Chathurika Kannangara

Disruption to higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic caused several challenges for university students, as they were forced to adjust to new teaching and learning styles. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted university students' learning experiences and education. This study took a phenomenological methodological approach in an attempt to understand students' experiences from their own perspective. Semi-structured interviews were then carried out with 19 university students from the UK between 9 May 2022 - 26 June 2022. The main themes that emerged through thematic analysis were: (1) A lack of engagement with online learning; (2) Changes in attitudes towards learning; (3) A lack of practical learning opportunities; (4) Changes to academic support; (5) Limited interaction with peers; (6) Implications for health and well-being. This study provides a deeper student-centred understanding of university students' lived experiences with online learning during the pandemic, revealing underexplored contextual, emotional and relational dimensions of online learning. These rich qualitative findings not only enhance current understanding of higher education during the pandemic but can be drawn upon to shape digitised learning moving forward. As we are progressing in an era of increasing digitised learning, these findings contribute towards laying the groundwork for future policy and practice within higher education.

Longitudinal research into the impact of COVID-19 on university students' mental health beyond the pandemic is lacking. This study aims to address the gap in the literature by tracking the mental health of university students over a two-year period, spanning the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. A two-year longitudinal study surveyed a sample of university students (n = 302) three times between May 2020 and May 2022. Students' psychological distress, generalised anxiety, flourishing, and personal wellbeing were assessed at each time point. It was found that students' psychological distress levels spiked in May 2021 (T1) during the first year of the pandemic but reverted back to similar levels seen in May 2020 (T0) at the two-year follow-up (T2). While generalised anxiety gradually improved, both students' psychological distress and generalised anxiety remained considerably worse than pre-pandemic norms obtained in other studies. Students' flourishing scores remained very low, while their life satisfaction and state happiness improved slightly between May 2021 (T1) and May 2022 (T2). These findings clearly demonstrate that students' mental health is still in crisis, even after the COVID-19 pandemic. More needs to be done to support students beyond the pandemic generally, including this particularly unique cohort of students who endured unprecedented challenges for prolonged periods, and who are now transitioning into the working world. Practical implications and recommendations are discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of existing literature on post-traumatic growth (PTG), particularly in the ways that it relates to grief. Design/methodology/approach This narrative literature review brings together 125 sources and presents them in a readable way. Findings There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that PTG can come from grief. This is not always the case, however. Research limitations/implications This review presents only a selection of the existing literature - the review is not systematic. However, this allows for a narrative to be crafted, to aid readability. Practical implications Suggestions for future research are made throughout, and potential therapeutic applications are mentioned. Social implications This paper discusses stigma, in the form of "disenfranchised grief". In this, social pressures and expectations affect how a person processes their grief psychologically. While movements to increase discourse and reduce stigma are on the rise, more is needed. Originality/value This review guides readers through existing literature, providing a wide overview of the topic of PTG in grief.

Multi-component Positive Psychology Interventions (mPPIs) in secondary schools have been shown to improve mental health outcomes for young people. The Hummingbird Project mPPI is a six-week program of workshops designed to introduce a variety of positive psychology (PP) concepts to secondary school-aged children in schools to improve well-being, resilience, and hope. The effects on mental distress, however, were not explored. The current study, therefore, was designed to replicate the effects of the Hummingbird Project mPPI on positive mental health and to also explore the effects on symptoms of mental distress. Secondary school-aged children (N = 614; mean age = 11.46 years) from a sample of secondary schools located across the North West of England (N = 7) participated in the study; the majority of children were in Year 7 (94%). The PP concepts explored included happiness, hope, resilience, mindfulness, character strengths, growth mindset, and gratitude. The results showed significant improvements associated with the mPPI in well-being (as measured by the World Health Organization Well-Being Index; WHO-5), hope (as measured by the Children?s Hope Scale; CHS), and symptoms of mental distress (as measured by the Young Person?s Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation; YP-CORE) from pre- to post-intervention. While acknowledging the limits due to pragmatic concerns regarding the implementation of a control group, the effectiveness of the Hummingbird Project mPPI on well-being was replicated alongside reducing the symptoms of mental distress. Future evaluation, however, will need to implement more robust designs and consider follow-up duration to assess the longer-term effects of the Hummingbird Project mPPI.

Multi-component Positive Psychology Interventions (mPPIs) in secondary schools have been shown to improve mental health outcomes for young people. The Hummingbird Project mPPI is a six-week program of workshops designed to introduce a variety of positive psychology (PP) concepts to secondary school-aged children in schools to improve well-being, resilience, and hope. The effects on mental distress, however, were not explored. The current study, therefore, was designed to replicate the effects of the Hummingbird Project mPPI on positive mental health and to also explore the effects on symptoms of mental distress. Secondary school-aged children ( N = 614; mean age = 11.46 years) from a sample of secondary schools located across the North West of England ( N = 7) participated in the study; the majority of children were in Year 7 (94%). The PP concepts explored included happiness, hope, resilience, mindfulness, character strengths, growth mindset, and gratitude. The results showed significant improvements associated with the mPPI in well-being (as measured by the World Health Organization Well-Being Index; WHO-5), hope (as measured by the Children’s Hope Scale; CHS), and symptoms of mental distress (as measured by the Young Person’s Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation; YP-CORE) from pre- to post-intervention. While acknowledging the limits due to pragmatic concerns regarding the implementation of a control group, the effectiveness of the Hummingbird Project mPPI on well-being was replicated alongside reducing the symptoms of mental distress. Future evaluation, however, will need to implement more robust designs and consider follow-up duration to assess the longer-term effects of the Hummingbird Project mPPI.

University students in the UK have encountered many challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aimed to track the mental well-being of a large sample of British university students (n = 554) over a one-year period of the COVID-19 pandemic, capturing data at four time points between May 2020 and May 2021. Overall retention after 12 months was 34.73%. Findings showed the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant, negative impact on the well-being of British university students. Students are suffering from prolonged and high levels of psychological distress and anxiety. Levels of flourishing in students are still very low. The different phases of the pandemic appear to have played an influential role in student mental health. The practical implications for higher education and recommendations for future research are discussed.

The effects of Covid-19 have been felt worldwide and one population that are of increasing concern are university students. University students have endured unique and drastic changes to their everyday and academic lives. It is important to understand how university students in different parts of the world have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and how it has affected their mental health? A cross-sectional study was conducted during the first wave of Covid-19, in May 2020 with 2,006 university students from the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain. Participants were recruited online and were asked to complete a series of standardised measures of psychological distress, anxiety, flourishing and wellbeing. Attitudes towards Covid-19 were measured using a new scale. The factor structure and reliability of this new scale was confirmed using this European sample. Results indicated that all university students were suffering from poor mental health, considerably below pre-pandemic norms. There were many geographical differences in the way that university students perceived the Covid19 pandemic, in terms of their fears, anxieties, loneliness and positivity. There were also significant mental health comparisons between students from the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain. Student beliefs that their government had provided effective leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic were strongly related to numerous mental health outcomes. A picture of university students' mental health is provided and discussed. Geographical comparisons are discussed, as are the implications for practice and future directions.

Supplementary information

Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) are promising alternatives to traditional face-to-face psychological interventions to improve psychological outcomes in various chronic health conditions. However, their efficacy among people with diabetes is yet to be established. Therefore, this narrative review aims to identify the importance and need for evidence-based research on digital mental health interventions targeting the psychological outcomes in people with diabetes.
Using a narrative review approach, this article highlights the technological advancements in diabetes healthcare and identifies a need for developing digital mental health interventions for people with diabetes.
DMHIs are promising for improving psychological outcomes in people with diabetes. However, there is a need for further rigorous, controlled, and high-quality diabetes focused studies, to make firm conclusions on the effectiveness and appropriateness of DMHIs for patients with diabetes. This review also suggests that DMHIs based on psychological theories and studies with higher quality methodologies are also needed.
This review highlights the contemporary literature on diabetes and related technological advancements. The findings of this study serve as a basis of the improvement of policy on digital mental health services for people with diabetes, to impact the global burden of the disease.

Objectives: Positive mental health in school predicts positive mental
health throughout the lifetime. Positive Psychology interventions (PPIs) in
secondary schools have been shown to improve mental health outcomes for
students. The Hummingbird Project, a brief, multi-component PPI, educates
secondary school students in a variety of Positive Psychology concepts, in
the hope of improving mental health outcomes in this cohort.
Design: Over a 4-year period (pilot, N = 90; full study year 1, N =
1,054; year 2, N = 876; year 3, N = 907), this intervention educated
secondary school students on the concepts of happiness, gratitude, kindness,
mindfulness, character strengths, hope, and growth mindsets.
Outcomes: The intervention led to improvements in; student well-being,
as measured by the World Health Organisation Well-Being Index (WHO-5);
resilience, as measured by the Bolton Uni-Stride Scale (BUSS); hope, as
measured by the Children’s Hope Scale (CHS); symptoms of mental distress, as
measured by the Young Person’s Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation
(YP-CORE).
Conclusions: These results show that a brief, multicomponent, PPI,
delivered by non-specialist staff, can improve mental health outcomes in
secondary school settings. This masterclass will show some of the methods
employed in the delivery of the Hummingbird Project, discuss some of the
various pitfalls one might encounter when attempting to deliver such
psychological interventions in a school setting, and give participants an
opportunity to try some of the activities involved in sessions. Participants
will leave with a clearer understanding of some quick, simple exercises that
can be performed with their students to improve mental health outcomes and
academic attainment.
Objectives: Degree awarding gaps on the basis of ethnicity are
persistent across the sector, whereby Black students are approximately 20–30
per cent less likely to be awarded a first class or upper second class
degree than white students. One way to address these gaps is to work with
our students to co-create and recreate curricula to increase student
representation and be anti-racist. The teaching practice that was developed
was a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic student advisory and discussion
group, who refer to themselves as The Global Majority Collective. They have
a paid student leader and approximately 20 students meet regularly online.
They are supported by a member of staff to whom the student leader feeds
back issues to the programme team.
Design: In order to empower these students and increase their
self-determination, we created an initial discussion group centred around
the themes in psychological needs theory: autonomy, competence, and
relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Students discussed the extent to which
they felt that they could be themselves (autonomy), felt capable of
achieving their full potential (competence), and felt a sense of community
and belonging (relatedness) - see
www.brookes.ac.uk/siip
Inclusion Project. Subsequently,
students set their own topics for discussion.
Outcomes: The group had a truly transformative impact on both staff and
student experience, from course content, to recruitment and admissions
strategies, to student satisfaction and performance. The former leader said:
‘As a Black student, I’ve seen an implementation of many issues we reported,
and I feel more represented’.
Conclusions: Teachers could consider setting up a similar platform in
their courses as one way to address inequitable degree awarding
gaps.
This interactive masterclass will present results and recommendations
from a mixed-methods research project about the experiences of Black Asian
and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students studying psychology and an online
decolonising psychology curriculum pedagogies toolkit. Delegates will be
able to have smaller directed group discussions about their experiences and
approaches to decolonising the psychology curriculum and pedagogies. This
masterclass will be a chance to discuss how we can share practices to better
embed Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion into the Psychology curriculum. We
will briefly report findings from the mixed-method project and invite
discussion about the project. The project used participatory action research
principles to co-design a quantitative survey. The survey was completed by
195 students, of which 105 were from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic
backgrounds and 89 students were from non-BAME backgrounds. All students
were studying UG and PG courses at two HEI in the West Midlands, the U.K. We
will present data that compared BAME and non-BAME students’ experiences and
views about their psychology curriculum, delivery of teaching, personal
tutoring support, course resources, peer relationships, representation,
course community, approaches to study and their engagement. We also asked
students from BAME backgrounds specific questions (both qualitative and
quantitative), and these students reported challenges in belonging, culture,
representation, terminology, and racism. Delegates will have the opportunity
to discuss these findings. Delegates will have the opportunity to use the
online decolonising psychology curriculum pedagogies toolkit and its
development. We will discuss how it may help psychology staff/departments
decolonise their curriculum and pedagogies.
Group-work assessment is increasingly common in higher education and
develops essential graduate skills in collaboration, communication and
problem solving. However, the group work process can be challenging for
students (Wilson et al., 2018), and staff faced the challenge of supporting
groups remotely in the pivot to online and blended learning (Wildman, 2021).
Our initial objective was to work in partnership with students to evaluate
current group work practices and resources and co-create recommendations on
how best to support the process and assessment of group work in online and
blended environments. Building on these recommendations, we co-developed the
Staying Connected Toolkit with students. The toolkit focuses on practical
activities to support group work, such as allocating group roles, improving
communication and encouraging group reflection. In this masterclass
delegates will apply the toolkit to their own teaching contexts and identify
strategies their students can use to improve collaborative working.
Qualitative and quantitative feedback from students and staff suggests that
the resources were helpful to students in initiating group organization and
allocating tasks, and useful to staff in signposting support within their
course. User analytics report higher student engagement with activities that
supported initial group organization than activities designed to address
issues in group work. The staying connected toolkit has over 300 users and
has been adopted by a range of subject disciplines to scaffold group
organisation and encourage reflective practice. Future work will focus on
how to increase accessibility of the tookit throughout the groupwork
process. Staying Connected Toolkit can be accessed at:
https://glasgowonline.gla.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=142
Enrolment
key:
groupwork
Background: Many imposter phenomenon studies report anomalously high
prevalence rates. The most common measure of imposter phenomenon is the
Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), however this has received little
critique beyond validation studies. Additionally, the CIPS has been used to
measure imposter phenomenon in university students, but there is little
research on the appropriateness of this scale for a student
population.
Objectives: To investigate how students interpret the CIPS and to
explore the student discourse surrounding imposter phenomenon.
Design: Participants (N=12) were undergraduates at the University of
Leeds from any discipline excluding psychology. Student-led focus groups
were conducted online where participants were asked to identify what the
scale was measuring (having first received de-identified copies) and how
they interpreted the wording and structure of the scale. Recordings were
transcribed, then analysed using an inductive and reflexive approach to
thematic analysis.
Results: Participants most frequently suggested the scale was measuring
self-doubt, self-esteem, and confidence. They also found many issues with
the scale, namely that it was tailored to current students, graduates, and
high-fliers and that it was culturally exclusive. They did not feel the
Likert scale could accurately represent their experiences and found the
phrasing confusing and hard to interpret.
Conclusion: Two factors may explain the rise in the prevalence of
imposter phenomenon: (1) students conceptualise imposter phenomenon more
broadly than the scientific community and/or (2) the CIPS is a weak
diagnostic tool.
Online, open education has transformative potential for students with
diverse learning needs who would otherwise not be able, or would prefer not,
to attend on-campus higher education. While open education programmes have
enhanced students’ ability to access HE institutions, an ableist academic
culture and various resulting barriers in teaching and learning
approaches/use of educational technology can negatively impact the level of
accessibility and inclusion within programmes. This presentation reports on
a project that is reviewing and redeveloping aspects of the online learning
design in a fully online undergraduate psychology programme in order to
improve levels of accessibility and inclusion. The project employs an action
research methodology to track and report on its progress. Data was gathered
through written feedback, interviews, and focus groups with students and
staff involved in the programme, as well as with ‘critical friends’ with
expertise and experience in accessibility and inclusion in higher education.
An aim of the study was to treat stakeholders as co-designers of online
learning. All project activity, observations, and materials were

There are widespread concerns about the mental health implications of the pandemic, particularly among university students, an already at-risk population for poor mental health. This study looked at 1,281 UK university students, recruited through the Prolific website. Participants were asked to complete the Attitudes towards COVID-19 Scale, the CORE-10, the PERMA Profiler, the GAD-7 and the Office for National Statistics wellbeing questions (ONS4). The first survey was conducted between May 14th and 16th, when the UK was in national lockdown.
The second survey was carried out between June 26th and July 15th.
There was only an 11% attrition rate between the two time points. Wellbeing improved overall between the two time points. Some findings were contradictory as overall well-being, anxiety and levels of flourishing improved, but reports of psychological distress increased. It is also important to note that levels of positivity about the pandemic increased as time went on. There was evidence that higher levels of positivity were linked to better mental health outcomes. Encouraging a positive mindset and outlook in students, probably through positive psychology-based interventions, might act as a protective factor against severe mental illness. The wider relevance and practical implications for higher education are discussed