College student gratitude: A silver lining while evaluating a yearlong bathroom stall messaging campaign

Abstract

Objective

Mental health concerns of college students are on the rise, prompting a need for communication campaigns to address ways to assist students. The current campaign utilized weekly bathroom stall messaging to address five key themes developed by a university’s mental wellness task force.

Participants: Undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university.

Methods: A survey at pre and post-campaign implementation.

Results: No significant shifts in attitudes, and only one significant behavioral increase (i.e., reaching out to academic advisers), were revealed. One silver lining was that college students were found to express gratitude to someone new a median of 5 times per month. Gratitude tended to be displayed most recently to those in their social circles, and primarily for receiving instrumental support.

Conclusions: Narrowing the focus of future mental wellness campaigns is recommended. Additional recommendations for developing future mental wellness campaigns are also addressed.

Keywords:

• Campaign
• gratitude
• mental wellness
• social support

Conclusion

While this campaign’s evaluation found limited effectiveness overall, a silver lining emerged. In a generation often viewed as highly individually-centered,⁶ results revealed that college students are taking time to express gratitude to others. However, as mental health concerns continue to grow for this population,⁴ finding ways to encourage students to showcase gratitude to others outside of their close-knit social circles may help them to develop additional relationships that may help improve overall mental wellbeing.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Purdue University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially funded by startup funds provided by Purdue University, College of Liberal Arts, and a grant from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration: Division of Mental Health and Addiction.

Funding

This work was partially funded by startup funds provided by Purdue University, College of Liberal Arts, and a grant from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration: Division of Mental Health and Addiction.