Testing the Coddling Hypothesis: Campus Safetyism and Student Resilience

Introduction: We tested the “coddling hypothesis” that students’ exposure to campus safetyism — efforts to support student well-being by preventing emotional discomfort (e.g., trigger warnings; safe spaces; deplatforming controversial speakers) — is associated with decreases in their psychological resilience in an observational design. Methods: 107 first-year university students reported their exposure to campus safetyism at four weekly intervals. We tested the relationship between safetyism exposure and various indicators of resilience at endpoint assessment, controlling for baseline resilience. We also assessed students’ own perceived need for safetyism practices. Results: Perceived need for safetyism was positively related to female gender and the belief that words can harm, and negatively related to self-reported resilience. Analysis using Bayes Factors suggested relative evidence for the null hypothesis that self-reported safetyism exposure was unrelated to changes in psychological resilience. Discussion: Exposure to safetyism practices was not associated with changes in student resilience. Implications for higher education are discussed. Keywords: safetyism, resilience, college, mental health