Understanding how college students characterise and cope with chronic pain: a thematic analysis of expressive writing samples.

College students who experience chronic pain are a frequently overlooked population. This research attempts to provide insight into the language that college students use to describe their experiences with chronic pain, challenges they face and coping strategies they use. Over the course of 4 consecutive days, participants responded to an expressive writing prompt asking them to reflect on their emotions and thoughts related to being a college student with chronic pain. Writing samples were then analysed to identify themes pertaining to words with a positive or negative emotional valence, terms used to characterise pain, metaphors used to describe pain, challenges faced, and positive and negative coping strategies used. Results showed that participants were more likely to use negatively valenced words than positively valenced words to describe their pain. Several common words and phrases were used to characterise pain, including metaphors. Finally, participants reported a number of challenges associated with their lived-experience of chronic pain, as well as positive and negative strategies used to cope with those challenges. These findings help to put into perspective the language used to understand, and attempt to cope with, the challenges faced by college students experiencing chronic pain. Research must continue to investigate the needs of this population so that they can be properly supported physically, emotionally, socially and academically.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on college students with marginalized identities.

This study sought to examine whether college students with marginalized identities have been disparately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with regard to perceived stress, social isolation, and pandemic-related concern, and whether this relationship was moderated by self-reported experiences of prejudice and/or discrimination. Nine hundred eighty three college students from 38 of the United States completed an online survey. Results showed that college students who were born after 1997 (i.e., Generation Z), sexual and gender minorities (SGM), and/or black, indigenous and/or people of color (BIPoC) reported more experiences of prejudice and discrimination than their peers as well as higher levels of perceived stress, social isolation, and pandemic-related concern. Furthermore, BIPoC students who also experienced prejudice and/or discrimination reported higher levels of pandemic-related concern than White students. Implications of these findings are discussed, including the need to support college students with marginalized identities as they cope with the short-term and long-term psychosocial impact of the pandemic.

Young adults' stigmatizing perceptions about individuals with skin cancer: the influence of potential cancer cause, cancer metaphors, and gender.

Objective: This study examined the influence of three potential predictors of stigmatising cancer perceptions: the controllability of the cancer cause, metaphors used to describe the cancer experience, and the target's gender.Method: 306 undergraduates (Mage = 20) were recruited via subject pool, balancing males and females. Participants read a fictitious post by a patient/blogger with skin cancer that described different potential causes for their cancer varying with respect to its controllability, used varying types of commonly invoked cancer metaphors, and indicated their gender with names.Main outcome measures: Potential stigmatisation of the blogger in the form of negative affective responses, perceptions of flawed character, desired social distance and expectations for post-traumatic growth were assessed using mixed methods. The perceived age of the blogger and expectations for their survival were also explored.Results: More blame, less sympathy, and less favourable perceptions of character were ascribed to the hypothetical blogger when their cancer was described as due to their lifestyle rather than genetics and thus potentially construed as more controllable. Females using a war metaphor resulted in more positive responses compared to a female using no metaphorical language.Conclusion: Stigmatisation of individuals with skin cancer may depend on the potential cause of cancer, and to some extent, metaphors and gender.