Students commencing university tend to be more susceptible to falling victim to mental health and behavioral problems for several reasons. There has been an alarming rate of suicides among college and university students because many of them either do not know where to go to solve their problems or lack the courage to seek help. Various research papers fault the cause of psychological problems in university students to diverse issues, including pressure from parents, intimate relationships, and failure in academic work, among others. This paper reviews an article authored by McLafferty , Lapsley, Ennis, Armour, Murphy, Bunting, and O'Neill. McLafferty et al. (2017, p. 12) analyze mental illness in students and the treatments for the various conditions. This study specifically focuses on first-year students and intends to identify the root cause of psychological problems among college students.
Hypothesis
The researchers of this article suggest that mental health problems occur in people before they hit the age of 18. After that age, people face a critical time in personal development, a period that is characterized by a series of challenges and activities of life. Apparently, the above ages do coincide with college and university education, making the students more susceptible to psychological problems and behavioral problems (McLafferty et al., 2017, p. 12). The article cites a couple of studies on mental disorders appearance in university students in the United States and other countries. A substantial amount of college and university students during their lives in school face depression and other mental problems.
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According to a 2014 study cited by McLafferty et al. (2017), about 33% of American students reported having suffered depression. Another over 50% of the same population reported having experienced high-level anxiety. Over 8% of university students interviewed over the same period acknowledged having considered suicide after suffering from various mental problems. These studies confirm the thought that university students suffer most from psychological problems ( Auerbach et al., 2018, p. 623 ). Apparently, university students struggle from adapting to adulthood and the new life at the university. Low-income students, non-heterosexual students, and females are suffering the most of the mental disorders among university students.
Methodology
The focus area of the study is Ulster University, where 4, 1,646 first-year students were recruited among over four thousand first-year students admitted to the institution for undergraduate studies. Prior to the recruitment, the students were requested through email to ascertain willingness to participate in the study, and the selected group consented on their participation in the study through written assents. Participants were picked across various campuses to neutralize other unique factors that may trigger depression. The participants were taken through a survey where the researchers only considered those who completed the study as part of the study. Seven hundred thirty-nine students completed the survey, 462 of which were female, one transgender, and 274 males.
The surveys included screening for various mental problems, including depression, panic attacks, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and others. The researchers also used identification tools for alcohol use disorders to screen possible alcohol use disorders in participants. The WMH-CIDI screening tool was used to screening for the difficulty in attention or concentration. The survey also screened suicidal thoughts in participants. In addition to that, the survey also assessed help-seeking behavior among participants with mental problems. The survey also assessed receipt of treatment for victims, which included counseling and medication. The survey specifically assessed the likelihood of students seeking and receiving treatment. More specifically, the study sought to find out whether the participants had received treatment for psychological problems, the first time they ever received such treatment and their respective years at the time of receiving treatment. Such details were meant for finding out the level of exposure of students to treatment for psychological problems.
Results
The study found out that the prevalence rate for suicidality was 31% among the students who participated in the survey. Prevalence for major depression was found at 24.2%, and that of general anxiety at 22.6%. It was also revealed that female students were more vulnerable to developing suicidal thoughts and anxiety attacks. On the other hand, male students registered high likeliness of drug abuse and developing alcohol abuse disorders as well as other lifestyle disorders. On the overall, students were had 53.2% of experiencing lifetime disorders. Additionally, 19.1% of all participants, regardless of gender, registered to have had an experience for three or more mental disorders.
On the treatment of the reported mental problems, 10% of the participants reported having received a form of treatment for mental problems over the past year before joining the university. Notably, 13.8% of females reported having received the said treatment, whereas only 5.3% of females received the treatment. In addition to fewer students reporting receipt of treatment, 18.6% of the participants acknowledged their respective lack of interest in seeking treatment for psychological problems. It is a common phenomenon for students to hesitate from seeking treatment for mental health issues for a number of reasons ( Bruffaerts et al., 2019 ). Quite interestingly, more male students (21.4%) reported a lack of interest in seeking treatment compared to 15.8% who reported a lack of interest in seeking treatment.
Personal Opinion
The study represents a wide range of mental disorders including, depression, anxiety, panic, and panic attacks, among others. For this reason, it is valid for the evaluation of the behavior of first-year students on matters of mental disorders. However, the gender balance was not considered with the number of female students almost doubling that of male students. Therefore, results based on gender, such as that reporting more females reporting mental health conditions, are biased. This is with the exception of willingness to seek treatment, which records more males despite their low numbers. The study would have sought the various reasons behind the lack of willingness among some students to seeking treatment for mental health problems.
References
McLafferty, M., Lapsley, C. R., Ennis, E., Armour, C., Murphy, S., Bunting, B. P., ... & O'Neill, S. M. (2017). Mental health, behavioural problems and treatment seeking among students commencing university in Northern Ireland. PloS one , 12 (12).
Bruffaerts, R., Mortier, P., Auerbach, R. P., Alonso, J., Hermosillo De la Torre, A. E., Cuijpers, P., ... & Stein, D. J. (2019). Lifetime and 12 ‐ month treatment for mental disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among first year college students. International journal of methods in psychiatric research , 28 (2), e1764.
Auerbach, R. P., Mortier, P., Bruffaerts, R., Alonso, J., Benjet, C., Cuijpers, P., ... & Murray, E. (2018). WHO World Mental Health Surveys International College Student Project: prevalence and distribution of mental disorders. Journal of abnormal psychology , 127 (7), 623.
