By Carter Rogers
Campus News Wire
Experts believe the stresses of modern college life are leading to more instances of mental illnesses like depression.
It's no secret that being a college student can be a stressful experience, with exams, social obligations, extracurriculars, work and financial worries creating the perfect storm of stressors. What is news, however, is that, according to a recent psychology study, these factors are weighing more heavily on the mental health of college students than they ever have before.
The study looked at data obtained by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Researchers from five universities analyzed 77,576 responses from college and high school students and found that in 2007, those types of students were five times as likely to fit the criteria for mental illnesses such as depression than their counterparts in 1938.
The MMPI, which has been in use in a largely unchanged format since 1938, is a series of yes-or-no questions that are used to determine how participants score in several mental health categories. The study controlled for variables such as increased enrollment by women and minorities in colleges since the MMPI was first given.
Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, led the study. Twenge and other researchers believe that modern society's fast pace and increasing focus on materialism and financial success contribute to the results by stressing out students who feel the need to meet unreasonably high expectations.
Twenge had already analyzed these trends in her two books "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled and More Miserable Than Ever Before" and "The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement."
As to whether the study's results mean college students themselves are more depressed now than in 1938, Julie Jampel, the director of training and the continuing education director of Tufts Mental Health Service, thinks other factors might be at play.
"The numbers of students seeking counseling has increased over the last several years. This has been a national trend, and we have noticed it at Tufts, too," Jampel said in an e-mail to the Daily.
"The reasons why today's college students report higher rates of mental health concerns, such as depression, than their Depression-era counterparts are complex and multifaceted. There is no 'one size fits all' formula. I do think that there is greater awareness of mental health concerns today and an increased willingness to acknowledge or endorse symptoms. This can, of course, increase the reported incidence of mental health concerns," she added.
Junior John Salvatore, a member of the Tufts chapter of Active Minds, a national mental health advocacy organization, also believes improved awareness of mental health issues might have contributed to the results.
"I am no expert, but I have to wonder whether today's improved diagnostic tools and criteria have something to do with the increase in reports of depression and anxiety. I would imagine that the prevalence of the disorders have not changed as dramatically as peoples' opinions of mental illness and their willingness to seek out help, especially since the treatment for behavioral problems around the time of the [Great Depression] consisted of inserting an icepick into the eye socket and severing the prefrontal cortex from the rest of the brain," Salvatore said in an e-mail to the Daily.
"In addition, more of today's health insurance companies are covering mental health treatment, which provides more incentives for patients to report their illnesses to the doctors and scientists who come up with these prevalence ratings," Salvatore said.
Salvatore did not discount the study's findings.
"That doesn't rule out the possibility that the stresses of college and the pressure to succeed don't play a precipitous role, though," he added.
Jampel also believes that "societal change matters, too. In various ways, our society is more dangerous, confusing, chaotic, and materialistic today than it was during the years of the Great Depression and World War II. These changes may well affect the trends noted in the study," Jampel added.
One member of Ears for Peers, a group that provides an anonymous peer support hotline to Tufts students, believes college students face far more stressors than just materialism and expectations.
"The thing that we get called about most often is relationships. We clump a lot of things into that category, but that includes boyfriend and girlfriend stuff and general making friends, that kind of thing ... So I think that sort of general relationship problems are what we see as being the biggest problem," said the member, who wished not to be named due to the fact that the group's focus is anonymous counseling.
The member said that one thing that might be hurting relationships is technology.
"You can either call Ears for Peers on the phone or you can IM us, and we get a lot of IMs, and I think a lot of people feel more comfortable talking about things that way and I think that's sort of a sign that relationships between people have changed because you used to not be able to do that, and now that's a new way to talk to people, and it's a less personal way," the member said. "A lot of the times we talk to people on IM, they're a little more vague and it's sort of harder to get them to say what they're really upset about, so I think it helps people [to] be more distant in their relationships."
Ears for Peers has received numerous calls from students who feel they cannot live up to what is expected of them.
"We definitely get calls from people who are stressed about their schoolwork and they feel like they're not doing well enough in their classes, and I think there definitely is a lot of pressure on people today to succeed at a very high level," the member said. "Most people would be surprised by how many calls we get ... A surprising percentage of the student body has called Ears for Peers."
Campus News Wire
Experts believe the stresses of modern college life are leading to more instances of mental illnesses like depression.
It's no secret that being a college student can be a stressful experience, with exams, social obligations, extracurriculars, work and financial worries creating the perfect storm of stressors. What is news, however, is that, according to a recent psychology study, these factors are weighing more heavily on the mental health of college students than they ever have before.
The study looked at data obtained by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Researchers from five universities analyzed 77,576 responses from college and high school students and found that in 2007, those types of students were five times as likely to fit the criteria for mental illnesses such as depression than their counterparts in 1938.
The MMPI, which has been in use in a largely unchanged format since 1938, is a series of yes-or-no questions that are used to determine how participants score in several mental health categories. The study controlled for variables such as increased enrollment by women and minorities in colleges since the MMPI was first given.
Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, led the study. Twenge and other researchers believe that modern society's fast pace and increasing focus on materialism and financial success contribute to the results by stressing out students who feel the need to meet unreasonably high expectations.
Twenge had already analyzed these trends in her two books "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled and More Miserable Than Ever Before" and "The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement."
As to whether the study's results mean college students themselves are more depressed now than in 1938, Julie Jampel, the director of training and the continuing education director of Tufts Mental Health Service, thinks other factors might be at play.
"The numbers of students seeking counseling has increased over the last several years. This has been a national trend, and we have noticed it at Tufts, too," Jampel said in an e-mail to the Daily.
"The reasons why today's college students report higher rates of mental health concerns, such as depression, than their Depression-era counterparts are complex and multifaceted. There is no 'one size fits all' formula. I do think that there is greater awareness of mental health concerns today and an increased willingness to acknowledge or endorse symptoms. This can, of course, increase the reported incidence of mental health concerns," she added.
Junior John Salvatore, a member of the Tufts chapter of Active Minds, a national mental health advocacy organization, also believes improved awareness of mental health issues might have contributed to the results.
"I am no expert, but I have to wonder whether today's improved diagnostic tools and criteria have something to do with the increase in reports of depression and anxiety. I would imagine that the prevalence of the disorders have not changed as dramatically as peoples' opinions of mental illness and their willingness to seek out help, especially since the treatment for behavioral problems around the time of the [Great Depression] consisted of inserting an icepick into the eye socket and severing the prefrontal cortex from the rest of the brain," Salvatore said in an e-mail to the Daily.
"In addition, more of today's health insurance companies are covering mental health treatment, which provides more incentives for patients to report their illnesses to the doctors and scientists who come up with these prevalence ratings," Salvatore said.
Salvatore did not discount the study's findings.
"That doesn't rule out the possibility that the stresses of college and the pressure to succeed don't play a precipitous role, though," he added.
Jampel also believes that "societal change matters, too. In various ways, our society is more dangerous, confusing, chaotic, and materialistic today than it was during the years of the Great Depression and World War II. These changes may well affect the trends noted in the study," Jampel added.
One member of Ears for Peers, a group that provides an anonymous peer support hotline to Tufts students, believes college students face far more stressors than just materialism and expectations.
"The thing that we get called about most often is relationships. We clump a lot of things into that category, but that includes boyfriend and girlfriend stuff and general making friends, that kind of thing ... So I think that sort of general relationship problems are what we see as being the biggest problem," said the member, who wished not to be named due to the fact that the group's focus is anonymous counseling.
The member said that one thing that might be hurting relationships is technology.
"You can either call Ears for Peers on the phone or you can IM us, and we get a lot of IMs, and I think a lot of people feel more comfortable talking about things that way and I think that's sort of a sign that relationships between people have changed because you used to not be able to do that, and now that's a new way to talk to people, and it's a less personal way," the member said. "A lot of the times we talk to people on IM, they're a little more vague and it's sort of harder to get them to say what they're really upset about, so I think it helps people [to] be more distant in their relationships."
Ears for Peers has received numerous calls from students who feel they cannot live up to what is expected of them.
"We definitely get calls from people who are stressed about their schoolwork and they feel like they're not doing well enough in their classes, and I think there definitely is a lot of pressure on people today to succeed at a very high level," the member said. "Most people would be surprised by how many calls we get ... A surprising percentage of the student body has called Ears for Peers."
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Ok, kids, the Generation Wars are at it again! Joy, right? Once again, Strauss and Howe, the guys that back in 1991 were so eager to tell "Generation X" that they just would never be as good as their own "Baby Boom" generation, are here to tell you how you're supposedly deficient. For example, they never would have imagined that a Gen X kid would think of the space shuttle Challenger accident "gee, I bet our generation can do better than that!" Oh, no. We were supposedly permanently psychologically scarred by the experience.
So here they are again, spouting bullshit as if it were fact. I say "bullshit" because we need to face the fact that these people just make this crap up. Why would I say that in the face of their methods? Sometimes people make mistakes on the basis of language. Is someone "depressed" or are they really "concerned?" If you take a "anti-depessant" is the impact "happiness" or "complacency?" See how is it is? Fun, isn't it? You can do the same thing with the way you word questions in a survey or interview so you get the answers you want.
Here's another fun trick: "high self-monitoring" supposedly means you are more attentive to your environment and expectations of others. "High self-monitoring" correlates with higher GPA performance, but you won't be told THAT in the news. Oh, no. You'll be told how it has a correlation with "depression." Now let's change "depression" to "concerned." Ta-da! It's a circular argument! People who are concerned about how they look to others are concerned about something! Surprising and shocking, huh? Ironically, some idiots also say it correlates with anti-social personality disorder. Apparently these nitwits never looked up the defition of ASPD and probably never met someone that had a serious case of it.
Keep in mind, at one point the American Psychological Association INSISTED the following:
* Brain development ends at around age 23 (recently recinded)
* IQ tests were a good way to determine if people people should be allowed a green card - why it was invented, actually!
* Alcoholism is a disease (which was only defined as such due to insurance companies refusing treatment coverage on the basis that it wasn't a disease)
So what is going on? POLITICS. Someone wants to sell more complacency pills. This doesn't really help you as a human being, but it helps line someone else's pockets.
So suppose the whole "depression" or "self-monitoring" business is a poorly constructed concept in the first place? What if "self-monitoring" is a SKILL like other falsely assumed "characteristics" like empathy are skills? Suppose it's a skill that creates greater awareness and that greater awareness generates, logically, greater concern. Is that really such a terrible thing? Do you really need to run out and get a perscription for complacency pills for that?
I swear, sometimes these generation researchers have toxic false "positive" expectations. I DON'T want future generations to be like that. If you belong to a generation that gives a damn about others, then I say, "Welcome! Let's fight the good fight and be heroes together!"