Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Cook Counseling Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Psychother Res. 2023 Jan;33(1):118-129. doi: 10.1080/10503307.2022.2071654. Epub 2022 May 3.
Community belongingness has been shown to be related to mental health outcomes in college students; however, little work has evaluated whether community belongingness impacts treatment change, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when social isolation and mental health concerns are exacerbated. Accordingly, the current study evaluated community belongingness as a predictor of treatment change for anxiety and depression in a university counseling center.
Participants included 516 young adults with clinical levels of anxiety or depression who attended at least two individual therapy sessions at a university counseling center during fall 2020. Participants completed broad measures of psychosocial functioning at each session.
Paired-samples -tests indicated that students demonstrated significant decreases in anxiety and depression after just one session. Linear stepwise regressions revealed that community belongingness was a significant predictor of symptom improvement for both anxiety and depression.
These results suggest improving community belongingness on college campuses may be a way to buffer mental health and improve treatment outcomes for students seeking psychological services. Specific clinical and educational recommendations for ways to improve community belongingness are discussed.
社区归属感已被证明与大学生的心理健康结果有关；然而，很少有工作评估社区归属感是否会影响治疗效果的改变，特别是在 COVID-19 大流行期间，社交隔离和心理健康问题更加严重。因此，本研究评估了社区归属感是否会影响大学咨询中心焦虑和抑郁治疗效果的改变。
参与者包括 516 名患有临床水平焦虑或抑郁的年轻人，他们在 2020 年秋季至少参加了两次大学咨询中心的个体治疗。参与者在每次治疗时都完成了广泛的心理社会功能测量。
配对样本检验表明，学生在仅仅一次治疗后，焦虑和抑郁症状就有了显著的减轻。线性逐步回归显示，社区归属感是焦虑和抑郁症状改善的一个重要预测因素。
这些结果表明，改善大学校园社区归属感可能是一种缓冲心理健康、改善寻求心理服务的学生治疗效果的方法。讨论了提高社区归属感的具体临床和教育建议。
