GUEST ROOM | Measuring What Matters in Student Well-being

This time of year often asks a lot of us. Academic pressure intensifies, energy wanes and even meaningful work can feel heavy. In moments like this, I return to a principle that has guided much of my work: we measure what we value, and we come to value what we measure. That idea sits at the center of why researching student well-being at Cornell matters — and why continuing to measure it, especially when things feel stretched or uncertain, is essential.

In October 2022, Cornell became a Health Promoting Campus, joining an international movement aimed at embedding health and well-being into all aspects of campus life. This work is not limited to programs or services. It includes policies, physical and social environments and the daily interactions that shape how students, staff and faculty experience the university.

From the outset, research and evaluation were not add-ons to this work; they were prerequisites, essential to defining what ‘success’ could look like and how it should be measured. To understand whether efforts were making a difference — and for whom — the Research and Evaluation team within the Health Promoting Campus Community of Practice developed a comprehensive evaluation model. Drawing from social cognitive, social ecological and organizational change frameworks, the model provides a tiered, mixed-methods approach for assessing the impact of programs, policies and cultural change on student well-being over time. 

At a moment when national headlines often frame student mental health primarily through crisis, a harder question deserves attention: What actually improves well-being over time, and how do we know? The Cornell Student Well-Being Survey is central to addressing that question. 

First launched in May 2023, the survey functions as an annual, population-based case study of student health and well-being. It tracks the prevalence of psychological distress and flourishing (a metric of individual and community well-being), health inequities and key risk and protective factors across the student population. At its core, the survey helps expand our understanding of the distribution and drivers of well-being across campus: where students struggle, where they flourish and which conditions shape these experiences — so that action is responsive and guided by evidence rather than anecdote.

To understand student well-being fully, we focus on two outcomes: psychological distress and flourishing, and the interaction between them. Together, they reflect complementary but distinct pathways for promoting well-being, consistent with theory (e.g., Westerhof & Keyes, 2010; Hayes, 2016) and Cornell findings. 

This choice is intentional. In uncertain times, flourishing can sound overly optimistic but measuring it does not ignore hardship. It recognizes that absence of distress does not automatically translate into a life that feels meaningful, connected or sustainable. In practice, an individual or community may experience low distress while still feeling discouraged, disconnected or stuck, indicators of low flourishing. Conversely, they can experience significant distress while also sustaining strong relationships and a sense of purpose that can buffer the negative effects of stress. Research shows this matters: lacking flourishing can pose greater risks to physical and mental health than mental illness alone, and improvements in engagement and social connection often precede symptom reduction (e.g., Anusuya & Gayatridevi, 2025; Smith et al., 2023). Flourishing is not happiness or the absence of discomfort — it reflects engagement, connection, values-alignment and pursuit of meaningful goals, even in the face of distress. Two things can be true at once. A life well lived by an imperfect person under imperfect conditions, supported by the people and places that matter, is rarely the exception.

Longitudinal data from Cornell reflect both where students struggle and where progress is possible. Levels of significant psychological distress declined from 48% in 2020 to 30% in 2023 and 2024, and further to 28% in Spring 2025, broadly aligning with national post-pandemic trends (e.g., Reutter et al., 2024). Overall well-being gains have remained steady, with 72% of students scoring as flourishing or on the path to flourishing. Inequities persist, particularly for students identifying as LGBTQ+ or as having disabilities, but early signs of narrowing gaps suggest that well-being outcomes are responsive to environmental and cultural change.

As a counseling psychologist, these findings do not suggest that attention to student mental health and well-being can be reduced. They suggest the opposite: that investing in a system-wide approach is necessary and worthwhile. Importantly, the data point to conditions that are modifiable — not fixed characteristics inside individual students or communities, but aspects of campus life that can and should be shaped intentionally.

Across years of data, one pattern emerges consistently. Belonging, willingness to ask for help and a supportive campus climate are among the strongest predictors of lower distress and higher well-being. These factors matter not because they remove hardship, but because they shape how students navigate it. A strong sense of belonging does not eliminate stress, grief or uncertainty; it changes how people experience and move through them. Results from the Student Wellbeing Survey show that even modest increases in connection matter: for every one-unit increase in a student’s sense of belonging, the odds of flourishing amid distress increase by roughly 25% (Dubovi et al., 2026). 

These findings already inform decisions. Survey results have guided focus groups to better understand how students experience belonging, the creation of a brief, context-specific belonging measure, efforts to integrate well-being into academic settings and the expansion and evaluation of a wide-range of community-based, preventative services. Data shows what is working, where gaps remain and where intentional effort can make the greatest difference.

We measure what we value. This spring, the survey will again reach a census sample of Cornell students. Results will be shared through data walks and facilitated conversations to support interpretation, dialogue and action. I hope you’ll participate and join the discussions that follow. These spaces help ensure that results remain connected to students’ lived experience — and that students are co-producers of the knowledge shaping what comes next. 

Abigail Dubovi, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and the Director of Strategic Planning and Data Analysis at Cornell Health. She can be reached at asd44@cornell.edu.

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