Agora: Red Deer Polytechnic Undergraduate Journal
Volume 16:1 2025 Agora Conference Proceedings

Investigating the Impact of MindfulU on
Student Well-Being: Executive
Summary
Jocelyn Wynnychuk
Post-secondary students are in the midst of a growing
mental health crisis and a loneliness epidemic (Moghimi et al.,
2023; Linden et al., 2021; Ogrodniczuk et al., 2021). Using data
from the National College Health Assessment Survey II from
2013, 2016, and 2019, Linden and colleagues (2021) showed
that there was a significant increase in students reporting mental
health challenges across time. Even though these challenges are
shared amongst students, research has shown that students are
feeling isolated in their struggles. Ogrodniczuk and associates
(2021) conducted a study in which over 81% of students
reported that they regularly feel lonely. Declining mental health
also poses issues for academic success (Bruffaerts et al., 2018).
For example, first year students who dealt with mental health
problems tended to have a 0.2-0.3 decrease in grade point
average compared to their peers without mental health problems
(Bruffaerts et al., 2018). As a result of this increasing challenge,
traditional

campus

counselling

services

have

become

overburdened, and many students have been unable to promptly
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access the care they require, an issue that makes the need for
additional support services clear (Abrams, 2022; Baik et al.,
2019; Moghimi et al., 2023).
Stress and Loneliness Among Post-Secondary Students
High levels of academic pressure, family pressure and
financial pressure have been shown to significantly impact
students' perceived stress (Pitt et al., 2017; Slimmen et al.,
2022). Additionally, feelings of loneliness can exacerbate
perceived stress (Stoliker & Lafreniere, 2015). High levels of
stress and loneliness have numerous negative outcomes for
students. For example, high levels of stress have been associated
with lower levels of hope, difficulty concentrating, and
irritability (Liu et al., 2022; Harrison et al., 2025; Satici, 2020).
Additionally, chronic stress is considered to contribute to the
onset of various mental illnesses such as major depressive
disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (Davis et al., 2017). High
stress and loneliness also result in negative academic outcomes
such as procrastination and burnout (Fincham & May, 2021,
Stoliker & Lafreniere, 2015). Loneliness has also been related to
several serious adverse effects such as increased risk for eating
disorders, poorer depression and anxiety outcomes, and mental
distress (Fagan et al., 2025; Ganson et al., 2025; Wang et al.,

247

2018). On the other hand, a sense of social connectedness has
been associated with higher life satisfaction (Avci, 2023).
Peer Support Services
Due to the growing issue of student mental health, many
post-secondary institutions have turned toward introducing peer
support services as a means of enhancing student well-being and
creating connections between peers. Generally, peer support
involves a volunteer providing support to a fellow student, with
the opportunity to connect over the shared lived experience of
being a student (Pointon-Haas et al., 2023). These services have
been shown to be vital for supporting student well-being, with
students who utilize the service displaying reduced anxiety and
depression symptoms, lowered stress, reduced loneliness, and a
higher sense of belongingness (Costello et al., 2022; Gregoire et
al., 2024). Volunteers for these programs also stand to gain
substantive benefits as well (Lovell & Webber, 2024). These
include tangible benefits, like the opportunity to receive free
training and to build their resume, but also more personal
benefits like a sense of increased confidence and fulfillment
(Lovell & Webber, 2024). Existing research suggests that
holistic campus well-being programs can play a vital role in
defending against the ongoing student mental health crisis and
loneliness epidemic.

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MindfulU: A Student Mental Health Collective
In the 2023/2024 academic year, Red Deer Polytechnic
launched a campus well-being program which was developed by
students for students (Students Association of Red Deer
Polytechnic, 2024). The program is called MindfulU and seeks
to support students through four foundational categories:
empowerment, relaxation, fun, and connection. MindfulU was
designed around the stepped care model, which involves
providing support to individuals proportional to their specific
needs (Marques et al., 2024). Using this approach helps to
reduce the pressure on support services, which in turn reduces
wait times for those seeking help (Marques et al., 2024).
The Present Study
MindfulU was recently implemented at RDP and has
therefore not yet been assessed. The purpose of the current study
was to assess how the program is perceived by students, and to
determine if differences exist between students who have, and
who have not accessed its services. Specifically, we sought to
assess if students differed in their perceived stress levels, social
connectedness,

loneliness,

mindfulness,

flourishing,

and

thriving. Due to the goal of MindfulU being to enhance student

249

well-being, and in light of prior research on peer support
services, it was expected that students who have accessed and
have more frequently attended MindfulU would experience
higher well-being than students who have not and do not
regularly access Mindful. Additionally, the purpose of this study
was to understand students’ perceptions of this program.
Because of the way that MindfulU is currently operating, it was
not feasible to obtain pre- and post-measures of student wellbeing before and after they access MindfulU. Instead, all RDP
students were eligible to participate in the study, regardless of
whether they had accessed MindfulU or not, in order to make
comparisons between these two groups.
Method
Participants
All current RDP students were eligible to participate. A
total of 148 students participated. The majority of the sample
were White, female, and between 18-24 years old. As an
incentive, participants were eligible for entry into a draw to
receive one of four wellness gift baskets.
Materials
Participants completed six measures of well-being which
have all been shown to be validated for use with post-secondary

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students. The measures included were The Brief Inventory of
Thriving (BIT; Su et al., 2014), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS;
Cohen et al., 1983), the Social Connectedness Scale-Revised
(SCS-R; Lee et al., 2001), the 6-Item Revised-UCLA Loneliness
Scale (RULS-6; Wongpakarn et al., 2020), the Mindful Attention
Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003), and the
Flourishing Scale (FS; Deiner et al., 2010). Participants were
also asked if they had accessed MindfulU, and how frequently
they had accessed it. Also included were questions about
experiences (or lack thereof) with MindfulU including the value
they perceived it to have and what they would like to see from
the program moving forward.
Procedure
Participants were recruited through posters placed
around campus with a QR code linking to the survey. This study
employed mild deception, as participants were not initially told
that the study related to MindfulU and were instead informed
that it was simply regarding student well-being. Participants
were presented with an informed consent form before beginning
the survey. Prior to completion of the survey, participants were
provided with a debrief form that informed them of the true
nature of the study. At this point, participants were offered the
opportunity to withdraw their consent if they chose to.

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Results
Access and Engagement
Only a small portion of the total sample had accessed
MindfulU before (n = 28). Most participants who had accessed
MindfulU reported only rarely (n = 12) or occasionally (n = 13)
accessing MindfulU (42.8% and 46.4% respectively). Of the
sample, only three students in total had reported accessing
MindfulU more regularly than that, with two students accessing
sometimes (7.1%) and one student accessing MindfulU very
often (3.6%).
Differences Between Groups
Independent samples T-tests were run to assess
differences between students who had and students who had not
accessed MindfulU. Of the six measures of well-being, two
scales showed significant differences between the groups.
Students who had accessed MindfulU tended to be significantly
lonelier (M = 12.04) than students who had not accessed
MindfulU (M = 13.99), t(146) = -1.91, p = 0.29. Additionally,
those who had accessed MindfulU tended to be flourishing
significantly less (M = 42.96) than those who had not accessed
MindfulU (M = 40.21), t(146) = -1.69, p = .047.

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Perceived Value of Attending
For those who had accessed MindfulU, participants were
asked about the value they perceived to have gained from using
the program. Responses tended to reflect that students felt as
though MindfulU was a safe space (e.g., “It felt like a place I
could be comfortable in”), that it provided them with a break
from stressors (e.g., “It is nice to have a space to step away from
stressors of class work”), and that they valued the connection
MindfulU provided them with (e.g., “I met a new friend at a
Puppy room”).
Students Who Had Not Accessed MindfulU
Students who had not accessed MindfulU most
commonly cited never having heard of the program as being
their reason for not accessing it (n = 57). Other reasons were
being too busy (n = 36), and the available times not aligning well
with their schedule (n = 29). Participants were also able to write
in their response for why they had not accessed. These responses
either related to a lack of clarity or understanding (e.g., “I’ve
never really understood what it was or if it pertained to me”),
that anxiety, shyness, or embarrassment acted as a barrier to
access (e.g., sometimes I become unmotivated and sometimes
embarrassed to talk to someone about my problems”), or that
they had not accessed MindfulU because they didn’t feel the

253

need to, either because they were not in need of support (e.g.,
“never felt like I needed to”) or because they had other ways of
coping (e.g., “I use other resources for my mental health”).
Additional Responses
At the end of the survey, participants were asked if there
was anything else they would like to add. Half of these responses
were expressions of concern for well-being (e.g., “I feel like
most students/people are struggling right now”). Many of the
remaining responses indicated that students appreciate that
services such as MindfulU are available on the RDP campus, and
these responses were present for both students who had and who
had not accessed MindfulU (e.g., I’ve never accessed these
services, but I feel grateful there is always the option”).
Discussion
The increasing mental health crisis and loneliness
epidemic for post-secondary students has necessitated additional
services for supporting student well-being (Baik et al., 2019;
Curtis et al., 2023; Linden et al., 2021; Moghimi et al., 2023).
MindfulU is a student-led program with the aim of enhancing
social connection and supporting student well-being on campus.
Though it appears that many students are only rarely using this
service, they still indicated that they perceive it to be an
extremely valuable and important service for RDP.
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Students Seeking Out Support
MindfulU’s intended purpose is to bolster student wellbeing and these results showed that students who had accessed
MindfulU were scoring lower on certain aspects of well-being
than their peers who had not accessed MindfulU. Although this
may seem concerning at face value, it is important to take these
students’ extent of access into consideration. With most
participants having only accessed MindfulU rarely or
occasionally, it follows that these few visits would not lead to
dramatic increases in well-being. Rather, this finding likely
reflects that students who were struggling were seeking out
support on campus, meaning that MindfulU was successfully
reaching its target demographic. This is supported by the
qualitative data that demonstrated students’ perceived MindfulU
to be valuable in supporting their well-being. Students suggested
that they felt that MindfulU provided them with a break from the
stressors of life, and that they felt as though this break was
integral to their mental health. Additionally, because there is no
pre-test data available, it is entirely possible that students who
were accessing MindfulU were struggling to a greater extent
prior to accessing this service.
Research has shown that students often feel that anxiety
and stigma surrounding mental health act as barriers to accessing
traditional counselling services (Curtis et al., 2023; Moghimi et
255

al., 2023). With MindfulU being a safe space for students to
study and relax in, it may be acting as a barrier free entrance
point for students to begin accessing mental health support. For
example, a student may come to MindfulU to partake in a quick,
fun activity. While there, they may meet one of the student
volunteers, and as they become more comfortable in the space,
they may become more willing to talk to a peer supporter about
something they are struggling with in a one-on-one peer support
session. From there, the peer supporter may be able to provide
them with the support they need or can refer them to the
counselling centre if they do require a higher level of care. In
this way, MindfulU can act as a starting point for a struggling
student who isn’t sure where to begin in their mental health
journey.
Future Directions for MindfulU
Participants were asked about what they would like to
see from MindfulU moving forward. While many of these
responses alluded to wanting more of what was already offered
(e.g., more workshops) some participants also made specific
suggestions for things that MindfulU could add. These provide
a basis for the MindfulU team to explore future elements that
may be beneficial additions.

256

As mentioned, there was a high number of students who
were simply unaware of the existence of MindfulU. This
suggests an increased need for advertisement of the program.
Most students who had attended MindfulU reported having
heard about it from their instructors, from social media, and from
posters hung around campus, and many had heard about it from
more than one source. This finding suggests that these are
appropriate means of advertising to students, but that additional
ways of reaching students may be required.
Limitations and Future Research
This study was limited in the fact that we were only able
to gather data from a specific point in time, rather than collecting
data of student well-being before and after they had visited
MindfulU. However, this design was necessary so as to not
impact the way that MindfulU was currently running. MindfulU
is available for students to drop in at various times throughout
the week, and so students will have varying levels of
engagement with the program. Since there is currently not an
existing feature of MindfulU in which students regularly come
in at a set time in the week, like a regularly occurring support
group, it was not possible to determine how MindfulU has
impacted student well-being across time.

257

Additionally, the small sample for those who had
accessed MindfulU, and the especially small sample for those
who had accessed MindfulU regularly, may have impacted these
findings. We expected to see a relationship between well-being
and the extent that students were accessing MindfulU. Because
there were only 3 students in the sample who were accessing
MindfulU more than rarely or occasionally, there was not
enough statistical power to determine if this relationship existed.
Impact
Through

this

study,

awareness

was

increased

surrounding MindfulU. In the survey, participants were
presented with a brief description of MindfulU and the services
that they offer. This was done to remind the participants of
MindfulU, as many students may have accessed its services and
did not recall it by name. This also acted to inform students who
were unaware of MindfulU. There were 57 students in this
sample who had reported never having heard of MindfulU.
Through simply having taken part in the survey, these 57
students became aware of this program, and therefore may have
found a new source of support on campus.
Finally, this study contributes to the further development
of this program. With MindfulU having been recently
implemented, it was important to understand how RDP students

258

perceive this service to ensure it is serving RDP students
appropriately. The qualitative data underscore the value students
have found in attending MindfulU. The qualitative data also
provided valuable insight into the direction that students desire
MindfulU to go in the future. In this way, this study has provided
RDP students with another way to contribute to the future
development of this program. Upholding student voices in the
creation of programs such as this is not only important because
it centers students as experts on their own experiences, but also
because it creates increased awareness for these programs (Baik
et al., 2019; Maunder et al., 2013).
Conclusion
Mental health issues and loneliness have been increasing
on post-secondary campuses, and additional sources of support
have become necessary as a result. MindfulU has recently been
implemented to support RDP students and enhance connection
between peers. With MindfulU only recently having been
implemented, student engagement and awareness so far is low.
Despite this, it is evident that students who are struggling have
turned towards MindfulU as a source of support, and that
students who have utilized this service have found value in doing
so. Now informed by student perspectives, MindfulU will

259

continue to evolve in a way that can continue to benefit RDP
students.

260

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