Journal article
Equipping Faculty and Staff with Competence and Confidence in Responding to Student Distress: The Master Class Model
Journal of college student mental health (Print), pp.1-15
10/04/2025
DOI: 10.1080/28367138.2025.2566480
Abstract
Campus mental health is a central concern within the current narrative of the student mental health crisis. In response to this ongoing narrative, many campuses are expanding the traditional centralized counseling center model, by adding more holistic approaches that include empowering and equipping faculty and staff as first-line responders to student distress. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a four week "working with students in distress master class" model designed to equip faculty and staff with foundational listening skills, resource knowledge, fundamental suicide prevention skills, and confidence to recognize and initially respond to student distress. Data consists of 58 university faculty and staff who enrolled in the master class and completed a pretest, posttest, and a three-month follow-up evaluation of their self-perceived efficacy in responding to student distress. Results indicate that faculty and staff's self-efficacy increased significantly across time points: pretest to posttest (delta = -.098, small), posttest to 3-month follow-up (delta = -.342, moderate), and pretest to 3-month follow-up (delta = -.461, moderate). Results suggest that the master class model is effective in enhancing staff and faculty's confidence to practice foundational listening skills as well as their confidence to act, with the most pronounced gains observed at follow-up. These findings have implications for the master class as an effective, scalable training model for first-line responders when attending to student distress. Future efforts could replicate the master class framework by extending its application to other campus stakeholders such as student leaders, residence hall assistants, and other student cohorts.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Equipping Faculty and Staff with Competence and Confidence in Responding to Student Distress: The Master Class Model
- Creators
- Barry A. Schreier - University of IowaKun Wang - University of IowaMonee Turner - Univ Iowa, Dept Psychol & Quantitat Fdn, Coll Educ, S331 Lindquist Ctr, Iowa, IA 52242 USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of college student mental health (Print), pp.1-15
- DOI
- 10.1080/28367138.2025.2566480
- ISSN
- 2836-7138
- eISSN
- 2836-7146
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 15
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 10/04/2025
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Quantitative Foundations
- Record Identifier
- 9985015824502771
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