Mental health is essential at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. And more than two years after the pandemic, we see the longer-term effects of mental health in schools, with institutions helping and hurting the problem.
Serious stressors are taking a toll on the well-being of college students across the country, including hostile and competitive learning environments. Notably, students of color shoulder an even more significant burden than their peers.
Mental Health Struggles Affect All Students
Mental health problems can affect many areas of students’ lives, reducing their quality of life, academic achievement, physical health, and satisfaction with the overall college experience.
Some research suggests that depression is associated with lower grade point averages and being twice as likely to drop out of school. And having both depression and anxiety can increase this association. Students with mental health challenges may also seem less interested in their course or be unwilling to engage in discussions.
And student mental health continues to worsen by almost every metric. During the 2020–2021 school year, more than 60% of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem, according to the June 2022 Healthy Minds Study of 373 campuses nationwide.
In another national survey, almost three-quarters of students reported moderate or severe psychological distress.
“While we know that higher education institutions cannot entirely remove these pressures from learners’ lives, higher education institutions are responsible for supporting their student’s success, and that student success is inextricably linked to student well-being,” April Yee, senior program officer at the College Futures Foundation, said in a May 2023 press release.
The research is clear: colleges and universities directly impact how their students feel. And
while higher education leaders have put measures in place to help stem the tide, they must do more. The American Council on Education reported that 70% of university presidents say their most pressing issue is student mental health.
Students of Color are Disproportionately Impacted
Public health crises impact racial and ethnic minority communities on a much larger scale than other populations. And institutions continuously promote social isolation, especially for minority students. Students must become socially and academically integrated into campus to succeed but often fail if they cannot relate to the larger campus population.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), it is due to this familial connectedness that current higher education policies are affecting many people of color in an unforeseen manner.
“This isolation has caused a disconnect between family members and communities that validate each other in a world that challenges their sense of belonging and purpose. And though relationships and social connections are important to all groups, this is especially true for members of racial and ethnic minority communities.”
Recently, campus activism has played a major role in shaping higher education itself. Generations of students have pushed for colleges to end discriminatory policies, increase campus safety, and improve student life.
But students of color who engage in activism and leadership frequently push their own mental health needs aside to focus on the fight for racial justice on their campuses. They have less emotional bandwidth to dedicate to typical student experiences, such as personal relationships, social life, academic performance, and navigating college life altogether.
Institutions can Sustain Hostile Learning Climates
College admissions and campus life are competitive in grades, research, internships, graduate programs, and more. And this competition among college students can be tied to adverse mental health outcomes like anxiety and depression and can reduce students’ interest in creating relationships.
According to a 2018 Gallup study, 61% of college students felt that a hostile and competitive climate on their campus prevented some individuals from expressing their views because others might perceive them as offensive. This percentage significantly increased from 2016, when 54% of college students surveyed expressed the same opinion.
But campus climates can also be hostile toward marginalized communities, like LGBTQ+ students, students of color, or undocumented students. Institutions that do not acknowledge and address hostilities, like microaggressions, hurt their learners.
An October 2021 Proud & Thriving Project study surveyed 907 students -- 602 LGBTQ+ and 305 non-LGBTQ+. About 83% of LGBTQ+ students said they had experienced stress over the past six months, compared to 71% of non-LGBTQ+ students.
Additionally, 67% of LGBTQ+ students said they felt lonely or isolated, and 55% expressed hopelessness, compared to 49% and 35% of LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ students, respectively.
Half of the students surveyed reported that their university is a top LGBTQ+-affirming space. But students in states that lack protections for LGBTQ+ individuals experienced additional stress and felt less supported by their institutions.
College is Expensive- Upholding High Costs & Promoting Debt
Colleges and universities can exacerbate students’ financial positions, which are often precarious due to the high tuition costs and other materials. According to the OECD's 2018 Education at a Glance report, the United States' public spending on higher education is 1.3 percent of GDP. This number is equal to public expenditure in Switzerland and the United Kingdom and higher than spending rates in Germany (1.2), France (1.2), Canada (1.2), Spain (1.0), Italy (0.8), and Japan (0.7).
Many students enter college underprepared to navigate the structures of higher education or identify available financial aid opportunities. Education debt harms students’ mental health, particularly students of color and first-generation students.
Our current system for funding public schools shortchanges students and is generally inadequate and inequitable, relying too heavily on state and local resources (particularly property tax revenues). Therefore, about 45 million Americans carry $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health survey of 8,400 young adults found that high debt relative to available assets was associated with higher perceived stress and depression. And a separate study of 1,430 older adults also found that debt is linked to
dire mental health consequences, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, and anger.
Campuses Rethink Their Approach
First and foremost, colleges and universities should raise awareness and address the mental health stigma by encouraging students to empathize with each other, share similar experiences, and communicate available mental health resources.
Institutions can carry out this vision by mandating life skills classes as part of the curriculum, teaching concepts such as meal planning, school-life balance, scheduling, getting sufficient exercise, budgeting money, and avoiding debt.
Faculty and staff can also create student assignments to promote self-care strategies, like healthy sleep, diet and exercise habits, spirituality, mindfulness, and gratitude.
And for minority students, institutions can embed diverse curricula throughout disciplines. Ethnic studies can promote a sense of belonging and empowerment in addition to affirming a student’s culture and belonging.
But as mental health becomes more normalized, students who need help may feel reluctant or unsure how to seek it out. Therefore, higher education institutions should add more trained counselors and establish peer support groups for students with various mental health needs.
Even simple quizzes emailed to students can help higher education determine students’ stress levels while learning what works, what doesn't, and what the way forward should look like.
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