Skip to main content
May 26, 2021

Dissertation Proposal Defense: Samantha A. Smith

2:00pm

Advisor/Chair:  Dr. Amelia Arria

Committee Members:  Dr. Typhanye Dyer, Dr. Craig Fryer, Dr. Wayne Santoro

Dean's Representative: Dr. Kevin Roy  

Title:  What Happens When Students Knuck and Buck Systems of Injustice?: A Multimethod Study Exploring the Relationship Between Student Activism and Emotional Wellbeing

Abstract:

In recent years, college students' declining mental health status has garnered the attention of public health and educational professionals. Mental health is a complex construct influenced by biological, behavioral, social, and environmental factors. One critical dimension of mental health is emotional wellbeing, representing the positive and negative emotions that one experiences. The proposed multimethod study focuses on the connection between college student participation in contemporary social movements, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and emotional wellbeing, as operationalized by depression and anxiety symptoms, level of optimism, and sense of belonging. The first two aims of the proposed dissertation research will utilize a secondary dataset, the Wake Forest Wellbeing Assessment, to quantitatively evaluate the strength of the associations between student activism and emotional wellbeing after adjusting for potentially confounding effects of race, gender, sexual orientation, and parental education. Moreover, the analyses will aim to understand the extent to which individual coping styles moderate the relationship between activism participation and emotional wellbeing. Variable selection and analyses will be grounded in the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping. The third aim of the study will utilize original data gathered from in-depth qualitative interviews with18 college students who participated in Black Lives Matter protests. Few studies have investigated the relationship between social movement participation and emotional wellbeing among college student populations. This research is a first step in advancing a research agenda on the role of student activism in the emotional wellbeing of young adults and has potential implications for how institutions of higher education can better support students who are active participants in social movements.

Please email Dr. Sharp (ksharp1@umd.edu) for Zoom Information