Student affairs professionals help students who experience trauma. Repeated and prolonged traumatic exposure has significant adverse effects on other helping professionals; burnout is one consequence of trauma exposure. Burnout as a construct has not been quantitatively researched in the student affairs profession recently. This study provides a…

Workplace bullying is a chronic work stressor involving high human resource costs (Hurley et al., 2016). One inconsistent finding in the literature is the relationship of victim's gender to the personal experiencing of workplace bullying and workplace bullying behaviors (Nielsen & Einarsen, 2018). Workplace bullying behavior persists across…

Mid-level administrators occupy a complex position within higher education institutions, a role defined by "middleness" (Gleeson & Shain, 1999, p. 488), which characterizes their place in institutional hierarchies between superiors and subordinates. Mid-level administrators often feel isolated since they cannot be seen as having…

For a very long time, Chicanas have experienced longstanding marginalization and oppression in higher education. They have been subjected, degraded and their voice silenced due to long-standing discrimination and oppression. Thus, the number of Chicanas in leadership roles in higher education is dismal. The purpose of this qualitative study was to…

This phenomenological study aimed to better understand how new student affairs professionals perceived their sense of self-efficacy and how it impacted their career satisfaction, especially during the COVID-19 global pandemic. This study examined the lived experiences of new student affairs professionals. Data were collected through a series of…

This qualitative study examined the manifestation of work-related stressors that SAPros of Color who provide direct services and support to Students of Color working at a large, tier-one research institution experience. Additionally, this study explored participants' self-care behaviors and strategies used to cope and probed for potential…

The purpose of this study was to test a model for conceptualizing the socialization experiences of new professionals in student affairs, particularly in light of the high attrition rates commonly documented in the literature. Whereas past research has examined individuals as the locus of socialization, this study analyzed organizations as the…

A great deal of research has established training student affairs and higher education (SAHE) professionals in helping skills is important to assist undergraduate students in college and university programs with mental health needs. The COVID-19 global pandemic placed SAHE professionals in a unique position to support college students as students…

Most research on Student Affairs practices is centered around student engagement and support; however, this qualitative study focuses on the Student Affairs professionals who support college students. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on the intersectionality of race and religion and how these Student Affairs professionals are able to engage…

Starting a new job can be likened to be thrown into the deep end of a pool and being expected to swim with no prior lessons. Not only is this practice dangerous at actual swimming pools it is also detrimental in the workforce. Student Affairs is a high turnover field with over 50% of new employees leaving the field completely within the first 5…

In this interview study, I examine how student affairs administration (SAA) works at rural community colleges as well as how rural senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) function in their leadership roles. The study purports to understand student affairs in the context of "rurality," or what it means to be rural. Two primary research…

A correlational student was conducted to explore the relationships between student affairs professional self-efficacy, participation in professional development, and career commitment. For the quantitative portion, the researcher ran Pearson r correlations for self-efficacy scores, career commitment scores, and the number of professional…

This qualitative study considers how gender affected women vice presidents of student affairs' (VPSAs) or senior student affairs officers' (SSAOs) professional experiences and career trajectories to gain insight into the influence of gender on all women professional's working experiences and ability to advance in the field. Although there is a…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational-predictive study is to examine if and to what extent performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude toward using technology, social influence, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy, and anxiety, individually and combined, predict the behavioral intention of U.S. higher education student services…

Early career professionals' attrition in student affairs have been reported at rates as high as 60% before year five in the last few decades of literature. Retaining these professionals is vital to the sustainability of the field (Winston Jr. & Creamer, 1997). This study explores experiences and retention in the field of student affairs,…