A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Wellbeing Programme Designed for Undergraduate Students: Exploring Participants’ Experiences Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- (1)
- How effective is TTT for undergraduate students’ mental wellbeing?
- (2)
- How do students make sense of their experience with the TTT programme?
2. Methods
2.1. Research Design
2.2. Recruitment
2.3. Participants
2.4. Programme Delivery
2.5. Measures and Data Collection
2.6. Data Analyses
2.6.1. Quantitative Arm
2.6.2. Qualitative Arm
3. Results
3.1. Quantitative Evaluation of TTT: Results from RCT
3.1.1. Effects on Psychological Wellbeing (FS)
3.1.2. Effects on Mental Wellbeing (SWEMWBS)
3.1.3. Effects on Resilience (BRS)
3.2. Feedback Survey Findings
3.3. IPA Findings: How Students Make Sense of Their TTT Experience
3.3.1. Differing Functions of TTT for the Student
Learning Opportunity
“It’s kind of related to culture, but you know, sometimes people are brought up with certain ideas of like they need to keep things to themselves or like stuff like that. Like something that mentions those kinds of things, so that it makes it easier for people to analyse themselves and like … something related to, um, gender stereotypes and like culture, like different cultures, like the type of beliefs that people tend to grow up with…there was one topic about conflict…but, like, with an extra one about, like, different mindsets and that could add…so that people are more able to understand each other. Like a kind of cultural competency thing.”(ans 18–21, pp. 4–5)
A Step Towards Personal Development
“I knew it was from King’s, so I knew it would be good … on the basis that my teacher said it was good, especially for self-developmental um things, and I have gone to my tutor for, you know, asking how to cope with stress and manage my time better. And so she said that this programme will help me do that.”(ans 28 & 30, p. 4)
Opportunity to Better Understand the Research Process
Toolkit of Techniques and Strategies
“My expectations were that it was going to be a programme that was self-paced online that would help my mental health and wellbeing in, you know, in a few different techniques that the researchers would recommend … I now have a few techniques that I can sort of instil in my everyday life … So I think I’ll definitely be using some of the techniques.”(ans 6–8, p. 2)
“I think I’ll use it in the future. I don’t know about, like, on a daily basis, but it, but um, I have like, when something is related to one of the topics comes up, I do sometimes remember the facts.”(ans 15, p. 3)
Opportunity to Make Connections
“If we can see you on, I think, your group, it would be much more, um, I will feel more close to you than just see the emails.”(ans 82, p. 16)
“It wasn’t like a task for us to finish and with a lot of these mindfulness books, it just seems so detached cause it’s on a book … like you can’t form that connection with the authors, but whereas in the lectures because we can hear your voice because we’ve seen a couple of you in the workshops and stuff it was easy to make that connection.”(ans 39–40, pp. 5–6)
3.3.2. Personal Impact of TTT
“I’m very happy that I was given this opportunity because … it’s helped me (short pause) just not focus on the grades so much and just focus on the bigger things in life.”(ans 30, p. 4)
“It’s helped me a lot in terms of my own mental health, the mental health of others, like my family (ans 33, p. 5). Later on, to elaborate further, she added: So it wasn’t just focused on us. I like the fact that you guys focus on other people as well. Like looking after friends and family.”(ans 77, p. 12)
“And I don’t know if you’re [ethnolinguistic group]. Are you [ethnolinguistic group]? So, as soon as I saw your name, I was like ohh, there’s a [ethnolinguistic group] lecturer … I was so proud of you, and I was just like so happy that I could join this.”(ans 43, p. 6)
“I think everything I learned is very close to my problems, and as a first-year university student, those things were very helpful…. And of those information from the video, from take your message, and a meeting very close to my life. So I will do all those things, like er (pause), it changed my life demands. Let me show you. For example, I have a notebook to list what I should do, so I will not delay for, er, then, my plan but sometimes it will be, er, also to go relax or something.”(ans 20 & 25, pp. 5–6)
“Yeah, maybe some sort of of, um, yeah, strategies that may help to, like, stop procrastinating and, and boost productivity … But yeah, I think it was well in the programme anyway (ans 14, p. 4) or like I was able to keep track on it (what was going on during the programme) and it was fine because I think there were reminders … but maybe for some students who have a bit going on…”(ans 17, p. 5)
“I think it was delivered quite well, especially the topics being sort of split up into the different weeks and then also having the Teams channel and the in-person sessions, …, everything that I would think of has been thought about already and even some things I hadn’t thought about you guys already did.”(ans 15, p. 4)
3.3.3. Placing Students Who Need It the Most at the Heart of TTT
“I think in terms of how the resources were, sort of, put up on the KEATS page, I wouldn’t say there were any sort of initial barriers because it had them, like I say, like, split up into the topics, but then also split up into what the resource is. But in terms of how the students may engage with them I would say perhaps, maybe the barriers may be that, um, they may find the, like, the plethora of resources could be maybe overwhelming to some students to see, like, a, a lot up there … I guess, um, reemphasising that, you know, these are optional for you if you want to go into further detail, but the videos are the main thing of, of this programme.”(ans 16, p. 5)
“What I would add on to that is it would be great if there was a poll beforehand that we can say what day or time, um, would have suited us and then maybe the majority, um, we could go with that… like 2 weeks in advance, um, could hopefully give enough time for you to organise it”(ans 9 & 20, pp. 3 & 8)
“I think if we have an online meeting every week like one hour or one hour and a half … So we don’t need to do it by ourselves … I think because for my type of people. Yeah, maybe we don’t, er, do this by ourself, but if there is something push us to do it, it would be very helpful.”(ans 12, 15, 16, p. 3–4)
“Uh, one thing like for me is that maybe I would think I should finish other modules coursework before the Time to Thrive… It’s maybe a little bit a problem…Maybe, just maybe because it’s not compulsory…from my understanding if something is not compulsory, I would be very lazy.”(ans 72–75, p. 14)
“I didn’t attend any of the, the live workshops they did, …the first few weeks I didn’t watch anything because I kept, like, forgetting… I think maybe, maybe it’s just the fact that it’s like, kind of like an optional thing, so people will tend to not prioritise it”(ans 22 & 25, pp. 5–6)
“Compared to other mindfulness and self-developing … this is more engaging because it is long-term… and we had a lot more time afterwards to go over the content, …, there’s no rush to the, to finish the content in that one week.”(ans 21–23, p. 3)
“I also think that smaller groups would help engage students better cause I’m the type, like, if there’s…more than 15 people in the Teams or Zoom meeting that I won’t say anything on the chat at all cause I’m such a shy person, but when there’s like 5 people, I tend to engage a lot more”(ans 65–67, p. 9)
“Maybe next time, you did not need you maybe cannot show those takeaway message before the seminar and on the seminar, you even could have, if there are more people, you can have some small group discussion. I don’t know if Teams have the breakout rooms … it could improve the attention and understand those things much more.”(ans 85–87, pp. 16–17)
4. Discussion
4.1. TTT’s Effectiveness on Student Wellbeing
4.2. The Differing Functions of TTT for the Student
4.3. Personal Impact of TTT
4.4. Placing Students Who Need It the Most at the Heart of TTT
4.5. Implications and Future Research
4.6. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Interview Protocol
- What motivated you to join the programme?
- As we explained to you before starting the recording, we know that some students have not engaged as we were hoping. But, if you have, what did you like the most and what didn’t you like about the programme?
- What were your expectations for the programme?
- How, if at all, do you think participating in Time to Thrive has impacted you?
- How, if at all, do you think you will use any information or skills that you have learned on Time to Thrive in your everyday life from now on or in the future?
- What would you change in Time to Thrive to make it more useful to you?
- Is there anything you would suggest we change about how our programme is delivered?
- Is there anything we didn’t cover that you would like to add, or any final comments you’d like to share?
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Outcomes | Pre-TTT | ANOVA | Post-Test | ANCOVA | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Intervention | Control | Intervention | Control | |||||||||||
M | SD | M | SD | F | p | η2 | M | SD | M | SD | F | p | η2 | |
Psychological wellbeing (FS) | 41.67 | 2.09 | 40.54 | 1.76 | 0.17 | 0.68 | 0.004 | 45.06 | 1.79 | 39.44 | 1.91 | 8.02 | 0.01 | 0.17 |
Mental wellbeing (SWEMWBS) | 21.74 | 1.07 | 19.98 | 0.67 | 2.17 | 0.15 | 0.05 | 22.29 | 1.17 | 20.25 | 0.84 | 0.35 | 0.56 | 0.009 |
Resilience (BRS) | 3.30 | 0.17 | 3.05 | 0.14 | 1.28 | 0.26 | 0.03 | 3.48 | 0.18 | 3.09 | 0.15 | 1.40 | 0.24 | 0.03 |
Time to Thrive had a variety of content and resources available. Which resources did you engage with? | Videos | 12 (70.6%) |
Podcast | 10 (58.8%) | |
Printable version or transcript | 9 (52.9%) | |
Takeaway messages & interactive quiz | 12 (70.6%) | |
Suggested additional resources | 4 (23.5%) | |
Experiential exercises | 6 (35.3%) | |
Online sessions, face-to-face workshop | 5 (29.4%) | |
Usefulness of experiential exercises | Rating between 1 (not at all useful) and 5 (very useful) | Mdn = 4.00 |
Mode = 4.00 | ||
‘I haven’t looked at any of the experiential exercises’ | 7 (39.0%) | |
Intention of participation if no incentives were offered | Yes | 6 (33.3%) |
No | 8 (44.4%) | |
Considerations around timing, optional research activity versus course embedded in the curriculum, incentives facilitating commitment to engage | 4 (22.2%) | |
Would you like the programme to be expanded and offered as a credit-bearing module for your undergraduate degree? | Yes | 14 (82.4%) |
No | 3 (17.6%) | |
Usefulness and enjoyability of topics | Topic 1: Stress, resilience & positive emotions | Mdn: 4.00 |
Mode: 4.00 | ||
Topic 2: Values, purpose & the solution-focused approach | Mdn: 4.00 | |
Mode: 4.00 | ||
Topic 3: Positive communication, social connectedness & loneliness | Mdn: 4.00 | |
Mode: 4.00 | ||
Topic 4: Impostor syndrome & overcoming procrastination | Mdn: 5.00 | |
Mode: 5.00 | ||
Topic 5: Eat, sleep, exercise, mindfulness & developing self-acceptance | Mdn: 4.00 | |
Mode: 4.00 | ||
Topic 6: Navigating transitions & developing self-growth | Mdn: 4.00 | |
Mode: 4.00 | ||
Programme’s impact on wellbeing | Yes | 15 (83.3%) |
No | 2 (11.1%) | |
Some components of TTT being impactful | 1 (5.6%) | |
Duration of TTT | Just about right | 16 (94.1%) |
Too long | 1 (5.9%) | |
Overall satisfaction with TTT | Mdn: 8.00 | Mode: 6.00 |
Would you recommend TTT to a friend? | Mdn: 7 | Mode: 7.00 |
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Vourda, M.-C.; Collins, J.; Kandaswamy, R.; Bevilaqua, M.C.d.N.; Kralj, C.; Percy, Z.; Strauss, N.; Zunszain, P.A.; Dias, G.P. A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Wellbeing Programme Designed for Undergraduate Students: Exploring Participants’ Experiences Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Educ. Sci. 2025, 15, 604. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15050604
Vourda M-C, Collins J, Kandaswamy R, Bevilaqua MCdN, Kralj C, Percy Z, Strauss N, Zunszain PA, Dias GP. A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Wellbeing Programme Designed for Undergraduate Students: Exploring Participants’ Experiences Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Education Sciences. 2025; 15(5):604. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15050604
Chicago/Turabian StyleVourda, Maria-Christina, Jess Collins, Radhika Kandaswamy, Mário Cesar do Nascimento Bevilaqua, Carolina Kralj, Zephyr Percy, Naomi Strauss, Patricia A. Zunszain, and Gisele P. Dias. 2025. "A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Wellbeing Programme Designed for Undergraduate Students: Exploring Participants’ Experiences Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis" Education Sciences 15, no. 5: 604. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15050604
APA StyleVourda, M.-C., Collins, J., Kandaswamy, R., Bevilaqua, M. C. d. N., Kralj, C., Percy, Z., Strauss, N., Zunszain, P. A., & Dias, G. P. (2025). A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Wellbeing Programme Designed for Undergraduate Students: Exploring Participants’ Experiences Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Education Sciences, 15(5), 604. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15050604