The Well-being of Honors College Students Compared to Non-Honors College Students Accounting for Prior Gifted Experience

Authors

Hannah C. Dewald, Northern Kentucky UniversityFollow
Allyson S. Graf, Northern Kentucky UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

Fall 2024

Document Type

Article

Citation

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (Fall/Winter 2024) 25(2): 97-126

Special issue: Form on student mental health

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Copyright 2024, National Collegiate Honors Council. Used by permission

Abstract

Student wellness is a growing concern among educators. Previous studies on the well-being of honors students as compared to other undergraduates result in mixed findings. This study examines the trajectory of gifted programming in education and specific challenges to the collegiate experience, presenting differences between honors students (N = 49) and non-honors peers (N = 138) using two well-being indicators (academic anxiety and academic self-efficacy) and three related factors (perceived past school competitiveness, maladaptive perfectionism, and pressure due to labeling). While authors posit that honors students may have higher academic anxiety and lower self-efficacy than those not enrolled in honors, the data suggest otherwise. Results indicate that students do not differ in these areas; however, authors observe significant implications of a K–12 gifted experience, such that well-being for honors college students with this experience gauge higher than college students without. The significant effects of K–12 gifted experience include perceived competitiveness and pressure due to labeling. These findings add to the complexity of comparative research relating to honors and non-honors students. Authors suggest that the implication for honors colleges is to account for past experience in gifted programming when considering the current mental health of their students. A statistical summary is appended.