Background: Success & Wellness Coaching (SWC) provides students with a coach who helps guide, assist, and hold them accountable to attain personal goals and adopt desired behaviors. This study seeks to examine (1) student satisfaction with the coaching intake process, (2) students’ relationships with their coaches, and (3) how SWC affects students’ self-efficacy to work towards their individual goals.

Methods: An online survey was distributed to 499 students who had previously expressed interest in participating in SWC and completed an intake form. The final sample included 123 students, of which 85 students attended at least one SWC session. Students’ satisfaction with coach, satisfaction with intake process, usage of coaching services, self-efficacy towards goal achievement, and perceived success of the program were assessed. Scores represented the degree to which participants’ basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness were satisfied when they were with their coaches.

Results: Preliminary analysis revealed that the majority of students who participated in SWC attended 1-5 sessions (M= 4.04 +/- S.D. = 2.86) on a weekly, bi-weekly, or sporadic basis. In regards to the intake process, the majority of students agreed that it was easy to schedule an appointment (88.2%), coaches were accommodating to their availability (94.6%), there was flexibility in selecting an appointment time (89.1%), and the meeting locations were private (76.9%). In total, 29.5% felt like they has met their initial goals and 65.4% had begun to make or made progress on their goals. Regarding self-efficacy, the majority felt that SWC increased their confidence (68.4%) and motivation (73.4%) towards reaching their goals. Most students felt that SWC helped them overcome barriers (70.9%) and increased their use of goal setting (67.0%) and problem solving skills (59.4%). Overall, 55.7% of student participants felt that SWC helped them change their behavior. Of SWC participants, over 95% said they would recommend SWC to a friend.

Conclusions: SWC is an effective in helping college students identify and work towards their individual goals. These findings provide insight for improving the process implementation of wellness coaching programs to best meet the needs of colleges and universities in helping students with goal attainment.