University student wellbeing during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A thematic synthesis of experiences in UK higher education institutions And Acceptance and commitment therapy for university students: a single case experimental study of the self-help book "The Unbreakable Student"

Phillips, Victoria 2025. University student wellbeing during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A thematic synthesis of experiences in UK higher education institutions And Acceptance and commitment therapy for university students: a single case experimental study of the self-help book "The Unbreakable Student". ClinPsy Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis comprises of two papers: a thematic synthesis which explored university student wellbeing experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an empirical paper which evaluated an ACT-based self-help book for university students. It has long been recognised that being a university student is associated with certain challenges and difficulties, all of which can affect student mental health. In particular, the role of developmental stage for this population and the unique adjustments they go through in all domains of their life whilst at university have been recognised. Such difficulties have been reflected by recent data trends, which have highlighted increased levels of psychological distress amongst students, which has put more strain on support services. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to global disruption, with significant public health restrictions and lockdowns being implemented, leading to unprecedented changes in circumstances and impacting on the physical, emotional and psychological health of people around the world. For university students, they faced unique challenges such as attending lectures virtually and not seeing their peers as they ordinarily would. It is clear from the quantitative literature that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a further detriment to student mental health, given that this population was already struggling. In order to build on these findings, there have been calls for researchers to also consider qualitative data, to help understand exactly what people experienced at this time. As such, the current thematic synthesis sought to explore this in relation to university students. To do so, a search strategy was developed and implemented across several databases. From this, 16 eligible papers were identified, and a quality appraisal was completed. Most studies were good quality, however few considered the possibility of bias or subjectivity. Using a thematic synthesis approach, five main themes regarding student wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic were identified. These encapsulated the detrimental toll that the pandemic had, the context specific impacts of the pandemic for certain sub-groups of students, the relational impact of the crisis, student perceptions about how their universities communicated with them and supported them, and a sense that the pandemic was not entirely bad, with students finding ways to navigate this crisis. These themes are discussed in the context of wider literature, and the PERMA model of wellbeing. A range of implications are drawn about how institutions may better support university students in future crises, along with suggestions for further research. The empirical study provides an evaluation of an ACT based self-help book for students, titled “The Unbreakable Student: 6 Rules for Staying Sane at University” written by Hooper in 2021. Given the current levels of distress amongst university students and the demand for support provision, it has been acknowledged that services need to become more innovative to meet this need. Self-help interventions have previously been identified as beneficial, as they are easily scalable for dissemination, and have advantages for mitigating travel and perceived stigma. Despite this, self-help books have been criticized for rarely being empirically evaluated, generally being based on CBT, which may not suit everyone. Given the diverse nature of student mental health needs, ACT has been considered a possible alternative approach, due to its transdiagnostic nature. Several ACT based self-help interventions have begun to be evaluated, with the current empirical paper adding to this. For this study, a single case experimental design was used, where participants were randomly allocated to a baseline phase, and then completed an eight-week intervention phase where they read the book. Throughout both phases, participants completed a range of personalised measures, which sought to measure aspects such as frequency of thoughts, interference of thoughts and engagement in meaningful activity. Standardized measures were also completed to assess changes in wellbeing and psychological flexibility. Exit interviews were also conducted, to learn more about participant experiences of reading the book. Data from the personalised measures was very variable and showed limited stability, meaning results should be interpreted with caution. Despite this, there were some significant findings for some individual participants, highlighting possible benefits of the book. There were also some anomalous findings, though the exit interview data was used to contextualise some of these. Positive findings were also found in relation to psychological flexibility, with four students showing reliable change. The exit interviews also provided useful insights, with students indicating they found end of chapter tasks helpful in practising what they read, and the section on values was particularly useful. Overall, the thematic synthesis provides a detailed understanding of what the COVID-19 pandemic was like for university student wellbeing and the empirical paper highlights a potential role for ACT-based self-help interventions as an alternative for students, given how overstretched services currently are. Both papers highlight important clinical implications about the needs of this population and suggestions for how to best support them, based on the learnings detailed in the thesis.

Item Type:	Thesis (DClinPsy)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 June 2025
Last Modified:	05 Jun 2025 13:29
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/178715

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