Hospitality Students’ Perceptions of Their Mental Health: Implications for Teaching and Learning

ABSTRACT

This study focused on hospitality students’ perceptions of their mental health, including loneliness, anxiety, anti-mattering, and social support, for concerns about these issues are prevalent. In this mixed methods study, survey responses for quantitative and qualitative items were obtained from 135 hospitality students attending a university in the United States. Mental health data regarding anxiety, anti-mattering, and loneliness were gathered, along with demographic and education-related information. Significant relationships were found, such that anxiety and anti-mattering directly influenced student satisfaction with the college experience. Plus, social support mediated the relationships. Findings from the qualitative items indicated that school and/or classes contributed to stress, friends and family made them happy, they thought educators should be understanding, and their answers varied about whether hospitality students were more stressed than other students. Implications are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-mattering
• anxiety
• loneliness
• mental health
• social support
• student satisfaction

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).