The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1 - 62

Heather L Servaty-Seib • Deborah J. Taub • Ji-Yeon Lee • Carrie Wachter Morris
• Donald Werden • Susan Prieto-Welch • Nathan Miles

The Theory of Planned
Behavior appears to offer
promise for designing RA
gatekeeper trainings that
will more effectively result
in a change in behavior.

riencing emotional struggles (see, for example,
Boswinkel, 1986); more recent scholarship
suggests the importance of RAs being clearly
directed to refer students who express serious
psychological difficulties (Blimling, 2003).
RAs can be at risk of becoming too involved
with their residents and, out of a desire to be
helpful, may slip into a counseling role that is
beyond their skill level. Clear indications of expectations regarding referral can be helpful in
addressing this possibility.
Training could be enhanced by inclusion of
overt conversations about RAs’ perceptions of
their abilities to make a referral. It may help
to discuss appropriate expectations regarding
their sense of self-efficacy. For example, it is
unreasonable for RAs to expect that they will
feel no anxiety about encountering a student
in crisis. Even mental health practitioners with
years of training, when placed in the position
of assessing and referring a client who has
expressed suicidal ideation, are likely to have
some difficulty managing their anxiety and
vocalizing their thoughts (Reeves & Mintz,
2001). The process is stressful, and normalizing that stress may be one strategy for encouraging RAs to accurately perceive their abilities
62

to make an effective referral. Anxiety does not
necessarily indicate a lack of skill or inability to
follow through on a referral.
The Theory of Planned Behavior as used
here functions both as a guide to the empirical
process and as a practical tool for designing interventions that target specific populations effectively. It does so by using population-specific
data to guide the investigation. The results of
the study can then be used, as we did, to guide
the development of training about the desired
behavior (Taub et al., in press.). We used TpB
to target RAs’ referral behavior; however, it
could be used for other desired behaviors as
well. Examples of such behaviors would be
those that RAs on any given campus are reluctant to perform, such as enforcing unpopular
policies, intervening in roommate conflicts, or
fulfilling programming requirements. It is important to note that we developed a particular
TpB measure for our study, but those using the
theory must develop measures for their specific target behaviors based on data from their
unique populations of focus.

IMPLICATIONS FOR
FUTURE RESEARCH
The present investigation suggests that the
Theory of Planned Behavior could be a useful
tool in assessing how RAs’ beliefs about
making a referral may relate to their intention
to refer emotionally overwhelmed students.
TpB has an established track record of use with
the college student population, and there are
many opportunities for future researchers to
use the theory in an attempt to replicate and
expand upon the current findings. The theory
lends itself well to the assessment of interventions and could be used to develop a belief-

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1