Campus Life and Mental Health: An Online Survey

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Campus Life and Mental Health An Online Survey

• DeAnnah Byrd, MS
• Doctoral Roundtable
• May 19, 2008

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Presentation Overview

• Background
• Research Questions
• Methods
• Preliminary Findings
• Conclusions
• Next Steps

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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

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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

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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

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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
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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Methods Outcome Variable

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

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Methods Independent Variable

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Thank-You!

• Questions? deannahbyrd_at_ucla.edu