Mental health problems in college students increase, and no one talks about it.

Do you know what you are grateful for? An experimental study on college students in turkey showed that gratitude journaling can improve life satisfaction and reduce stress in individuals suffering from adjustment problems. The life changes accompanying the start of college can result in several mental health issues. Moving out, leaving home and friends, being independent and keep up with college are leading causes for distress and adjustment problems. Thereby it’s easy to lose the good and valuable parts in life out of sight. Gratitude as a process of noticing good things and recognizing the source of such good things is associated with happiness, optimism and hope. The basic topics of positive psychology. 

Gratitude interventions have been shown to build up coping and resilience capacities which increase overall well-being. This study examined the effect of the intervention “gratitude journaling” on the sense of gratitude, adjustment to college, life-satisfaction, and positive affect in first year college students.

The intervention made the students review the day at the end of each day in the sense of writing about experiences the students are grateful for or made them feel good. The impact of this intervention on the student’s adjustment, gratitude, and life satisfaction was measured by comparing well-being scores of volunteers that did engage in the journaling for three weeks and volunteers that did nothing. 

As a conclusion daily journaling what one is grateful for can help to focus and evoke positive emotions which activate positive resources leading to more resilience and well-being. 

reference

Işık, E., & Ergüner-Tekinalp, B. (2017). The Effects of Gratitude Journaling on Turkish First Year College Students’ College Adjustment, Life Satisfaction and Positive Affect. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 39(2), 164–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-017-9289-8