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An Exploration of Affect amongst First-year HE in FE Students","","Evaluates a peer-assisted learning (PAL) scheme for first-year students in higher education in further education (HE in FE), focusing on anxiety and related affective emotions. The study defines types of anxieties in students’ HE experiences, describes an interventional design and survey-based data collection analyzed with SPSS. Findings show overall anxiety and worry increased over time for most faculties regardless of PAL participation, while control-group anxiety rose more steadily, suggesting PAL may have shaped less anxious students’ perceived emotional change by semester end.",{"@graph":69,"@context":126},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/athens-journal-of-education-volume-6-issue-1-does-pal-work-an-exploration-of-affect-amongst-first-year-he-in-fe-students/592626/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/athens-journal-of-education-volume-6-issue-1-does-pal-work-an-exploration-of-affect-amongst-first-year-he-in-fe-students/592626.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Mimi","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-23","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118,122],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the paper’s main aim?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"To explore affect in first-year HE students with a focus on anxiety and related emotions, and to evaluate a PAL scheme as a strategy for reducing stress and anxiety.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How was the PAL impact investigated?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Through an interventional study in an HE in FE institution using a survey method, with data analyzed via SPSS.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What were the key findings about anxiety and worry?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Overall anxiety and worry increased over time for students across most faculties regardless of whether they participated in the PAL scheme.",{"name":123,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":124},"Does the study suggest PAL influenced students’ emotional experiences?",{"text":125,"@type":113},"Yes. Anxiety levels increased more steadily for the control group, implying PAL may have influenced how less anxious PAL students felt compared with those not participating by the end of the semester.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":128,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":130,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":132,"site_id":62},592626,1792170745,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":135},{"doc_id":132,"user_id":136,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":137,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":138,"file_id":139,"file_url":140,"file_type":141,"file_size":142,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":143,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":144,"faqs":145,"seo_title":146,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":147,"read_time":148},2336477974920,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","Athens Journal of Education-Volume 6, Issue 1 – Pages 13-32  \nDoes PAL Work? An Exploration of Affect amongst First-year HE in FE Students  \nBy Daniel Bosmans􀀍  \nEmma Young† Rachael McLoughlin‡  \nThe study evaluates a peer-assisted learning (PAL) scheme as an effective strategy in alleviating levels of negative emotions and, in the process, contributes to explorations of affect in first-year students in an HE in FE environment, with a particular focus on anxiety and related emotions. Various types of anxieties are defined in the context of a student’s experience in HE, followed by an explanation of the present interventional study in an HE in FE institution, including the survey method used to collect data analyzed through SPSS. Surprisingly, the main findings are that overall anxiety and worry increased for students belonging to most faculties with time, regardless of participation in the PAL scheme. A positive finding was nonetheless that anxiety levels increased more steadily for students who belonged to the control group. The PAL scheme may have thus influenced how less anxious PAL students felt, compared to those who did not participate in the PAL scheme who were left feeling more anxious at the end of the semester.  \nKeywords: Affect, Anxiety, HE in FE, Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL), Transition  \nIntroduction  \nThe aim of this paper is to explore affect in first-year students in HE, with a particular focus on anxiety and related emotions, and evaluate a peer-assisted learning (PAL) scheme as an effective strategy in alleviating levels of stress and anxiety. In recent years, students’ mental health and well-being have been the object of several studies that have highlighted the alarmingly increasing rates of depression, stress and anxiety amongst university students all over the world (Gaddis, Ramirez & Hernandez, 2018; Lee et al., 2018; Viskovich & Pakenham, 2018; Moore, Pollio, Hong, Valencia, Sorrell, & North, 2018; Carter, 2016; Adewuya, Ola, Olutayo, Mapayi, & Oginni, 2006; Nerdrum, Rustøen, & Rønnestad, 2006; Aktekin, Karaman, Senol, Erdem, Erengin, & Akaydin, 2001; Stewart-Brown, Evans, Patterson, Petersen, Doll, Balding, & Regis, 2000).  \nFirst-year students are potentially more likely to drop out because of anxiety and other emotions related to affect than in subsequent years of study (anxiety being one of the attributes of neuroticism in the Richardson, Abraham & Bond (2012) meta-analysis of variables correlating with students’ performance) . The  \nfirst weeks in an HE institution are possibly the most stressful and anxiety may 􀀍Academic Development Lecturer, University Campus Oldham, University Way, UK.  \n†Head of Student Journey, University Campus Oldham, University Way, UK.  \n‡Research Assistant, University Campus Oldham, University Way, UK.  \n[https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.6-1-2](https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.6-1-2) doi=10.30958/aje.6-1-2  \nVol. 6, No. 1 Bosmans et al.: Does PAL Work? An Exploration of Affect…  \ndrop after this settling-in period. Peer-assisted learning (PAL) schemes have recently been praised as a panacea to a whole range of issues affecting students’engagement and autonomous learning and they have been used as a source of additional support to first-year students in HE institutions across the globe (Arendale, 2014). PAL has, however, proved to be useful in other ways which may not have been obvious at first, for instance when tackling issues in relation to the affective state of HE students. Concerns about students’ mental health are not new but it seems that it has now become a global phenomenon and much research has recently focused on this worrying issue (Richardson, Abraham, & Bond, 2012). The majority of research into this transitory phase in a student’s life is based on HE institution study where these topics have all been documented (MacAskill, 2012). A student’s former educational experience moving on to a new learning context, a difficult separation from friends and family and, usual","cbCaihK5ozIwHzH9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihK5ozIwHzH9","pdf",558867,"English","# Introduction\n## Aim and context\n## Mental health and well-being in higher education\n## First-year transition and anxiety\n# Stress, anxiety, and withdrawal\n# HE in FE context and student experiences","[{\"question\":\"What is the paper’s main aim?\",\"answer\":\"To explore affect in first-year HE students with a focus on anxiety and related emotions, and to evaluate a PAL scheme as a strategy for reducing stress and anxiety.\"},{\"question\":\"How was the PAL impact investigated?\",\"answer\":\"Through an interventional study in an HE in FE institution using a survey method, with data analyzed via SPSS.\"},{\"question\":\"What were the key findings about anxiety and worry?\",\"answer\":\"Overall anxiety and worry increased over time for students across most faculties regardless of whether they participated in the PAL scheme.\"},{\"question\":\"Does the study suggest PAL influenced students’ emotional experiences?\",\"answer\":\"Yes. Anxiety levels increased more steadily for the control group, implying PAL may have influenced how less anxious PAL students felt compared with those not participating by the end of the semester.\"}]","Athens Journal of Education - Volume 6 - Issue 1 - Does PAL Work? An Exploration of Affect amongst First-year HE in FE Students | PDF",1792074972,48]