School-Based Team Sports as Catalysts for Holistic Student Wellness: A Narrative Review

The narrative review examines how school-based team sports catalyze holistic student wellness, leveraging their inherent nature and addressing barriers to inclusivity. Utilizing the holistic wellness framework-which encompasses physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, and occupational dimensions-the review evaluates the multifaceted effects of these sports on student well-being. Supported by wellness models like Dr. Bill Hettler's Six Dimensions of Wellness and various research studies, the framework highlights the interconnectedness of these areas in achieving overall well-being. School-based team sports promote discipline, teamwork, physical fitness, and social interaction while fostering skill development, ethical behavior, and emotional resilience. These elements, collectively, may support the holistic development of students, enhancing their overall health and success. The methodological approach of this review involves a synthesis of empirical research, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses from the past two decades (2004-2024), sourced from databases such as PubMed, EBSCO (EDS), and Google Scholar. Key findings include enhanced cardiovascular fitness, emotional resilience, cognitive performance, social skills, spiritual fulfillment, and career readiness awareness. The review highlights the necessity of integrating team sports into educational curricula to promote well-rounded student development and proposes strategies to overcome socioeconomic, cultural, and structural barriers to participation. Future research should focus on longitudinal studies to examine the long-term effects of team sports and explore the potential of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing these benefits.

The Post-Secondary Student Stressors Index: Proof of concept and implications for use

Objective This study demonstrates the utility of the Post-Secondary Student Stressors Index (PSSI), an instrument designed to identify and evaluate the sources of student stress. The PSSI is comprised of 46 stressors, rated by severity and frequency, across five domains: academics, learning environment, campus culture, interpersonal, and personal. Participants: Pilot testing of the tool was conducted among n = 535 post-secondary students enrolled at an Ontario university. Methods: Mean severity and frequency ratings were calculated for each stressor on the instrument. Results were plotted, and stratified by sex. T-tests for differences in means across sexes were calculated for each stressor. Results: Female students in this sample consistently rated nearly all stressors on the instrument as more severe than their male counterparts. Females also reported higher frequency ratings on average, indicating that they worried about stressors more often than did males. Domain-specific stressors are discussed. Conclusions: The PSSI can provide post-secondary institutions with the ability to improve the targeting of their mental health promotion and mental illness prevention efforts.

Effective Learning Support Towards Sustainable Student Learning and Well-Being Influenced by Global Pandemic of COVID-19: A Comparison Between Mainland China and Taiwanese Students

The novel coronavirus disease that emerged at the end of 2019 began threatening the health and lives of millions of people after a few weeks. However, social and educational problems derived from COVID-19 have changed the development of individuals and the whole country. This study examined the learning method of Taiwanese versus mainland China college students, and evaluated the relationship between learning support mechanism and subjective well-being from a social cognition theory perspective. In this study, a total of 646 Taiwanese questionnaires and 537 mainland China questionnaires were collected to compare the two sample groups in development of students' subjective well-being. The results showed that social capital and learning support had significant positive correlations with self-efficacy, student employability and well-being and self-efficacy and student employability had significant positive correlations with well-being in Taiwanese sample. In mainland China sample, except paths among social capital, learning support, student employability and well-being, all paths were significant and positive related. Finally, based on the conclusions this study proposed some suggestions specific to theoretical mode for future study.

A Conceptual Framework Toward Understanding of Knowledge Acquisition Sources and Student Well-Being

There are a multitude of factors influencing student employability, with all previous studies basing their conclusions upon predetermined variables according to different theories and exploring the relevance between them. In this study, teachers' knowledge transfer and market orientation-are put forward on the basis of the marketing concepts in order to explore the conspicuousness between various factors within the structural model. This study uses students from colleges in Taiwan and mainland China, and purposive sampling is adopted to acquire samples required for statistics. A total of 1,222 valid questionnaires were collected from Taiwanese and Mainland China students. The results indicate that knowledge transfer, market orientation and absorptive capacity have significant impacts on student employability, that the absorptive capacity has a positive moderating effect on the influence of knowledge transfer and market orientation on student employability. Based on results and findings, this study will provide suggestions for theoretical and practical implications.

An examination of college student wellness: A research and liberal arts perspective

Promoting wellness within academia reduces disease frequency and enhances overall health. This study examined wellness factors among undergraduate students attending a research university (n = 85) or a small liberal arts college (n = 126). Participants were administered surveys which measured physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and occupational wellness. Significant institutional differences emerged on measures of physical and social wellness. When collapsed across academic institutions, students who were gainfully employed reported greater self-efficacy compared with unemployed students. Gender differences emerged on measures of physical and social well-being. Our findings support the need for targeted interventions that facilitate enhanced college student development and well-being.

Wellness promotion: school nurses as models of health

Students and staff of all ages look to school nurses as authorities on health and wellness. Health promotion and wellness education are school nursing practices that have the potential for continuous impact on students. School nurses have the critical responsibility of acknowledging their influences on the health behavior of others and are called to take ownership of the essential role of modeling wellness.

Disguised Distress in Children and Adolescents “Flying Under The Radar”

It is now recognized that there is a very high prevalence of psychological disorders among children and adolescents and relatively few receive psychological treatment. In the current article, we present the argument that levels of distress and dysfunction among young people are substantially underestimated and the prevalence of psychological problems is higher than realized because of a variety of factors. In particular, it is suggested that psychological problems are underestimated due, in part, to the presence of subthreshold conditions that do not meet diagnostic criteria yet involve substantial distress and impairment. In addition, we focus on a subset of children and adolescents who experience profound distress yet keep it hidden or disguised because of a personality style characterized by self-concealment and a tendency to engage in perfectionistic self-presentation. The characteristics of these students who are “flying under the radar” are described with a discussion of associated familial, cultural, and school factors that reduce the likelihood of these students ever seeking help. Given our premise that psychological problems are substantially underestimated, it is apparent that schools have a vitally important role in mental health promotion in terms of the need for proactive system-wide preventive interventions led by school mental health counsellors. Broad programs are needed to bolster levels of resilience and the willingness to seek help among all children and adolescents but especially among those students who would otherwise not be on anyone’s radar screen.

Beliefs in the future as a positive youth development construct: a conceptual review

Beliefs in the future are an internalization of hope and optimism about future outcomes. This paper reviews and compares several theories of hope and optimism and highlights the features constituting beliefs in the future. This paper points out that beliefs in the future include a series of goal-directed thoughts and motivation, such as setting up valued and attainable goals, planning pathways, and maintaining self-confidence and mastery, so as to keep adolescents engaged in the pursuit of goals. This kind of personal mastery, together with sociocultural values, family, school, and peers are the antecedents leading to beliefs in the future, which is related to adolescents' well-being and positive development. In order to cultivate adolescents' beliefs in the future, enabling their ability to manipulate goal-directed thoughts and motivation and providing a supportive environment including their family, school, peers, and the society are recommended.

Perceived Stress and Wellness in Early Adolescents Using the Neuman Systems Model

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived stress and wellness in early adolescents and to test primary appraisal as a mediator of this relationship using the Neuman Systems Model as the primary framework. The sample consisted of 144 adolescents, ages 12–14, who responded to instruments measuring perceived stress, primary appraisal, and wellness in classroom settings. Correlational analysis supported the three hypothesized relationships. A series of regression analyses indicated that primary appraisal was a weak mediator of the relationship between perceived stress and wellness. Implications for nursing and recommendations for future studies were addressed.

Jewish Quotas in Clinical Psychology? TheJournal of Clinical Psychologyand the Scandal of 1945

In 1945 Frederick Thorne, editor of the Journal of Clinical Psychology, proposed to limit the acceptance of Jewish applicants to clinical psychology graduate schools. A public scandal erupted over this proposed limit, which was modeled on Jewish quotas in medical education. Criticized by the mass media and most psychologists, Thorne's proposal was repudiated by the Eastern Psychological Association and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Using private correspondence, oral histories, and published articles, this mostly forgotten episode in the history of clinical psychology is recreated. It is argued that the 1945 campaign against Jewish quotas prepared activists for the 1950s campaign against racial segregation and the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case. Because the participants in 1945 came from all specialties in psychology, it is suggested that this story is of significance to the field as a whole, rather than just to historians of social issues.

Promoting Physical Activity in Minority Populations

This review discusses evidence-based perspectives on promoting physical activity in minority populations. Future directions for inquiry and empirically driven public policy initiatives also are addressed.