Exploring Tutors’ Roles in Supporting Student Mental Health: Expectations and Perceptions in Higher Education
Student mental health is a challenging topic in higher education, with institutions aiming to develop policies and practices to support students’ personal and professional development. This study examined students’ expectations of their tutors regarding mental health support. An adaptation of the Me...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-11-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/12/1281 |
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| author | Rynke Douwes Janneke Metselaar Erik van der Meulen Nynke Boonstra Gerdina Hendrika Maria Pijnenborg |
| author_facet | Rynke Douwes Janneke Metselaar Erik van der Meulen Nynke Boonstra Gerdina Hendrika Maria Pijnenborg |
| author_sort | Rynke Douwes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Student mental health is a challenging topic in higher education, with institutions aiming to develop policies and practices to support students’ personal and professional development. This study examined students’ expectations of their tutors regarding mental health support. An adaptation of the Mentor-Q questionnaire, focusing on tutor role perceptions, was used to measure student expectations. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit of the adapted instrument. The questionnaire was completed by 869 students at a Dutch university of applied sciences, and the results were discussed with eight students. The findings revealed four role expectations of tutors: awareness raisers, connectors, referrers, and guardians. Latent class analysis revealed six clusters, with connector and referrer roles as well as awareness raiser and guardian roles being almost equally important within the clusters. The main difference between the clusters was the height of expectations. Satisfaction with the tutor was significantly related to cluster membership, such that higher expectations correlated with lower satisfaction. Additionally, students who discussed their mental health with their tutors were more represented in clusters with relatively low expectations. Discussions with the students highlighted the nuanced landscape of expectations and the importance of contextual factors and metacommunications. Implications for policy and practical development are also discussed. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-dbabcef6ce40489ab1c8a0b3b40db6ec |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-dbabcef6ce40489ab1c8a0b3b40db6ec2025-08-20T02:55:32ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022024-11-011412128110.3390/educsci14121281Exploring Tutors’ Roles in Supporting Student Mental Health: Expectations and Perceptions in Higher EducationRynke Douwes0Janneke Metselaar1Erik van der Meulen2Nynke Boonstra3Gerdina Hendrika Maria Pijnenborg4Research Group Health and Wellbeing, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, 8917 DD Leeuwarden, The NetherlandsResearch Group Health and Wellbeing, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, 8917 DD Leeuwarden, The NetherlandsResearch Group Health and Wellbeing, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, 8917 DD Leeuwarden, The NetherlandsResearch Group Health and Wellbeing, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, 8917 DD Leeuwarden, The NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology, University of Groningen, 9712 TS Groningen, The NetherlandsStudent mental health is a challenging topic in higher education, with institutions aiming to develop policies and practices to support students’ personal and professional development. This study examined students’ expectations of their tutors regarding mental health support. An adaptation of the Mentor-Q questionnaire, focusing on tutor role perceptions, was used to measure student expectations. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit of the adapted instrument. The questionnaire was completed by 869 students at a Dutch university of applied sciences, and the results were discussed with eight students. The findings revealed four role expectations of tutors: awareness raisers, connectors, referrers, and guardians. Latent class analysis revealed six clusters, with connector and referrer roles as well as awareness raiser and guardian roles being almost equally important within the clusters. The main difference between the clusters was the height of expectations. Satisfaction with the tutor was significantly related to cluster membership, such that higher expectations correlated with lower satisfaction. Additionally, students who discussed their mental health with their tutors were more represented in clusters with relatively low expectations. Discussions with the students highlighted the nuanced landscape of expectations and the importance of contextual factors and metacommunications. Implications for policy and practical development are also discussed.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/12/1281student mental healthhigher educationstudent expectationstutor |
| spellingShingle | Rynke Douwes Janneke Metselaar Erik van der Meulen Nynke Boonstra Gerdina Hendrika Maria Pijnenborg Exploring Tutors’ Roles in Supporting Student Mental Health: Expectations and Perceptions in Higher Education Education Sciences student mental health higher education student expectations tutor |
| title | Exploring Tutors’ Roles in Supporting Student Mental Health: Expectations and Perceptions in Higher Education |
| title_full | Exploring Tutors’ Roles in Supporting Student Mental Health: Expectations and Perceptions in Higher Education |
| title_fullStr | Exploring Tutors’ Roles in Supporting Student Mental Health: Expectations and Perceptions in Higher Education |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring Tutors’ Roles in Supporting Student Mental Health: Expectations and Perceptions in Higher Education |
| title_short | Exploring Tutors’ Roles in Supporting Student Mental Health: Expectations and Perceptions in Higher Education |
| title_sort | exploring tutors roles in supporting student mental health expectations and perceptions in higher education |
| topic | student mental health higher education student expectations tutor |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/12/1281 |
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