The ongoing Kent State Student Life Study consistently collects new data on student wellness in hopes of providing it to university groups and informing administration decision making in the future.

Co-directed by two professors of the Department of Psychological Services, Karin Coifman, a clinical psychologist, and John Gunstad, a neuropsychologist, the study is the first of its kind. So far, about 2,000 undergraduate students have been recruited since the study’s start in the fall of 2023, with a goal of 10,000.

“Nothing like this has actually ever been done before,” said Coifman, who is also the department chair. “And I’m not even talking about only at Kent State, but actually there’s no project like this anywhere in the world. It’s the largest-scale longitudinal investigation of college students that has ever happened.”

The study follows undergraduate student participants from the time they join into their lives post-graduation. The goal of the project is to determine how their experiences at Kent State influence their health and functioning across their lifespan, Coifman said.

“We kind of took our mind expertise in understanding psychological phenomenon and understanding reactions to stress and understanding developmental pathways for students — we put all of that together and built this project,” Coifman said.

Data collected from the study will lead to brand new insights on what it’s like to be a modern-day college student and what can be done to make day-to-day life easier, Gunstad said.

“Our hope is to be able to share [data] with anyone who’s interested,” he said.

Data collection

To collect data, those who opt into the study have optional opportunities available to them throughout the year, including taking surveys or going to the study’s data collection center in the Design and Innovation Hub to do computer or health sessions, Gunstad said. They can opt out at any time.

He said the study also offers the option of wearing a wristband for a week that records physical activity, sleep and exposure to light.

“It really provides a good second-by-second understanding of what’s going on for that person in their environment,” Gunstad said. “Our hope is, within this combination, to be able to put all these pieces together and generate something new that can help college students live a happier and healthier life.”

The whole project is run by a large study team including 45 undergraduate and graduate student research assistants, Coifman said.

Parastoo Aramesh, a senior fashion design major and psychology minor, got involved in the data collection of the study in the spring of 2024. She said she has gained valuable experience in the research world since she joined.

“It is such a big project, and there’s so many different parts of it coming together, and it’s very new as well,” Aramesh said. “So there’s a lot of things always developing, and there’s things changing all the time. I really get to see how every little part comes together.”

Currently, she handles recruiting for the study, including tabling at different events and talking to prospective students about the opportunity. She said it’s been a great experience to prepare her for possibly attending graduate school and seeing all the offshoots of research that come from the study.

Where data goes

Coifman said there are a variety of faculty and partners at the university who are interested in the data the SLS is collecting.

“These are different programmatic groups who are focused on helping students in different ways,” she said. “We’ve been able to create really nice back-and-forth communications so that when they have a question, we can jump into our data and see what kinds of answers we can provide.”

Coifman said some of these groups include Kent State of Well-being, Recreation and Wellness Services and the DeWeese Health Center. Gunstad said he hopes the information can be of use to university administration as well.

“I think there’s very much the opportunity for us to then provide information on current Kent State students to Kent State Administration [and] to then be able to use that information to guide policies or to be able to make decisions for the university … or be able to maybe make modifications around campus that make student life a little bit better on a day-to-day basis,” Gunstad said.

What data is showing and how to join

Data collected so far has offered participants a glimpse into their good and bad habits, Gunstad said.

Coifman said the study’s research has found that students who aren’t getting much sleep are at greater risk of engaging in different kinds of risky activities, particularly substance use, which is a relationship people typically put together.

She also said the research has started to identify the patterns that make students feel more lonely and rely on technology in unhealthy ways.

Currently, the study is about to kick off a stress-reduction activity in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services called “The Daily Coping Toolkit.” Coifman said it’s a five-minute per day commitment for 10 days with a compensation of $25.

Students can sign up for the study through a form linked on its website.

“What I would say to most students is that this is a really unique opportunity to share what is going well for them and what is more challenging in a way that is flexible and will have a lot of meaning,” Coifman said. “It actually will directly inform the experiences of our students here on campus very, very quickly, in super meaningful ways.”

Lauren Cohen is a general assignment editor. Contact her at [email protected].