What is the U-Flourish Research Project?

The U-Flourish Project is a longitudinal study that will be examining the well-being and academic success of students over the course of their university studies. Since this research launched in September 2018 with a baseline electronic survey sent to all first year incoming undergraduates, thousands of Queen’s students have joined the conversation and “had their say” by completing electronic surveys every Fall and Winter semester. We expanded the survey, inviting all undergraduate students to share how they were managing in the wake of COVID-19 in July 2020. We are now further expanding the UFlourish Project to include all interested undergraduate and graduate students across programs and years of study. Our goal, together with students, is to understand better what is needed to guide the development and enhancement of services and initiatives that will ensure a successful transition to university life and strong mental health throughout university. This study is also being done in collaboration with the University of Oxford so that we can compare between universities and countries. 

 

All students who have completed a UFlourish study in the past are eligible to participate in future studies. This includes any student who completed the July 2020 COVID-19 Student survey. If you have not yet joined the UFlourish survey study, please look out for an invitation coming to you this fall in your Queen’s student email, as all undergraduate and graduate students will be invited. Thank you to those who have completed our surveys thus far! Stay tuned for more information about upcoming surveys, findings, and ways to let us know what you need to succeed.

You should participate in U-Flourish because it will be the first study of its kind to examine fully what determines whether a student will be successful at university, right here at Queen's. The purpose of this study is to gather information that can be used across the Queen’s departments in order to implement positive changes to the overall student experience. You will have the opportunity to tell us about what you need to succeed as a student during the regular school year and even help us understand how COVID-19 has, and may continue to, impact students at Queen’s.

View our recent publications at:

British Journal of Psychiatry Open (2018-2019 findings)

Early Interventions in Psychiatry (Fall 2018 Baseline findings)

British Medical Journal Open (Study Protocol)

Initial findings, presented at the Canadian Undergraduate Conference on Healthcare (Nov. 8-10; Kingston). PDF here.

 

You spoke, we heard 32.5% of all students reported experiencing significant symptoms of anxiety. 27.6% of all students reported experiencing significant symptoms of depressionYou spoke, we learned there were difference in symptoms across genders

You spoke, we learned about the rate of current treatment. 8.5% of Queen's students were receiving at least some form of support or help for their mental health team

 

Initial findings from the Baseline 2018 Survey.

U-Flourish Digital Student Well-being Support Research

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Student Well-Being and Reaching your Potential

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Funding

The U-Flourish has been continuously funded by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Rossy Family Foundation. We thank the following campus and community partners for providing FLEX credit and food incentives for the student engagement campaign: Queen's University's Division of Student Affairs and Domino's Pizza, respectively.  We also thank all Queen's University Professors, Departments, and student groups that have supported the U-Flourish’s student engagement campaigns.

For the development of the Digital Well-Being Platform, Online Mental Health Course, and integration of digital resources into student care pathways at Student Health Services, we have received funding from the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation.

Contact Us

For more information about the U-Flourish Student Well-being Research, please feel free to contact the U-Flourish team at flourish@queensu.ca