Abstract
The key to addressing college student stress is to understand faculty stress and its link to student stress. The authors aim to draw links between the student and faculty stress culture, from the perspective of clinical psychological science, and with the express purpose of outlining solutions. They discuss (1) epidemiology of student and faculty stress, (2) clinical definition of stress, (3) sources of student stress and student stress culture, (4) sources of faculty stress and faculty stress culture, (5) links between faculty and student stress, (6) maladaptive ways that both faculty and students cope with stress, (7) solutions, inspired from talk therapies, (8) practical tips, and (9) conclusions and future outlook. They also aim to have some fun with this chapter and buck a few traditions—for a strong reason that will become apparent by the finish. This chapter is written for students, faculty, university support staff, and administrators.
Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the Galaxy, and it is in order that this situation should not be in any way exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed in advance.
The planet in question is in fact the legendary Magrathea. The deadly missile attack shortly to be launched by an ancient automatic defense system will result merely in the breakage of three coffee cups and a mouse cage, the bruising of somebody’s upper arm, and the untimely creation and sudden demise of a bowl of petunias and an innocent sperm whale.
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005, p. 82, originally published 1979)
Is it too ironic to point out the stress I feel as I start this chapter? The academic year is starting, and it is first-year student move-in day. The front gate is lined with upper-class students who are cheering on first-years as they enter our university. Meanwhile, even though I have spent the summer obtaining books for the students (no small task with demand shortages in the post-COVID-19-pandemic era), reading them, designing assignments, and consulting with colleagues, I have not quite finished writing the syllabus for a specialty class that I have never taught before. The first lecture will be in two days. Just two weeks into the term, I will attend my dear graduate advisor’s once-in-a-lifetime retirement celebration, which is 1,500 miles away and in a hard-to-reach location.
This is complicated by the fact that I serve as my department’s chair. Anything can happen when the chair is away, and this could be doubly so, given that my entire department has been displaced because of our building’s renovation. With pandemic-era construction delays mounting, the sense of stress doubly mounts as we attempt to figure out how to continue offering lab courses without any of our own laboratories. The upcoming deadline for this chapter is one of several academic deadlines I will juggle as I work to stay relevant as a faculty person in higher education who contributes to scholarly society.
Indeed, tenure is no longer a guarantee of a job for life, as U.S. universities continue closing due to economic pressures and decreasing enrollments (Castillo & Welding, 2023). The decreasing enrollments are only one sign of students’ growing skepticism about the academy (Kaufman, 2023). An “off” day in the classroom—perhaps a well-meaning and sincere extemporization that nevertheless sounds offensive to more than one pair of ears—can have any number of serious consequences for a professor these days.
These are just some of the stressors that I personally face. My colleagues face many more. Student loan debt, other debts, and family issues are common among faculty (Hershcopf, et al., 2021). Adjunct and Visiting professors are constantly applying to jobs, whilst sometimes living without many of the resources that other faculty take for granted. It is not unknown in the U.S. for adjuncts to be expected to carry on without health insurance or a place to live.
Although faculty stress has always been a small stand-alone topic of conversation (Gmelch, 1993), the current type of faculty stress described above formulates part of the cultural context under which undergraduates experience their own stress. That is, from the descriptions above, one can see hints of the same “work hard play hard” (Martinez, 2020a) and “fear of missing out” or FoMO (Scalzo & Martinez, 2017) themes that surround the student stress culture. Though it is difficult to measure the direct link between faculty stress and student stress and outcomes, preliminary work establishes such a connection (Martinez, 2020b; Ramberg et al., 2020). Arguably, the “work hard play hard” and FoMO aspects of the college student stress culture are direct descendants of the faculty stress culture (Xu & Wang, 2023).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Stress: As a clinical term, stress refers to external pressures, threats, or stimuli, such as debts, deadlines, or physical assault from another person.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): An empirically-validated talk therapy treatment that focuses on remedying cognitive inflexibility, which is considered to be the basis of suffering. Many of the tools of ACT can be used by non-experts.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): An empirically-validated talk therapy treatment that focuses on a person’s cognitions (thoughts) and behaviors, and how they affect their wellbeing. Many of the tools of CBT can be used by non-experts.
Imposter syndrome: A feeling that one is phony or an imposter and/or does not belong in their current professional position (e.g., as a student or faculty person at a university).
Cognitive Inflexibility: An important component of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In ACT, cognitive inflexibility is thought to be the basis of suffering and is a state of closedness (i.e., avoidance), mindlessness, and disconnectedness.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): A worry that one is missing or is not involved in important social and/or professional events and experiences.
Catastrophizing: This is a maladaptive cognition, or thought, that is a focus of treatment in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). When a person has catastrophizing thoughts, they imagine the worst, most catastrophic, and usually unrealistic, outcomes of future events.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT): An empirically-validated talk therapy treatment that focuses on identifying problems and finding commonsense solutions. SFBT is one of the first therapies that counseling students learn, and it may be employed by non-experts.