Perceived Stress, Wellness, and Mattering: A Profile of First-Year Citadel Cadets

Journal of College Student Development, Nov/Dec 2006 by Gibson, Donna M, Myers, Jane E

Cadets (N = 234) at The Citadel (a military college for males and females in the Southeast United States) completed measures of wellness, perceived stress, and mattering during their first semester of training. Overall, wellness scores were negatively skewed. Although there were no differences in perceived stress or mattering between The Citadel cadets and a comparison group of cadets at West Point, The Citadel cadets scored higher than available norm groups on both scales. Implications for wellness programs at military colleges and counseling for beginning cadets are explored. In addition, applicability of the results for nonmilitary college students is discussed.

College students face a variety of challenges as they transition from high school to higher education (Schwitzer, Griffin, Oris, Ancis, & Thomas, 1999), resulting in a high incidence of psychological distress (Ferry, Tobin, & Beesley, 2004). In particular, first-year college student adjustment has been found to be influenced more by nonacademic variables than by academic ability variables (Brooks & Dubois, 1995; Gerdes & Mallinckrodt, 1994; Johnson, 1997; Petrie & Russell, 1995; Rickinson & Rutherford, 1995; Wilson, Mason, & Ewing, 1997). These nonacademic variables can be categorized into three main areas: social, personal-emotional, and institutional attachment (Martin, Swartz-Kulstad, &Madson, 1999).

In addition to adjustment issues that traditional college students experience, military trainees who are college students have reported unique issues that require adjustment specific to their education, training, and environment (Glaser et al., 1999). For the majority of students entering military colleges, or cadets, military training and the hierarchical structure of the institute requires immediate behavioral and psychological responses (Lerew, Schmidt, & Jackson, 1999). Rigorous physical demands, required conformity, and obedience to authority are variables that are cited as common causes of stress by cadets (Gold & Friedman, 2000). Although these are common concerns in military colleges, differences across colleges have not been examined.

Because military training is known to be stressful (Gold & Friedman, 2000), the prevention of extreme stress responses and possible pathology as well as promoting healthy lifestyles historically has been a focus of military training institutes, including military colleges (Cannon-Bowers & Salas, 1988; Cigrang, Todd, & Carbone, 2000; Lerew et al., 1999). In addition to the use of cognitive-behavioral techniques such as relaxation training and stress inoculation training to decrease stress, several researchers have emphasized the importance of social support to buffer the effects of stress (Ornish, 2000). This type of social support, or "mattering," can be defined as a sense of belonging, a feeling of connectedness, or a feeling that one is important to others (Rosenberg & McCullough, 1981; Taylor, Turner, Noymer, Beckett, & Elliott, 2001). The importance of mattering in college environments is supported by findings from Martin et al. (1999), who determined that both academic self-confidence and positive attitude toward the individual's university predicted more successful adjustment to college. However, students who reported feeling that they received adequate support from their environment did better in terms of overall adjustment, a finding supported in other studies of college student wellness (Ferry et al., 2004; Osborn, 2005).

Recently, more attention has been given to promoting healthier lifestyles at military institutes and colleges (Parker et al., 200la, 200Ib). In their goal to develop an integrative health promotion and wellness model, the U.S. Army War College aims to help promote healthy lifestyles that are essential in mitigating stress. The core components of the model include physical (i.e., body composition, treadmill exercise tests, and blood profile analysis) and mental health measures (i.e., anger-hostility, depression, and anxiety), as well as spiritual assessment. However, as noted by Myers and Bechtel (2004), a number of components of holistic wellness models, such as nutrition, self-responsibility, stress management, and other occupational, social, and emotional factors are not included in this model but are included in several holistic wellness models (Hettler, 1984; Myers, Sweeney & Witmer, 2000).

Myers and Bechtel (2004) used the wheel of wellness, a holistic model based in counseling theory, as the foundation for examining wellness of 179 first-year cadets at West Point. The wheel includes 17 components of wellness identified through multidisciplinary studies as correlates of health, longevity, and quality of life. An examination of these wellness components in relation to measures of perceived stress and mattering resulted in significant negative correlations between perceived stress and work, realistic beliefs, and stress management. Significant positive correlations were found between 17 wellness scales and mattering. Cadets scored higher than available norm groups of undergraduates in general on perceived stress, mattering, and seven wellness scales. The authors also found within-group differences based on both gender and age and suggested using their findings "as a foundation for planning needed and effective wellness and health promotion programs" at West Point (p. 482).