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Chance Zoe Tuyishime (Audience: mental health professionals, college administrations and

parents)

Prof. Rebecca Morean

ENG 1202.504

02 August 2021

Is College Life Detrimental to The Mental Health of Young People?

Although mental health and general well-being is for everyone, research has shown that

the great majority of mental disorders begin in adolescence or early-adulthood but they are often

detected and treated later in life (Kovess-Masfety, Viviane, et al). So, it’s understandable that

young people have the highest rates of mental health disorders statistically. High school is

regarded by many as the hardest period of their time because of many reasons like bullying, self-

consciousness, body changes and acceptance to name a few, so many students can’t wait to

graduate and finally be happy, free and adventurous in college. But unfortunately, college is not

always the safe haven they had dreamed of; many if not all the past hardships of high school

move into college with them and might take on another shape or form, but the effect is still

present and destructive. Although there is enough evidence of the negative impact of college life

on the students’ mental health, this issue is still not exposed and addressed as much as needed

considering its tremendous impact; so, all the concerned parties need to fully understand, give

proper weight and consideration to the matter, in order to provide reliable and attainable

solutions in a timely manner as both health and education are at stake.

It is normal to have trouble adjusting and becoming comfortable in a new system both

psychologically and in terms of behavior. As college is a platform for students to accomplish

further psychological development, this progression unfortunately also elicits certain negative

outcomes including loneliness (Quan, Lijuan, et al). Loneliness which can be defined as “the

absence of imperative social relations and lack of affection in current social relationships”

(Mushtaq, Raheel, et al), is a common experience among teenagers and young adults. Loneliness

shares a couple of symptoms with several psychiatric disorders including depression,

Alzheimer’s disease and personality disorder (Mushtaq, Raheel, et al). So, what could have

started as an awkward, lonely year for a freshman can lead to major life impairment if not

detected and treated as soon as possible.

On the other hand, academic adjustment is another hardship for college students and it

leads to feeling overwhelmed and anxious. The amount of work that needs to be finished in little

time, the different extracurricular activities and the fear of both bad grades and bad social life

take a toll on students. In addition, there is financial issues, student loans and in most cases

family problems like divorce or abandonment, all these factors combined are sure to cause

extreme anxiety to students. Anxiety is very common in college, according to the American

College Health Association, 63% of college students in the U.S felt overwhelming anxiety in

2018 and in the same survey 23% reported being diagnosed or treated by a mental health

professional for anxiety in the past year (Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA and Luana Marques PhD). The

sharpest increase in anxiety occurs in the initial transition to college, which suggests that the first

year of college is an especially high-risk time for the onset or worsening of anxiety (Nicole J.

LeBlanc, MA and Luana Marques PhD). Sleep disruption and/or deprivation, loneliness, school

stress due to heavy workload and disengagement from studies are some of many factors that

cause anxiety in college students (Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA and Luana Marques PhD).
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The percentage of students with moderate to severe depression who sought counselling at

a U.S campus increased seven percent from 1998 to 2009, according to John Guthman, director

of counselling services at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y (Canadian Broadcasting

Corporation). Professor of psychology at the University of Calgary, Sharon Cairns said “the

number of students presenting with severe mental illness – so that would be the psychotic

disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder has tripled” and at times the university’s counselling

services can’t handle the demand (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). The Mental Health

Commission of Canada said university counselling services are seriously under-resourced across

the country (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). This is worrisome and it’s not just in Canada

but in the U.S and many other countries too. In 2019, nearly 90% of counselling center directors

reported an increase in students seeking mental health services according to the Association for

University and College Counselling Center Directors (AUCCD) Annual Survey (Abrams, Zara).

All these statistics and reports are prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, so it’s a no-brainer that things

would get even worse in the event of a global pandemic that has impacted and shaken every

single person’s life on earth. “Shelter-at-home orders have definitely led students to feeling

disconnected and lonely. And those (students) with problematic family situations may also face

trauma or challenging dynamics at home, which can exacerbate existing mental health concerns”,

said Claytie Davis III who directs the training for counselling and psychological services at the

University of California in Berkeley (Abrams, Zara).

College athletes are also heavily impacted by college life, not only psychologically but

also both physically and academically. Two Kansas University researchers Farah Ishaq and co-

author Jordan Bass, published a study about how student-athletes have trouble accessing High

Impact Educational Practices also known as HIPs, which are services proven effective in helping
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improve students’ academic outcomes. One of the primary barriers to student-athletes was the

disconnect between the athletic department and academic units, and it seems like the athletic

departments either don’t know about HIPs, don’t know ho to contact to help students take part

and a lack of communication between the two sides (Farah Ishaq and Jordan Bass). “The coaches

are primarily interested in the athletic success of their student-athletes,” Farah said so it’s mostly

that some student-athletes will never hear about HIPs through their coaches. As not all college

athletes successfully transition into full time athletic careers, it is important for these student-

athletes to have options, as many of them come from low-socioeconomic backgrounds (Farah

Ishaq and Jordan Bass), failing both athletically and academically leads to depression, extreme

drug abuse and even suicide.

Although there were many existing conditions of mental health disorders in college

students, things got even worse after the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the long-lasting pandemic

situation and onerous measures such as lockdown and stay-at-home orders, the pandemic

brought negative impacts on higher education (Son, Changwon., et al). An interview survey

study was conducted at Texas A&M University, to find out about the effects of Covid-19 on the

mental health of college students in the United States, more importantly the major stressors

associated with the pandemic and their effect on students (Son, Changwon., et al). Out of 195

participants, 138 (71%) indicated that their stress and anxiety levels had increased due to the

Covid-19 pandemic, whereas 39 (20%) indicated it remained the same and 18 (9%) mentioned

that the stress and anxiety had actually decreased (Son, Changwon., et al). Among those who

perceived increased stress and anxiety, only 10 (5%) used mental health counselling services and

a vast majority of the participants (97%) presumed that other students were experiencing similar

stress and anxiety because of the Covid-19 pandemic (Son, Changwon., et al).
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A vast majority of the participants (91%) indicated that Covid-19 had increased the level

of fear and worry about their own health and that of their loved ones (Son, Changwon., et al).

Eighty-nine percent of the participants indicated difficulty concentrating on academic works due

to various sources of distraction including interruptive family members, household chores, lack

of accountability, social media, internet and video games. Disruption of sleep and irregular sleep

patterns were also concerns for a majority of the participants (Son, Changwon., et al). Other

major concerns included concerns about academic performance, disruption of eating patterns,

financial difficulties, increased class workload, suicidal thoughts and many more.

Considering the mental health status before the pandemic, it’s safe to assume that they

only got even worse because of the pandemic cause by COVID-19. Zachary Davis, a 27-year-old

Navy veteran who studies applied psychology at Oregon Tech’s Portland-Metro campus, shared

how the pandemic has him feeling stressed and anxious (Thompson, Evan). “With everything

going on in the world and my personal life, I am feeling a lot of negative emotions,” Davis

stated. The coronavirus has spelled chaos for mental health among college students as they had

to adapt to online education, deal with death and disruption caused by COVID-19 and adjust to a

loss of structure in their lives (Thompson, Evan). According to many surveys and research

studies, many people, especially students have felt like Zachary Davis or even worse depending

on circumstances, but the general feeling is simply that we have seen better days.

I have also personally experienced a lot of uncertainty, stress and anxiety due to the

pandemic. I simply couldn’t believe the reality the world was thrown into. It was like watching

myself living in a horror movie, the pandemic was definitely the start of the most stressful time

of my life. The drastic changes like the closing of colleges were awfully destabilizing to college

students, but even more to international students like myself. The fear of the unknown was
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unbearable, thinking about whether or not I’ll have to go home, how safe it was to travel, the

next step of my education, the financial distress and emotional chaos made me feel

overwhelmed. Many people started the trend of checking up one each other, but after a while it

lost its charm too, because nothing was getting better. I remember that May was the month of

numbness for, I didn’t want to talk to anybody, I didn’t want to watch or do anything at all, I just

wanted to be left alone.

Fig.1 Students have been dealing with a lot of emotional and mental turmoil because of COVID-

19 (Thompson, Evan).
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Now in August 2021, not many things got better, actually many things got worse, like the

variants of the virus and countless catastrophes that happened in all corners of the earth, but we

are slowly learning to live with this the reality. However, as we are not in the clear and we have

no idea what the future has in store for us, I can’t help but realize that many campaigns and

movements about mental health have cooled down with time and in all honesty there’s still a lot

of mental damage and instability that people, in this case students, are walking around with that

needs to be addressed and resolved. Our future lives, careers and families greatly depend on our

current mental health status and general wellbeing, so student’s mental health needs to be given

the proper attention it needs by students, parents, college faculty and staff, family, friends and

the whole society in general.

Kerry McDonald, the author of “Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children

Outside the Conventional Classroom,” gave insight into other less favorable and popular

explanations of the pressing issue of college students’ mental health. McDonald argues that

“some of the emotional turmoil of college students can be linked to a coddled childhood and

adolescence that limits young people from developing the resilience necessary to deal with

stress, anxiety and uncertainty”. In their book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good

Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan

Haidt trace some of the increased fragility of today’s college students to paddled playgrounds,

constant adult supervision and structure, more screen time and less authentic, in-person

interaction, and an overall emphasis on safety (McDonald, Kerry). In other words, the normal

stressors of college may be perceived by some of today’s students as disproportionately dreadful

(McDonald, Kerry). McDonald said that campus victim culture is another explanation, where

“Discomfort may be confused with harm, leading more students to report emotional distress.”
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Kerry McDonald also quoted Robby Soave in his new book, Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the

Age of Trump, where he stated that “People who need help shouldn’t be afraid to ask for it. But

at so many campuses it has begun to feel like mental instability and trauma are the norm---that

students are encouraged to see themselves as sick and vulnerable, so they do. They have fully

appropriated the language of mental illness” (Soave, Robby, p.145, quoted in McDonald, Kerry).

Marty Swanbrow Becker, an associate professor at Florida State University, stated that in

addition to individual counseling, which has been the main solution provided by higher-

education institutions, colleges should also focus on “population health and prevention.” These

efforts can range from creating more shared spaces to social connections to stave off feelings of

isolation, to reducing things on campus that threaten student well-being, such as discrimination

and violence (Becker, Marty Swanbrow). Professor Becker stated that there are four areas that

colleges need to focus on in order to improve the overall well-being their population of students.

The first area is empowering students by helping them assess their strengths and overall

resilience so that they can more adeptly identify problems early and access supportive resources

(Becker, Marty Swanbrow). Secondly, Professor Becker suggested that colleges and universities

should provide stress-management resources to their students. Colleges should at the factors that

re contributing to stress such as substance use, discrimination, assaults and the pressure around

figuring out one’s major and career; and work to reduce their influence (Becker, Marty

Swanbrow). Lastly, students, faculty and staff should all work together to improve the mental

health of everyone on campus by identifying those in distress, intervening with them and

referring them to help (Becker, Marty Swanbrow).

Education is an important part of life and college and the life that comes with are a two-

in-one package, you can’t have one without the other. And since we can’t stop the cycle
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education, we have to make college experience less threatening to the mental health of students.

Some of the guidelines towards a mental-health friendly college environment include:

establishing new platforms around mental health and illness, increasing access to mental health

services, decreasing mental illness stigma, supporting community forums and more (Schlozman,

Steve, et al).

Works Cited

Abrams, Zara. “A Crunch at College Counseling Centers.” Monitor on Psychology, American

Psychological Association, 11 July 2020, www.apa.org/monitor/2020/09/crunch-college-

counseling.

Becker, Marty Swanbrow. “The Mental Health Crisis on Campus and How Colleges Can Fix It.”

The Conversation, 11 Feb. 2021, theconversation.com/the-mental-health-crisis-on-campus-

and-how-colleges-can-fix-it-127875.

Ishaq, Farah, and Jordan Bass. “Where's the Academic Support for Student-Athletes?” The

University of Kansas, 10 June 2019, news.ku.edu/2019/05/22/study-examines-why-

student-athletes-tend-not-access-same-supports-services-peers.
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Kovess-Masfety, Viviane, et al. "Mental health of college students and their non-college-

attending peers: results from a large French cross-sectional survey." BMC Psychology, vol.

4, no. 20, 2016. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A451336662/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=e60405ab. Accessed 11 July 2021.

McDonald, Kerry. "Improving College Students' Mental Health." Gale Opposing Viewpoints

Online Collection, Gale, 2021. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/PWNYTL761858587/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=cf5ec08e. Accessed 26 July 2021. Originally published as "Why so Many

College Students Are In Mental Distress—And What Parents Can Do about It,"

Foundation for Economic Freedom, 13 Sept. 2019.

"Mental illness rises on campus: studies." The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 12 Aug.

2010. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A234278739/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=116387fe. Accessed 11 July 2021.

Mushtaq, Raheel, et al. “Relationship between Loneliness, Psychiatric Disorders and Physical

Health? A Review on the Psychological Aspects of Loneliness.” Journal of Clinical and

Diagnostic Research: JCDR, JCDR Research and Publications (P) Limited, Sept. 2014,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4225959/.

Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA, and PhD Luana Marques. “Anxiety in College: What We Know and

How to Cope.” Harvard Health, 28 May 2019, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/anxiety-in-

college-what-we-know-and-how-to-cope-2019052816729.
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Schlozman, Steve, et al. “The College Mental Health Crisis: A Call for Cultural Change Part 2.”

Mghclaycenter.org, 2017, www.mghclaycenter.org/parenting-concerns/college-mental-

health-crisis-call-cultural-change-part-2/.

Son, Changwon, et al. “Effects of Covid-19 on College Students' Mental Health in the United

States: INTERVIEW Survey Study.” Journal of Medical Internet Research, JMIR

Publications, 3 Sept. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7473764/.

Thompson, Evan. “How Covid-19 Has Impacted Student Mental Health.” TheBestSchools.org,

10 June 2021, thebestschools.org/magazine/covid-19-impact-student-mental-health/.

Quan, Lijuan, et al. "The effects of loneliness and coping style on academic adjustment among

college freshmen." Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, vol. 42,

no. 6, 2014, p. 969+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A396138726/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=bef3afc7. Accessed 11 July 2021.