A Psychosociocultural Exploration of SSM/V Well-Being in Higher Education: The Role of Mattering, Dedicated SSM/V Space, and Combat Deployment

This study explored well-being in the context of higher education for 104 student service members/veterans (SSM/V) using a psychosociocultural framework to examine psychological (mattering), social (connectedness), and cultural (view of self as student in the context of military background) dimensions. Successive mediation analyses demonstrated that mattering to instructors, social connectedness, and positive view of self were positive predictors of well-being. Participants reporting combat deployments had significantly higher negative views of self than those who had not deployed or had experienced non-combat deployments. Mattering to instructors fully mediated the relationships of both positive and negative cultural view with well-being, respectively. Mattering to instructors also partially mediated the relationship of connectedness and well-being, while mattering to students neither fully nor partially mediated the relationships. The relationships of connectedness and positive and negative view of cultural self with mattering to instructors were each dependent on deployment type. This study’s findings encourage educators, policy-makers, and SSM/V support personnel to provide programming and support to this population with consideration for individual deployment history and facilitation of meaningful connections between SSM/V and instructors.