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Campus Life and Mental Health: An Online Survey

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Title: Campus Life and Mental Health: An Online Survey


1
Campus Life and Mental Health An Online Survey
  • DeAnnah Byrd, MS
  • Doctoral Roundtable
  • May 19, 2008

2
Presentation Overview
  • Background
  • Research Questions
  • Methods
  • Preliminary Findings
  • Conclusions
  • Next Steps

3
Background
  • The mental health landscape of college students
    is receiving national attention
  • Colleges and universities report unprecedented
    numbers of students in psychological distress
  • The rising of student mental health cases has
    taxed the capacity of institutions to respond

4
Background National Trends
  • Nationally, nearly half of all college students
    report feeling so depressed that they have
    trouble functioning
  • Counseling centers nationwide report increasing
    numbers of students seeking services
  • Columbia reports a 45 increase since 1995
  • MIT a 55 increase between 1995 2000

5
Background National Trends
  • Diagnoses of these students indicate
  • Increased severity of problems
  • Increased use of medications for anxiety, mood
    disorders, and depression
  • In the past 20 years, stark increase in the
    number of students on medication
  • Notably, 1 prescribed drug for college students
    is Prozac

6
Background UC Trends
  • 1 in 4 students who seek counseling services
    within UC are already receiving psychotropic
    medication
  • UC systemwide, the of students utilizing
    campus counseling centers has increased 23 in
    the last 5 years
  • All UC campuses have seen an increase in the of
    students seeking services for psychiatric
    disabilities

Data from 8 UC campuses
7
Background UC Response
  • In an effort to address the growing demand for
    student mental health services
  • President Dynes charged the provost to undertake
    a comprehensive, university-wide review of
  • Student mental health issues
  • Challenges associated with providing appropriate
    services on UC campuses

8
Background SMH Committee
  • In 2005, Student Mental Health Committee (SMH)
    was formed
  • General charge was to assess the following
  • Trends in student mental health
  • How these trends are being managed nationally and
    at the University of California (UC)
  • Campuses ability to provide mental health
    services and address student needs
  • Determine whether campuses currently have
    resources to provide those services

9
Background SMH Committee
  • Committee concluded the following
  • Mental health trends resemble national ones and
    are negatively affecting all UC campuses
  • UC students are presenting mental health issues
    with greater frequency and complexity
  • Increased workload for mental health and other
    professionals on UC campuses

10
Background SMH Committee
  • Budget trends within the University limit the
    capacity of campuses to respond to mental health
    issues
  • Manifested in longer student wait-times (3-6
    weeks to see a counselor or psychiatrist),
    difficulty retaining staff, etc..
  • UC learning environment threatened by increased
    demand and declining capacity
  • Adverse impact on faculty, staff and students

11
Research Question
  • Higher education theory says involvement and
    campus integration leads to better health
    outcomes, including mental health outcomes
  • Does campus engagement affect the mental health
    of UCLA students?

12
Methods Data Source
  • 2006 student development student survey
  • Designed by Student Development Health Education
  • Ominbus survey of campus life and wellness in
    multiple areas
  • Explore the connections between health, student
    development, and college environment on student
    success

13
Methods Sample
  • Administered in Winter Quarter of 2006
  • Email solicitation sent 31, 007 students
  • N 2,203
  • Sample includes Undergraduate and
    Graduate/Professional students
  • First 100 respondents given 20 Bruincard to
    complete survey
  • All respondents entered into an incentive pool
    10 x 100 Bruincard credits

14
Methods Outcome Variable
  • Adopted 6 Mental Health scales from RAND
  • Overall mental health index
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Positive affect
  • Psychological distress
  • Psychological well-being

15
Methods Independent Variable
  • Campus life activities include 115-items related
    to different dimensions of students wellness and
    involvement
  • Social
  • Physical
  • Emotional
  • Spiritual
  • Intellectual

16
Methods Factor Analysis
  • Data reduction process for campus involvement
    variables
  • Using face validity, items on the survey were
    qualitatively grouped into 7 constructs
  • Campus climate
  • Student success and academics
  • Identity development and self-awareness
  • Religion and spirituality
  • Stress and mental health
  • Work/life balance
  • Campus integration and involvement

17
Methods Regression Analysis
  • Core analysis linear regression
  • Outcome variable
  • RAND scales for overall mental health
  • Created scale of mental health questions using a
    mean substitution for missing responses
  • Predictors
  • Number of days students could not perform their
    normal activities due to physical illness or
    injuries
  • Average hours of sleep per night during the week
  • Campus life variables

18
Preliminary Findings
  • Sample over-represents females (70) and
    undergrads (72)
  • Most respondents were Caucasian (38) and Chinese
    or Chinese American (20)
  • 27 of students were foreign-born
  • 34 reported English was not their first language

19
Preliminary Findings
  • Over 20 of students reported feeling tense,
    high strung, anxious or worried a good bit of
    the time
  • 27 of students reported being depressed at times
  • Other findings to come

20
Strengths
  • Reliable mental health measures (Cronbach alpha gt
    or 0.86)
  • Large sample size
  • Identify ways college environment and student
    development influences health behaviors
  • Sample resembles todays college student

21
Limitations
  • Low (7.1) response rate
  • Due to technological issues server overload and
    slow load times for each survey page
  • Students with a privacy restriction did not
    receive email solicitation, but may have seen
    advertisements
  • No way to determine causality
  • However, identifies potential relationships that
    could be explored more in-depth

22
Conclusions
  • Students are experiencing mental health problems,
    which in turn is affecting their wellness in
    various ways
  • Develop comprehensive approaches to address the
    complex needs of students

23
Next Steps Factor Analysis
  • Complete factor analysis, using an arbitrary
    factor loading cut-off of 0.3
  • Calculate Cronbachs alpha to measure how well
    items collected correlate with each other
  • Run regression analysis with reduced composite
    campus life variables

24
Next Steps Inter-group Comparisons
  • Compare undergrads to grads to answer the
    following question
  • Are grad students at higher risk for mental
    health issues?
  • Conflicting claims about differences
  • UC Berkeley study of 3,100 grad students reveals
  • Almost 50 of respondents experienced and
    emotional or stress-related problem
  • 10 of students reported they considered suicide
    in the last 12 months
  • 2002 survey found no difference on any of the
    RAND scales, except for depression
  • Undergrads had a greater level of depression

25
Next Steps Other Considerations
  • Further explore what it means to be healthy on a
    college campus
  • Explore other factors that are contributing to
    the higher mental health issues of grad students
  • Students are experiencing intense academic
    pressures from their advanced studies and an
    increased presence of family and financial
    obligations

26
Thank-You!
  • Questions? deannahbyrd_at_ucla.edu
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