”. All
syllabi were two pages long and omitted the professor’s first
name to convey gender ambiguity. For each page of the sylla-
bus, we used the survey software to ensure the survey could not
be advanced for 60 seconds ensuring students read the syllabi
for a minimum of 120 seconds.
The “Reach Out” statement presented on the final page of
syllabi read:
University students encounter setbacks from time to time. If
you encounter difficulties and need assistance, it’s important to
reach out. Consider discussing the situation with an instructor
or academic advisor. Learn about resources that assist with
wellness and academic success at Oregon State University. If
you are in immediate crisis, please contact the Crisis Text Line
or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-
TALK (8255).
Dependent variables. Participants rated how likely they would be
to reach out to the faculty member that wrote the syllabus using
a five-item Likert-type measure ranging from 1(Extremely
Likely)to5(Extremely Unlikely) for five personal issues that
are commonly seen in college (Son et al., 2020): help with a
class assignment, feeling low, having a personal issue such
as an argument with a friend or family member, having a
medical issue (e.g., Strep), or asking for more information
about a campus resource. Reliability was moderate, Cronbach’s
a¼.72.
We used a modified form of the TBC (Keeley et al., 2006) to
measure ratings of the teacher for the presented syllabus. We
asked participants to rate the instructor on the basis of the
course syllabus on 14 items (e.g., is approachable/personable).
We excluded questions such as “Presents current information”
and “Provides constructive feedback” as irrelevant in the con-
text of the current study. Participants rated the professor using a
Likert scale with response options ranging from 1(Strongly
agree)to5(Strongly disagree). Reliability was high, Cron-
bach’s a¼.91.
Control variables. We used the Attitudes Toward Seeking Pro-
fessional Psychological Help shortened form (ATSPPH-SF,
Fischer & Farina, 1995) survey to assess students’ opinions
regarding help-seeking behaviors for mental health treatment
(e.g., “I would obtain psychological help if upset for a long
time). This scale consists of 10 items, half of which were
reversed scored. Participants used a 5-point Likert scale
ranging from 1(Strongly Agree) to 5 (Strongly Disagree).
Reliability was acceptable, Cronbach’s a¼.68.
Participants also completed a 5-item quiz, testing them on
basic information from the syllabus (e.g., What type of class is
this syllabus from?) to assess their attentiveness. We asked
students about material featured on the syllabus (e.g., “What
is the teacher’s last name?”). See complete survey questions
here: https://osf.io/4nkjb/
Procedure
Participants enrolled in this study using SONA software to
access the university psychology department participant pool
experiment sign-up system. We used Qualtrics to create the
surveys. Participants were randomly assigned to each condition
and first read a consent form. Then, in this order, they read the
syllabus, completed the syllabus quiz, followed by the Reach
Out questions, the TBC, and the ATSPPH-SF. Participants then
completed a second separate study. The current study took
approximately 10 minutes on average. Given the short duration
of the study, we did not counterbalance surveys.
Results
We tested our main research questions and hypotheses using a
set of analyses of covariance (ANCOVA)
1
on each of the five
main Reach Out questions controlling for attitudes toward
seeking professional psychological help, TBC, and gender.
Each analysis was a 2(Tone: warm vs. cold) 2(Statement:
present vs. absent) between-subjects factorial ANCOVA.
We found some support for our hypotheses that the presence
of a mental health statement and syllabus tone are important.
Statement presence had a significant main effect on reaching
out to the faculty member for help with having an argument
with friend or family member, F(1, 255) ¼5.64, p¼.018, n
p
2
¼.02. Students who read the syllabi with the statement indi-
cated a higher likelihood of reaching out for help. Tone showed
a significant main effect on likelihood to reach out in three
areas: on a class assignment, F(1, 255) ¼4.24, p¼.041, n
p2
¼.02, when feeling low, F(1, 255) ¼4.32, p¼.039, n
p
2
¼.02,
and to ask about more campus resources for mental health, F(1,
255) ¼4.40, p¼.037, n
p
2
¼.02. Students reading the warm-
toned syllabi reported they would be more likely to reach out.
None of the tone by statement interactions were significant:
reaching out on a class assignment, F(1, 255) ¼0.09, p¼
.764, n
p2
¼.00, when feeling low, F(1, 255) ¼0.02,
p¼.894, n
p
2
¼.00, for family issues, F(1, 255) ¼0.19, p¼
.667, n
p
2
¼.00, for medical issues, F(1, 255) ¼0.04, p¼.835,
n
p
2
¼.00, and to ask about more campus resources for mental
health, F(1, 255) ¼0.76, p¼.383, n
p
2
¼.00. See Table 1 for
descriptive data.
ATSPPH-SF was not a significant covariate but gender was
significant in predicting reaching out with a class assignment,
F(1, 255) ¼3.95, p¼.048, n
p
2
¼.02, when feeling low, F(1,
255) ¼10.54, p¼.001, n
p
2
¼.04, and when having a personal
issue with friends or family members, F(1, 255) ¼8.29,
Gurung and Galardi 3
p¼.004, n
p
2
¼.03. Women were more likely to reach out in all
cases.
In predicting our second major question, syllabi effect on
the ratings of the instructor, tone again showed a significant
main effect, F(1, 255) ¼11.22, p¼.001, n
p
2
¼.04, and gender
was a significant covariate, F(1, 255) ¼4.10, p¼.044, n
p
2
¼
.02. Statement presence, F(1, 255) ¼2.65, p¼.705, n
p
2
¼.00,
and the interaction were not significant, F(1, 255) ¼2.65, p¼
.105, n
p
2
¼.01.
Scores on the syllabi quiz showed participants paid close
attention to the syllabus (M¼4.29, SD ¼1.01). An analysis of
variance testing quiz score across the four cells showed no
significant main effect of tone or statement and no interaction
effect. Participants spent close to 3 minutes reading page 1 of
the syllabus (M¼170.70 secs, SD ¼226.88) and close to 2
minutes reading page 2 of the syllabus (M¼100.43 secs, SD ¼
76.01). Again, there were no statistically significant main
effects or interactions on seconds spent reading the syllabus.
Discussion
Our investigation of whether a warm-toned short syllabus and
one with a Reach Out statement (making getting help seem
normative), reinforced the importance of friendly syllabi. Par-
ticipants who read a short syllabus designed to be warm and
friendly were more likely to report intentions to reach out to the
faculty member writing the syllabus for three different domains
of troubles. Participants who read a syllabus with a special
statement addressing mental health and providing contact
information were more likely to report intentions to reach out
when having an argument with friends or family.
Our study expands the research on the importance of tone
into a new realm. In light of the dramatic increases in mental
health issues on campuses around the United States, our results
provide additional strong evidence for the importance of writ-
ing a friendly syllabus. Nicely complementing past research
showing the association of a warm and friendly tone with per-
ceptions of the instructor as caring and motivating (Denton &
Veloso, 2018; Waggoner & Veloso, 2018), our results show
students reading such a syllabus may also be more likely to
reach out to them for help. Given that many students receive the
syllabus on the 1st day of class, or even earlier if it is posted in
an online learning management system, a warm-toned syllabus
will go a long way toward creating a welcoming environment
that may make a student more likely to view the instructor as a
resource when they have personal troubles and not just for
class-related assistance.
While our study does not provide resounding evidence for
the benefits of the presence of a special statement, it does
promise that having a statement in a short syllabus can make
a difference. Although only significant for one item, partici-
pants who read a short syllabus with the Reach Out statement
were more likely to reach out to the instructor.
There are significant implications for this research espe-
cially as more classes put material online. Similar to past work
on learning-centered syllabi (e.g., Richmond et al., 2016), if a
syllabus provides a good first impression of the instructor, the
student may develop positive expectations for the course. Espe-
cially during times of stress, such as the COVID pandemic,
expectations for a course can significantly predict learning
(Gurung & Stone, 2020). If a warm-toned short syllabus and
the presence of a Reach Out statement can provide an expecta-
tion of the availability of help as suggested by our results, it
would be easy to make this modification to a syllabus.
Like many past studies of syllabi, our study is constrained
by the artificial nature of the task. In an actual classroom, the
personality, preparation, and behaviors of the instructor would
go a long way toward setting up expectations for the course.
Here, our participants only read a static, short syllabus. While
our assessment of page-read time and the syllabus quiz suggest
participants paid attention to the syllabi and the task, the task
may not have been as salient as this was not a syllabus for a
class the participant was in.
Another limitation is that our syllabi were not as long as
traditional syllabi. The research syllabi were only two pages
long, and while this made it more likely they would be read,
many college classes have much longer syllabi. It is possible
that even warm-toned syllabi may not generate the same inten-
tions in the student if it is 10 or 15 pages long. Furthermore,
given that many policy statements required by universities are
buried at the end of a syllabus, a Reach Out statement near the
end of the document may have even less impact than we saw in
two pages. We note that we did not counterbalance surveys
which may have produced an order or priming effect. Finally,
Table 1. Descriptive Data for Reach Out Statements and Instructor Ratings Across Conditions.
Statement Present Statement Absent
Cold Tone Warm Tone Cold Tone Warm Tone
M (SD) M(SD) M(SD) M(SD)
1. Help with a class assignment 3.97 (0.93) 4.27 (0.78) 3.94 (1.05) 4.19 (0.85)
2. When feeling low 2.37 (1.20) 2.73 (1.29) 2.53 (1.31) 2.92 (1.21)
3. Having a personal issue with friend of family 1.85 (0.99) 2.02 (1.08) 2.14 (1.34) 2.51 (1.43)
4. A medical issue (e.g., Strep) 3.56 (1.38) 3.71 (1.29) 3.81 (1.30) 3.92 (1.38)
5. Ask about campus resources 2.94 (1.42) 3.51 (1.33) 3.00 (1.36) 3.24 (1.28)
6.Teacher Behavior Checklist 1.76 (0.54) 2.21 (0.75) 1.92 (0.57) 2.10 (0.65)
Note: Items 1 to 5 ask how likely it is for participant to reach out to faculty for each of the following (where 1 ¼Extremely unlikely and 5 ¼Extremely likely).
4Teaching of Psychology XX(X)
while we measure intentions to ask for help, we do not know if
the participant would actually ask for help.
Conclusion
While this study does not measure learning or give us an indi-
cation of whether the tone and statement presence would influ-
ence learning, our work addresses a significant issue for higher
education. For learning to take place, mental health issues need
to be addressed. Future research needs similarly to examine the
effects of different syllabi components and should modify pla-
cement and language. Teachers should also examine their syl-
labi and aim to modify the tone, making it as warm as possible.
Perhaps having a Reach Out statement up front versus at the
end would be beneficial. It is also possible that the value of a
Reach Out statement is lost when part of policy pages (e.g.,
academic honesty). Finding additional ways a syllabus could be
modified to increase the likelihood of students reaching out for
help is a worthy goal to undertake.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
ORCID iD
Regan A. R. Gurung https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3542-4378
Note
1. We examined our data to assess whether they met the assumptions
for an ANOVA (e.g., normality, homogeneity of variance, and
random independent samples) and ANCOVA (e.g., linear relation-
ship between dependent variables and covariates, homogeneity of
regression slopes, and independence of covariate and independent
variables).
Open Practices
This article has received badge for Open Materials. More information
about the Open Practices badges can be found at http://www.psycho
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