Grief and Bereavement Among College Students

Background and Purpose:

Approximately 22-30% of college undergraduates may have experienced the loss of a loved one within the previous 12-month period, and 47% are in the first 24 months of the grieving process. Grieving from the death of a friend or family member often precipitates a crisis that catalyzes examination of priorities and commitments. In studies, grieving students report difficulty concentrating, studying, and completing assignments and often grades suffer. This crisis can lead to decreased educational performance, academic probation, academic dismissal, or voluntary withdrawal. This paper evaluates the relationships between holistic grief and bereavement on academic engagement in a group of undergraduate students enrolled at a university. Implied recommendations for changes to university policies and practices are presented with the overarching goal of improving the university's response to grieving students.

Methods:

A non-random, cross-sectional, online survey design was used in this study. The current population of undergraduate students at a southwestern, medium sized, Christian university was invited to participate via an email solicitation. Survey items consisted of 32 items on the Holistic Grief Scale (HGS). This scale measured emotional, cognitive, physical, social, and spiritual/religious components of grief. Participants indicated their experience of, and severity of, each item by rating the item on a 10-point scale, where 1 means they have not experienced the symptom and 10 means they have experienced the symptom to a severe degree. Additional questions pertaining to academic engagement and university responsiveness were measured. Data were analyzed using logistic regression with grief subscale scores serving as predictor variables and the various questions pertaining to academic engagement and faculty responsiveness serving as outcomes.

Results:

A total of 3,366 invitations email were sent and 562 (16.7%) responses were received. A total of 272 respondents indicated they had experienced the loss of a loved one while enrolled at the university. Strong relationships existed between grief scores and academic engagement variables (i.e., declining academic performance, contemplating university withdrawal, missing classes, decrease in GPA). An odds ratio of 1.59 indicated that, for every unit increase on the HGS, the odds of a student reporting a decline in academic performance increased 1.59 times. The cognitive components subscale had the largest effect on declining academic performance with an odds ratio of 1.69. Results indicated that grief was associated missing classes and that the emotional components subscale had the largest impact (OR = 1.84). Total grief predicted a decline in GPA (OR = 2.10) with the cognitive components subscale having the largest effect on GPA (OR = 2.02).

Conclusions and Implications:

Implications include increasing efforts to identify, and offer various forms of support to, students experiencing grief-related academic issues. Offering such support could significantly affect student retention; ultimately saving money for the university. Peer-led grief and bereavement support groups are suggested as one low-cost option. At a broader level, a change in university culture could increase the permissibility of discussing topics such as death and bereavement and their relationship to academic performance and engagement. Further research is needed to identify effective intervention strategies.