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several of the dimensions of well-being. Inhospitable campus climates for students with
minoritized racial, sexual orientation, and/or gender identities can exacerbate feelings
of loneliness, alienation, and stress (Renn & Reason, 2021), even though students with
these minoritized identities employ strategies to persist in and transform these environments
(DeAngelo et al., 2016; Hill et al., 2021; Rhoads, 1998). Thus, it becomes critical
to envision well-being in higher education as a multidimensional process that is individually
experienced and made sense of in relation to broad and localized environmental
conditions and interactions.
THE IMPORTANCE OF WELL-BEING FOR RESIDENT ASSISTANTS
RAs serve as peer leaders and helping paraprofessionals on college and university
campuses and have distinctive roles and responsibilities. The position generally
serves as a positive learning and skill development experience (Benjamin & David,
2016; Blimling, 2015), and core expectations for RAs involve developing positive relationships
with residents and creating communities within residence halls (Roland &
Agosto, 2017). As such, there is a high level of invisible emotional labor (Hochschild,
1983) that RAs invest in these positions by consoling residents through a range of
negative life events, including relationship breakups, homesickness, family issues,
course-related anxiety, and roommate conflicts. In addition, RAs are expected to be
sources of support and referral for serious student issues including sexual misconduct,
suicidal ideation, substance-related medical emergencies, mental health crises,
and other forms of trauma (Blimling, 2015; Lynch, 2019). Further, RAs are often the
first campus agents to whom residents will go for support during turmoil on or off
campus. It is common for RAs to facilitate social justice conversations during tense
and painful national incidents or during polarizing political moments (Johnson &
Kang, 2006; Roland & Agosto, 2017; Schuster & Stalker, 2020). In addition to their
challenging student leadership roles, RAs serve as peer role models who support
residents as institutional guides and transformational educators (Blimling, 2015;
Sears & Tu, 2017).
In spite of the enormity of their roles and the emotional labor that RAs invest
in residents, RA well-being in contemporary contexts is still being explored in the
literature. Most studies on RA well-being recognize how some RAs can and do feel
the effects of secondary trauma, especially as it relates to their role as frontline responders
to crisis (Hardy & Dodd, 1998; Lynch, 2017; Stoner, 2017). According to
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children &
Families (2017), supporting individuals who experience significant trauma can have
secondary effects on the helper, such as decreased cognitive abilities (preoccupation,
. . . identity-affirming campus climates can maintain the potential to support
growth outcomes for minoritized RAs, including identity development,
community connections, and self-efficacy.
Volume 49, No. 3 * 2023 129

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