College Mental Health Crisis: Depression Cases Skyrocket by 135 Percent

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

College is supposed to be the best time in many students’ lives. From making lifelong friends to creating new experiences, college is the time to explore and find yourself before going out into the “real world.” However, researchers from Boston University reveal that the mental health of college students is getting worse. Their study found that rates of anxiety and depression have skyrocketed over the last eight years.

The study is the first long-term, multicampus examination of its kind that analyzes the differences in treatment and prevalence of mental health issues across race and ethnicity. Researchers examined survey data collected by the Healthy Minds Network between 2013 and 2021 from 350,000 students at over 300 campuses. They measured mental health symptoms, levels of flourishing, and whether a student received treatment during their time at college.

Researchers discovered that the mental health of college students has been on a steady decline for all eight years of data. There was a 135-percent increase in depression and a 110-percent increase in anxiety from 2013 to 2021. Researchers say the number of students who experienced one or more mental health problems in 2021 had doubled from 2013.

The study was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/college-students-mental-health/