The findings also highlight the important role that university counseling centers play in supporting DEIB goals, which are a priority for many institutions. Although students who have experienced discrimination experience significant reductions in distress and social isolation after receiving counseling services, differences in outcomes persist when compared to students who have not experienced discrimination.
“Counseling centers effectively support students who have experienced discrimination, but addressing associated psychiatric symptoms is only part of the solution,” Schofield said. “Institutions and leaders who prioritize and focus on mental health/wellness should simultaneously support DEIB-based support services to close the gap in mental health symptoms and treatment outcomes among students facing identity-based discrimination.” need to do it.”
Learn more about mental health resources available to Penn State students.
This report summarizes data provided to CCMH by 195 college counseling centers throughout the 2022-23 academic year.
Overall, 19.8% of students disclosed experiencing discrimination based on one or more identities in the past 6 months when attending counseling services. The report does not specify the cause of the discrimination, including whether it occurred within the university community.
Students who report experiencing discrimination based on one or more identities, including disability, gender, nationality/national origin, race/ethnicity/culture, religion, and/or sexual orientation within the past six months, are reported significant increases in general distress, social isolation, and discrimination. compared with clients who did not report discrimination, they reported having suicidal ideation when they entered counseling.
“It is important to emphasize that discrimination is not a mental health problem. Rather, it is a social problem that is strongly associated with serious mental health symptoms,” Schofield said. “DEIB’s work is critical to mitigating the impact of experiences of discrimination, launching advocacy efforts to redress the social causes of discrimination, and addressing the impact on the mental health of students with these experiences. ”
In addition to conducting future research in this area, CCMH plans to continue tracking discrimination data over time.
Other findings in the 2023 report include:
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Counseling history was the mental health history item with the largest increase over the past 11 years, with over 61% of students attending services with prior counseling. Notably, trauma history showed her second largest increase, with approximately 47% of students entering the service endorsing a trauma history.
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Of the areas that have increased significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (social anxiety, academic distress, feeding concerns, and family distress), only academic distress appears to have decreased, while social Anxiety and family distress continued to increase slightly, and eating concerns also remained stable.
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Although unchanged over the past year, anxiety remains the most common current concern identified by therapists.
CCMH is an international practice research network (PRN) of more than 800 academic counseling centers that connects clinical practice, research, and technology. CCMH collects data through routine clinical practice from university counseling centers to create his PRN, the largest of its kind in the world. Since CCMH was developed by Ben Locke in 2004, he has collected data from over 1.5 million unique clients.
CCMH's mission is to create a standardized, continuous-flowing database of college mental health data from participating colleges and counseling/mental health centers that will serve as a resource for information and research regarding college student mental health. is.
