College Student Response to Peers in Distress: An Exploratory Study

Today's college students experience a multitude of emotional and psychological difficulties, ranging from developmental struggles to more severe psychopathology (Bishop, Gallagher, & Cohen, 2000). Recent studies suggest that students may experience high levels of distress (Cornish, Kominars, Riva, McIntosh, & Henderson, 2000; Pledge, Lapan, Heppner, Kivlighan, & Roehlke, 1998) and there may be increasing numbers of students who seek counseling for problems such as anxiety and depression (Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton, & Benton, 2003). Although most colleges provide psychological counseling and other support services, students themselves are often the first to deal with troubled students on campus. For example, a student may observe his or her roommate engaging in self-destructive behavior, or a student may have a friend who confides in him or her about having problems with school, family, or other issues. In a sense, students are on the front lines and may have knowledge of other students having problems well before anyone else on campus.

Indeed, the fact that college students are often the first to respond and try to help other students has provided the impetus to utilize students as peer helpers. For several years now, students have been recruited to serve as peer counselors and peer educators for a variety of issues and concerns such as health education (Sloan & Zimmer, 1993), physical intimacy and sexuality (Nassar & Collins-Eaglin, 1994), sexual assault (Caron, 1993; Simon, 1993), HIV risk and prevention (Bauman, 1993; Fabiano, 1993), eating disorders (Kirkley, Battaglia, Earle, Gans, & Molloy, 1988; Sesan, 1988-89), life transitions (Hill, 1990), and alcohol and drug prevention (Grossman, Canterbury, Lloyd, & McDowell, 1994). Peer-based helping has also been developed and implemented to assist with adjustment to college, for students in general (Russel & Thompson, 1987), and for ethnic minority students in particular (Boen, 1989). In addition, peer helping programs have been established using specific subgroups of students such as athletes (Caron) and members of fraternities and sororities (Kendig, 1985).

Aside from formal peer helping programs, college campuses have long relied on the use of resident assistants (RAs) to recognize, evaluate, and refer students who might be experiencing emotional or psychological problems. Unlike the average student, RAs are often trained in suicide risk assessment, response to at-risk residents, and how to make referrals for mental health services (Boswinkel, 1988; Grosz, 1991). Also, RAs deal only with students who reside on campus, and typically have building directors, residential life coordinators, or deans to consult with when dealing with students in distress. How does the average student, who does not necessarily have any such training or immediate resource people with whom to consult, respond to a peer in distress?

Because of an absence of research into how students respond to and try to help troubled peers, the present study was designed as a preliminary, exploratory investigation into this domain of peer helping. We were particularly interested in what could be called emotional peer helping (McGuire, 1994), whereby students attempt to provide support, comfort, be understanding, and/or listen to the problems of their peers, particularly peers with who they feel close. In general, we wanted to get a sense of what students do when they are concerned about the well being of another student (friend, roommate, significant other, etc.) at their college. Specifically, we wanted to explore the following questions: What type of peer problems do students deal with? How do they respond or try to help? Do they consult with anyone, and if so, who? Do they consider contacting the campus counseling center? If not, why not?

Method

Participants

A sample of 136 undergraduate students was obtained from a random selection of classes during the first summer session of 2002 at a medium-sized state university in eastern Pennsylvania. The sample consisted of 41 males and 93 females (2 participants did not indicate gender) who were predominantly White (83%) and between...