What is The Thriving Project?

The Thriving Project is the research programme through which the Thriving Quotient instruments are published and administered to campuses. Dr. Laurie A. Schreiner is its principal investigator and the author of the instruments.

What evidence is there that the Thriving Quotient works?

The model has been tested with specific campus populations in peer-reviewed publications, conference papers and doctoral dissertations. Each instrument publishes its own reliability coefficients on its page, and the full body of work is listed in the Thriving Knowledge Center, so a research office can check the instrument before a campus buys it.

How does a campus get started?

Choose the instrument that matches the population you want to survey, then order a survey package for it. A campus surveying more than one population orders one package per population.

01 — The Reframe

What does it mean to thrive in college?

Q: What is the Thriving Quotient?

A family of survey instruments that measure student thriving, which Dr. Schreiner defines as "an expanded vision for student success that incorporates students' intellectual, interpersonal, and psychological engagement and well-being while in college." There are seven instruments, one for each campus population: undergraduates, second-year students, adult learners, graduate students, community college students, faculty and staff.

Q: Who created the Thriving Quotient?

Dr. Laurie A. Schreiner, Professor Emerita of Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University, who spent 45 years in higher education as a psychology professor and associate academic dean after receiving her PhD in Psychology from the University of Tennessee. She is co-author of The Student Satisfaction Inventory, used on over 1,600 campuses across the US and Canada.

Thriving is an expanded vision for student success that incorporates students' intellectual, interpersonal, and psychological engagement and well-being while in college. Emerging from the intersection of research in positive psychology on flourishing (Keyes & Haidt, 2003) and Bean and Eaton's (2000) psychological model of student retention, thriving takes a holistic view of students and their college experience.

Each of these aspects of thriving are amenable to change through campus interventions.

The research behind it

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02 — The Researcher

Who created the Thriving Quotient?

Dr. Laurie Schreiner is Professor Emerita of Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University in southern California, having spent 45 years in higher education as a psychology professor and associate academic dean after receiving her PhD in Psychology from the University of Tennessee. Co-author of The Student Satisfaction Inventory that is used on over 1,600 campuses across the US and Canada, she has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on thriving, positive psychology, engaged learning, sophomore success, faculty development, and advising.

45Years in higher education

7Instruments

About Dr. Schreiner

03 — The Instruments

Which Thriving instrument fits my campus?

One validated instrument for every population on campus, all administered the same way and priced the same. Choose by who you are surveying.

04 — The Evidence

What has fifteen years of research shown?

The Thriving Quotient rests on peer-reviewed publications, conference papers and doctoral dissertations that tested the model with specific populations. It is all in the Thriving Knowledge Center, so a research office can check the instrument before a campus buys it.