journal_vol49no3 - 142

. . . this study demonstrates how the occupational domain of wellness,
as understood by the broader environmental context in which it is situated,
affects students' emotional, physical, and social well-being.
DISCUSSION
Though understood through the experiences of RAs with minoritized identities, this
study extends our current knowledge of well-being in residence life in several key ways.
First, this study's findings demonstrate new ways that the eight domains of well-being,
as indicated by Myers and colleagues (2000), are interrelated for students with minoritized
identities. The study also extends the narratives about secondary trauma, adding
to what Lynch (2019) has concluded about its negative impact and extending the knowledge
of how occupational contexts intersect with multiple well-being domains for RAs
with minoritized identities. Specifically, this study demonstrates how the occupational
domain of wellness, as understood by the broader environmental context in which it is
situated, affects students' emotional, physical, and social well-being. A key contribution
made by this study is to show that identities, professional role, and relationships strongly
informed how RAs in the study were impacted by their occupational environment.
This research also contributes to a growing body of literature about how identitybased
experiences unfold for minoritized RAs as they fulfill job-related responsibilities
and navigate supervisory relationships (e.g., Foste & Johnson, 2021). Supervisors
in the study either added to RAs' wellness through affirming and supportive supervision
or became sources of stress by expecting them to perform in stereotypical ways,
which resulted in RAs feeling exhausted and unbalanced. Finally, this study provides
additional support for the idea that sociopolitical contexts affect campus experiences
and need to be given additional consideration when working with college students
(Schuster, 2021). In other words, what occurs for students in their local campus
context in terms of performing their RA roles has to be understood through what
trends and events are unfolding in the surrounding environments and broader
national contexts.
IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
There are several practical implications for residence life deans, directors, and other
leaders who would like to support the holistic well-being of their staff. First, RAs in the
study noted repeatedly that the structure of the role itself disrupted their well-being
because of the expansive responsibilities associated with the job as well as the frequent
expectations that others had about their responsibilities related to crisis response. Informed
by this finding, residence life leaders can begin to rethink the essential functions
of RA work and seek input from current and past RAs about the role. The increasing
mental health needs of today's college students (Bonfiglio, 2016) make crisis
response for RAs even more difficult, given the secondary trauma it can produce (Lynch,
2019; McClure et al., 2022; Mistretta & DuBois, 2021). Asking undergraduate students
Volume 49, No. 3 * 2023 139

journal_vol49no3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of journal_vol49no3