The effect of a holistic wellness course on community college students' wellness behaviors

This study took place at a small community college located in the Southeast. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of a two-quarter-credit-hour Holistic Wellness Course on students’ wellness behaviors. The Holistic Wellness Course was based on the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point National Wellness Association’s Wellness Model. The TestWell® : Wellness Inventory - College Edition was used as a pre-class and post-class measure of wellness behaviors. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test control group design was utilized. Data were collected from 123 students. Sixty-three of the subjects participated in the Holistic Wellness Course and served as the experimental group. Sixty students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology Course served the comparison group. Total pre-test scores and all subscale pre-test scores were subtracted from their corresponding post-test scores to compute improvement scores for each subject. Descriptive statistics and t-tests were employed to compare the mean improvement scores for the experimental and comparison group. A greater level of improvement was found within the experimental group as compared to the control group. An analysis of the total improvement scores showed the comparison group improving 13.78 points and the experimental group improving 43.06 points (p<.05). According to the results, the holistic wellness course had a positive effect on the physical wellness, nutritional wellness, self-care and safety, environmental wellness, social awareness, emotional management, intellectual wellness, occupational wellness, and spirituality and values dimensions of the students’ wellness inventories.