Is the Fall Break Helping Students Feel Less Stressed?
Aisha Mohamed
Mental health is a serious issue in universities across Canada. For many students, the transition to university along with the pressure of balancing academics, extracurricular activities and personal matters can sometimes feel overwhelming.
To improve student mental health, McMaster University introduced the full week fall break during the 2015–2016 academic year. The break occurs during the second week of October and coincides with the Thanksgiving long weekend. It was introduced with the goal of providing students with a “meaningful reprieve during a strategic moment in the course of their studies to improve academic performance and mental health and well-being”, as noted by Susan Searls Giroux, associate vice-president (faculty), in a report to the Senate.
Although the fall break had been introduced to reduce stress levels, there was no evidence to support its effects on student wellbeing. To deal with this, researchers from the Paul R. MacPherson Institute for Leadership, Innovation and Excellence in Teaching set out to investigate the effects of the fall break on student stress levels. The research team, lead by principal investigator Dr. Heather Poole and co-investigators Dr. Michael Agnew and Dr. Ayesha Khan, aimed to understand the number of stressors that students experience as well as how students were perceiving stress.
Two standardized and validated measures of stress were used to analyze stress in undergraduate students. The undergraduate stress questionnaire was used to measure the number of stressors. The questionnaire is specific to undergraduates and measures factors such as stress due to assignments and conflicts with roommates. The Perceived Stress Survey was used to measure students perceived levels of stress. Surveys were sent to undergraduate students at McMaster University as well as the University of Waterloo and the University of Ottawa and completed before and after the fall break.
These three institutions have all implemented the fall break in different ways — UWaterloo provides students with a two day break after the Thanksgiving weekend and UOttawa has their fall break at the end of October — making it interesting for researchers to observe differences in student stress levels and the timing of the break. In addition to this, researchers are conducting focus groups that aim to get a deeper understanding of student perspectives regarding the fall break. Qualitative data from the study is being supplemented with quantitative salivary cortisol measures obtained from students in the study.
The main conclusion of the fall break study is that it decreases the total number of stressors that students experience, however, it does not change perceived levels of stress. This has been consistently reported amongst participants in the study. These findings indicate that while the fall break has been developed to help students manage stress, it is not helping students feel less stressed. The data also shows that prior to the break, student stressors were related to a combination of academics and personal factors, however, after the break student stressors were almost solely related academics. This suggests that academic stressors have a stronger impact on perceived stress, because while the total number of stressors after the break decreased, levels of perceived stress remained the same.
Despite conflicting results, the fall break is well received by students. Many students find the break helpful, as it gives them a chance to relax, spend time with family, and catch up on readings and assignments. However, students have raised some concerns regarding the fall break. One of which is the timing of the fall break, with many students noting that it is far too early in the term. Some students feel that by the time Welcome Week ends and they’ve gotten into the swing of waking up early and juggling classes, meetings and extracurricular activities, the fall break disrupts their routine.
While students have raised valid points, it is unlikely to see the timing of the fall break change anytime soon. McMaster has conveniently scheduled its fall break during the Thanksgiving week to prevent the loss of one additional instructional day. Conversely, the University of Ottawa has its fall break scheduled at the end of October, providing students with more of a mid-term break. Moving forward, further research needs to examine how the structure of the fall break impacts student stress levels. Regardless of the modifications made to the fall break, it is clear that the fall break cannot be the sole method of helping students reduce stress levels. A combination of academic and peer support is needed to ensure that student health and wellbeing remains a top priority at McMaster.
Danny Ma contributed to this article.
References
McMaster approves full week fall break. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/article/mcmaster-approves-full-week-fall-break/
Poole, H., Khan, A., & Agnew, M. (2017). One Week, Many Ripples: Measuring the Impacts of the Fall Reading Week on Student Stress. Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching, 10, 163–172.
