Award Brings USU Researchers Closer to Student Success
Michael Levin received the Alan E. Hall Award during USU's Research Gala. Executive Vice President and Provost Noelle Cockett presented the award.
Michael Levin wants to bring better mental health to students all over Utah and beyond. And earlier this month, the Utah System of Higher Education helped him move forward by giving him the Alan E. Hall Award.
The $10,000 award supports researchers who take an inventive approach to improving student success. It is granted every other year to one researcher or research team from each of the USHE institutions.
Levin’s research focuses on issues that threaten student success: test anxiety, depression, feeling overwhelmed and other psychological struggles. His research team developed a website designed to deliver mental health support to students.
“It’s not just about treatment,” he said. “It’s about success and giving them skills we know are helpful.”
The program is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which has been tested by other researchers in more than 100 clinical trials. It has consistently been found to improve psychological problems that affect school performance.
The program encourages students to recognize the stress they are under without getting stuck in it.
“It’s about not pushing that fear and anxiety away,” Levin said. “It’s just bringing it along for the ride.”
The program also teaches students to show themselves some compassion, rather than mentally beating themselves up for negative feelings.
The web-based program is designed to help students meet their goals, wherever they fall on the mental health spectrum. It can also provide support to students who have limited access to mental health services or do not want to seek face-to-face counseling.
A pilot test, conducted on 31 students over the 2014-15 school year, offered encouraging preliminary results. Now, thanks to the Hall Award, the researchers will refine the website and expand the trials to 200 students on USU campuses throughout the state in fall 2015. The data collected will help the researchers determine how much the program helps improve psychological symptoms, and to what extent it can be used throughout the Utah System of Higher Education.
The research team includes Levin and Jack Haeger, a graduate student in the combined Clinical/Counseling/School Psychology doctoral program. Levin received the award Monday, April 6, during the Research Gala at Utah State University, as part of Research Week.
Related links:
USU Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services
Contact: Michael Levin, 435-797-3274
Writer: JoLynne Lyon, 435-797-1463
Michael Levin is a faculty member in USU's Psychology Department in the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services.
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