Measuring wellness change in undergraduate students

Abstract

Study Purpose

This study was undertaken to establish if the Holistic Wellness Assessment (HWA) can detect intra-individual changes following a 12-week undergraduate course in holistic wellness (N = 235).

Methods

A single-group pretest post-test non-experimental design was used to evaluate changes in the eight HWA factors; concurrent collection of demographic variables enabled a limited moderation analysis.

Results

Dependent t-tests adjusted for a false discovery rate revealed significant changes in six of the eight HWA factors indicating curriculum sensitivity in these HWA factors.

Conclusions

Interpretations are offered at the HWA factor level that discuss relationships between curriculum activities and student artifacts with changes in factor and item responses over time. Using the HWA as a pre/post-test instrument helps instructors and students evaluate the changes that have been made as a result of the curriculum.

Keywords:

• Assessment
• curriculum evaluation
• data visualization
• health education

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 United States of America and received approval from the Western Michigan University.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.