Research Proposal (Research Blog 4)

 *original research proposal - submitted to canvas 2/19

Title

The Dark Side of the College Experience

Topic Description

The issue to be addressed is the mental health crisis facing college campuses. I plan to focus on why there is such a high rate of mental health problems among college students. Possibilities include the stressful atmosphere of higher education, being separated from family and support systems, the age at which mental health and substance use disorders arise, childhood trauma, and financial stress. I also want to cover how COVID-19 has worsened this problem. College students have long been prone to depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems. The pandemic has only made this worse. Students are struggling with increased isolation, anxiety about what the future looks like, remote learning, and so much more. Undergraduate students have been stripped of the best parts of the college experience and they have essentially suffered a loss of what they envisioned their future to look like. As a college student, it’s imperative to understand the epidemic that is plaguing our universities. With how common these issues are, its highly likely that we know someone struggling or are struggling ourselves. PBS has an ongoing series titled “Rethinking College.” They have a segment dedicated to COVID-19 and its impact on students. The news anchor opens by stating that “according to the CDC, three out of four Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 report poor mental health tied to the pandemic” (Sreenivasan, et al.). Varun Soni, a faculty member at University of Southern California, says “before the pandemic, 65 percent of college students were wrestling with anxiety, 30 percent with a mental health condition, and 10 percent with thoughts of suicide” (Sreenivasan, et al.). These are overwhelming statistics. It’s no wonder why researchers and experts use terms like “epidemic” and “crisis” to describe the mental health challenges that American college students are facing.

Research Question

Why is there such a high rate of mental health problems among college students? How has COVID-19 impacted this?

Theoretical Frame

‘Best Colleges’ has a great resource that names the five most common mental health challenges students face in college. On the list is depression, eating disorders, anxiety, addiction, and suicide. It’s important to understand what these terms mean. Depression can be defined many ways – one explanation is that “depression is a mood disorder that involves persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities” (“The Top Mental Health Challenges Facing Students”). Ultimately, depression is a result of a chemical imbalance in our brains. Anxiety is feelings of worry/fear that interfere with one’s daily activities. Symptoms include sweating, trouble concentrating, feeling nervous/restless, etc. Suicide or suicidal ideations can be best explained as “a prevalent pattern of thinking about or planning one’s own death by one’s own hand” (“The Top Mental Health Challenges Facing Students”). The term eating disorder encompasses “a variety of conditions marked by major irregularities in individual eating habits and an intense preoccupation with one’s body image or shape. Disorders can involve both food deprivation and binge eating, which may be followed by purging. 2018 statistics from the National Eating Disorders Association reported that 10-20% of female college students have an eating disorder, and that rate continues to rise. Male students experience lower instances of 4-10%” (“The Top Mental Health Challenges Facing Students”).

Cases or Examples

The National Institute of Health claims that “traditional college students are in a transitional age, young adulthood, which is associated with numerous stressors and during which many mental health problems often first occur” (Pedrelli, et al.) Students enter college at an age where people are very vulnerable to developing mental health problems or first being diagnosed with an illness. While attending college and struggling with the demands of higher education, many students experience the first onset of mental health and substance use problems or experience a worsening of their symptoms. This age group, college aside, has some of the highest rates of depression, suicide, etc. Not everyone ages 18-24 attends college, so this really speaks to the vulnerability that this generation has for developing issues with their mental health. ‘Best Colleges’ writes, “news articles from 2019 revealed that suicide rates among young Americans were at their highest-ever levels, speaking to a crisis that extends beyond campus into society” (“The Top Mental Health Challenges Facing Students”).

Working Bibliography

Castillo, L.G. and Schwartz, S.J. (2013), Introduction to the Special Issue on College Student  Mental Health. J. Clin. Psychol., 69: 291-297. https://doi-org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/10.1002/jclp.21972

Pedrelli, Paola, et al. “College Students: Mental Health Problems and Treatment Considerations.” Academic Psychiatry : the Journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4527955/

Sreenivasan, Hari, et al. “How the Pandemic Is Impacting College Students' Mental Health.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 19 Jan. 2021, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-the-pandemic-is-impacting-college-students-mental-health

“The Top Mental Health Challenges Facing Students: BestColleges.” BestColleges.com, BestColleges.com, 6 May 2020, www.bestcolleges.com/resources/top-5-mental-health-problems-facing-college-students/