Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 48, No. 1 - 17

and highest educational level were all related
to each other; thus, the analysis only included
one of them, type of position.
Descriptive statistics provided initial
insights on staff members' intention to
continue working in residence life. Paired
samples t-tests examined differences in respondents'
intention to continue working
in residence life from before to during the
pandemic. A multiple regression analysis
explored associations between respondents'
intention to continue working in residence
life and their social-psychological well-being
and health concerns.
LIMITATIONS
This study has several limitations. First, generalizability
of the results is limited due to
the small sample size and low response rate.
Nevertheless, this study can provide unique
insights into the experiences of residence
life staff during the COVID-19 pandemic
and thus highlight areas for future research
as well as recommendations for practice. Relatedly,
the small overall sample size also led
to small samples for different racial or ethnic
backgrounds. These small sub-group sizes
limited the researcher's ability to analyze data
by sub-group; instead, all Black, Indigenous,
People of Color (BIPOC) respondents were
grouped into one category to allow for meaningful
quantitative data analyses. Experiences,
however, vary by racial or ethnic group,
differences that this study is unable to explore
and should be considered in future research.
Next, respondents were asked to evaluate
their social-psychological well-being before
the pandemic, in retrospect. Individuals
may not be able to recall exactly how they
felt seven months prior. The study, however,
asked for a general, global assessment of participants'
well-being before the pandemic,
not for specific events or associated feelings
which are most likely to be influenced by
bias in retrospective evaluation (Ganzach &
Yaor, 2019; Zygar-Hoffmann & Schönbrodt,
2020). Thus, the pre-pandemic scores are
likely still able to provide valuable insights
into participants' perception of whether
changes in well-being were due to the pandemic
or whether their well-being had always
been at that level. Nevertheless, it is important
to acknowledge that the retrospective
assessment of participants' flourishing may
be skewed. Previous research indicates that
memories of negative experiences are stronger
than those of positive ones (Ganzach &
Yaor, 2019; Zygar-Hoffmann & Schönbrodt,
2020); retrospective assessments therefore
often tend to be more negative than those
made in the moment. However, in this study,
since participants were in the middle of experiencing
a global pandemic and its related
challenges and stressors, they may have actually
overestimated their well-being before
the pandemic. Finally, respondents from
the United States, who made up over 90
percent of the sample, experienced not only
the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 but also
a highly contested presidential election and
nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in
response to police brutality. These national
events may also have impacted individuals'
social-psychological well-being.
RESULTS
Experiences of Working in Residence Life
During the Pandemic
Participants rated their level of agreement
on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from
1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree, with
a set of statements related to their experiences
of working in residence life during
the pandemic. Descriptive statistics indicated
that more than two-thirds of respondents
(65.7%) believed that their residence
Volume 48, No. 1 * 2021
17
Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 48, No. 1

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