Resilience in higher education students: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

The health, wellbeing and employability of university students are key considerations within higher education. In response, interest in student resilience is on the rise. Reviews of contemporary resilience literature highlight both conceptual and methodological weaknesses, issues which hamper attempts to design effective resilience interventions. To inform the design of a student resilience program, to be piloted at three Australian universities, a scoping review of resilience specific to the higher education context was undertaken. Searches of three electronic databases (PsychINFO, CINAHL and ProQuest) were conducted. Seventy-two peer-reviewed articles published between 2007 and 2017 were included in the review. While the review reaffirms the conceptual and methodological issues found in previous resilience research, it provides a useful critique of key issues in relation to university student resilience and interventions to enhance students’ resilience. Recommendations for educators and researchers are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Employability
• mental health
• resilience
• retention
• student experience

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of Michelle Donaldson, Sonia Ferns, Helen Flavell, Sharon Maresse, Millie Watson, Omar Abdelrahman, Sue Barnard, Bernie Cooper and Caroline Rueckert.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Margo. L. Brewer http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9580-0390

Gisela van Kessel http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6955-0727

Brooke Sanderson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1453-1860

Murray Lane http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1571-030X

Alan Reubenson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0689-5090

Alice Carter http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3783-1372

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Australian Technology Network.