Investigating predictive relationships between speech-language pathology graduate students' sense of classroom community, perceived learning, and perceived anxiety.

Abstract

Mental health is an all-encompassing term that focuses on a person's ability to achieve work-life balance inclusive of positive mental health and mental ill-health. Current trends suggest an overall increase in mental ill-health for undergraduate and graduate students. McMillan and Chavis' sense of community theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. This study aimed to examine whether speechlanguage pathology graduate students' sense of classroom community and perceived learning predict anxiety levels while controlling for demographic variables. Threehundred-sixteen master's level speech-language pathology students completed an online survey containing the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire, Perceived Learning Scale, and Classroom Community Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze predictive relationships between the criterion and predictor variables. In the final vi model, social community and learning community (i.e., classroom connectedness), as well as affective aspects of perceived learning, each made a statistically significant individual contribution to the model. In sum, the final model explained approximately 15.5% of the variance among participants. vii