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Considering that college students experience mental health issues and college counseling centers are overwhelmed, this study identifies instructors as a potential mental health resource for students. This study utilizes the theory of planned behavior to investigate the relationship between students' attitudes, injunctive and descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control, and their intentions to engage their instructors in mental health conversations. Participants were 311 undergraduate students at a small, private university in Southern California. Participants were recruited through a Communication subject pool and completed an online survey about engaging instructors in these conversations. Results of a regression analysis indicate that all theoretical constructs positively predict students' intentions to discuss mental health with an instructor. By providing insight into students' intentions to utilize instructors as mental health resources on campus, these findings yield practical implications for better preparing universities and their faculty to engage in students' mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college instructors' professional and personal well-being. Specifically, this study explored whether new communicative roles emerged in instructor-student communication about mental health. Additionally, it investigated associations among instructors' communicative roles and their experiences of burnout, teaching satisfaction, and mental health indicators (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress). Results of independent-samples t-tests (N = 140) suggest that instructors identifying as empathic listeners experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and stress than instructors identifying as a referral source for students expressing mental health concerns. The implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on communication privacy management theory, this study examined instructors' perceptions of the risks and benefits of instructor self-disclosure in the classroom. Open-ended data from 209 college faculty indicated that most participants see their disclosures as benefiting their teaching by providing quality, relevant examples to enhance their teaching of content and by humanizing them as instructors to create a more open, comfortable classroom environment. However, some participants noted that classroom disclosures carry inherent risks including to their job security and their credibility as instructors. Further, due to the risks of disclosure in the classroom some participants reported choosing to not disclose any personal information in their classes. The implications of the study findings on instructor-student communication and how instructors can best manage private information in the classroom are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on scholarship focused on the concept of emotional labor, this study investigates the communicative role of college instructors in managing their students' mental health. Interviews with instructors (N = 17) focused on their perceived communicative roles in their students' mental health management, the communicative techniques they use to address students' mental health in and outside of the classroom, and the concerns they have in addressing the mental health of their students. Notably, instructors identified four communicative roles they feel comfortable assuming, three overarching communicative techniques utilized in their day-to-day interactions with students, and two primary concerns in addressing students' mental health. These communicative roles and techniques suggest a continuum of interpersonal engagement and comfort (or lack thereof) in discussing mental health topics with students. Findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to communication and instruction research, their connections to the emotional labor provided by college instructors for their students, and practical implications for university administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As debates over the value and effectiveness of online courses continue, more research is needed to assist in identifying predictors of positive student outcomes in online courses. Building from previous research in Feedback Intervention Theory (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996) and the Community of Inquiry framework (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001; Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 1999), this study sought to identify predictors of student motivation toward online courses. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression, using data from 170 online undergraduate students, suggest that student predisposition to receiving instructor feedback and student perceptions of teaching presence provide strong prediction of student motivation toward online courses.

Much research into college student motivation focuses on traditional face-to-face (FtF) classroom settings. Building from previous research in Feedback Intervention Theory (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996) and the Community of Inquiry framework (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001; Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 1999), this study sought to identify predictors of student motivation toward online courses. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression, using data from 190 online undergraduate students, suggest that student predisposition to receiving instructor feedback and student perceptions of teaching presence provide strong prediction of student motivation toward online courses. However, perceptions of teaching presence did not predict motivation in the hypothesized direction. These findings support the notion that the online learning environment offers its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, and warrants continued empirical research beyond comparisons to FtF classroom settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to extend the research conducted on perceived instructor verbal aggressiveness by identifying specific examples of Infante's 10 types of verbally aggressive messages used by instructors. Participants were 225 undergraduate students, who provided an example of a verbally aggressive message used by an instructor. From these examples, 9 types of verbally aggressive messages were identified: competence attacks, work ethic attacks, swearing, threats, character attacks, nonverbal behaviors, teasing, background attacks, and physical appearance attacks. Future research should examine both the extent to which instructors are perceived to use these 9 types of verbally aggressive messages and the reasons instructors report for why they use the messages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]