Bringing Theory to Practice

Research

Bridging Civic Engagement and Mental Health (pdf)
In 2008, Dr. Penny A. Pasque, University of Oklahoma, compiled this monograph from the proceedings from the National Symposium for Civic Engagement and Mental Health, held March 16-17, 2008 at the University of Michigan.

Bringing Theory to Practice Advisory Board members Jonathan Metzl (University of Michigan) and Rebecca Herzig (Bates College) are published in the medical journal The Lancet, reviewing medicalisation in the 21st century.
In 2005, Metzl and Herzig convened a small gathering of scholars from such fields as sociology, history, philosophy, and anthropology to debate the issues of medicalisation. The goal was to bring the tools of disciplines outside medicine to bear on questions about the process by which the medical expands to incorporate common events and to circumscribe experience. The group explored the relationships between the pharmaceutical industry, culture, politics, and medicine; who is responsible for medicalisation; what medicalisation has to do with power, status, expertise, and professionalism; how race, class, and gender affect the process of medicalisation; and whether medicalisation is a problem, and if so, who should solve it. Has technology become the dominant driver of clinical practice? Are patients now nothing more than consumers, and doctors only providers of services? Does the expansion of medicine always contribute to health? Has medicine overstepped its boundaries? Can it be restrained?

The results of the discussion culminated in a series of essays published in a special section of the February 24, 2007 issue of the Lancet. Here readers will find topics including HIV/AIDS, race, sexual dysfunction, heart disease, and the pros and cons of drug advertising. But these issues are explored in ways that may be novel and surprising, as they range widely beyond clinical practice. This is medicine examined through many lenses. Readers will find the arguments here enlightening, troubling, and doubtless a basis for ongoing debate. http://www.thelancet.com/
Links to PDFs of the articles are included here as a resource for those without access to The Lancet:
Lancet-Introduction
Medicalization--Tomes
Medicalization--Rose
Medicalization--Duster
Medicalization--Metzl
Medicalization--Patton

The Project supports research that characterizes what is available and known regarding the specific nature of "engaged learning" in higher education, and how such learning may be related to student mental health and civic development.

In 2003, the Project supported a literature review by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA). That report, Depression, Substance Abuse and College Student Engagement: A Review of the Literature, is available online in pdf format.

With continuing support, the Project also supported a national survey of student attitudes by CASA in 2005. That report, Substance Abuse, Mental Health and Engaged Learning: Summary of Findings from CASA's Focus Groups and National Survey, is available online in pdf format.

April 2005, BTtoP also supported a major research study completed by Dr. Lynn Swaner, that examines both the theoretical levels and the available empirical research regarding the linkages among forms of engaged learning, forms of depression and substance abuse, and the civic development of students. That review, “ Linking Engaged Learning, Student Mental Health and Well-being, and Civic Development: A Review of the Literature" is available online in pdf format.

Additional Research of Interest:

“Key Findings from Focus Groups Among College Students and College-Bound High School Students” (AAC&U and Peter D. Hart Research, 2004) http://www.aacu.org/leap/public_opinion_research.cfm

Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More, by Derek Bok (Princeton UP, 2005)

National Survey of Student Engagement: see their most recent final report for information about the frequency with which students report having “high impact” learning experiences NSSE_2007_Annual_Report.

Faculty Survey of Student Engagement FSSE2007.

"Should College Focus More on Personal and Social Responsibility?" – findings from campus climate surveys administered as part of Core Commitments: Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility (for more information on the Core Commitments Initiative: http://www.aacu.org/core_commitments/Assessment.cfm )

High Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access To them, and Why They Matter (forthcoming, 2008, AAC&U)