College Students Are Stressed Out
College students are more stressed out
than ever before-at least according to
the latest findings of a large,
national survey that has been conducted annually
for the last 25 years.
The survey includes more than 200,000 students
attending nearly 300 colleges
and asks them to rate how their own mental health
stacks up with their classmates'
-for example, is it "above average"
or in the "highest 10%"?
This somewhat unusual methodology typically
results in the statistical Lake Woebegon effect
in which most people tend to overestimate themselves
in relation to others
(it refers to the fictional Lake Woebegon,
where "all the women are strong,
all the men are good-looking
and all the children are above average").
But the most recent results indicate
that fewer and fewer freshmen feel like
they are in top form in terms of coping with stress.
A quarter century ago, nearly 70% of freshmen
put themselves in the top 10% of
mentally stable people in their class;
today only 52% rate themselves that highly,
down 3 points since last year.
Students' self-esteem, however, is still robust:
a full 71% of freshmen put themselves in the top 10%
in terms of academic abilities.
It's hard to know what these numbers actually mean:
obviously, it's not mathematically possible for
52% or 71% of people to be in the top 10% of anything.
And, as I explored earlier, people's attempts
to compare themselves with others
are skewed in various ways. Nevertheless,
the finding is in line with previous research,
which found that almost half of all college students
who seek counseling now have a major mental illness.
That's more than double the rate seen 10 years ago.
So what's going on? Obviously,
the economy and high unemployment rate make for
a scary time to be in college,
potentially facing terrifying levels of debt
-that alone could account for the increase in stress.
Secondly, a much more rigorous large study recently
found that empathy among college students
had declined 40% since 2000
-and since caring relationships are essential to mental
and physical health, a decline in empathy
could also produce a decline in mental health and coping.