Impact of College life on the mental health of students
Author: Akanksha Bhat, Sunidhi Mallick and Sakshi Telavne
Introduction:
The transition to college life can have a profound impact on the mental health of students. This period of newfound independence, academic challenges, and social pressures can lead to heightened stress, anxiety, and even depression. It is essential to understand the various factors that contribute to these mental health challenges and explore strategies to promote student well-being during this critical phase of personal and academic growth.
Objective:
To understand the underlying phenomenon ‘Impact of college life on the mental health of students’.
Literature Review:
Gulliver et.al (2023) studied that college plays an important transition in many young people’s lives, marking the end of adolescence and the beginning of young adulthood. This period usually happens with other significant changes in students’ lives, including changes in lifestyle and the beginning of new friendships and relationships. Many students have difficulties in this transition college life can be a stressful to students, in addition to bear with academic pressure, greater external expectation on their performance some students also have to deal with the stressful task to stay away from their native place and family. Apart from all of this students also have various responsibilities and numerous works. Hence many students experience mental health issues. Most mental disorders have peaked during young adulthood. An international study of 14,000 students spanning 19 universities and eight countries found that 35% of students met the diagnostic criteria for one or more mental disorders.
Pedrelli et.al (2015) found out that Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric problem amongst college students. Apart from anxiety disorders and social phobia, sleep deprivation, irregular eating habits and constant self doubt is persistently seen in the college going students.
Liu et.al (2023) studied various other emerging treatments and therapies for a better mental health. Music therapy is one of such treatments. A was study conducted on 934 college students who showed various good results such as pleasant emotional experience, better psychological balance and gradually acquiring a stable state of mind . Lastly, research has found out that the lower level of physical activity has the higher risk of developing mental illness. Hence, physical activity isn’t only beneficial for the physical health of the students but also stabilizes their anxiety and depression to a certain level.
Data Collection:
For the problem ‘Impact of College life on the mental health of students’, we made a questionnaire consisting of five objective questions and surveyed 103 students on the Likert Scale (Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree), scaled 1,2,3,4 and 5 with the help of Google Forms and compiled the data on Google Sheets.
Data Analysis:
For data analysis, we calculated the Mean (X), Standard Deviation (SD), Standard Error (SE) and t-stat (Z) values of each question, i.e. Question Number 1,2,3,4 and 5 in the Google Sheets. These statistical tools helped us form results and conclude our survey.
|
|
Question – 1 |
Question – 2 |
Question – 3 |
Question – 4 |
Question – 5 |
|
Mean |
3.68 |
3.49 |
3.27 |
3.13 |
3.53 |
|
SD |
1.20 |
1.22 |
1.28 |
1.36 |
1.34 |
|
SE |
0.95 |
0.97 |
1.01 |
1.07 |
1.06 |
|
Z |
0.52 |
0.38 |
0.31 |
0.34 |
0.72 |
|
Result |
Neutral |
Neutral |
Neutral |
Neutral |
Neutral |
Result: The ‘Z’ value on each question determines the results as neutral.
Conclusion:
Conclusion -1: People are neutral about ‘academic pressure stresses’.
Conclusion -2: People are neutral about ‘being unable to focus on other interests.’
Conclusion -3: People are neutral about ‘getting low on motivation after attending college’.
Conclusion -4: People are neutral about ‘getting tired and not eating regularly’.
Conclusion -5: People are neutral about ‘being unable to sleep on time due to college stress.
References:
- Gulliver, A.; Wysoke, T.; Calear, A.L.; Farrer, L.M. Factors Associated with Engagement in University Life, and Help Seeking Attitudes and Behaviour in First Year Undergraduate Students. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2023, 20, 120. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010120
- Liu, S., & Li, G. (2023). Analysis of the Effect of Music Therapy Interventions on College Students with Excessive Anxiety. Occupational Therapy International, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/3351918
- Pedrelli, P., Nyer, M., Yeung, A. et al.College Students: Mental Health Problems and Treatment Considerations. Acad Psychiatry 39, 503–511 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0205-9