The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1 - 208

According to the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS,
2012), residence life staff have a responsibility to provide appropriate counseling support
within the scope of their training and expertise
and to develop relationships with students that
demonstrate a genuine interest in their academic and personal pursuits. To accomplish
this, it is imperative that residence life staff
be cognizant of relevant theoretical concepts
related to the enhancement of coping skills as
well as how to apply those concepts in an effective manner. Through various professional
development avenues, residence life staff must
be provided with opportunities to learn how to
assist students in mitigating the counterproductive inﬂuences of psychological distress
and anxiety.

THE IMPACT OF RELIGION AND
SPIRITUALITY AMONG COLLEGE
AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
As Johnson (2006) noted, one of the responsibilities of professionals within higher education is to "seek new understandings of how the
student searches for meaning" (p. 1). Indeed,
many student affairs educators already view
this as a major goal in their work with students.
In light of this, residence life staff should be
provided with opportunities to gain the awareness, knowledge, and skills to effectively and
comfortably incorporate concepts like religion,
spirituality, and mindfulness into their interpersonal interactions with students if the need
arises. As concluded in the research by Lovell
and Kosten (2000), well-developed human
facilitation skills (e.g., counseling skills) are
recognized as important for successful student
affairs practice.

208

During college, students develop as unique
individuals and seek autonomy as they interact
with their surrounding environment (Blimling, 2010). Experiencing anxiety and depression as a part of this individuation process is
not uncommon for college students, and religion and spirituality can help to counter these
stressors: "An attitude of faith has an important inﬂuence on student welfare and success
in college because it provides critical psychological and spiritual ballast that is needed to
respond to the intellectual and emotional upheavals that college life usually brings" (Dalton
& Crosby, 2010, p. 1). Student development
theory posits that concepts such as faith, spirituality, religion, and meaning of life are important issues for college students, especially as
they go through individuation (Fowler, 1981;
Fukuyama & Sevig, 1999).
Spirituality can moderate the relationship
between negative life experiences and levels of
depression and anxiety, can serve as a buffer
against the undesirable effects of stressful life
events, and has an important relationship to
psychological adjustment (Young, Cashwell,
& Shcherbakova, 2000). College students have
reported experiencing more life satisfaction
with regard to a self-reported level of spirituality, indicating that they are integrating a spiritual component into the emotional dimension
of health (Nelms, Hutchins, Hutchins, &
Pursley, 2007). A study of the impact of religious coping associated with stress among
college students revealed that, among the
positive outcomes associated with stress, religiosity had the greatest effect on promoting
feelings of conﬁdence in one's ability to handle
personal problems (Merrill, Read, & LeCheminant, 2009). For these reasons, understanding

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1
