Stress is a natural human experience. In moderation, it’s what drives us to accomplish our daily goals and lets us know when we need to push ourselves further. That moderation, though, has been increasingly hard to find for college students.
As a 1999 surgeon general’s report stated, “Americans are inundated with messages about success—in school, in a profession, in parenting, in relationships—without appreciating that successful performance rests on a foundation of mental health.”
While general stress rates in America are at a seven-year low, college students are showing greater levels of stress, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and poor sleep patterns. Even worse, research has shown that young adults cope with these things worse than other generations. We’re more likely to skip a meal due to stress than our parents are, for example. In 2011, 30 percent of college students reported feeling ‘so depressed it was difficult to function’ at some point in the previous year. Suicide is currently the second-leading cause of death in college-age students in the U.S. These numbers constitute a mental health crisis on college campuses. So what’s causing the crisis and what can we do to stop it?
The time college students spend socializing is at an all-time low—instead they’re focused on adding to their resumes and keeping up with intense course loads. Facebook use is also climbing higher and higher among teens, and studies have shown more time spent on the site is correlated with symptoms of depression. Many theories have considered why teens still use the site in light of its effects, but it’s possible that college students are specifically equating Facebook with socialization and compensating for the time lost on that front.
It is only getting harder to stand out in today’s job markets and that pressure to stand out is clearly taking its toll. Academic success is based on mental health. A longitudinal study recently showed that just a 15-point increase out of a possible 80 points on a depression scale corresponds with a .17 lower GPA. When depression was paired with anxiety, a .40 GPA drop occurred. A lower GPA has been shown to increase the likelihood that a student will not finish college and mental health issues increase that risk dramatically. Of students who simply had a 3.0 or lower, nine percent dropped out, but when they also had a mental health issue, 25 percent dropped out.
If research has shown this is an issue for college students at-large, why aren’t academic institutions doing their part to stop it?
Some have picked up these trends. The Jed Foundation, in a joint program with the Clinton Foundation, introduced a “seal” given to postsecondary schools they find sufficiently committed to the mental health of their students. Don’t get too excited though because only 56 schools have been found committed as of yet—that’s out of the 7,000 postsecondary schools in the country.
Here at Binghamton University, there is only one full-time psychiatrist on staff at the health center. A first-time consultation with her can take well over a month to set up and that’s once a student works up the courage to do so. For a school with 16,000 students and looking to grow, having one psychiatrist makes for an appalling ratio. It’s not just Binghamton though—psychiatric services are sparse on most college campuses in the U.S. In a survey of directors of campus counseling centers, 63 percent of those who had psychiatric services available at their schools characterized them as not enough or inadequate.
Binghamton’s counseling center actually has a high ratio of staff-to-students. The center employs 14 counseling staff members; when compared to the school’s 16,000 students that would give it around 1100 students per counselor. Remember though that Binghamton is the exception, and our ratio puts us in the 10th percentile for similarly sized U.S. schools.
Overall numbers of students with mental health issues are going up, but statistics show that even among students already receiving counseling things like suicide and violent tendencies have gone up as well.
Swift action is the only way to counteract these trends. A recent New York Times article pointed out that students are now coming into college more depressed than ever and the intense pressure to excel is being felt as early as high school. Forty years ago, more than half of incoming college freshmen planned to earn no more than a bachelor’s degree, while last year only one in four did. The pressure to earn more advanced degrees is higher than ever before.
Colleges are a structure we need to utilize in the fight against the over-stressing of our youth. Binghamton University needs a better psychiatric system. Numbers have shown that where the correct resources are available, students will take advantage of them. The pressure put on today’s students is counterproductive and, most importantly, unhealthy.
To my fellow students: remember that your GPA doesn’t define you. Remember that you will be more productive if you take small breaks and get a healthy amount of sleep. Additionally, please remember to seek help when you need it—whether from friends or professionals.
– Ayal Goldberg is a junior majoring in psychology