"It's Exhausting": A Qualitative Study of Social Emotional Learning and Student Lived Experiences in West Bengal's Higher Education Institutions
This qualitative study employs constructivist grounded theory to analyze interviews with 42 students across three West Bengal institutions, revealing how social inequalities and institutional structures shape the emotional navigation of university life and highlighting the critical need for culturally responsive Social Emotional Learning frameworks to address the mental health crisis among Indian college students.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
The Invisible Backpack: Why College Feels Like a Different Language
Imagine you are walking into a giant, bustling marketplace where everyone is speaking a secret code. You know the words, but you don't know the rules of the conversation. You don't know when to laugh, when to be serious, or how to ask for help without looking foolish. This is the world of Social Emotional Learning (SEL). In simple terms, SEL is like a toolkit for understanding your own feelings and getting along with others—skills like managing stress, showing empathy, and making good choices. For a long time, schools have tried to teach these skills to kids in elementary and high school, and it usually works pretty well.
But here is the twist: college is a totally different game. It's not just about learning math or history; it's about navigating a new emotional landscape where the rules are hidden. While we know that mental health is a huge problem for students everywhere, with anxiety and sadness rising sharply, we haven't really looked at how college students actually survive this emotional maze. We often assume that if a student just learns the "right" skills, they will be fine. But what if the problem isn't the student's skills, but the invisible walls of the building they are walking through? This is the big question researchers are asking: How do students really feel when they are trying to learn these emotional skills in a place that wasn't built for them?
The Study: "It's Exhausting"
This paper, titled "It's Exhausting," dives deep into the real lives of 42 college students in West Bengal, India. The researcher, Rupam Kumar Saha, didn't just hand out surveys; he sat down and had long, honest conversations with students from three very different colleges: Adamas University, NSHM Knowledge Campus, and St. Xavier's College. He wanted to know: What does it actually feel like to be a student here?
The study found that for many students, college isn't just a place to learn; it's a place where they have to do a massive amount of invisible work just to keep their heads above water. The researcher calls this "Emotional Navigation Work."
The Map You Didn't Get
Imagine you are dropped into a foreign country without a map or a guidebook. Everyone else seems to know exactly where to go, what to order, and how to act. But you? You have to guess. You have to watch everyone else to figure out the rules. The study found that students who grew up in families that already knew how college worked (like having parents who went to university) had a map. They knew the language, the style, and the secrets.
But for first-generation students (the first in their family to go to college), and for students from lower-income or marginalized backgrounds, there was no map. They had to do the "navigation work." They had to constantly translate who they were at home into who they needed to be at school. They had to figure out how to speak, how to dress, and how to act without sounding "wrong." The paper suggests this constant guessing game is exhausting. One student described it as being "too tired to feel anything," like their emotional battery was completely drained just from trying to fit in.
The "Competency Gap"
The study also found something surprising about the "skills" students are taught. Schools often say, "Here is how to manage stress: take a deep breath and name your feelings." But the students said, "That's great in a workshop, but it doesn't work when I'm sitting in an exam hall with my heart pounding."
The researchers call this the "Competence-Practice Gap." It's like knowing the theory of how to ride a bike but getting on one for the first time and immediately falling over. The paper argues that knowing the words for emotional skills doesn't mean you can use them when you are scared, poor, or feeling judged. For many students, the gap between what they know and what they can actually do is where their real struggle lives.
The Secret Support System
You might think students rely on the school's counseling centers or official support groups. But the paper found that these formal systems often feel cold, too busy, or just not understanding. Instead, students rely on "Covert SEL Infrastructures."
Think of this as a secret underground network. Students form tiny, tight-knit groups of friends—sometimes just two or three people—who become their lifeline. These friends listen, cry with them, and help them figure things out. It's like a hidden safety net woven by the students themselves. However, the study warns that this net is precarious (unstable). If a friend moves away or a group breaks up, the student is suddenly alone. For students who are the only ones from their background in the room (like the only Dalit student or the only girl in a male-dominated group), finding these friends is incredibly hard, leaving them without a safety net at all.
The Weight of the World
The paper makes it very clear that emotional struggles aren't just about "thinking positive." The researchers found that money and identity play a huge role.
- Money: A student worrying about whether they can afford next semester's fees or their mother's medicine doesn't have the same "emotional space" to worry about a test score. The paper suggests that you can't just teach a breathing exercise to someone who is terrified about survival.
- Caste and Gender: The study highlights that students from lower castes (like Dalit students) and female students carry extra weight. They often have to manage how they are perceived, worry about stereotypes, and do extra "emotional labor" (like comforting others or managing group feelings) that other students don't have to do. One female student described holding all her friends' anxieties until she had no room left for her own feelings.
The School's Role
Finally, the paper looks at the schools themselves. It suggests that the buildings, the classes, and the rules create an "Institutional Emotional Architecture."
- Some classrooms are designed to make students feel competitive and anxious (like grading on a curve where only a few can win).
- Some campuses feel like corporate offices—clean and modern, but cold and lonely.
- Some cultures tell students that showing weakness is a failure.
The study argues that these environments are often set up in a way that makes it harder for some students to succeed emotionally, regardless of how hard they try.
What This Means
This paper doesn't say that students just need to "try harder" or learn more breathing exercises. Instead, it suggests that the problem is bigger. It suggests that for many students, the emotional load is too heavy because the system isn't built for them.
The researchers conclude that to fix student mental health, schools need to stop pretending that everyone starts on the same playing field. They need to acknowledge the invisible work students are doing, support the secret friend groups that are actually keeping students alive, and change the rules of the game so that being poor, being the first in your family, or being from a marginalized background doesn't mean you have to carry a backpack full of rocks just to walk through the door.
In short, the paper suggests that before we can teach students how to manage their emotions, we need to make sure the world they are living in isn't constantly trying to break them.
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