Strategies for Practicing Patience Among U.S. College Students: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Studies have found that emotional regulation strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal, hold promise for helping people develop patience. To better understand these strategies and their role in patience development, we conducted in-depth, in-person interviews of 177 undergraduate students from eight four-year institutions, including three public, two private secular, and three private faith-based institutions from different geographical regions. We sought to discover the diversity of students’ thinking and actions using thematic analysis during what they perceived were successful practices of patience within the collegiate context. Our findings confirmed the three previously categorized major types of patience: interpersonal, life hardships, and daily hassles, with interpersonal comprising 88% of the examples. Students primarily used eleven positive approaches that fit under cognitive reappraisal (7) or practices (4). The most common forms of the former included: (1) future thinking; (2) theological thinking; (3) recognizing personal limits; (4) big picture thinking; (5) utilitarian calculation; (6) others’ perspective taking; and (7) virtue stacking. The four from the later involved: (8) looking for wisdom from others; (9) empathetic conversation; (10) Prayer or Bible reading; and 11) listening to music. Although some of these approaches, such as future thinking and religious reframing, have been tested, our study extends and reveals additional types of cognitive reappraisal that participants believe they employ successfully, such as recognizing one’s personal limits, seeing the bigger picture, recognizing the development process of humans, and adding virtue. These, as well as the other practices, need to be tested for effectiveness.