College education plays a crucial role in upward social mobility. However, despite applying to and being accepted by colleges, students often fail to matriculate -- a phenomenon known as "summer melt". The summer after high school graduation is a vulnerable period for these students due to limited counseling support from both high…

Providing effective support for mental health challenges is one of the most pressing issues on post-secondary campuses today. Throughout Ontario, colleges and universities have made mental wellness a priority. But this has created escalating pressures on institutions whose core mandate is to provide higher education and training. It is time for…

The impact of peer-leadership programs on undergraduate students has been studied since the inception of higher education. Programs such as peer-mentoring, peer-counseling, and peer-advising are regularly used within the college environment as there are proven benefits to both student leaders and mentees. However, there is limited content on…

Peer mentoring is one of the most important guidance practices for first-year students entering higher education and academic life. We are interested in mentors' roles and apply the ideas of group counseling in order to increase the understanding of peer mentoring. Other aspects of guidance--content, methods, and collaboration--are approached on…

Models that meet the Psychology Board of Australia's definition of peer consultation include dyadic, triadic, and group formats. Components of these models (e.g., goals, theoretical basis, role of leader, members' roles, structure, and steps in procedure, stages in group development) are presented, and evidence of their effectiveness is reviewed.…

The purpose of the present study is to assess human sexuality peer helper use among college student health centers nationwide. Results from 358 institutions indicate that 53.9% of centers use peers for educational programming, prevention efforts, and/or counseling initiatives. When adjusting for institutions that sponsor a program (n = 193), the M…

A survey was sent to 33 managers at units and centres involved in Higher Education student-to-student support services in the form of peer help programmes. The survey focused on managers' perspectives on peer help programme demographics, management, planning and resourcing, on intra-institutional and other linkages, as well as on institutional…

The emergence of undergraduate students serving in peer leader or peer educator roles is relatively recent in the history of higher education. Peer leadership positions were first recorded in 1959 in the field of student services, specifically working with students entering college and living in residence halls. Beginning with the Hazen Report of…

This paper outlines an exploratory study conducted within the Sport & Exercise Sciences department at a higher education institution in Wales. Prior to the study it was identified that personal tutors were spending an increasing amount of time dealing with pastoral issues. This research sought to investigate the implementation of the Student…

As part of a larger multimethod evaluation, the present study examined the effects of a uniquely intensive rape education program. Participants included 74 undergraduates (53 women and 21 men) enrolled in Campus Acquaintance Rape Education (CARE), a semester-long university course designed to train peer facilitators to conduct rape education…

Examined the relationship between the attributions and action plans formulated by untrained students role playing peer counselors for same-sex or opposite-sex students who failed. Results revealed significantly higher attributions to internal factors for all stimulus persons, and higher attributions to controllable as opposed to uncontrollable…

Peer advisor (PA) programs in study abroad offices have greatly increased in the past few years. Nevertheless, although many agree that PAs have many useful advantages, a clear definition of the PA within the study abroad context remains unavailable. Hence, the purpose of this pilot study is to find out how the PA is perceived by study abroad…

Describes a peer counseling program that was designed to help college students make good career decisions. Two viewpoints are presented--the administrator's and the peer counselor's. (HMV)

College students (N=144) completed the Affective Sensitivity Scale and conducted peer-counseling interviews with student volunteers. The volunteers responded to the Empathy Scale of the Barrett-Lennard (1964) Relationship Inventory, while interviewers predicted their interviewees' responses. Found a positive correlation between predictive accuracy…

Evaluated the instrumental or empathic responses given by peer counselors (Study 1, N=128) or friends (Study 2, N=48) to undergraduates' personal problems. Instrumental responses were considered more helpful. Students rated peer counselors more likely to give instrumental responses and friends more likely to give empathic responses. (JAC)