Christian colleges strive to nurture the religious faith of students. Our study examines the relationship of curricular and co-curricular activities on two dimensions of faith maturity--vertical and horizontal. Analysis of survey data from seniors at one Christian university showed that the factors of discussing religion with peers and spending…

This study seeks to understand how faith community involvement, specifically faith community harmony (sense of belonging and lack of conflict within one's faith community), and faith community interaction (participation in one's faith community) relates to life purpose, loneliness, and well-being among college students. Participants (n = 1253)…

Researchers recognize faith and spirituality as potential influences on goal attainment. However, the resources of faith, spirituality, and faith development have lost presence in higher education in favor of other student support initiatives, and students may have an unclear understanding of their personal 'faith and or spirituality' throughout…

Community engagement through service-learning has been a mainstay of higher education for the past 20 years and has increasingly proven successful in grounding academic knowledge in community experience. This article explores how service-learning programs designed to shape students' sense of responsibility for the common good can also foster their…

Smartphones, while useful, can also function as a source of distraction from daily life and may reduce life satisfaction by inhibiting concentration and interrupting attention to ongoing tasks, thoughts, and social interactions. Objectives: The current study tested whether interruptions in flow mediate associations between problematic smartphone…

In this study, we investigated Benson, Donahue, and Erikson's (1993) concept of faith maturity as expressed by institutions of higher education (IHE) claiming religious affiliation. We examined the institutional mission statements of 87 schools affiliated with six Protestant denominations in search of evidence of their intention to develop the…

Students' sense of community is at the heart of their college success and can be impacted by many factors, including staff, programming, and hall design, as well as demographic variables such as age, ethnicity, and gender. The purpose of this study is to investigate how gender and student housing type at a faith-based institution influence sense…

There is growing evidence that college freshmen's impression of their subjective health and well-being or health-related quality of life, is falling. As critical period for newly launched young adults, subjective impressions of one's health can determine academic and psychosocial outcomes for better or worse. This explorative longitudinal study…

This two-part investigation extended research demonstrating the civic impact of college students' spiritual commitments. The initial study served as a large-scale assessment (n = 768) of political involvement using a new Inventory of Political Activity. The smaller-scale, follow-up study (n = 129) used two validated measures of spiritual…

Evidence on the association of religiosity and academic attainment is consistent, thus suggesting additional factors intervene in this relationship. We proposed and tested a model with two concepts from the field of positive psychology: psychological capital and psychological resilience. We hypothesised that these mediate the association between…

Each year, a significant number of students from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius seek higher education opportunities abroad. Yet, limited research exists on these students' expectations, preferences, and experiences in their academic and non-academic university settings overseas. This quantitative study investigates the experiences of…

The current study compared perceptions by college students (n = 304; M age=19.75 years old) enrolled at an urban and diverse Roman Catholic university on self-report measures of faith/belief structures, social justice, and community service attitudes. Survey results indicated that both horizontal and vertical faith maturity perceptions…

Incidents of religious intolerance and discrimination have become too familiar in American society, and today's college campuses are not immune to these incidents. Previous research has shown the negative influence of perceived hostile campus cultures on students' overall learning and development. This study investigated bachelor's degree-seeking…

What happens when students go to college? An important outcome of college attendance is student cognitive development. Part of that developmental process is learning how to address contrasting values, beliefs, knowledge structures, and worldviews critically. This study addressed the relationship between cognitive and Christian-faith development in…

Are faculty trained at Christian institutions better equipped to integrate their faith with their professional work? This study uses a mixed methods analysis of Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) faculty survey data to analyze whether and in what ways faculty who graduate from Christian undergraduate, master's, and doctoral…