studentmentalhealth - Tumblr blog

[studentmentalhealth]

Introduction

As society pushes towards the normalization of therapy and mental health, the social problem of student mental health has become increasingly discussed. Specifically young adult (ages 18-25) students who are either about to graduate high school or enrolling and navigating through college.

This topic is sociologically relevant given it brings together the two institutions of education and mental health to understand how students' success is hindered or not by the symptoms and diagnoses they face throughout their educational career. As we know, there can be multiple obstacles in a students life that impact their achievement in schools, such as socioeconomic status, race, gender, and family dynamics, but mental health is specifically one that is an internalizing factor and so can be observed in students differently. 

[studentmentalhealth]

Why this topic?

This topic is important to me because not only do I have personal experience struggling with mental health as a student, but I’ve also witnessed it in my peers and read a lot about it. Education is something I’ve increasingly become very passionate about, through my sociology courses in college, and I am always eager to learn more about the system, especially here in Nevada with such a large school district. I believe all students, no matter their class or background, deserve a quality education that they can enjoy and be engaged in (rather than just course through). And mental health is one aspect where students may end up struggling in their classwork due to emotional burdens they can't control. Even so, there should be ways to support these students so that they can continue learning in an environment they feel comfortable in. This however can only be done by first observing how mental health takes a toll on these students, whether it begins in their primary schooling or in postsecondary education. 

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"college students are struggling — roughly 40 percent of them experience some level of depression, and 36 percent screened positive for anxiety disorders, according to the 2022-2023 Healthy Minds Study, a study on college student mental health from the University of Michigan." (Sanchez 2024)

[studentmentalhealth]

My Audience

The public audience I aim to reach with this project are dependent on local, state, and national levels. First and foremost, the students, faculty, and administrators are the biggest audience that I feel will be reached. Students should be aware of how common mental health struggles happen in their young adult life while balancing school. They also benefit to know how this might affect them, whether that be their student success or their performance. I think there is a lot students may not recognize could develop into serious mental health issues and it is worth taking a look at. Faculty and administrators are of course the first authority figures that they come face to face with and their knowledge and awareness of this topic is significant to the consequences of student mental health. They have the primary power and privilege in this topic due to their involvement with funds allocated toward student counselors, programs, and resources in their schools. The next level audience would be the state government. Faculty and administration can only go so far before they hit obstacles in the budget that of course point towards the government. That being said, our government ideally runs by the people and so this project aims also towards regular citizens who have the power to petition, vote, and advocate change for students.

[studentmentalhealth]

Facts + Figures...

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“trajectories of anxiety during elementary school appear to be related to high school noncompletion” (Duchesne et al., 2008, p. 1141). 

“the presence of aggressiveness and hyperactivity increases this same probability [of belonging to a highschool completion group]” (Duchesne et al., 2008, pp. 1141-11442). 

[studentmentalhealth]

3. “Children with the ‘well-adjusted’ class had assets in the academic and social domains, low aggressive behavior, and low depressive symptoms in elementary school, and low rates of academic and mental health problems in adolescence” (Valdez, 2011, p. 521).

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4. “a meta-analysis of 83 studies that examined the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions in relation to control groups…found positive effects…across a range of academic outcomes” (Suldo et al., 2014, p. 89). 

5. “interventions that target behavioral improvements in students with ADHD…have yielded positive effects on distal skills and proximal behavior and some indicators of proximal skills” (Suldo et al., 2014, p. 89).

[studentmentalhealth]

Policy Recommendations...

[studentmentalhealth]

Interventions that show promise:

Building students’ behavior management skills and having them practice new skills under expert supervision

Training some students to offer support to others

Reducing students’ access to things they can use to harm themselves

Creating feelings of belonging

Making campuses more inclusive

(Ordway, 2023)

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1. Increase funding for school-based mental health services and incentivize innovation

2. Provide stricter guidelines for state and city-level Children's Cabinets.

3. Form a committee dedicated to increasing transparency around sharing student data between community providers.

(Asante, 2021)

[studentmentalhealth]

Conclusion

Student mental health research and policy recommendations are improving every day. It's important that while mental health can often be a hard condition to diagnose, treat, and accept, it is vital that schools provide the most resources for their students to minimize stress, anxiety, depression, and more. Doing so certainly requires the consistent input and voices of the students as well as the cooperation of faculty and administration.

This tumblr blog serves as a basis for various scholarly evidence out there on student mental health, as well as provides a handful of media articles on the topic and points to ways we can address this issue.

Mental health MATTERS and should be a normalized topic to discuss, especially in schools where there is an abundance of factors and stressors present for our young and future leaders.

[studentmentalhealth]

References

Asante, S. (2021). "3 Policy Recommendations to Safeguard Students' Mental Health". Teach for America. https://www.teachforamerica.org/one-day/opinion/3-policy-recommendations-to-safeguard-students-mental-health

CrashCourse. (2022). "Your Mental Health in College". YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_9PchV6PIc

Duchesne, S., Vitaro, F., Larose, S. & Tremblay, R. E. (2008). Trajectories of Anxiety During Elementary-school Years and the Prediction of High School Noncompletion. J Youth Adolescence, 37(9), 1134–1146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-007-9224-0

Ordway, D. (2023). "Improving College Student Mental Health: Research on Promising Campus Interventions". The Journalist's Resource. https://journalistsresource.org/education/college-student-mental-health-research-interventions/

Sanchez, O. (2024). "The Worst of the Pandemic is Behind Us. College Students' mental health needs are not." The Hechinger Report. https://hechingerreport.org/the-worst-of-the-pandemic-is-behind-us-college-students-mental-health-needs-are-not/

Suldo, S. M., Gorley, M. J., DuPaul, G. J. et al. (2014). The Impact of School Mental Health on Student and School-Level Academic Outcomes: Current Status of the Research and Future Directions. School Mental Health, 6(2), 84-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-013-9116-2

Valdez, C. R., Lambert, S. F., & Ialongo, N. (2011). Identifying Patterns of Early Risk for Mental Health and Academic Problems in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study of Urban Youth. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev, 42(5), 521-528. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-011-0230-9.