Editor's note: This article started this week's Higher Education Newsletter. This newsletter delivers trends and top stories in higher education delivered free to subscribers' inboxes every other Thursday.
Dear readers
If you receive my newsletter in your inbox, you know you care about college students. If you're a working professional, you know that mental health issues are real. When in doubt, check out Elmo's response to “How's everyone doing?” I should have cleared them properly.
Therefore, I think we can conclude that we agree that college students' mental health is important. So?
We've been writing about student mental health since the early days of the Hechinger Report, and more recently we've done our best to document the challenges students and educators have faced throughout the pandemic.
We wrote about the anxiety and despair our students felt during isolation in the early days of COVID-19. I wrote about college students facing increased symptoms of burnout. People of all backgrounds grapple with mental health issues, but we need to understand how students from marginalized racial and ethnic groups, faith communities, and LGBTQ+ communities face particular challenges and cultural I wrote about how people are often unable to receive appropriate counseling. I wrote about the expensive mental health recovery programs that students often use when taking a leave of absence from college due to mental health issues. I wrote about how overscheduling children can lead to depression and anxiety. We've written about people trying to answer the question, “Is mental health care a school's job?”
Our colleagues across the field of education journalism are also advancing this discussion. Last week, the Chronicle of Higher Education wrote about technology companies trying to fill student needs that college counseling centers can't meet. EdSource writes about how some universities are using outdoor spaces to support students' mental health. Inside Higher Ed reported that college counseling centers are facing increased demand for trauma counseling.
A recent article in the New York Times provided a haunting portrait of how Worcester Polytechnic Institute faculty are responding to the mental health crisis on campus.
Clearly, stories of complex personal and community suffering still exist far beyond the worst years of the pandemic, and we believe these stories are worth telling.
Data shows that today's college students are suffering. According to the 2022-2023 Healthy Minds Survey, an American university study of college student mental health, approximately 40 percent of college students experience some degree of depression, and 36 percent test positive for anxiety disorders. Ta. Michigan. Almost half of the college students surveyed reported being diagnosed with a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.
Mental health concerns can also be a barrier for students currently considering attending university. Twenty-eight percent of high school students said mental health concerns were the main reason they postponed enrolling in college or dropped out of college altogether, according to a new study from education consulting firm EAB. These concerns are more pronounced among students from certain underrepresented groups. More than half of transgender and non-binary students report feeling this way, one-third of Black students and 30 percent of Native American students report feeling this way .
Of the 6,330 high school students surveyed, 48% said that stress and anxiety are having a negative impact on their college search and plans.
The mental health needs of college students are clearly enormous. They may also be changing. How is the world of higher education responding to these needs?
Help us decide what to write next. What are you interested in and concerned about within the larger framework of college student mental health? What gives you hope? Please email us with your feedback.
I look forward to hearing from you. thank you,
olivia
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 988 and the Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741) can provide support, information, and resources. Take advantage of our free 24-hour service.
This story about the college student mental health crisis hechinger reportis a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
