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Depression, anxiety, and insomnia are all conditions that share a complex bidirectional relationship. Sleep effort is a construct with cognitive and behavioral components that perpetuates insomnia. Although many studies have examined the associations between these three variables, no studies have yet examined sleep effort as a mediating variable between anxiety and depression and vice versa. Online versions of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Glasgow Sleep Effort Scale were administered to a sample of 1927 higher education students aged 18–40 years (75.9% women and 76% from 18 to 23 years old). As part of the survey, participants also completed a sociodemographic questionnaire. Mediation analysis indicated that sleep effort mediates the relationship between depression and anxiety, when the former was the predictor and the latter was the criterion. Moreover, sleep effort also mediated the relationship between anxiety and depression when the former was the predictor and the latter was the criterion, albeit in a lesser extent. Sleep effort appears to play a bidirectional mediational role between depression and anxiety, being a potential target for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a large impact on the financial situation of higher education students, disproportionately affecting students with a low socioeconomic status (SES). This raises the question of whether economic stressors related to COVID-19 have aggravated existing socioeconomic inequalities in mental health. This study examined the relationship between economic stressors and students' depressive symptoms, and the role of students' SES and countries' socioeconomic conditions. Methods: Data from the COVID-19 International Student Well-being Study was used for multilevel analyses, with depressive symptoms as dependent variable. Three indicators measured SES: educational level of the parents, ability to borrow money from their social network, and struggling with financial resources prior to COVID-19. Results: Students with a low SES had more depressive symptoms, and those not able to borrow money and with parents without higher education were more exposed to a deterioration in their financial situation. Both economic stressors (reduction in working hours and a deterioration of their financial situation) were positively related to depressive symptoms. In addition, the positive relationship between a decrease in working hours and depressive symptoms was stronger in countries with a higher unemployment rate. Conclusions: We observed socioeconomic inequalities in students' mental health, which, in part, can be ascribed to a larger exposure to the economic stressors related to COVID-19 among students' with a low SES. The macroeconomic context also played a role, as the impact of a reduction in working hours on depressive symptoms was stronger in countries with poor economic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy lifestyles are commonly associated with improved physical and mental health. Sleep patterns, nutrition, physical exercise, consumption of psychoactive substances, among others, can strongly influence positive mental health. The aims are: characterize lifestyles based on positive mental health clusters, considering the cross-sectional cohort sample of higher education students, and analyse the lifestyles associated with positive mental health. A cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational and multicentric study of quantitative approach was conducted. The Positive Mental Health Questionnaire was applied. Through the k-means method, four clusters were obtained based on positive mental health levels. The sample of 3647 higher education students was mostly female (78.8%), single (89.5%), with an average age of 23 years (SD = 6.68). Differences were found between clusters based on the sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyles. Findings in Cluster 1 were highlighted because they included students with a higher level of positive mental health, which was associated with greater satisfaction in affective relationships, higher recreational and sports activities, better sleep quality, a healthy diet, and lower medication and illicit drugs consumption. These key findings emphasize the promotion of healthy lifestyles and highlight the importance of positive mental health in promoting the health of higher education students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty years after the signing of the Bologna Declaration, this special issue contributes to a discussion of the Bologna process with a particular focus on the implementation of the two-cycle degree structure (3+2) and the practices and paths of higher education students. In this introduction, it is argued that there is a need for more research concerning the policy as text, that is, the way the Bologna process is enacted by students and teachers in their daily practices. The 3+2 degree structure has indeed affected the practices of students, particularly by introducing a new transition and decision point in many countries. However, when considering the Bologna policy as text, it becomes visible that there are differences in the students' concerns and practices across the six countries represented in the papers in the issue. This is not only the case due to differences in the national contexts prior to the Bologna process, but also to the role of other factors affecting the enactment of the policies. Thus, there are variations in the implementation – for example, concerning the social dimension – and the enactment differs due to national as well as programme differences, and differences related to academic disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-cultural equivalence, country and gender differences, and external relations with other measures were examined on a new, brief measure of test anxiety, the Test Anxiety Measure for College Students-Short Form (TAMC-SF), in a sample of Canadian and US higher education students. The sample of 1204 students completed the TAMC-SF and other measures online. The results of tests of invariance found support for partial scalar invariance across country and gender on the TAMC-SF. In addition, results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analysis of variances (ANOVAs) found country and gender differences on the TAMC-SF scales. Furthermore, validity evidence for the TAMC-SF scores with the scores of external measures was found. Overall, the findings support the use of the same test score interpretation for Canadian and US higher education students on the TAMC-SF and the use of the TAMC-SF in Canadian higher education students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of whether higher education Hispanic students of different nationalities have different perceptual learning style preferences. Independent samples t test results suggest students of non-Mexican heritage prefer visual learning styles more than students of Mexican heritage. ANOVA results show older students and students from families with greater levels of education have greater preference for visual learning, and higher household income is related to lower preferences for group learning style, and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study engages with current debate around global education and internationalization of higher education(HE). There is an identified need to critically reflect on how global education commitments are introduced to HE students, and how the debates are brought to individual as well as institutional levels. The study explores how students in a Finnish university develop their understanding of global education, citizenship and potential dispositions towards global responsibility. The students participated in an international seminar on the global Education for All (EFA) process, with purposefully planned participatory activities and cross-cultural dialogues, and reflected on their learning about the global process in assignments. A rigorous qualitative thematic analysis was conducted on the students' written learning assignments (n = 43). The analysis revealed that students learned about the global EFA process and targets, and reflected on general and personal significance of the process as well as the connections between the local and global. They placed the responsibility for educational transformation in three distinct levels: the 'other'; 'we'; and 'I'. The findings suggest that purposefully designed learning activities guide students to develop their understanding of global education and to disposition themselves as responsible future education professionals, both prerequisites of global citizenship and transformation of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The working mechanism of an effective online lifegoal-setting intervention was recently proposed by means of the motivational mindset model (MMM). The MMM contains four types of mindset profiles (high-impact, low-impact, social-impact, and self-impact) based on multiple, co-occurring motives that students hold for studying. The present paper aims to qualitatively investigate the mechanism and explores whether the goal-setting intervention fosters a favorable change in mindset. To this end, a deductive content analysis was used to examine the life goal motives in the written goal-setting essays of 48 first-year university students (33% female; 8.3% ethnic minority; Mage = 19.5, age range 17–30 years). Life goal motives were coded according to four dimensions along two distinctions (self-oriented versus self-transcendent, and intrinsic versus extrinsic) and analyses were focused on comparisons between changed and stable mindsets. Results show that students who changed from a low-impact mindset to a social-impact mindset expressed intrinsic self-oriented and intrinsic self-transcendent motives to a similar extent as stable social-impact mindset students. This pattern indicates that the positive change in mindset already occurred during the reflection assignment and substantiates the proposed mechanism of the goal-setting intervention. The implications of the findings are discussed as well as directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Psychological vulnerability is related to cognitive beliefs that reflect dependence on one's sense of self-worth and to maladaptive functioning. It is a disadvantage that renders people less protected to face negative life experiences. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to adapt and test the psychometric properties of the Psychological Vulnerability Scale in a sample of 267 Portuguese higher education students. DESIGN: A psychometric study of the Psychological Vulnerability Scale, after translation into Portuguese, was performed with a convenience sample of higher education students. Participants were asked to fill in the sociodemographic questionnaire, the Psychological Vulnerability Scale, the Brief Symptom Inventory, and a one-item question about the Perception of Vulnerability. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 20.5 years (SD = 3.3). A factor analysis confirmed the original one- factor structure, explaining 42.9% of the total variance. The Psychological Vulnerability Scale showed adequate internal consistency and excellent test-retest stability. Convergent validity was confirmed by positive correlations with the Brief Symptom Inventory and Perception of Vulnerability. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the Psychological Vulnerability Scale showed good validity, reliability, and stability over time. The Psychological Vulnerability Scale is now ready to be used by practitioners and researchers to measure the psychological vulnerability among Portuguese higher education students. These data add to the body of knowledge of psychiatric and mental health nursing and provides support for the use of the Psychological Vulnerability Scale in higher education students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First-year higher education (HE) students experience different challenges during their studies. These challenging learning situations can trigger self-regulated learning (SRL) skills, which students use to handle these situations. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate (a) first-year HE students’ cognitive, motivational and emotional challenges experienced in both individual and collaborative learning situations and (b) the relationship between SRL skills and experienced learning challenges. Participants included 107 first-year pre-service teachers. Data consisted of students’ self-reports via (a) open-ended answers on a challenge questionnaire and (b) Likert-scale items from MSLQ and MRS questionnaires. Based on students’ SRL profiles, differential effects on the challenging experiences were investigated. The results show that different aspects related to students’ cognition, motivation, emotions and well-being were challenging for students. Also, connections were found between students’ SRL skills and the types of experienced learning challenges. Students with high SRL reported fewer learning challenges related to motivational aspects and more challenges related to cognitive aspects than students with low SRL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]