ED Sociétés, Politique, Santé Publique
Undergraduate Students' Mental Health: an experiential multicomponent approach integrating well-being, psychological distress, and developmental resources
by Sophie HUGUET (Laboratoire Cultures, Education, Sociétés)
The defense will take place at 14h00 - Salle de Soutenance Campus de Pessac - SMART 12 Av. Camille Jullian 33600 Pessac
in front of the jury composed of
- Magali BOIZUMAULT - Maîtresse de conférences - Inspe de Bordeaux - Directeur de these
- Fabien FENOUILLET - Professeur des universités - Université de Nanterre - Rapporteur
- Damien TESSIER - Maître de conférences - INSPE de Grenoble - Rapporteur
- Rebecca SHANKLAND - Professeure des universités - Université Lyon 2 - CoDirecteur de these
- Hélène HAGEGE - Professeure des universités - INSPE Limoges - Examinateur
- Julien MASSON - Professeur des universités - ISPEF - Université Lyon 2 - Examinateur
Undergraduate students' mental health represents a major public health concern and a central topic in educational and developmental psychology. The transition to higher education is associated with increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, as well as substantial heterogeneity in psychological and academic adjustment trajectories. Although a growing body of research has documented psychological distress among university students, an exclusive focus on difficulties remains insufficient to capture the complexity of students' experiences and to inform sustainable prevention strategies. This doctoral thesis adopts an integrative approach to student mental health by jointly considering psychological distress and psychological well-being, conceptualized as a multidimensional construct based on the PERMA model (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment). The work primarily draws on the Adaptive Coping with Emotions (ACE) model, which conceptualizes adaptive emotion regulation skills as key developmental resources during emerging adulthood. Emotion regulation is understood as a set of specific and modifiable competencies that may contribute to psychological well-being and academic functioning, without being regarded as a single or isolated determinant of university adjustment. Beyond emotional competencies, the thesis incorporates other key determinants of university adjustment, including academic engagement, procrastination, and selected health-related behaviors, notably sleep and physical activity. These dimensions are conceptualized as complementary indicators and levers of academic functioning, providing insight into how mental health and well-being are expressed within students' university experiences. The research program comprises four complementary studies conducted among second-year undergraduate students enrolled in two contrasting academic fields: sport and exercise sciences (STAPS) and law. This design allows student mental health to be examined across differentiated educational contexts while maintaining relative developmental homogeneity. The first study explores relationships between adaptive emotion regulation, psychological distress, and university adjustment, examining the mediating role of multidimensional well-being in the association between emotion regulation strategies and academic engagement within a correlational framework. The second study employs network analysis to investigate interactions among emotion regulation, well-being, psychological distress, and physical activity. The third study identifies latent profiles combining emotion regulation skills and psychological distress, characterized by their levels of well-being and their distribution according to gender and field of study. Finally, the fourth study evaluates the short- and medium-term effects of a psychoeducational intervention embedded within the university curriculum on psychological distress and well-being, through joint analyses of changes in emotion regulation, academic engagement, procrastination, and selected health-related behaviors. Overall, this thesis highlights the central role of adaptive emotion regulation skills and multidimensional well-being in understanding undergraduate students' mental health. It emphasizes the relevance of multicomponent, experiential psychoeducational interventions embedded within the curriculum to support students' adaptive competencies and well-being, from a preventive and developmental perspective attentive to higher education contexts.