research study of college students

Student mental health is in crisis. Campuses are rethinking their approach

Amid massive increases in demand for care, psychologists are helping colleges and universities embrace a broader culture of well-being and better equipping faculty to support students in need

Vol. 53 No. 7 Print version: page 60

• Mental Health

By nearly every metric, student mental health is worsening. During the 2020–2021 school year, more than 60% of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem, according to the Healthy Minds Study, which collects data from 373 campuses nationwide ( Lipson, S. K., et al., Journal of Affective Disorders , Vol. 306, 2022 ). In another national survey, almost three quarters of students reported moderate or severe psychological distress ( National College Health Assessment , American College Health Association, 2021).

Even before the pandemic, schools were facing a surge in demand for care that far outpaced capacity, and it has become increasingly clear that the traditional counseling center model is ill-equipped to solve the problem.

“Counseling centers have seen extraordinary increases in demand over the past decade,” said Michael Gerard Mason, PhD, associate dean of African American Affairs at the University of Virginia (UVA) and a longtime college counselor. “[At UVA], our counseling staff has almost tripled in size, but even if we continue hiring, I don’t think we could ever staff our way out of this challenge.”

Some of the reasons for that increase are positive. Compared with past generations, more students on campus today have accessed mental health treatment before college, suggesting that higher education is now an option for a larger segment of society, said Micky Sharma, PsyD, who directs student life’s counseling and consultation service at The Ohio State University (OSU). Stigma around mental health issues also continues to drop, leading more people to seek help instead of suffering in silence.

But college students today are also juggling a dizzying array of challenges, from coursework, relationships, and adjustment to campus life to economic strain, social injustice, mass violence, and various forms of loss related to Covid -19.

As a result, school leaders are starting to think outside the box about how to help. Institutions across the country are embracing approaches such as group therapy, peer counseling, and telehealth. They’re also better equipping faculty and staff to spot—and support—students in distress, and rethinking how to respond when a crisis occurs. And many schools are finding ways to incorporate a broader culture of wellness into their policies, systems, and day-to-day campus life.

“This increase in demand has challenged institutions to think holistically and take a multifaceted approach to supporting students,” said Kevin Shollenberger, the vice provost for student health and well-being at Johns Hopkins University. “It really has to be everyone’s responsibility at the university to create a culture of well-being.”

Higher caseloads, creative solutions

The number of students seeking help at campus counseling centers increased almost 40% between 2009 and 2015 and continued to rise until the pandemic began, according to data from Penn State University’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH), a research-practice network of more than 700 college and university counseling centers ( CCMH Annual Report , 2015 ).

That rising demand hasn’t been matched by a corresponding rise in funding, which has led to higher caseloads. Nationwide, the average annual caseload for a typical full-time college counselor is about 120 students, with some centers averaging more than 300 students per counselor ( CCMH Annual Report , 2021 ).

“We find that high-caseload centers tend to provide less care to students experiencing a wide range of problems, including those with safety concerns and critical issues—such as suicidality and trauma—that are often prioritized by institutions,” said psychologist Brett Scofield, PhD, executive director of CCMH.

To minimize students slipping through the cracks, schools are dedicating more resources to rapid access and assessment, where students can walk in for a same-day intake or single counseling session, rather than languishing on a waitlist for weeks or months. Following an evaluation, many schools employ a stepped-care model, where the students who are most in need receive the most intensive care.

Given the wide range of concerns students are facing, experts say this approach makes more sense than offering traditional therapy to everyone.

“Early on, it was just about more, more, more clinicians,” said counseling psychologist Carla McCowan, PhD, director of the counseling center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “In the past few years, more centers are thinking creatively about how to meet the demand. Not every student needs individual therapy, but many need opportunities to increase their resilience, build new skills, and connect with one another.”

Students who are struggling with academic demands, for instance, may benefit from workshops on stress, sleep, time management, and goal-setting. Those who are mourning the loss of a typical college experience because of the pandemic—or facing adjustment issues such as loneliness, low self-esteem, or interpersonal conflict—are good candidates for peer counseling. Meanwhile, students with more acute concerns, including disordered eating, trauma following a sexual assault, or depression, can still access one-on-one sessions with professional counselors.

As they move away from a sole reliance on individual therapy, schools are also working to shift the narrative about what mental health care on campus looks like. Scofield said it’s crucial to manage expectations among students and their families, ideally shortly after (or even before) enrollment. For example, most counseling centers won’t be able to offer unlimited weekly sessions throughout a student’s college career—and those who require that level of support will likely be better served with a referral to a community provider.

“We really want to encourage institutions to be transparent about the services they can realistically provide based on the current staffing levels at a counseling center,” Scofield said.

The first line of defense

Faculty may be hired to teach, but schools are also starting to rely on them as “first responders” who can help identify students in distress, said psychologist Hideko Sera, PsyD, director of the Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Morehouse College, a historically Black men’s college in Atlanta. During the pandemic, that trend accelerated.

“Throughout the remote learning phase of the pandemic, faculty really became students’ main points of contact with the university,” said Bridgette Hard, PhD, an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. “It became more important than ever for faculty to be able to detect when a student might be struggling.”

Many felt ill-equipped to do so, though, with some wondering if it was even in their scope of practice to approach students about their mental health without specialized training, Mason said.

Schools are using several approaches to clarify expectations of faculty and give them tools to help. About 900 faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina have received training in Mental Health First Aid , which provides basic skills for supporting people with mental health and substance use issues. Other institutions are offering workshops and materials that teach faculty to “recognize, respond, and refer,” including Penn State’s Red Folder campaign .

Faculty are taught that a sudden change in behavior—including a drop in attendance, failure to submit assignments, or a disheveled appearance—may indicate that a student is struggling. Staff across campus, including athletic coaches and academic advisers, can also monitor students for signs of distress. (At Penn State, eating disorder referrals can even come from staff working in food service, said counseling psychologist Natalie Hernandez DePalma, PhD, senior director of the school’s counseling and psychological services.) Responding can be as simple as reaching out and asking if everything is going OK.

Referral options vary but may include directing a student to a wellness seminar or calling the counseling center to make an appointment, which can help students access services that they may be less likely to seek on their own, Hernandez DePalma said. Many schools also offer reporting systems, such as DukeReach at Duke University , that allow anyone on campus to express concern about a student if they are unsure how to respond. Trained care providers can then follow up with a welfare check or offer other forms of support.

“Faculty aren’t expected to be counselors, just to show a sense of care that they notice something might be going on, and to know where to refer students,” Shollenberger said.

At Johns Hopkins, he and his team have also worked with faculty on ways to discuss difficult world events during class after hearing from students that it felt jarring when major incidents such as George Floyd’s murder or the war in Ukraine went unacknowledged during class.

Many schools also support faculty by embedding counselors within academic units, where they are more visible to students and can develop cultural expertise (the needs of students studying engineering may differ somewhat from those in fine arts, for instance).

When it comes to course policy, even small changes can make a big difference for students, said Diana Brecher, PhD, a clinical psychologist and scholar-in-residence for positive psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), formerly Ryerson University. For example, instructors might allow students a 7-day window to submit assignments, giving them agency to coordinate with other coursework and obligations. Setting deadlines in the late afternoon or early evening, as opposed to at midnight, can also help promote student wellness.

At Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC) near Chicago, Shelita Shaw, an assistant professor of communications, devised new class policies and assignments when she noticed students struggling with mental health and motivation. Those included mental health days, mindful journaling, and a trip with family and friends to a Chicago landmark, such as Millennium Park or Navy Pier—where many MVCC students had never been.

Faculty in the psychology department may have a unique opportunity to leverage insights from their own discipline to improve student well-being. Hard, who teaches introductory psychology at Duke, weaves in messages about how students can apply research insights on emotion regulation, learning and memory, and a positive “stress mindset” to their lives ( Crum, A. J., et al., Anxiety, Stress, & Coping , Vol. 30, No. 4, 2017 ).

Along with her colleague Deena Kara Shaffer, PhD, Brecher cocreated TMU’s Thriving in Action curriculum, which is delivered through a 10-week in-person workshop series and via a for-credit elective course. The material is also freely available for students to explore online . The for-credit course includes lectures on gratitude, attention, healthy habits, and other topics informed by psychological research that are intended to set students up for success in studying, relationships, and campus life.

“We try to embed a healthy approach to studying in the way we teach the class,” Brecher said. “For example, we shift activities every 20 minutes or so to help students sustain attention and stamina throughout the lesson.”

Creative approaches to support

Given the crucial role of social connection in maintaining and restoring mental health, many schools have invested in group therapy. Groups can help students work through challenges such as social anxiety, eating disorders, sexual assault, racial trauma, grief and loss, chronic illness, and more—with the support of professional counselors and peers. Some cater to specific populations, including those who tend to engage less with traditional counseling services. At Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), for example, the “Bold Eagles” support group welcomes men who are exploring their emotions and gender roles.

The widespread popularity of group therapy highlights the decrease in stigma around mental health services on college campuses, said Jon Brunner, PhD, the senior director of counseling and wellness services at FGCU. At smaller schools, creating peer support groups that feel anonymous may be more challenging, but providing clear guidelines about group participation, including confidentiality, can help put students at ease, Brunner said.

Less formal groups, sometimes called “counselor chats,” meet in public spaces around campus and can be especially helpful for reaching underserved groups—such as international students, first-generation college students, and students of color—who may be less likely to seek services at a counseling center. At Johns Hopkins, a thriving international student support group holds weekly meetings in a café next to the library. Counselors typically facilitate such meetings, often through partnerships with campus centers or groups that support specific populations, such as LGBTQ students or student athletes.

“It’s important for students to see counselors out and about, engaging with the campus community,” McCowan said. “Otherwise, you’re only seeing the students who are comfortable coming in the door.”

Peer counseling is another means of leveraging social connectedness to help students stay well. At UVA, Mason and his colleagues found that about 75% of students reached out to a peer first when they were in distress, while only about 11% contacted faculty, staff, or administrators.

“What we started to understand was that in many ways, the people who had the least capacity to provide a professional level of help were the ones most likely to provide it,” he said.

Project Rise , a peer counseling service created by and for Black students at UVA, was one antidote to this. Mason also helped launch a two-part course, “Hoos Helping Hoos,” (a nod to UVA’s unofficial nickname, the Wahoos) to train students across the university on empathy, mentoring, and active listening skills.

At Washington University in St. Louis, Uncle Joe’s Peer Counseling and Resource Center offers confidential one-on-one sessions, in person and over the phone, to help fellow students manage anxiety, depression, academic stress, and other campus-life issues. Their peer counselors each receive more than 100 hours of training, including everything from basic counseling skills to handling suicidality.

Uncle Joe’s codirectors, Colleen Avila and Ruchika Kamojjala, say the service is popular because it’s run by students and doesn’t require a long-term investment the way traditional psychotherapy does.

“We can form a connection, but it doesn’t have to feel like a commitment,” said Avila, a senior studying studio art and philosophy-neuroscience-psychology. “It’s completely anonymous, one time per issue, and it’s there whenever you feel like you need it.”

As part of the shift toward rapid access, many schools also offer “Let’s Talk” programs , which allow students to drop in for an informal one-on-one session with a counselor. Some also contract with telehealth platforms, such as WellTrack and SilverCloud, to ensure that services are available whenever students need them. A range of additional resources—including sleep seminars, stress management workshops, wellness coaching, and free subscriptions to Calm, Headspace, and other apps—are also becoming increasingly available to students.

Those approaches can address many student concerns, but institutions also need to be prepared to aid students during a mental health crisis, and some are rethinking how best to do so. Penn State offers a crisis line, available anytime, staffed with counselors ready to talk or deploy on an active rescue. Johns Hopkins is piloting a behavioral health crisis support program, similar to one used by the New York City Police Department, that dispatches trained crisis clinicians alongside public safety officers to conduct wellness checks.

A culture of wellness

With mental health resources no longer confined to the counseling center, schools need a way to connect students to a range of available services. At OSU, Sharma was part of a group of students, staff, and administrators who visited Apple Park in Cupertino, California, to develop the Ohio State: Wellness App .

Students can use the app to create their own “wellness plan” and access timely content, such as advice for managing stress during final exams. They can also connect with friends to share articles and set goals—for instance, challenging a friend to attend two yoga classes every week for a month. OSU’s apps had more than 240,000 users last year.

At Johns Hopkins, administrators are exploring how to adapt school policies and procedures to better support student wellness, Shollenberger said. For example, they adapted their leave policy—including how refunds, grades, and health insurance are handled—so that students can take time off with fewer barriers. The university also launched an educational campaign this fall to help international students navigate student health insurance plans after noticing below average use by that group.

Students are a key part of the effort to improve mental health care, including at the systemic level. At Morehouse College, Sera serves as the adviser for Chill , a student-led advocacy and allyship organization that includes members from Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University, two other HBCUs in the area. The group, which received training on federal advocacy from APA’s Advocacy Office earlier this year, aims to lobby public officials—including U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, a Morehouse College alumnus—to increase mental health resources for students of color.

“This work is very aligned with the spirit of HBCUs, which are often the ones raising voices at the national level to advocate for the betterment of Black and Brown communities,” Sera said.

Despite the creative approaches that students, faculty, staff, and administrators are employing, students continue to struggle, and most of those doing this work agree that more support is still urgently needed.

“The work we do is important, but it can also be exhausting,” said Kamojjala, of Uncle Joe’s peer counseling, which operates on a volunteer basis. “Students just need more support, and this work won’t be sustainable in the long run if that doesn’t arrive.”

Further reading

Overwhelmed: The real campus mental-health crisis and new models for well-being The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2022

Mental health in college populations: A multidisciplinary review of what works, evidence gaps, and paths forward Abelson, S., et al., Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 2022

Student mental health status report: Struggles, stressors, supports Ezarik, M., Inside Higher Ed, 2022

Before heading to college, make a mental health checklist Caron, C., The New York Times, 2022

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Expert Commentary

Improving college student mental health: Research on promising campus interventions

Hiring more counselors isn’t enough to improve college student mental health, scholars warn. We look at research on programs and policies schools have tried, with varying results.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource September 13, 2023

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If you’re a journalist covering higher education in the U.S., you’ll likely be reporting this fall on what many healthcare professionals and researchers are calling a college student mental health crisis.

An estimated 49% of college students have symptoms of depression or anxiety disorder and 14% seriously considered committing suicide during the past year, according to a national survey of college students conducted during the 2022-23 school year. Nearly one-third of the 76,406 students who participated said they had intentionally injured themselves in recent months.

In December, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a rare public health advisory calling attention to the rising number of youth attempting suicide , noting the COVID-19 pandemic has “exacerbated the unprecedented stresses young people already faced.”

Meanwhile, colleges and universities of all sizes are struggling to meet the need for mental health care among undergraduate and graduate students. Many schools have hired more counselors and expanded services but continue to fall short.

Hundreds of University of Houston students held a protest earlier this year , demanding the administration increase the number of counselors and make other changes after two students died by suicide during the spring semester, the online publication Chron reported.

In an essay in the student-run newspaper , The Cougar, last week, student journalist Malachi Key blasts the university for having one mental health counselor for every 2,122 students, a ratio higher than recommended by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services , which accredits higher education counseling services.

But adding staff to a campus counseling center won’t be enough to improve college student mental health and well-being, scholars and health care practitioners warn.

“Counseling centers cannot and should not be expected to solve these problems alone, given that the factors and forces affecting student well-being go well beyond the purview and resources that counseling centers can bring to bear,” a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine writes in a 2021 report examining the issue.

Advice from prominent scholars

The report is the culmination of an 18-month investigation the National Academies launched in 2019, at the request of the federal government, to better understand how campus culture affects college student mental health and well-being. Committee members examined data, studied research articles and met with higher education leaders, mental health practitioners, researchers and students.

The committee’s key recommendation: that schools take a more comprehensive approach to student mental health, implementing a wide range of policies and programs aimed at preventing mental health problems and improving the well-being of all students — in addition to providing services and treatment for students in distress and those with diagnosed mental illnesses.

Everyone on campus, including faculty and staff across departments, needs to pitch in to establish a new campus culture, the committee asserts.

“An ‘all hands’ approach, one that emphasizes shared responsibility and a holistic understanding of what it means in practice to support students, is needed if institutions of higher education are to intervene from anything more than a reactive standpoint,” committee members write. “Creating this systemic change requires that institutions examine the entire culture and environment of the institution and accept more responsibility for creating learning environments where a changing student population can thrive.”

In a more recent analysis , three leading scholars in the field also stress the need for a broader plan of action.

Sara Abelson , a research assistant professor at Temple University’s medical school; Sarah Lipson , an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health; and Daniel Eisenberg ,  a professor of health policy and management at the University of California, Los Angeles’ School of Public Health, have been studying college student mental health for years.

Lipson and Eisenberg also are principal investigators for the Healthy Minds Network , which administers the Healthy Minds Study , a national survey of U.S college students conducted annually to gather information about their mental health, whether and how they receive mental health care and related issues.

Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg review the research to date on mental health interventions for college students in the 2022 edition of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research . They note that while the evidence indicates a multi-pronged approach is best, it’s unclear which specific strategies are most effective.

Much more research needed

Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg stress the need for more research. Many interventions in place at colleges and universities today — for instance, schoolwide initiatives aimed at reducing mental health stigma and encouraging students to seek help when in duress – should be evaluated to gauge their effectiveness, they write in their chapter, “ Mental Health in College Populations: A Multidisciplinary Review of What Works, Evidence Gaps, and Paths Forward .”

They add that researchers and higher education leaders also need to look at how campus operations, including hiring practices and budgetary decisions, affect college student mental health. It would be helpful to know, for example, how students are impacted by limits on the number of campus counseling sessions they can have during a given period, Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg suggest.

Likewise, it would be useful to know whether students are more likely to seek counseling when they must pay for their sessions or when their school charges every member of the student body a mandatory health fee that provides free counseling for all students.

“These financially-based considerations likely influence help-seeking and treatment receipt, but they have not been evaluated within higher education,” they write.

Interventions that show promise

The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the chapter by Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg both spotlight programs and policies shown to prevent mental health problems or improve the mental health and well-being of young people. However, many intervention studies focus on high school students, specific groups of college students or specific institutions. Because of this, it can be tough to predict how well they would work across the higher education landscape.

Scientific evaluations of these types of interventions indicate they are effective:

• Building students’ behavior management skills and having them practice new skills under expert supervision . An example: A class that teaches students how to use mindfulness to improve their mental and physical health that includes instructor-led meditation exercises.
• Training some students to offer support to others , including sharing information and organizing peer counseling groups. “Peers may be ‘the single most potent source of influence’ on student affective and cognitive growth and development during college,” Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg write.
• Reducing students’ access to things they can use to harm themselves , including guns and lethal doses of over-the-counter medication.
• Creating feelings of belonging through activities that connect students with similar interests or backgrounds.
• Making campuses more inclusive for racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ students and students who are the first in their families to go to college. One way to do that is by hiring mental health professionals trained to recognize, support and treat students from different backgrounds. “Research has shown that the presentation of [mental health] symptoms can differ based on racial and ethnic backgrounds, as can engaging in help-seeking behaviors that differ from those of cisgender, heteronormative white men,” explain members of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee.

Helping journalists sift through the evidence

We encourage journalists to read the full committee report and aforementioned chapter in Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research . We realize, though, that many journalists won’t have time to pour over the combined 304 pages of text to better understand this issue and the wide array of interventions colleges and universities have tried, with varying success.

To help, we’ve gathered and summarized meta-analyses that investigate some of the more common interventions. Researchers conduct meta-analyses — a top-tier form of scientific evidence — to systematically analyze all the numerical data that appear in academic studies on a given topic. The findings of a meta-analysis are statistically stronger than those reached in a single study, partly because pooling data from multiple, similar studies creates a larger sample to examine.

Keep reading to learn more. And please check back here occasionally because we’ll add to this list as new research on college student mental health is published.

Peer-led programs

Stigma and Peer-Led Interventions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Jing Sun; et al. Frontiers in Psychiatry, July 2022.

When people diagnosed with a mental illness received social or emotional support from peers with similar mental health conditions, they experienced less stress about the public stigma of mental illness, this analysis suggests.

The intervention worked for people from various age groups, including college students and middle-aged adults, researchers learned after analyzing seven studies on peer-led mental health programs written or published between 1975 and 2021.

Researchers found that participants also became less likely to identify with negative stereotypes associated with mental illness.

All seven studies they examined are randomized controlled trials conducted in the U.S., Germany or Switzerland. Together, the findings represent the experiences of a total of 763 people, 193 of whom were students at universities in the U.S.

Researchers focused on interventions designed for small groups of people, with the goal of reducing self-stigma and stress associated with the public stigma of mental illness. One or two trained peer counselors led each group for activities spanning three to 10 weeks.

Five of the seven studies tested the Honest, Open, Proud program, which features role-playing exercises, self-reflection and group discussion. It encourages participants to consider disclosing their mental health issues, instead of keeping them a secret, in hopes that will help them feel more confident and empowered. The two other programs studied are PhotoVoice , based in the United Kingdom, and

“By sharing their own experiences or recovery stories, peer moderators may bring a closer relationship, reduce stereotypes, and form a positive sense of identity and group identity, thereby reducing self-stigma,” the authors of the analysis write.

Expert-led instruction

The Effects of Meditation, Yoga, and Mindfulness on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Tertiary Education Students: A Meta-Analysis Josefien Breedvelt; et al. Frontiers in Psychiatry, April 2019.

Meditation-based programs help reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among college students, researchers find after analyzing the results of 24 research studies conducted in various parts of North America, Asia and Europe.

Reductions were “moderate,” researchers write. They warn, however, that the results of their meta-analysis should be interpreted with caution considering studies varied in quality.

A total of 1,373 college students participated in the 24 studies. Students practiced meditation, yoga or mindfulness an average of 153 minutes a week for about seven weeks. Most programs were provided in a group setting.

Although the researchers do not specify which types of mindfulness, yoga or meditation training students received, they note that the most commonly offered mindfulness program is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and that a frequently practiced form of yoga is Hatha Yoga .

Meta-Analytic Evaluation of Stress Reduction Interventions for Undergraduate and Graduate Students Miryam Yusufov; et al. International Journal of Stress Management, May 2019.

After examining six types of stress-reduction programs common on college campuses, researchers determined all were effective at reducing stress or anxiety among students — and some helped with both stress and anxiety.

Programs focusing on cognitive-behavioral therapy , coping skills and building social support networks were more effective in reducing stress. Meanwhile, relaxation training, mindfulness-based stress reduction and psychoeducation were more effective in reducing anxiety.

The authors find that all six program types were equally effective for undergraduate and graduate students.

The findings are based on an analysis of 43 studies dated from 1980 to 2015, 30 of which were conducted in the U.S. The rest were conducted in Australia, China, India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kora, Malaysia or Thailand. A total of 4,400 students participated.

Building an inclusive environment

Cultural Adaptations and Therapist Multicultural Competence: Two Meta-Analytic Reviews Alberto Soto; et al. Journal of Clinical Psychology, August 2018.

If racial and ethnic minorities believe their therapist understands their background and culture, their treatment tends to be more successful, this analysis suggests.

“The more a treatment is tailored to match the precise characteristics of a client, the more likely that client will engage in treatment, remain in treatment, and experience improvement as a result of treatment,” the authors write.

Researchers analyzed the results of 15 journal articles and doctoral dissertations that examine therapists’ cultural competence . Nearly three-fourths of those studies were written or published in 2010 or later. Together, the findings represent the experiences of 2,640 therapy clients, many of whom were college students. Just over 40% of participants were African American and 32% were Hispanic or Latino.

The researchers note that they find no link between therapists’ ratings of their own level of cultural competence and client outcomes.

Internet-based interventions

Internet Interventions for Mental Health in University Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Mathias Harrer; et al. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, June 2019.

Internet-based mental health programs can help reduce stress and symptoms of anxiety, depression and eating disorders among college students, according to an analysis of 48 research studies published or written before April 30, 2018 on the topic.

All 48 studies were randomized, controlled trials of mental health interventions that used the internet to engage with students across various platforms and devices, including mobile phones and apps. In total, 10,583 students participated in the trials.

“We found small effects on depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, as well as moderate‐sized effects on eating disorder symptoms and students’ social and academic functioning,” write the authors, who conducted the meta-analysis as part of the World Mental Health International College Student Initiative .

The analysis indicates programs that focus on cognitive behavioral therapy “were superior to other types of interventions.” Also, programs “of moderate length” — one to two months – were more effective.

The researchers note that studies of programs targeting depression showed better results when students were not compensated for their participation, compared to studies in which no compensation was provided. The researchers do not offer possible explanations for the difference in results or details about the types of compensation offered to students.

About The Author

Denise-Marie Ordway

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Psychosocial Correlates of Insomnia Among College Students

ORIGINAL RESEARCH — Volume 19 — September 15, 2022

Yves Paul Vincent Mbous, MEng, BSc Hons, BSc 1 ; Mona Nili, PhD, PharmD, MS, MBA 1 ; Rowida Mohamed, MSc, BPharm 1 ; Nilanjana Dwibedi, PhD, MBA, BPharm 1 ( View author affiliations )

Suggested citation for this article: Mbous YPV, Nili M, Mohamed R, Dwibedi N. Psychosocial Correlates of Insomnia Among College Students. Prev Chronic Dis 2022;19:220060. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd19.220060 .

PEER REVIEWED

Introduction

Acknowledgments, author information.

What is already known on this topic?

Despite the well-known prevalence of insomnia among college students, its association with mental health remains a topic of considerable interest, particularly among this vulnerable population constantly adapting to the demands of the academic world.

What is added by this report?

We show that at least a quarter of college students experience insomnia, and we uncover its predominant association with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression.

What are the implications for public health practice?

The implications demand a serious consideration of mental health during attempts to improve students’ sleep quality.

Among college students, insomnia remains a topic of research focus, especially as it pertains to its correlates and the extent of its association with mental conditions. This study aimed to shed light on the chief predictors of insomnia among college students.

A cross-sectional survey on a convenience sample of college students (aged ≥18 years) at 2 large midwestern universities was conducted from March 18 through August 23, 2019. All participants were administered validated screening instruments used to screen for insomnia, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Insomnia correlates were identified by using multivariate logistic regression.

Overall, 26.4% of students experienced insomnia; 41.2% and 15.8% had depression and had ADHD symptoms, respectively. Students with depression (adjusted odds ratio, 9.54; 95% CI, 4.50–20.26) and students with ADHD (adjusted odds ratio, 3.48; 95% CI, 1.48–8.19) had significantly higher odds of insomnia. The odds of insomnia were also significantly higher among employed students (odds ratio, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.05–4.18).

This study showed an association between insomnia and mental health conditions among college students. Policy efforts should be directed toward primary and secondary prevention programs that enforce sleep education interventions, particularly among employed college students and those with mental illnesses.

The National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society guidelines recommend 7 to 9 hours of sleep for young adults (1). However, at least 60% of college students have poor quality sleep and garner, on average, 7 hours of sleep per night (2). Previous research showed that up to 75% of college students reported occasional sleep disturbances, while 15% reported overall poor sleep quality (3). In another work, among a sample of 191 undergraduate students, researchers found that 73% of students exhibited some form of sleep problem, with a higher frequency among women than men (4).

Direct consequences of poor sleep among college students include increased tension, irritability, depression, confusion, reduced life satisfaction, or poor academic performance (4). Evidence abounds of the positive correlation between academic failure, low grade point average, negative academic performance, and poor sleep quality patterns (5). As these complications arise early in the life of these students, they might develop into serious ailments as they grow older (high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke) and thereby create an even bigger public health problem. Because insomnia weakens physical and mental functions in addition to academic performances, reduced sleep quality could also lead to mental issues or vice versa (6).

Erratic schedules and lifestyle adjustments coupled with the strain of daily occupation are partly to blame for the general dissatisfaction with sleep quality and duration, because work obligations reduce hours of sleep among college students (2). However, in light of these consequences, it behooves the scientific community to identify modifiable factors associated with insomnia among college students that could help spur countermeasures or design lifestyle interventions to ameliorate the overall well-being of college students. In this study, we strived to identify environmental, mental, and behavioral factors affecting insomnia among college students. The intersection between behavioral factors and mental health is also evaluated in this work because physical activity, particularly, has been shown to mitigate insomnia (7). Because the relationship between insomnia and some of the understudied mental conditions could be bidirectional and given that cause-and-effect will not be established in this study, insomnia was labeled a criterion variable.

Study design, sampling, eligibility criteria

A cross-sectional design was used for this study. Convenience and snowball sampling strategy methods were used for sampling. West Virginia University and Marshall University students aged 18 years or older and able to read and write in English were eligible to participate. Study approval was acquired from the Institutional Review Board of West Virginia University. Consent for participation and anonymity were emphasized before the questionnaire’s distribution, along with instructions for completion. No incentives were provided for participants in this study.

Instruments and measures

Demographic characteristics included sex (male, female), age, race (White; All others, which included Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and any other racial group), marital status (married, not married), educational level (undergraduate, professional or graduate), employment status (employed, unemployed), physical activity (<2 d/wk, ≥2 d/wk), caffeine consumption (<6 cups/d, ≥6 cups/d, because previous research established a daily upper limit of 6 cups to maintain a healthy heart and blood pressure [8]), alcohol use (never, some days or every day), smoking status (yes, no), and the number of chronic non–mental health conditions (guided by the US Health and Human Services’ strategic framework [9], and included arthritis, asthma, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Crohn disease, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis).

The criterion variable in this study was a diagnosis of insomnia as assessed by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). The ISI uses 7 items to evaluate the severity of insomnia. The first 3 items assess severity of sleep onset, sleep maintenance, and early morning awakening problems, and the last 4 examine sleep satisfaction, sleep disturbance, sleep worry, and sleep interference in daily life (10). Each item is graded on a 0 to 4 Likert scale, and the total score is calculated as the sum of each item, yielding minimum and maximum values of 0 and 28, respectively. Total score categories are as follows: 0 to 7 = no clinically significant insomnia; 8 to 14 = subthreshold insomnia; 15 to 21 = clinical insomnia (moderate severity); 22 to 28 = clinical insomnia (severe). In this study, ISI scores were divided into 2 categories based on a cutoff point of 15: patients with clinically significant insomnia (cutoff point of 15 or more) and participants with no clinically significant insomnia (cutoff point less than 15). This threshold point was motivated by the validity of this scale as a primary care diagnostic tool at a cutoff score of 14 (11).

Instruments to screen for depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were used to evaluate mental health. For depression, we used the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), a self-reported questionnaire that contains 9 items incorporating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV criteria for probable major depressive disorder. Each item can be scored from 0 through 3, and total scores can vary from 0 to 27, with cutoff points of 5, 10, 15, and 20, corresponding respectively to diagnoses of mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe depressive symptoms. Given the high correlation observed in the literature between the third item of the PHQ-9 (also assessing sleep disturbance) and various sleep scales (12,13), we removed this item before calculating the overall score. PHQ-9 scores were divided into 2 categories: participants with clinically significant depressive symptoms (cutoff point of 8 or more) and participants with no clinically significant depressive symptoms (cutoff point less than 8). This was dictated by the sensitivity and specificity of the PHQ-9 at this cutoff score as a satisfactory diagnostic tool for depression in primary and secondary care settings (14).

For ADHD, Part A of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) was used. Only Part A of the questionnaire contains the 6 predictive measures of ADHD symptom severity (15). Items use a Likert scale (never, rarely, sometimes, often, very often). For items 1 to 3, ratings of sometimes, often, or very often were assigned 1 point (ratings of never or rarely were assigned 0 points). For the remaining items, ratings of often or very often were assigned 1 point (ratings of never, rarely, or sometimes were assigned 0 points). A sum of scores of 4 or more indicated ADHD symptoms. Diagnosis of anxiety was established using an item that elicited from participants a recent diagnosis of anxiety or current medication regimen for anxiety. The criterion variable and predictors in this study were collected using a 3-part questionnaire, including demographics, insomnia screening, and mental health screening.

Survey procedure

The online survey was administered using the Qualtrics (Qualtrics) web-based survey tool. The invitation letter to participate in this survey was sent to participants through the listserve to students and social media outlets (Facebook and Twitter) from March 18 through August 23, 2019.

Data analysis

During the analysis, we omitted responses with half or more missing information (75 incomplete and missing responses were excluded from the final sample) from the criterion variable (insomnia) and predictors (ie, ADHD, anxiety, depression, chronic non–mental health conditions, employment status, sex, race and ethnicity, sex, education level, physical activity status, alcohol and caffeine consumption, and smoking). Descriptive statistics were used to describe the study participants. Cell sizes with fewer than 5 were conflated with the next immediate encompassing category. Significant differences in outcomes among predictive factors were determined by using independent t tests. Differences were labeled significant at an α level less than or equal to .05. Were used χ 2 tests of independence to compare the distribution of dependent categorical or nominal variables and the distribution in the criterion variable (for large cell sizes). Fisher tests were used for the same purpose, albeit for smaller cell sizes (~ n = 5). We did not apply any statistical adjustments (eg, Bonferroni adjustments) for multiple comparisons on the same sample out of concern for the substantial reduction in the statistical power of rejecting an incorrect Ho in each test (16).

Multivariable logistic regression models were built to model a relationship between predictors and insomnia. We included logistic regression models analyzing the interaction between different mental conditions and between physical activity and mental health (diagnosis of anxiety, depression, or ADHD). Model 1 regressed the dependent variable on all independent variables. Models 2 through 4 added 2-way interactions between mental conditions, namely anxiety, ADHD, and depression, respectively, and physical activity. From each of these models, odds ratios were derived. The analysis was conducted by using SPSS version 26 (IBM Corp).

Validity and reliability

To validate the use of the foregoing instruments in a college population, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses. Results indicated loading patterns consistent with the structure of the adopted scales. Our method of choice was principal component analysis with varimax rotation. The ISI was a unidimensional scale with factor loading ranging from 0.375 to 0.876. The unidimensional PHQ-9 factor loadings oscillated between 0.627 and 0.881. The ASRS, also unidimensional, had factor loadings ranging from 0.462 to 0.803. The reliability of the ISI, PHQ-9, and ASRS, as assessed using the Cronbach α (0.857, 0.909, 0.768, respectively), was excellent. The degree of concordance between the ISI and the nonsleep scales (divergent validity) was evaluated by using correlation coefficients. We found a weak to moderate magnitude of correlation ( r < 0.7), based on a widespread threshold from the literature (17).

A total of 330 responses were included in our analysis ( Table 1 ). The mean age of participants was 24.4 years old. Across the entire sample, most participants were women (67.0%), White (89.7%), not married (94.2%), undergraduate students (62.4%), and with no chronic non–mental health conditions (69.7%). Based on the screening questionnaires, the prevalences of anxiety, depression, ADHD, and insomnia were 28.5%, 41.2.%, 15.8%, and 26.4%, respectively.

Among the participants with insomnia, most were women (81.6%), White (83.9%), undergraduate students (65.5%), physically active on 2 or more days during the week (79.3%), consumed less than 6 cups of caffeine per day (88.5%), at least occasionally consumed alcohol (67.8%), were nonsmokers (93.1%), had no chronic conditions (58.6%), were not anxious constantly (63.2%), were depressed (78.2%), and had no symptoms of ADHD (62.1%). In general, participants without insomnia followed the same trend, except that most did not have depression (71.2%). Employment status in both groups (participants with and those without insomnia) was roughly similar. Sex, race, the number of chronic non–mental health conditions, depression, and ADHD symptoms were found to be significant correlates of insomnia ( Table 1 ).

Findings from models 2 and 4 were not significant. In model 3, the multiple logistic regression model indicated that psychosocial factors such as employment status, depression, and ADHD significantly increased the odds of insomnia ( Table 2 ). Employed students had 2.10 times higher odds of insomnia compared with unemployed students. In addition, the odds of insomnia were 9.54 and 3.48 times higher for students with depression and ADHD, respectively. Anxiety was not significantly associated with insomnia (adjusted odds ratio: 1.71, P = .13). Physical activity was a significant effect modifier in the association between ADHD and insomnia (adjusted odds ratio: 12.1, P = 0.012). The strength of the association between ADHD symptoms and insomnia was lower among students who exercised 2 or more days a week compared with those who exercised less.

In this study, we identified factors associated with insomnia among college students. ADHD, depression, and employment status were significantly associated with insomnia. We reported a 26.4% prevalence of insomnia among college students, a finding consistent with existing literature. A previous meta-analysis reported an overall insomnia prevalence of 18.5% (95% CI, 11.2%–28.8%) among university students; our estimate fell within this reported CI (6). Another study found that insomnia prevalence was 26.7% among university nursing students (18). Taylor and coworkers reported an insomnia prevalence of 9.5% among a cohort of 1,039 college students by using the ISI and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (19); their operational definition of chronic insomnia was established over 3 months as opposed to 1 month in our study. In our work, small cell sizes restricted the categorization of insomnia into moderate, mild, or severe. This explains the deviation of our results from those of past researchers that used the ISI systematic classification of different degrees of insomnia. For instance, Gress-Smith et al found that 47% of college students had mild insomnia and 22.5% had moderate to severe insomnia (20). In another ISI-based study, 12% of students endorsed a diagnosis of clinical insomnia, and 45% met the criteria for subclinical insomnia (21). All these intricacies cement our results within the current pool of research.

Our findings indicated that 78.2% of students with insomnia also experienced depression, and the odds of insomnia were 9.54 times higher among students with depression than students without depression. Olufsen et al reported a prevalence of depression among college students with insomnia of 30% to 38%, using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) (22). Another research concluded that depressive symptoms, assessed using criteria of the DSM-IV, were associated with increased insomnia complaints among college students (odds ratio, 1.09) (23). These findings lend credence to the bidirectional relationship between insomnia and depression. Thus, it is typical of patients with insomnia to exhibit psychological profiles (poor coping skills, poor health status, ruminative traits) that herald the onset of depression. Ubiquitous characteristics of insomnia, such as fatigue, irritability, and cognitive impairment, which are well-known derivatives of insomnia among students, exacerbate depressive symptoms (24).

In our sample, 15.8% had ADHD, and the odds of insomnia were 3.48 times higher for students with ADHD than those without ADHD. The prevalence of clinically significant cases of ADHD varies between 2% and 8% of the college student population (25). A previous study showed a similar ADHD prevalence to ours at ~19% (26). In the same study, the authors also reported that students with ADHD had a risk of insomnia 2.7 times greater than those without ADHD (26). These observations indicate the importance of examining symptom clusters that involve both sleep and mental and emotional components when investigating and treating insomnia, depression, or ADHD.

Physical activity mitigated the effect of mental health on insomnia. As regular physical activity helps improve sleep quality (7) and has psychological benefits (27), it was not surprising to find that among those with mental conditions, those who exercised more often (in this case, 2 or more days per week) seemed to have better sleep quality than those who exercised less. Students are often hesitant to seek help for mental health and insomnia concerns; therefore, interventions need to be youth-friendly, acceptable, feasible, and nonstigmatizing (28). Young people view physical activity as helpful in mitigating mental conditions as well as being nonstigmatizing (29). Although most university campuses offer physical activity–based wellness programs, research exploring students’ perceptions of on-campus physical activity initiatives as alternatives to mental health and insomnia management strategy is limited (30).

We found that employment was significantly associated with sleep problems among college students. Similarly, previous research has linked employment to insomnia. A meta-analysis found job demand to be negatively correlated with sleep quality, whereas job control was positively correlated (31). Students, most of whom held part-time jobs and thus had less job control yet high job demands, might understandably experience substantial sleep difficulties and reduced sleep quality in general. Also, the competing demands to complete academic requirements and maintain employment may also serve as structural barriers to adequate sleep.

Strengths and limitations

This study had several strengths. First, we evaluated factors susceptible to accompany a diagnosis of insomnia in a sample of college students. Further, we used established instruments that we validated psychometrically across a new population. However, this study had a few limitations. First, the data were collected from 2 universities, namely West Virginia and Marshall University, thus limiting the generalizability of the findings. Information on study majors was not collected, yet could have influenced the prevalence and the uncovered associations of insomnia and mental conditions. Further, we used a cross-sectional design and could only establish association, not causality. Finally, small cell sizes restricted the stratification of insomnia, which would have enriched our results.

Our results indicate that better mental health and insomnia must be addressed concomitantly as their association is not random. Addressing these issues entails better time management skills dedicated to studying, work, and leisure. Such skills should be at the fingertips of college students to help them cope with the increasing demands of university life. These findings should also be communicated to the employers of college students who in turn should prioritize the overall well-being of their employees. As a future direction for our work, we endeavor to measure health services utilization among students with mental conditions that tie directly to sleep quality; this, in a bid, to inform policy on the need to improve mental health services access for college students.

The burden of insomnia among college students is one that must be readily addressed as its spillover effects decrease substantial traits that are crucial for college life. Mental health, specifically depression and ADHD, and employment are salient contributors to the high levels of insomnia. Addressing these associations could help improve the experience and well-being of college students. Further, the promotion on campuses of healthy behaviors such as physical activity could yield significant improvements vis-à-vis the lifestyle of college students, as physical activity, in this study, has been shown to mitigate the effect of mental health on insomnia or vice versa.

The authors would like to thank Jason Kang, MD, MS, for his input during the conception of this study.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest, and the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this article are included within the study. No financial support was received for this work. Permission to use the ASRS was obtained from Ronald C. Kessler.

Author contributions: conceptualization, all authors; data curation, Mr Mbous and Dr Nili; formal analysis, Mr Mbous, Dr Nili, and Ms Mohamed; investigation and methodology, all authors; project administration, Mr Mbous and Dr Nili; supervision, Dr Dwibedi; writing the original draft, Mr Mbous; writing review and editing, all authors.

Corresponding Author: Yves Paul Vincent Mbous, MEng, BSc Hons, BSc, School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy, PO Box 9510, Morgantown, WV 26506. Email: [email protected] .

Author Affiliations: 1 School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.

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Abbreviations: ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; NA, not applicable. a Data are number (percentage) unless otherwise specified. Numbers may not add to total because of missing data. b Independent t test. c Pearson χ 2 . d P value between .001 and <.01. e P value between .01 and <.05. f All other races included Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and any other racial group. g Fisher exact test. h P < .001.

a All other races included Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and any other racial group. b P value between .01 and <.05. c P < .001. d P value between .001 and <.01.

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Changes in College Students Mental Health and Lifestyle During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies

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• Published: 03 August 2022
• Volume 7 , pages 537–550, ( 2022 )

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• Alberto Ghilardi 1  

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College students have poorer mental health than their peers. Their poorer health conditions seem to be caused by the greater number of stressors to which they are exposed, which can increase the risk of the onset of mental disorders. The pandemic has been an additional stressor that may have further compromised the mental health of college students and changed their lifestyles with important consequences for their well-being. Although research has recognized the impact of COVID-19 on college students, only longitudinal studies can improve knowledge on this topic. This review summarizes the data from 17 longitudinal studies examining changes in mental health and lifestyle among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to improve understanding of the effects of the outbreak on this population. Following PRISMA statements, the following databases were searched PubMed, EBSCO, SCOPUS and Web of Science. The overall sample included 20,108 students. The results show an increase in anxiety, mood disorders, alcohol use, sedentary behavior, and Internet use and a decrease in physical activity. Female students and sexual and gender minority youth reported poorer mental health conditions. Further research is needed to clarify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable subgroups of college students.

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Introduction

College students’ mental health has been an increasing concern. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought this vulnerable population into renewed focus. The pandemic has been an important stressor that may have compromised the mental health of college students and changed their lifestyles with significant consequences on their well-being and academic performance. Several studies have shown that college students present poorer mental health compared to their peers in the general population (Kang et al., 2021 ; Lovell et al., 2015 ), and the COVID-19 pandemic may have been a stressor that further worsened the mental health conditions of college students. However, the empirical link between COVID-19 pandemic and college students’ mental health has not been established clearly. Although many studies assess the effects of the pandemic on college students, no systematic reviews analyze the changes in their well-being and lifestyles over time. This study addresses this research gap by systematically reviewing the longitudinal studies that investigate the differences in college students’ mental health and lifestyles before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The worst mental health condition of college students, compared to their peers, seems to be related to the fact that college students are exposed to a high number of stressors. The academic career is a critical period of life that involves facing new and complex developmental challenges (Ruby et al., 2009 ). College students are in an uncomfortable position between family expectations, personal achievements, study, and work, and all these factors may contribute to the development or intensification of certain psychological illnesses (Hyun et al., 2007 ; Sharp & Theiler, 2018 ). During college years, students are also actively involved in a process of identity formation, influenced by contact with their peers (Adams et al., 2006 ; Luyckx et al., 2006 ), with important consequences on their self-esteem and psychological well-being (Cameron, 1999 ). Isolation and loneliness, as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, can be a significant risk factor for good psychological development and for the mental health of adolescents and young adults (Acquah et al., 2016 ; Adam et al., 2011 ; Bozoglan et al., 2013 ; Chang et al., 2014 ; Christ et al., 2017 ; Muyan & Chang, 2015 ; Peltzer & Pengpid, 2017 ; Shen & Wang, 2019 ; Zawadzki et al., 2013 ).

Stressful life events also seem to be a factor that can contribute to the development of mental disorders (Cohen et al., 2019 ; Meyer-Lindenberg & Tost, 2012 ; Slavich, 2016 ). According to psychiatric epidemiological research, most high-prevalence mental disorders emerge during adolescence and early adulthood (de Girolamo et al., 2012 ; Kessler et al., 2007 ). As is shown by a recent systematic review of studies assessing differences in mental health among the general population before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health problems increased during lockdown, although without a specific trend (Richter et al., 2021 ). Some studies have revealed a possible increase in mental health problems among college students during the pandemic (Deng et al., 2021 ), while other studies have found a decrease in psychological symptoms (Horita et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2020b ; Rettew et al., 2021 ). Another important limitation of research on this topic has been its reliance on cross-sectional designs, which does not allow for displaying the evolution of mental health and lifestyle of students over time. Understanding the effects of the pandemic requires an overview of longitudinal studies to highlight changes in psychological symptoms, lifestyle, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to compare it to a baseline assessment before the restrictions were imposed.

Current Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a stressor that may have compromised the mental health of college students and changed their lifestyles with important consequences on their well-being. Although research has recognized the impact of COVID-19 on college students, longitudinal studies can contribute greater knowledge on this topic. This systematic review summarizes available data from longitudinal studies examining changes in mental health and lifestyle among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Protocol and Registration

This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement (Moher et al., 2015 ). The protocol was registered with the Open Science Foundation (OSF) database. The protocol, which includes the research questions, detailed methods, and planned analyses for the review, can be accessed at the following URL: https://osf.io/m6hyg/ , https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/M6HYG (Date of registration: 31 May 2021).

Inclusion Criteria

This systematic review included longitudinal studies examining changes in mental health and lifestyle among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The term “change” is defined as any before-after difference reported in the mental health and lifestyle related variables investigated by the included studies. Data collected before January 2020 (for Wuhan and Hubei province, China), February 2020 (for the rest of China), and March 2020 (for the rest of the world) are considered “before” the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collected after those dates are considered “during” the COVID-19 pandemic.

Articles were included if they satisfied the following criteria: (a) written in English; (b) published in peer-reviewed journals; (c) reported original data; (d) assessed college students’ mental health and lifestyle before and during the COVID-19 pandemic; (e) focused only on college students (age ≥ 18 years); (f) had a follow-up drop-out rate < 60%. This review excluded case reports, dissertations, protocols, reviews, case series studies, unpublished studies, and studies in languages other than English.

Information Sources and Search Strategy

A systematic search was performed in PubMed, EBSCO (including PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection), SCOPUS and Web of Science, using the following keywords: (“university student*” OR “college student*” OR “undergraduate student*”) AND (COVID-19 OR coronavirus OR SARS-CoV-2) AND (longitudinal OR before OR after OR effect* OR impact) AND (well-being OR “mental health”). Search strategies differed depending on the bibliographic database; the search strategies are shown in Supplementary Table 1. The literature search included all articles that were published up to May 2021.

Study Selection

Two authors (C.B. and L.B.) screened independently the article titles and abstracts for inclusion and exclusion criteria and extracted data from all full-text articles selected. Any disagreements in data extraction process were negotiated between the two authors.

Data Extraction

Data were collected in a specific data extraction form, reporting the following items: authors and country of the study; sample characteristics (e.g., sex, average age, course of study, academic year, and ethnicity); timing of assessments; drop-out rate; assessment tools; outcome, and main study results. The two authors abstracted data independently, and any disagreement was revolved by consensus. Because the studies differed in methodology, a narrative synthesis was planned.

Methodological Quality Assessment and Risk of Bias

The quality assessment of studies was performed independently by two authors (C.B. and L.B.) and confirmed by a third author (A.G.) by using an adapted form of the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) for cohort studies (Wells et al., 2011 ). The NOS is one of the best-known scales for assessing quality and risk of bias in observational studies. The NOS included six items, categorized into three dimensions, including selection, comparability, and outcome. For each item, a series of response options is provided. A star system is used for the semi-quantitative assessment of study quality, such that the highest quality studies are awarded a maximum of one star for each item. The NOS ranges between zero and six stars: two stars or fewer indicating a low quality study, three stars indicating a medium quality study, and four or more stars indicating a high quality study. The selection dimension evaluates the representativeness (item 1) and the sample size (item 2); comparability evaluates whether the confounding factors are controlled (item 3); outcome evaluates the assessment of the outcomes (item 4), whether the statistical analysis is clearly described and appropriate (item 5) and whether the drop-out rate is reported (item 6).

As shown in Fig.  1 , out of 485 articles generated by the preliminary search strategy, 228 were duplicates, and 188 were excluded based on title and abstract, as they were irrelevant to the study criteria. After reading the full text, a further 52 articles were excluded: of these, 27 did not cover the period of interest, eight did not match the aim of the present review, five did not have a longitudinal design, four were not written in English, four had a follow-up drop-out rate > 60%, two included subjects under the age of 18, one was not a peer-reviewed article and one was the preprint version of one of the included studies. In the end, 17 studies were included in the systematic review.

Prisma flowchart showing study selection stages

Methodological Quality and Risk of Bias Within Studies

The quality assessment based on the NOS tool is reported in Table 1 . The quality of the studies was quite low, with a consequent high risk of bias; specifically, ten of the included studies were judged low quality, three were judged medium quality, and four high quality.

Studies and Sample Characteristics

Table 2 shows the characteristics of the included studies. All studies were longitudinal cohort studies. Seven studies were conducted in the USA (Charles et al., 2021 ; Copeland et al., 2021 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ; Huckins et al., 2020 ; Rettew et al., 2021 ; Wilson et al., 2021 ; Zhang et al., 2020 ), three in China (Dun et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2020a , 2020b ), two in Italy (Bussone et al., 2020 ; Meda et al., 2021 ), one in the Netherlands (Van Zyl et al., 2021 ), one in Switzerland (Elmer et al., 2020 ), one in India (Saraswathi et al., 2020 ), one in Canada (Hamza et al., 2021 ), and one in Japan (Horita et al., 2021 ).

The studies varied in their sample sizes (from 49 up to 12,889 college students) and all together included a total of 20,108 subjects, most commonly female. The average sample age was 19.6 years (calculated only for studies reporting the age of students). Six studies reported the course studied by the college students: the participants studied Psychology (Charles et al., 2021 ; Meda et al., 2021 ), Medicine and Surgery (Meda et al., 2021 ; Saraswathi et al., 2020 ); Agriculture (Li et al., 2020a ), Engineering (Elmer et al., 2020 ; Meda et al., 2021 ), Economics (Li et al., 2020b ; Meda et al., 2021 ), Natural Sciences (Elmer et al., 2020 ), Social Work (Li et al., 2020b ), Marketing (Li et al., 2020b ), Accounting (Li et al., 2020b ), Biology (Meda et al., 2021 ), Pharmacy (Meda et al., 2021 ), and Social and Political Sciences (Meda et al., 2021 ). Few of the studies reported students’ academic year at the time of assessment, i.e. second or third year (Elmer et al., 2020 ; Li et al., 2020b ). The studies included covered a period from January 2015 as the earliest baseline (Wilson et al., 2021 ) to December 2020 as the latest follow-up (Meda et al., 2021 ). Drop-out rates at follow-up among the included studies go from a minimum of 7.0% (Saraswathi et al., 2020 ) to a maximum of 58% (Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ). Ten out of 17 studies (58.8%) focused only on mental health related variables; the remaining seven studies focused on both mental health and lifestyle (e.g. physical activity, internet and smartphone use, etc.).

Changes in Mental Health and Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The majority of the included studies reported a worsening of mental health and a decline in well-being in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the studies found an increase in anxiety symptoms (Bussone et al., 2020 ; Charles et al., 2021 ; Elmer et al., 2020 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ; Huckins et al., 2020 ; Li et al., 2020a ; Saraswathi et al., 2020 ; Zhang et al., 2020 ), depression and mood disorders (Bussone et al., 2020 ; Charles et al., 2021 ; Copeland et al., 2021 ; Elmer et al., 2020 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ; Huckins et al., 2020 ; Li et al., 2020a , 2020b ; Meda et al., 2021 ; Rettew et al., 2021 ; Zhang et al., 2020 ), and personality disorders (Charles et al., 2021 ). The studies also reported, after the onset of COVID-19, an increase in distress (Bussone et al., 2020 ; Charles et al., 2021 ; Elmer et al., 2020 ; Horita et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2020b ; Saraswathi et al., 2020 ; Wilson et al., 2021 ), loneliness (Elmer et al., 2020 ), alcohol use (Charles et al., 2021 ), problems in externalization and attention (Copeland et al., 2021 ). It is also to be noted that, in some of the included studies, there was a decrease in psychological symptoms (Horita et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2020b ; Rettew et al., 2021 ) or a finding that psychological symptoms remained stable (Van Zyl et al., 2021 ) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Differences in Mental Health Among Subgroups During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Some of the included studies reported that mental health and well-being trajectories varied among social groups. Although both black and white students reported elevated symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic (Charles et al., 2021 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ), white students reported higher levels of anxiety (Charles et al., 2021 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ), anger, sleep problems, perceived distress, and alcohol abuse (Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ), whereas black students reported higher levels of depression (Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ), mania, and psychosis than white students (Charles et al., 2021 ). Interestingly, female students reported higher levels of anxiety (Elmer et al., 2020 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ), depression (Elmer et al., 2020 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ; Wilson et al., 2021 ), stress and loneliness (Elmer et al., 2020 ). Sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) also reported higher levels of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic (Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ).

Risk and Protective Factors for Mental Health Issues During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Some studies identified the following possible risk factors of college student mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: secure attachment and high levels of parental bonding (Bussone et al., 2020 ); high extroversion, openness, and agreeableness (Rettew et al., 2021 ). On the contrary, two studies (Hamza et al., 2021 ; Meda et al., 2021 ) reported that subjects without a history of psychological problems showed poorer mental health outcomes during the pandemic than students with pre-existing mental health problems. One study reported physical activity as a possible protective factor of college student mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic (Dun et al., 2021 ).

Changes in Lifestyle During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The reported changes in college student lifestyle include: increase in sedentary behavior (Huckins et al., 2020 ); decrease in physical activity (Wilson et al., 2021 ); more time studying alone (Elmer et al., 2020 ); and increase in Internet use and changes in searched content on Google and YouTube (Zhang et al., 2020 ).

Understanding changes in mental health and lifestyle among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic requires longitudinal studies. This review of results obtained from longitudinal studies highlighted evidence of an increase in psychological symptoms (mostly anxiety, depression, distress, and loneliness) during the pandemic, when compared to data before the outbreak. Lifestyles also changed during the pandemic, with students engaged in more sedentary behavior, less physical activity, more and longer Internet use, and more time studying alone, with possible detrimental implications for their mental health.

This review showed an association between specific groups and mental health: female students and SGMs, in fact, showed poorer mental health outcomes (Elmer et al., 2020 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ; Wilson et al., 2021 ). A possible explanation for this result is that women appear to rely on social support more than men (Tamres et al., 2002 ), while SGMs rely on their communities of equals and allies to cope with the difficulties of discrimination and prejudice (de Lira & de Morais, 2018 ). During the pandemic, because of measures implemented to curb the spread of the virus, social interactions outside individual households were reduced to a minimum in many countries around the world, depriving the members of these groups of one of their main coping strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic also seems to have had an impact on both white and black students’ mental health, although with different symptoms (Charles et al., 2021 ). White students reported more anger, anxiety, sleep problems, perceived stress and alcohol use than African American students, who reported higher mania and psychosis symptoms than their white peers. This result replicated the findings of many studies, which had observed higher rates of psychotic disorders among people of African heritage (Strakowski et al., 1996 , 2003 ; Bresnahan et al., 2007 ; Kirkbride et al., 2012 ). The reasons for these apparent differences are still unknown (Perlman et al., 2016 ) and may reflect both clinician bias (Neighbors et al., 2003 ; Trierweiler et al., 2006 ) and socioeconomic variables, which are associated with both ethnicity and risk of psychosis (Fearon et al., 2006 ; Sharpley et al., 2001 ).

Not all of the included studies reported an increase in psychological problems. However, in one case, the authors suggested that one of the reasons for this outcome could be the reduction in sample size during the follow-up assessment (Horita et al., 2021 ). Yet in some studies, symptoms decreased or remained stable (Hamza et al., 2021 ; Horita et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2020b ; Rettew et al., 2021 ; Van Zyl et al., 2021 ). Contrary to previous research which found that a pre-existing history of mental disorders was associated with a worsening of symptoms during the pandemic (Brunoni et al., 2021 ; Hao et al., 2020 ), some authors reported that students without previous mental health issues showed worse psychological outcomes than students with pre-existing mental health problems (Hamza et al., 2021 ; Meda et al., 2021 ). Meda et al. ( 2021 ) reported this result exclusively for depressive symptoms. The authors give two possible explanations for this result: regression toward the mean and differences in sociodemographic characteristics of the sample between baseline and follow-up. Given the longitudinal nature of the data and the absence of a control group (Rocconi & Ethington, 2009 ) and any reference to a change in relevant sociodemographic variables in their sample between baseline and follow-up, the result of Hamza et al. ( 2021 ) could also reflect the regression toward the mean. In fact, students with a pre-existing history of mental problems are more likely to score the highest during pre-test at measures assessing mental health issues. These individuals are likely to have achieved this position by having a high true value but also a very positive measurement error, which could push the result to the extreme (Rocconi & Ethington, 2009 ). If these individuals are re-assessed, it is highly unlikely that they will have such large positive error in measurement the second time, resulting in the second measurement being lower than the first. This will occur because within the normal distribution of errors of measurement, extremely large (or small) errors are in the tails of the distribution and less likely to occur than those at the center of the distribution (Rocconi & Ethington, 2009 ).

Personality traits, attachment style, parental bonding and physical activity are other factors that might explain the psychological adjustment of students during the pandemic. Extrovert, open, agreeable students, with secure attachment and high parental bonding, reported worse mental health outcomes during the pandemic. Extrovert subjects cope through social support and have larger and more diverse social support networks than introverts (Swickert et al., 2002 ), which may explain why they were more severely affected by lockdown/isolation. Moreover, the restrictions may not have been sufficiently stressful to trigger the stress response system of subjects with insecure attachment and low parental care (Bussone et al., 2020 ).

The results of this review, in agreement with previous research (Baker et al., 2010 ; Cangin et al., 2018 ; Kerling et al., 2015 ; Marques et al., 2020 ), revealed physical activity as a possible protective factor of college student mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic (Dun et al., 2021 ). The relationship between physical activity and well-being may have both a physiological and a psychological explanation; indeed, physical exercise seems to have a positive impact on the neurotransmitter system, regulating primary monoamines like dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin (Dishman, 1997 ). It also seems to have a positive relationship with mental resilience (Childs & De Wit, 2014 ), self-efficacy and self-esteem (Blumenthal et al., 2007 ).

The results of this review partially replicated the findings of the meta-analysis by Deng et al. ( 2021 ). According to these authors, the pooled prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and sleep disturbances during the pandemic was 34%, 32% and 33%, respectively, with differences among subgroups (such as geographical regions, diagnostic criteria, education level, year of study, financial situation, living arrangements and gender). Deng et al. ( 2021 ) included mostly studies with a cross-sectional design in their review (in fact, only four out of 89 of their included studies have a longitudinal design), whereas this review only included studies with a longitudinal design, with baseline assessments before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the longitudinal nature of these findings, this review replicates and even corroborates their results, except for sleep disturbances. One of the main findings of this review, in fact, is that students reported more symptoms during the pandemic than before. In addition, as reported in the study by Deng et al. ( 2021 ), this review found higher rates of psychological symptoms among female students than male students.

Limitations of the Literature

The limitations of this review are important to consider. The quality of the studies included was quite low, and the samples were composed predominantly of female students from a single university. Moreover, in four studies, data on drop-out rates at follow-up were not available (Charles et al., 2021 ; Elmer et al., 2020 ; Meda et al., 2021 ; Wilson et al., 2021 ). For this reason, conclusions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student mental health should be interpreted with caution. Furthermore, the included studies did not report whether the students who dropped out of the study also dropped out of college. One of the main results of this review, in fact, is that students might have felt more stressed during the pandemic and stress can be a risk factor for dropping out of college. Another limitation is that only three out of 17 included studies reported control of confounding factors (Dun et al., 2021 ; Saraswathi et al., 2020 ; Zhang et al., 2020 ), and this may have reduced the comparability between subjects in different outcome groups. Finally, few studies (Charles et al., 2021 ; Copeland et al., 2021 ; Elmer et al., 2020 ; Fruehwirth et al., 2021 ; Huckins et al., 2020 ) included questions on COVID-19 infection (self, someone close). In light of this, it is impossible to separate the impact on student mental health of the restrictions and isolation imposed as a result of the pandemic from the possible traumatic effect of the direct experience of illness or the death of close relatives or friends.

Limitations of the Review

Limitations of this review also are important to consider. Representativeness and sample size limitations reduce the generalizability of the results. Restricting the literature search to peer-reviewed studies published in English may have reduced the cultural diversity of the included studies. Even though Nussbaumer-Streit et al. ( 2020 ) found that the exclusion of non-English publications tends not to effect overall review conclusions, this remains a concern.

Implications for Future Research

This review has highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and well-being of college students. The findings suggest that there was an increase in anxiety, depression, distress and loneliness during the pandemic. However, it is evident that further research is required to explore more fully the real impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students’ well-being and mental health. For instance, further studies should be conducted to investigate the impact of the pandemic also on college drop-out rates.

There are other factors that can correlate with student mental health, such as socio-economic status, living conditions, and physical health. These factors should be controlled in further studies in order to reduce the risk of bias in the interpretation of the results. The findings from this review provide early information toward the development of support interventions for college students to promote their well-being and mental health. In particular, these interventions should target certain student subgroups that are higher risk, such as female students and SGMs. The decline in mental health and well-being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need to encourage help seeking among college students, possibly by planning public events promoting mental health symptom recognition and acceptance and destigmatizing mental illness among peers. Research also suggests the need to organize activities to improve stress management and lifestyle, promote physical exercise, and reduce addiction-related behavior, such as substance abuse and use of the internet/mobile devices.

A large number of studies report on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of college students, but the scientific literature does not always include comparisons to pre-pandemic indicators. This review provides an overview of the changes in college student mental health, psychological well-being and lifestyles, with a focus on longitudinal studies. The findings highlight a worsening of mental health and a decline in well-being among college students during the pandemic. The results also show that mental health and well-being trajectories varied among social groups. In particular, female students and SGMs reported higher levels of anxiety and depression. Further research is needed to examine thoroughly the impact of the pandemic on vulnerable subgroups of college students.

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Buizza, C., Bazzoli, L. & Ghilardi, A. Changes in College Students Mental Health and Lifestyle During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies. Adolescent Res Rev 7 , 537–550 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00192-7

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Published on 3.9.2020 in Vol 22 , No 9 (2020) : September

Effects of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health in the United States: Interview Survey Study

Authors of this article:

Original Paper

• Changwon Son 1 , BS, MS   ; 
• Sudeep Hegde 1 , BEng, MS, PhD   ; 
• Alec Smith 1 , BS   ; 
• Xiaomei Wang 1 , BS, PhD   ; 
• Farzan Sasangohar 1, 2 , BA, BCS, MASc, SM, PhD  

1 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States

2 Center for Outcomes Research, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, United States

Corresponding Author:

Farzan Sasangohar, BA, BCS, MASc, SM, PhD

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Texas A&M University

College Station, TX, 77843

United States

Phone: 1 979 458 2337

Email: [email protected]

Background: Student mental health in higher education has been an increasing concern. The COVID-19 pandemic situation has brought this vulnerable population into renewed focus.

Objective: Our study aims to conduct a timely assessment of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of college students.

Methods: We conducted interview surveys with 195 students at a large public university in the United States to understand the effects of the pandemic on their mental health and well-being. The data were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods.

Results: Of the 195 students, 138 (71%) indicated increased stress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Multiple stressors were identified that contributed to the increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depressive thoughts among students. These included fear and worry about their own health and of their loved ones (177/195, 91% reported negative impacts of the pandemic), difficulty in concentrating (173/195, 89%), disruptions to sleeping patterns (168/195, 86%), decreased social interactions due to physical distancing (167/195, 86%), and increased concerns on academic performance (159/195, 82%). To cope with stress and anxiety, participants have sought support from others and helped themselves by adopting either negative or positive coping mechanisms.

Conclusions: Due to the long-lasting pandemic situation and onerous measures such as lockdown and stay-at-home orders, the COVID-19 pandemic brings negative impacts on higher education. The findings of our study highlight the urgent need to develop interventions and preventive strategies to address the mental health of college students.

Introduction

Mental health issues are the leading impediment to academic success. Mental illness can affect students’ motivation, concentration, and social interactions—crucial factors for students to succeed in higher education [ 1 ]. The 2019 Annual Report of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health [ 2 ] reported that anxiety continues to be the most common problem (62.7% of 82,685 respondents) among students who completed the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms, with clinicians also reporting that anxiety continues to be the most common diagnosis of the students that seek services at university counseling centers. Consistent with the national trend, Texas A&M University has seen a rise in the number of students seeking services for anxiety disorders over the past 8 years. In 2018, slightly over 50% of students reported anxiety as the main reason for seeking services. Despite the increasing need for mental health care services at postsecondary institutions, alarmingly, only a small portion of students committing suicide contact their institution counseling centers [ 3 ], perhaps due to the stigma associated with mental health. Such negative stigma surrounding mental health diagnosis and care has been found to correlate with a reduction in adherence to treatment and even early termination of treatment [ 4 ].

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus the mental health of various affected populations. It is known that the prevalence of epidemics accentuates or creates new stressors including fear and worry for oneself or loved ones, constraints on physical movement and social activities due to quarantine, and sudden and radical lifestyle changes. A recent review of virus outbreaks and pandemics documented stressors such as infection fears, frustration, boredom, inadequate supplies, inadequate information, financial loss, and stigma [ 5 ]. Much of the current literature on psychological impacts of COVID-19 has emerged from the earliest hot spots in China. Although several studies have assessed mental health issues during epidemics, most have focused on health workers, patients, children, and the general population [ 6 , 7 ]. For example, a recent poll by The Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 47% of those sheltering in place reported negative mental health effects resulting from worry or stress related to COVID-19 [ 8 ]. Nelson et al [ 9 ] have found elevated levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among general population samples in North America and Europe. However, with the exception of a few studies, notably from China [ 10 - 12 ], there is sparse evidence of the psychological or mental health effects of the current pandemic on college students, who are known to be a vulnerable population [ 13 ]. Although the findings from these studies thus far converge on the uptick of mental health issues among college students, the contributing factors may not necessarily be generalizable to populations in other countries. As highlighted in multiple recent correspondences, there is an urgent need to assess effects of the current pandemic on the mental health and well-being of college students [ 14 - 17 ].

The aim of this study is to identify major stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand their effects on college students’ mental health. This paper documents the findings from online interview surveys conducted in a large university system in Texas.

Study Design

A semistructured interview survey guide was designed with the purpose of assessing the mental health status of college students both quantitatively and qualitatively. In addition, the interview aimed to capture the ways that students have been coping with the stress associated with the pandemic situation. First, our study assesses participants’ general stress levels using the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS) [ 18 ]. PSS is a widely used instrument to measure overall stress in the past month [ 19 ]. Second, participants were asked if their own and peers’ (two separate questions) stress and anxiety increased, decreased, or remained the same because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For those who indicated increased stress and anxiety during the pandemic, we questioned their stress coping strategies and use of available mental health counseling services. We then elicited pandemic-specific stressors and their manifestations across 12 academic-, health-, and lifestyle-related categories of outcomes such as effects on own or loved ones’ health, sleeping habits, eating habits, financial situation, changes to their living environment, academic workload, and social relations. Students were also asked about the impact of COVID-19 on depressive and suicidal thoughts. These constructs were derived from existing literature identifying prominent factors affecting college students’ mental health [ 20 , 21 ]. Feedback on the severity of COVID-19’s impact on these aspects were elicited using a 4-point scale: 0 (none), 1 (mild), 2 (moderate), and 3 (severe). Participants were asked to elaborate on each response. Third, participants were guided to describe stressors, coping strategies, and barriers to mental health treatment during a typical semester without associating with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although multiple analyses of the collected data are currently under progress, PSS results and the COVID-19–related findings are presented in this paper.

Participants

Participants were recruited from the student population of a large university system in Texas, United States. This particular university closed all their campuses on March 23, 2020, and held all its classes virtually in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the state of Texas issued a stay-at-home order on April 2, 2020. Most interviews were conducted about 1 month after the stay-at-home order in April 2020. Figure 1 illustrates the trend of cumulative confirmed cases and a timeline of major events that took place in the university and the state of Texas. Participants were recruited by undergraduate student researchers through email, text messaging, and snowball sampling. The only inclusion criteria for participation was that participants should have been enrolled as undergraduate students in the university at the time of the interviews.

The interviews were conducted by 20 undergraduate researchers trained in qualitative methods and the use of the interview survey guide described above. None of the authors conducted the interviews. All interviews were conducted via Zoom [ 22 ] and were audio recorded. The recordings were later transcribed using Otter.ai [ 23 ], an artificial intelligence–based transcription service, and verified for accuracy manually. Prior to the interview, participants were provided an information document about the study approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board (No 2019-1341D). Upon verbal consent, participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire about their demographic information such as age, gender, year of college, and program of study before completing the interview. Participation was voluntary and participants were not compensated.

Data Analysis

First, descriptive statistics were compiled to describe participants’ demographics (eg, age, gender, academic year, and major) and the distribution of the ratings on PSS-10 survey items. A total PSS score per participant was calculated by first reversing the scores of the positive items (4-7, 9, and 10) and then adding all the ten scores. A mean (SD) PSS score was computed to evaluate the overall level of stress and anxiety among the participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, participants’ answers to 12 academic-, health-, and lifestyle-related questions were analyzed to understand relative impacts of the pandemic on various aspects of college students’ mental health. Percentages of participants who indicated negative ratings (ie, mild, moderate, or severe influence) on these questions were calculated and ranked in a descending order. Qualitative answers to the 12 stressors and coping strategies were analyzed using thematic analysis [ 24 , 25 ] similar to the deductive coding step in the grounded theory method [ 26 ]. A single coder (CS), trained in qualitative analysis methods, analyzed the transcripts and identified themes using an open coding process, which does not use a priori codes or codes created prior to the analysis and places an emphasis on information that can be extracted directly from the data. Following the identification of themes, the coder discussed the codes with two other coders (XW and AS) trained in qualitative analysis and mental health research to resolve discrepancies among related themes and discuss saturation. The coders consisted of two Ph.D. students and one postdoctoral fellow at the same university. MAXQDA (VERBI GmbH) [ 27 ] was used as a computer software program to carry out the qualitative analysis.

Of the 266 university students initially recruited by the undergraduate researchers, 17 retreated and 249 participated in this study. There were 3 graduate students and 51 participants who had missing data points and were excluded, and data from 195 participants were used in the analysis. The average age was 20.7 (SD 1.7) years, and there were more female students (111/195, 57%) than male students (84/195, 43%). Approximately 70% of the participants were junior and senior students. About 60% of the participants were majoring in the college of engineering, which was the largest college in the university population ( Table 1 ). The mean PSS score for the 195 participants was 18.8 (SD 4.9), indicating moderate perceived stress in the month prior to the interview ( Table 2 ).

a PSS: Perceived Stress Scale-10.

Challenges to College Students’ Mental Health During COVID-19

Out of 195 participants, 138 (71%) indicated that their stress and anxiety had increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas 39 (20%) indicated it remained the same and 18 (9%) mentioned that the stress and anxiety had actually decreased. Among those who perceived increased stress and anxiety, only 10 (5%) used mental health counseling services. A vast majority of the participants (n=189, 97%) presumed that other students were experiencing similar stress and anxiety because of COVID-19. As shown in Figure 2 , at least 54% (up to 91% for some categories) of participants indicated negative impacts (either mild, moderate, or severe) of COVID-19 on academic-, health-, and lifestyle-related outcomes. The qualitative analysis yielded two to five themes for each category of outcomes. The chronic health conditions category was excluded from the qualitative analysis due to insufficient qualitative response. Table 3 presents the description and frequency of the themes and select participant quotes.

a Not every participant provided sufficient elaboration to allow for identification of themes, so the frequency of individual themes does not add up to the total number of participants who indicated negative impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.

b The five-digit alphanumeric value indicates the participant ID.

c TA: teaching assistant.

Concerns for One’s Own Health and the Health of Loved Ones

A vast majority of the participants (177/195, 91%) indicated that COVID-19 increased the level of fear and worry about their own health and the health of their loved ones. Over one-third of those who showed concern (76/177, 43%) were worried about their families and relatives who were more vulnerable, such as older adults, those with existing health problems, and those who are pregnant or gave birth to a child recently. Some of the participants (26/177, 15%) expressed their worry about their family members whose occupation increased their risk of exposure to COVID-19 such as essential and health care workers. Some participants (19/177, 11%) specifically mentioned that they were worried about contracting the virus.

Difficulty With Concentration

A vast majority of participants (173/195, 89%) indicated difficulty in concentrating on academic work due to various sources of distraction. Nearly half of them (79/173, 46%) mentioned that their home is a distractive environment and a more suitable place to relax rather than to study. Participants mentioned that they were more prone to be interrupted by their family members and household chores at home. Other factors affecting students’ concentration were lack of accountability (21/173, 12%) and social media, internet, and video games (19/173, 11%). Some (18/173, 10%) stated that online classes were subject to distraction due to lack of interactions and prolonged attention to a computer screen. Additionally, monotonous life patterns were mentioned by some to negatively affect concentration on academic work (5/173, 3%).

Disruption to Sleep Patterns

A majority of participants (168/195, 86%) reported disruptions to their sleep patterns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with over one-third (38%) reporting such disruptions as severe. Half of students who reported some disruption (84/168, 50%) stated that they tended to stay up later or wake up later than they did before the COVID-19 outbreak. Another disruptive impact brought by the pandemic was irregular sleep patterns such as inconsistent time to go to bed and to wake up from day to day (28/168, 17%). Some (12/168, 7%) reported increased hours of sleep, while others (10/168, 6%) had poor sleep quality.

Increased Social Isolation

A majority of participants answered that the pandemic has increased the level of social isolation (167/195, 86%). Over half of these students (91/167, 54%) indicated that their overall interactions with other people such as friends had decreased significantly. In particular, about one-third (52/167, 31%) shared their worries about a lack of in-person interactions such as face-to-face meetings. Others (9/167, 5%) stated that disruptions to their outdoor activities (eg, jogging, hiking) have affected their mental health.

Concerns About Academic Performance

A majority of participants (159/195, 82%) showed concerns about their academic performance being impacted by the pandemic. The biggest perceived challenge was the transition to online classes (61/159, 38%). In particular, participants stated their concerns about sudden changes in the syllabus, the quality of the classes, technical issues with online applications, and the difficulty of learning online. Many participants (36/159, 23%) were worried about progress in research and class projects because of restrictions put in place to keep social distancing and the lack of physical interactions with other students. Some participants (23/159, 14%) mentioned the uncertainty about their grades under the online learning environment to be a major stressor. Others (12/159, 8%) indicated their reduced motivation to learn and tendency to procrastinate.

Disruptions to Eating Patterns

COVID-19 has also negatively impacted a large portion of participants’ dietary patterns (137/195, 70%). Many (35/137, 26%) stated that the amount of eating has increased, including having more snacks since healthy dietary options were reduced, and others (27/137, 20%) addressed that their eating patterns have become inconsistent because of COVID-19, for example, irregular times of eating and skipping meals. Some students (16/137, 12%) reported decreased appetite, whereas others (7/137, 5%) were experiencing emotional eating or a tendency to eat when bored. On the other hand, some students (28/195, 14%) reported that they were having healthier diets, as they were cooking at home and not eating out as much as they used to.

Changes in the Living Environment

A large portion of the participants (130/195, 67%) described that the pandemic has resulted in significant changes in their living conditions. A majority of these students (89/130, 68%) referred to living with family members as being less independent and the environment to be more distractive. For those who stayed in their residence either on- or off-campus (18/130, 14%), a main change in their living environment was reduced personal interactions with roommates. Some (9/130, 7%) mentioned that staying inside longer due to self-quarantine or shelter-in-place orders was a primary change in their living circumstances.

Financial Difficulties

More than half of the participants (115/195, 59%) expressed their concerns about their financial situations being impacted by COVID-19. Many (44/115, 38%) noted that COVID-19 has impacted or is likely to impact their own current and future employment opportunities such as part-time jobs and internships. Some (21/115, 18%) revealed the financial difficulties of their family members, mostly parents, getting laid off or receiving pay cuts in the wake of COVID-19.

Increased Class Workload

The effect of COVID-19 on class workload among the college students was not conclusive. Although slightly over half of participants (106/195, 54%) indicated their academic workload has increased due to COVID-19, the rest stated the workload has remained the same (70/195, 36%) or rather decreased (19/195, 10%). For those who were experiencing increased workloads, nearly half (51/106, 48%) thought they needed to increase their own efforts to catch up with online classes and class projects given the lack of in-person support from instructors or teaching assistants. About one-third of the participants (33/106, 31%) perceived that assignments had increased or became harder to do. Some (6/106, 6%) found that covering the remainder of coursework as the classes resumed after the 2-week break to be challenging.

Depressive Thoughts

When asked about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on depressive thoughts, 44% (86/195) mentioned that they were experiencing some depressive thoughts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Major contributors to such depressive thoughts were loneliness (28/86, 33%), insecurity or uncertainty (10/86, 12%), powerlessness or hopelessness (9/86, 10%), concerns about academic performance (7/86, 8%), and overthinking (4/86, 5%).

Suicidal Thoughts

Out of 195 participants, 16 (8%) stated that the pandemic has led to some suicidal thoughts with 5% (10/16) reporting these thoughts as mild and 3% (6/16) as moderate. There were 6 participants (38%) that attributed their suicidal thoughts to the presence of depressive thoughts. Other reasons were related to academic performance (1/16, 6%), problems with family as they returned home (1/16, 6%), and fear from insecurity and uncertainty (1/16, 6%).

Coping Mechanism During COVID-19

To cope with stress and anxiety imposed by COVID-19, college students reported seeking support from others but were mainly using various self-management methods.

Self-Management

The majority of the participants (105/138, 76%) with increased stress due to the outbreak of COVID-19 explained that they were using various means to help themselves cope with stress and anxiety during the pandemic. Some (24/105, 23%) relied on negative coping methods such as ignoring the news about COVID-19 (10/105), sleeping longer (7/105), distracting themselves by doing other tasks (5/105), and drinking or smoking (2/105). Approximately one-third (30/105, 29%) used positive coping methods such as meditation and breathing exercises (18/105), spiritual measures (7/105), keeping routines (4/105), and positive reframing (2/105). A majority of the participants (73/105, 70%) who used self-management mentioned doing relaxing hobbies including physical exercise (31/105), enjoying streaming services and social media (22/105), playing with pets (7/105), journaling (5/105), listening to music (4/105), reading (2/105), and drawing (2/105). Finally, some participants (15/105, 14%) stated that they were planning activities (eg, drafting to-do lists) for academic work and personal matters as a self-distraction method.

Seeking Support From Others

Approximately one-third of the participants (47/138, 34%) mentioned that communicating with their families and friends was a primary way to deal with stress and anxiety during COVID-19. Some explicitly stated that they were using a virtual meeting application such as Zoom frequently to connect to friends and family. Only 1 participant claimed to be receiving support from a professional therapist, and another participant was using Sanvello, a mobile mental health service app provided by the university.

Barriers to Seeking Professional Support During COVID-19

Despite the availability of tele-counseling and widespread promotion of such services by the university, a vast majority of participants who indicated an increase in stress and anxiety (128/138, 93%) claimed that they had not used school counseling services during the pandemic. Reasons for such low use included the condition not being perceived as severe enough to seek the services (4/128, 3%), not comfortable interacting with unfamiliar people (1/128, 0.8%), not comfortable talking about mental health issues over the phone (1/128, 0.8%), and lack of trust in the counseling services (1/128, 0.8%).

Principal Findings

College students comprise a population that is considered particularly vulnerable to mental health concerns. The findings of this study bring into focus the effects of pandemic-related transitions on the mental health and well-being of this specific population. Our findings suggest a considerable negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a variety of academic-, health-, and lifestyle-related outcomes. By conducting online survey interviews in the midst of the pandemic, we found that a majority of the participants were experiencing increased stress and anxiety due to COVID-19. In addition, results of the PSS showed moderate levels of stress among our participants. This is in line with a recent pre–COVID-19 survey conducted in the United Kingdom (mean PSS score 19.79, SD 6.37) [ 28 ]; however, the administration of PSS as interview questions (compared to allowing participants to read and respond to the 10 questions) might have introduced bias and resulted in underreporting.

Among the effects of the pandemic identified, the most prominent was worries about one’s own health and the health of loved ones, followed by difficulty concentrating. These findings are in line with recent studies in China that also found concerns relating to health of oneself and of family members being highly prevalent among the general population during the pandemic. Difficulty in concentrating, frequently expressed by our participants, has previously been shown to adversely affect students’ confidence in themselves [ 29 ], which has known correlations to increased stress and mental health [ 30 ]. In comparison with stress and anxiety in college students’ general life, it appears that countermeasures put in place against COVID-19, such as shelter-in-place orders and social distancing practices, may have underpinned significant changes in students’ lives. For example, a vast majority of the participants noted changes in social relationships, largely due to limited physical interactions with their families and friends. This is similar to recent findings of deteriorated mental health status among Chinese students [ 10 ] and increased internet search queries on negative thoughts in the United States [ 31 ]. The findings on the impact of the pandemic on sleeping and eating habits are also a cause for concern, as these variables have known correlations with depressive symptoms and anxiety [ 20 ].

Although a majority of participants expressed concerns regarding academic performance, interestingly, almost half of the participants reported lower stress levels related to academic pressure and class workload since the pandemic began. This may be due, in part, to decisions taken by professors and the university to ease the students’ sudden transition to distance learning. For instance, this university allowed students to choose a pass/fail option for each course instead of a regular letter grade. Additionally, actions taken by professors, such as reduced course loads, open book examinations, and other allowances on grading requirements, could also have contributed to alleviating or reducing stress. Although participants who returned to their parental home reported concerns about distractions and independence, students might have benefited from family support and reduced social responsibilities. Therefore, the increased stress due to the pandemic may have been offset, at least to some extent.

Alarmingly, 44% (86/195) of the participants reported experiencing an increased level of depressive thoughts, and 8% (16/195) reported having suicidal thoughts associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research [ 32 ] reported about 3%-7% of the college student population to have suicidal thoughts outside of the pandemic situation. Furthermore, with the exception of high-burnout categories, depression levels among students, reported in several recent studies [ 33 - 35 ], have varied between 29% and 38%, which may suggest an uptick in pandemic-related depressive symptoms among college students similar to recent studies in China [ 10 , 11 ]. Although our participants specifically mentioned several factors such as feelings of loneliness, powerlessness, as well as financial and academic uncertainties, other outcomes that were perceived to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic may also act as contributors to depressive thoughts and suicidal ideation. In particular, both difficulty concentrating and changes in sleeping habits are associated with depression [ 20 , 29 , 36 ].

Our study also identifies several coping mechanisms varying between adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. The maladaptive coping behaviors such as denial and disengagement have been shown to be significant predictors of depression among young adults [ 37 ]. In contrast, adaptive coping such as acceptance and proactive behaviors are known to positively impact mental health. Our findings suggest that the majority of our participants exhibited maladaptive coping behaviors. Identifying students’ coping behavior is important to inform the planning and design of support systems. In this regard, participatory models of intervention development can be used, in which researchers’ and psychologists’ engagement with the target population to adapt interventional programs to their specific context has shown promise [ 37 , 38 ]. For instance, Nastasi et al [ 37 ] used a participatory model to develop culture-specific mental health services for high school students in Sri Lanka. Similar approaches can be adopted to engage college students as well to develop a mental health program that leverages their natural positive coping behaviors and addresses their specific challenges.

Participants described several barriers to seeking help, such as lack of trust in counseling services and low comfort levels in sharing mental health issues with others, which may be indicative of stigma. Perceiving social stigma as a barrier to seeking help and availing counseling services and other support is common among students [ 29 ]. One study showed that only a minor fraction of students who screened positive for a mental health problem actually sought help [ 39 ]. Although overcoming the stigma associated with mental health has been discussed at length, practical ways of mitigating this societal challenge remains a gap [ 40 , 41 ]. Our findings suggest that self-management is preferred by students and should be supported in future work. Digital technologies and telehealth applications have shown some promise to enable self-management of mental health issues [ 42 ]. For instance, Youn et al [ 43 ] successfully used social media networks as a means to reach out to college students and screen for depression by administering a standardized scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Digital web-based platforms have also been proposed to enhance awareness and communication with care providers to reduce stigma related to mental health among children in underserved communities [ 44 ]. For instance, one of the online modules suggested by the authors involves providing information on community-identified barriers to communicating with care providers. Technologies such as mobile apps and smart wearable sensors can also be leveraged to enable self-management and communication with caregivers.

In light of the aforementioned projections of continued COVID-19 cases at the time of this writing [ 45 ] and our findings, there is a need for immediate attention to and support for students and other vulnerable groups who have mental health issues [ 17 ]. As suggested by a recent study [ 46 ] based on the Italian experience of this pandemic, it is essential to assess the population’s stress levels and psychosocial adjustment to plan for necessary support mechanisms, especially during the recovery phase, as well as for similar events in the future. Although the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have resulted in a widespread forced adoption of telehealth services to deliver psychiatric and mental health support, more research is needed to investigate use beyond COVID-19 as well as to improve preparedness for rapid virtualization of psychiatric counseling or tele-psychiatry [ 47 - 49 ].

Limitations and Future Work

To our knowledge, this is the first effort in documenting the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on a representative sample of college students in the United States via a virtual interview survey method in the middle of the pandemic. However, several limitations should be noted. First, the sample size for our interview survey was relatively small compared to typical survey-only studies; however, the survey interview approach affords the capture of elaboration and additional clarifying details, and therefore complements the survey-based approaches of prior studies focusing on student mental health during this pandemic [ 10 , 11 , 50 ]. Second, the sample used is from one large university, and findings may not generalize to all college students. However, given the nationwide similarities in universities transitioning to virtual classes and similar stay-at-home orders, we expect reasonable generalizability of these findings. Additionally, a majority of our participants were from engineering majors. Therefore, future work is needed to use a stratified nationwide sample across wider disciplines to verify and amend these findings. Third, although a vast majority of participants answered that they have not used the university counseling service during the pandemic, only a few of them provided reasons. Since finding specific reasons behind the low use is a key to increasing college students’ uptake of available counseling support, future research is warranted to unveil underlying factors that hinder college students’ access to mental health support. Finally, we did not analyze how student mental health problems differ by demographic characteristics (eg, age, gender, academic year, major) or other personal and social contexts (eg, income, religion, use of substances).

Future work could focus on more deeply probing the relationships between various coping mechanisms and stressors. Additionally, further study is needed to determine the effects of the pandemic on students’ mental health and well-being in its later phases beyond the peak period. As seen in the case of health care workers in the aftermath of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, there is a possibility that the effects of the pandemic on students may linger for a period beyond the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic itself [ 51 ].

Acknowledgments

This research was partly funded by a Texas A&M University President’s Excellence (X-Grant) award.

Conflicts of Interest

None declared.

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Abbreviations

Edited by G Eysenbach, G Fagherazzi, J Torous; submitted 10.06.20; peer-reviewed by T Liu, V Hagger; comments to author 28.07.20; revised version received 01.08.20; accepted 15.08.20; published 03.09.20

©Changwon Son, Sudeep Hegde, Alec Smith, Xiaomei Wang, Farzan Sasangohar. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 03.09.2020.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

Depression, Anxiety, Loneliness Are Peaking in College Students

Photo by Cydney Scott 

Nationwide study, co-led by BU researcher Sarah Ketchen Lipson, reveals a majority of students say mental health has impacted their academic performance

Kat j. mcalpine.

A survey by a Boston University researcher of nearly 33,000 college students across the country reveals the prevalence of depression and anxiety in young people continues to increase, now reaching its highest levels, a sign of the mounting stress factors due to the coronavirus pandemic, political unrest, and systemic racism and inequality. 

“Half of students in fall 2020 screened positive for depression and/or anxiety,” says Sarah Ketchen Lipson , a Boston University mental health researcher and a co–principal investigator of the nationwide survey , which was administered online during the fall 2020 semester through the Healthy Minds Network. The survey further reveals that 83 percent of students said their mental health had negatively impacted their academic performance within the past month, and that two-thirds of college students are struggling with loneliness and feeling isolated—an all-time high prevalence that reflects the toll of the pandemic and the social distancing necessary to control it.

Lipson, a BU School of Public Health assistant professor of health law, policy, and management, says the survey’s findings underscore the need for university teaching staff and faculty to put mechanisms in place that can accommodate students’ mental health needs.

“Faculty need to be flexible with deadlines and remind students that their talent is not solely demonstrated by their ability to get a top grade during one challenging semester,” Lipson says.

She adds that instructors can protect students’ mental health by having class assignments due at 5 pm, rather than midnight or 9 am, times that Lipson says can encourage students to go to bed later and lose valuable sleep to meet those deadlines.

Especially in smaller classroom settings, where a student’s absence may be more noticeable than in larger lectures, instructors who notice someone missing classes should reach out to that student directly to ask how they are doing. 

“Even in larger classes, where 1:1 outreach is more difficult, instructors can send classwide emails reinforcing the idea that they care about their students not just as learners but as people, and circulating information about campus resources for mental health and wellness,” Lipson says. 

And, crucially, she says, instructors must bear in mind that the burden of mental health is not the same across all student demographics. “Students of color and low-income students are more likely to be grieving the loss of a loved one due to COVID,” Lipson says. They are also “more likely to be facing financial stress.” All of these factors can negatively impact mental health and academic performance in “profound ways,” she says.

At a higher level within colleges and universities, Lipson says, administrators should focus on providing students with mental health services that emphasize prevention, coping, and resilience. The fall 2020 survey data revealed a significant “treatment gap,” meaning that many students who screen positive for depression or anxiety are not receiving mental health services.

“Often students will only seek help when they find themselves in a mental health crisis, requiring more urgent resources,” Lipson says. “But how can we create systems to foster wellness before they reach that point?” She has a suggestion: “All students should receive mental health education, ideally as part of the required curriculum.”

It’s also important to note, she says, that rising mental health challenges are not unique to the college setting—instead, the survey findings are consistent with a broader trend of declining mental health in adolescents and young adults. “I think mental health is getting worse [across the US population], and on top of that we are now gathering more data on these trends than ever before,” Lipson says. “We know mental health stigma is going down, and that’s one of the biggest reasons we are able to collect better data. People are being more open, having more dialogue about it, and we’re able to better identify that people are struggling.”

The worsening mental health of Americans, more broadly, Lipson says, could be due to a confluence of factors: the pandemic, the impact of social media, and shifting societal values that are becoming more extrinsically motivated (a successful career, making more money, getting more followers and likes), rather than intrinsically motivated (being a good member of the community). 

The crushing weight of historic financial pressures is an added burden. “Student debt is so stressful,” Lipson says. “You’re more predisposed to experiencing anxiety the more debt you have. And research indicates that suicidality is directly connected to financial well-being.” 

With more than 22 million young people enrolled in US colleges and universities, “and with the traditional college years of life coinciding with the age of onset for lifetime mental illnesses,” Lipson stresses that higher education is a crucial setting where prevention and treatment can make a difference.

One potential bright spot from the survey was that the stigma around mental health continues to fade. The results reveal that 94 percent of students say that they wouldn’t judge someone for seeking out help for mental health, which Lipson says is an indicator that also correlates with those students being likely to seek out help themselves during a personal crisis (although, paradoxically, almost half of students say they perceive that others may think more poorly of them if they did seek help).

“We’re harsher on ourselves and more critical of ourselves than we are with other people—we call that perceived versus personal stigma,” Lipson says. “Students need to realize, your peers are not judging you.”

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There are 25 comments on Depression, Anxiety, Loneliness Are Peaking in College Students

first of all, excellent writing! This report is extremely triggering for a few reasons. Obviously students are NOT okay at the moment, now confirmed by the student. But what does the university do about it? They micro-manage EVERY aspect of students’ life to mitigate Covid risk. Here, tell me why the university took away household table seating in the dining hall? That was one of the ONLY places on campus where students can eat with each other and actually see their friends’ faces. What type of modeling was used to make this decision and its impact on covid spread on campus. Same thing for the green badge, was there a statistical difference in case before and after students have to walk around showing that? The university’s policies are simply incentivizing off-campus, more dangerous gatherings because the university won’t facilitate anything like that on campus. Oh, and the university response? ‘you’re doing great sweetie’ type of deal – absolutely ridiculous. I know BU can’t keep this up much longer, they are losing far too much money because of Covid and less students on campus – there will be a reckoning. Students, stand up.

BU will acknowledge this but then still won’t do anything to actually help.

Great, but this school is doing absolutely nothing to help it

I appreciate this article because I feel that the issue of mental health isn’t talked about enough amongst students and just college culture in general. I don’t see any concerns coming from college faculty, at least clearly. It’s so important to talk about mental health, especially during a pandemic.

This article is definitely going in the right direction. That being said, as the other comments have also mentioned, BU needs to do MUCH more than just publishing an article telling students, “well, at least you aren’t alone.” If 83% of your student body reports their mental health affects their school work, then if not for them, at least change something for the benefit of the school’s name. To put it bluntly, this does not look good. Also referencing BU’s response to sexual harassment, BU now has a track record of acknowledging issues that significantly impact its students in an article or maybe a speech to only do NOTHING about it. Please, I implore the school to act. Act or we will.

We know mental health stigma is going down

Actually, we know support for those taught and teaching that prejudice is diminishing, though that does not mean by any stretch of the imagination it is not still being taught. It continues to be taught (often resolutely) at Boston University. The above sentence is one manner in which it continues to be taught, Passive Reference. It is also actively taught.  “Perceived stigma” is another interesting Passive Reference, directed prejudices are intended by their directors to be perceived. “perceived” stigma is an obfuscation of the process whereby it is perceived.  It surprises me, that so many women, eschewing “the stigma” of rape, continue to declare “the stigma” of mental illnesses. Sometimes history does not inform us. A few years ago 5 students died by suicide at a Canadian college, blamed was “the stigma” of mental illnesses, not those conveying it. When a young man at U Penn died by suicide it prompted his sister to set up a now national organization protesting “the stigma” of mental illnesses, not those conveying it. National organizations abound conveying “the stigma” of mental illnesses to eagerly awaiting audiences. Publications abound, but to my knowledge not one single publication directly addresses how it is taught or who teaches it.  Nor, to my knowledge is there a campus in the US, or any English speaking country, where someone is given guidance on how to address those directing it. Whom to approach. How to resolve it. [email protected] offers no such guidance. I invite each of you to return to 1972, when a small group of personally empowered women said, “Stop directing the term stigma at rape, you have done enough harm” and take that lesson to heart: We stopped.

And I invite [email protected] to take a role in bringing about that change. 

Harold A Maio, retired mental health editor

Wow – so what is BU doing about this when we have pleaded with admin and offered so many ideas and solutions to helping here since September 2020?

The silence is deafening BU.

The Well Being Project is stagnate.

The Dean is silent.

The provost says students are happy based on some survey they did just before holidays when students knew they were going home.

The Director of Mental Health says appts for mental health are down – that’s the sign everything is fine?

We are hearing the opposite and many students have just lost their faith in support from BU as well as just returning home for LFA where they have a support system.

Where are the social in person safe activities outside and inside?

Where are the RAs and their weekly activities and support of their residents or are they just there to write students up?

Where are the self-care tips and resources offered daily to students?

Where in the daily MANDATORY self-check survey of their health – are any questions about their emotional well being including their mood, stress levels, sleep and appetite?

Where is the support for faculty who are seeing these issues and trying to reach out?

Where are the therapy dogs from pre-pandemic we asked for weekly or biweekly to come outside and offer unconditional emotional support during this tough time?

Where are some campus wide concerts or comedy relief concert paid for by BU – virtually or outside so students have anything to look forward to? If it’s down to money / the $70,000 Tuition or should cover some of it or funds from housing since many were not reimbursed when they returned home for support.

Where is any work with this amazing wise resource Dr. Lipson to take any of her guidance since last summer instead of just posting it here?

Is anyone listening to the isolation and pain of so many terriers? I have heard troubling stories for months since we began our BU Parent group that is NOT monitored by the Deans office unlike others. I have helped refer and counsel families worried if they speak up there might be some retaliation. There is no retaliation just a deaf ear to making any changes to improve morale and well being of our terriers during a pandemic. And then posting this article is the ultimate hutzpah when no one has listened to Dr.Lipson / your own shining star about these issues.

Why not shine as you have with COVID testing? What if this were your family member feeling isolated and disillusioned with their dreams at BU with no outreach from BU except an occasional ZOOM message.

BU can do so much better and be the example for the rest of the nation. Why test so stringently if you will not allow any safe activities except for favorites like sports teams and band members?

Terriers are ZOOMED OUT. Don’t wait for a suicide or more depression to appear in students. It’s almost too late to be proactive / but you can try and we ask that you try hard. Be an example for other colleges.

We are not giving up on being heard. We are parents who care and love BU and know it can do better.

A lot of good points made – I wanted to touch upon when you mentioned that appointments for mental health are apparently down. As a student actively seeking mental health resources, my experience is that it has been extremely difficult to even schedule any sort of mental health appointments or counseling; we are unable to make an appointment online or in-person anymore, and the only information we are given is a phone number to call (the Behavioral Medicine number). I find this frustrating as many of us need more than just a phone conversation to help – even a zoom meeting would be helpful, but why aren’t there zoom appointments for SHS like there are for almost every other service on campus (e.g., pre-professional advising, financial aid, etc.)? I’ve noticed that the loneliness and isolation is affecting not only me but my roommates as well, who have stronger support systems and more friends on campus than I do – we’ve all been lacking motivation to do any of our work and they’ve mentioned that they feel like they need a break (spring break canceled due to pandemic concerns). Even some of my professors seem burnt out – forgetting class, getting behind on their syllabus, etc. In my opinion, BU should be more proactive in giving students resources instead of making it difficult to find said resources. Lastly, I wanted to add that I understand a lot of services are probably very different now due to the pandemic, but a single “wellness week” and emails about it do not do much to actually help students – I find it comparable to “self care” where the self care is just drinking wine and putting on a skincare mask and pushing all your real problems aside.

I agree with those who are asking for BU to do more to support students. I’m a faculty member who is trying to do my best to support my students. I’m more than willing to give extensions, modify assignments, and lower my expectations this semester. I’m checking in on students who miss class to make sure they’re okay. I’m trying to cut as much material as I can while still meeting my course learning objectives. At the same time, I don’t think it’s fair to expect faculty to do everything when it comes to students’ wellbeing. I’ve been in meetings where faculty were asked (both implicitly and explicitly) to help students make friends and socialize during class. I know faculty who are doing this in their courses (and I applaud them for their efforts), but shouldn’t Res Life and other staff at BU be providing opportunities for students to safely socialize? Sure, it’s cold, but certainly BU can be creative and think of ways to encourage students to get out of their dorms and make friends. Faculty are struggling too, and BU’s administration can help us by helping our students.

This is an excellent article, and though not surprising, it is shocking that the BU administration has not done anything to remedy this mental health crises. This is a mental health pandemic happening and it should be as high of a priority for BU as the trying to control the virus. If BU doesn’t step up and come up with a plan to address this then our students will suffer for years to come. This should have happened months ago. You can’t have a healthy individual/society if you are only concerned with physical health. It has to be a holistic approach.

Nice article I hope all instructors read this article I am one of the students sometimes fell a depression and live in the anxiety that is effectives on my life and do not have the energy to do anything particularly during what we live now

First, I would like to focus on the positive and thank BU mental health staff for being there for my son when he was in urgent need of mental health support back in the Fall semester. My call was answered right away and my son was able to speak with a professional with in 15 minutes. I was very impressed and relieved. They were there when we needed them.

On the other hand, I’m hearing from my son and all of his friends that the academic culture of rigor for the sake of rigor, grade deflation and the purposeful weeding out of students from core classes rather than supporting and helping each student succeed, not only continues but has been increased during COVID. These students have a sense that professors are concerned about online cheating so have ramped the rigor to address this. Not sure if this is real or perceived and I’m sure this is not going on in all classes as I also heard examples of supportive professors, but this is definitely a theme I am hearing from students. This style of academics is known to be outdated and ineffective, yet it continues, even at a higher level, during a pandemic.

I’m hoping this feedback can serve helpful to administration.

THANK YOU!!!! As a college student, who has survived the past year with a 4.0, attending full-time to obtain my degree in IT. I am struggling for the first time. After technology issues that set me behind four days, I really thought my instructors would understand. One of my instructors couldn’t care less. The workload is beyond overwhelming, her curriculum seems almost cruel. I graduate next month and I feel like I am losing my mind. I already suffer from severe anxiety, so the level I’m at now is almost debilitating. I have been obtaining degrees since 1998, and familiar with online learning. I’ve never had issues. This morning I received an email from her reminding me of the due date, in all bold caps, followed by some !!!! … She made it clear she is not available on the weekend, but expects us to be flexible. So my dilemma is this, I am failing my coding class now, but I don’t feel that I should be financially responsible to pay for having to retake it, as well as have it impact my financial aid and scholarships I receive for my academic performance.

Hi. I’m a BU alumna, a college professor, and mom to 4 college-aged sons. WONDERING… Do students feel there is explicit and implicit prejudice against college students as “purveyors of COVID?” I think this adds to the discomfort or enjoyment of being a college student and part of a university community. Thoughts? Thanks!

I notice that the students like to complain on here. One thing that university researchers on mental health have a difficult time assessing is knowing the familial support system (or lack thereof) students come into university life with. Psychologists will affirm that this plays a huge role in the mental health of students, at any age. Just as elementary through high schools today are expected to be the emotional, parental, physical, educational, and social supporter of each student, so too are universities being given this sort of expectation. Don’t get me wrong…I believe in striving for mental health and making resources available on campuses. However, within the communities of students – whether their friends or family – we have to realize that the internal conversation around mental health for many cultures is either non-existent or looked down upon. We can sing mental health from the rooftops all day long and hope that students are listening…..and I hope they do.

ECT/Electroshock use has been on the rise last 5 years or so and not just used for depression nor as a last resort. No FDA testing ever done of devices used or the procedure itself. Increase risk for suicide following as many cannot find help for their repeated brain injuries after consenting to this. Lawsuits taking place in the US and England around these damages covered up. See site ectjustice to learn more. Please speak out on social media so others are made aware of the truth of this practice.

People shouldn’t hesitate to ask for psychological help. I think it’s one of the main problems why people struggle mentally. Maybe, it’s a matter of self-critique, and society says sometimes that we should be strong… But when someone gets in an emotional crisis, only a professional can help. And I also never see when students/educators judge their peers/colleagues if someone contacted mental health support. I looked through the list of different affordable mental health services across English-speaking countries – https://ivypanda.com/blog/mental-health-resources – I was shocked how many problems we can have, and how many professionals exist to help with them. Maybe, it may be helpful to others too. Let’s take care of ourselves.

I tried to find the source for “83 %” of college students say their performance was negatively affected by mental health. Did you just pull that number out of thin air? I tried to go through everything I could and could not find this number anywhere in any actual published writing.

Please see page six of the report, the pie chart listed under Academic Impairment.

I think you just made up certain elements of this article and they actually have 0 foundation whatsoever. It has led me down a rabbit hole of attempting to try to find the published support for some of the claims you make. Including the 83 % figure. If you’re going to write articles that will be heavily referenced (which this is, because other idiots went on to quote this article), you should at least get the facts straight.

Please see page 6 of the report, the pie chart listed under Academic Impairment: https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/HMS-Fall-2020-National-Data-Report.pdf

That is a misrepresentation of the data, in my opinion. Including students who reported mental health impacting their academic performance 1-2 days out of the week is insufficient to be grouped in with 83% of students. The way it is presented in this article makes it seem much more drastic than that. It should say, “28% of students felt 1-2 days out of the week had been negatively impacted by their mental health in the past month..” and report the other percentages. Not combined into one group and twisted in a sensationalistic way. I was attempting to use this information for a research paper of my own and was sent down a rabbit hole trying to find a source. Other people have cited this article, and that is your responsibility as a researcher.

Reading it because to help a friend with his assignment. He studies in FAST, Islamabad, Pakistan. If anyone of his class fellows are here, good luck to you

It is 3:12 in the morning and I just got off the phone with son. He called because he was riddled with anxiety and suffering with loneliness and a seeming inability to form meaningful connections. This is his first year at BU. He loves the University; However, in addition to the rigorous academic challenges, he is crushed by the seeming inability to form connections with others. This, on so many levels, surprises me. He is intelligent, interesting, friendly, handsome and well rounded. Upon my introduction to the University’s logistical layout, I was immediately aware that it not appear easily conducive to meeting people… As opposed to a smaller private college if you will. Clearly, BU had an obligation to address the many challenges brought about as a result of Covid. Understandable, but perhaps a bit extreme, ie: The students not being allowed to eat or congregate. Regardless, what I also observed is that there are few, if any, common rooms.. areas for students to hang out, play board games, ping pong, darts, tell jokes, b.s. and share common concerns. Or My point being, there should be multiple places (Besides sneaking into local clubs, or drinking Alone in your dorm) where kids can go..day or night. Organized events as well, aside from sports. As aforementioned, my son also found it very challenging and frustrating to contact a counselor through your service. When you do, the schedules are booked…… I have been heartbroken. Nonetheless, the consistent voice if encouragement. I want more from the school. I, like all others noted before me. More social emotional support. More access to social opportunities. More professors understanding and working with the challenges our children are struggling to navigate. In closing, it’s not just a BU crisis. I listen to very similar difficulties from many other University families…. PLEASE be more proactive. PLEASE care PLEASE help It is imperative and essential to a successful college experience and outcome. Thank you. And thank you all aforementioned

very very nice

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EMPIRICAL STUDY article

An empirical study of college students’ reading engagement on academic achievement.

• 1 Anhui Xinhua University, Hefei, China
• 2 Institute of Higher Education, Anhui Xinhua University, Hefei, China
• 3 Quality Education Research Center, Anhui Xinhua University, Hefei, China
• 4 School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

With the popularity of Internet technology, reading has developed in the direction of digitalization and mobileization. And entering the metaverse era, both the subject and object of reading may be redefined, presenting a new developmental pattern. This process brings a crisis to reading, such as the fragmentation of reading, the obstruction of reading needs, and the replacement of classical reading. However, reading is still an important way for college students to acquire new knowledge, broaden their horizons and improve their skills. The existence of reading crises inevitably affects the academic achievement of college students. Therefore, from the perspective of university management, this paper conducts regression analysis on 1,155 effective samples of colleges and universities in Anhui Province, extracts the factors that affect college students’ reading engagement, and further explores the relationship between college students’ reading engagement and academic achievement. The study concluded that: (1) in terms of family reading culture, students who grow up in families with good family reading culture perform better in reading engagement. The amount of family books, family reading education and family reading atmosphere all have significant positive effects on reading time and reflective reading strategies of college students. (2) In the cultivation of reading habits in colleges and universities, the course-driven mechanism and the atmosphere stimulating mechanism have a significant positive effect on students’ reading time. The course-driven mechanism, resource supporting mechanism and atmosphere stimulating mechanism have a significant positive effect on the critical reading strategy of college students. (3) In terms of reading time, it is only found that the reading time spent on paper books has a significant positive effect on college students’ academic achievement and professional quality. (4) In terms of reading strategies, the replicative reading strategy only has a significant positive effect on the improvement of college students’ academic achievement and professional quality. The critical reading strategy has a significant positive effect on the professional quality, general ability and career planning ability of college students.

Introduction

The year 2021 is regarded as the “meta-universe year” ( Zhao et al., 2021 ), and the phenomenon of “meta-universe” has received widespread attention, reflecting the new trend of digital technology development after new technologies such as big data, blockchain, 5G and cloud computing. The metaverse is linked and created by using technology, a virtual world mapped and interacted with the real world, and a digital living space with a new social system. Combing through the literature related to metaverse reveals that many scholars focus on the impact of metaverse on games, literary travel, education and other fields, but there are few studies on the connection between metaverse and reading and how metaverse will bring changes to reading. With the popularity of Internet technology, reading has developed in the direction of digitalization and mobilization. And entering the era of metaverse, both the subject and the object of reading may be redefined and take on a new developmental shape. This process brings a crisis to reading, such as reading fragmentation, hindered reading demand, and the replacement of classical reading ( Cai and Zhao, 2022 ; Dwivedi et al., 2022 ; Zhu, 2022 ).

The acquisition of intellectual capabilities and development of high level manpower which is the goal of tertiary education implies a crop of students with good study habits because effective study habits and strategies have been attributed to the secret of success in school, graduation, entering the universities as well as the attainment of job advancement ( Musingati and Zebron, 2014 ).

Reading is an important way for contemporary college students to acquire new knowledge, expand their horizons and improve their skills, which is not only beneficial to their academic progress and quality improvement, but also plays an important role in creating a good cultural atmosphere and playing the function of educating people in colleges and universities. As an important means of educating people in colleges and universities, reading is related to the mission of cultivating talents in colleges and universities and the effectiveness of cultivating talents in universities. Therefore, reading for college students is one of the very important research topics in college education management. ( Leal-Rodriguez and Albort-Morant, 2019 ; Gao, 2021 ; Weli and Nwogu, 2022 ).

Based on the above, from the perspective of university management, this study explores: (1) What factors affect college students’ reading engagement? (2) What is the influence mechanism of college students’ reading engagement on their academic performance? Thus, the university reading management mechanism can be constructed to improve their academic achievement.

Literature review and research hypotheses

College students’ reading engagement.

Different scholars hold different views on the connotation of reading engagement, and so far, there is no unified standard. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) believes that reading engagement is a state of concentration. Pearson et al. (2016) believed that reading engagement is the interaction between students’ motivation and strategies. Different scholars have different views on the dimensions of reading engagement. PISA2009 divides reading engagement into personal reading engagement and school reading engagement. Personal reading engagement includes four dimensions: love of reading, diversity of reading, online reading activities and reading time. The school reading engagement specifically includes four dimensions: text interpretation, use of non-consecutive texts, reading activities of traditional literary works, and instrumental text use. Zhang et al. (2014) drew on the PISA2009 definition of reading engagement, and divided reading engagement into reading time, reading quantity and reading interest. Wen et al. (2016) studied reading engagement from three dimensions: length of reading time, amount of reading, and diversity of reading content.

The reading engagement proposed in this study refers to the time and energy input of college students in the process of reading, which specifically includes college students’ reading time and reading strategies ( Brookbank et al., 2018 ; McDaniel, 2018 ). See Table 1 for details.

Table 1. Specific indicators of reading engagement.

Academic achievement

Research on the academic achievement of college students can be traced back to the 1960s. In 1966, the American Educational Advisory Council created the “Cooperative Program on Institutional Research.” After the 1990s, countries all over the world began to pay attention to the investigation and research on the academic achievement of college students. This is not only an effective way to judge the value growth of college students, but also an important way to explore the learning and development of college students, and an effective method to measure the quality of college education ( Douglass et al., 2012 ). Park et al. (2014) summarized the academic achievement of college students as knowledge, values and attitudes, skills or appropriate behaviors. American university scholars developed a standardized test tool CLA (Collegiate Learning Assessment), which reflects the academic achievement status of college students by measuring critical thinking ability, analytical reasoning ability, problem-solving ability and communication ability. Developmental psychology believes that there is an interaction mechanism between value orientation and behavioral choice, and there is a causal relationship between academic achievement orientation and behavior, that is, college students with higher academic achievement will have better future development ( Morgan, 2004 ; Aharony and Bar-Ilan, 2018 ). Maniaci et al. (2021) evaluated the relationship between healthy lifestyle and academic performance of 373 Italian adolescents, and found that academic achievement was conducive to healthy lifestyle and good eating habits.

Reading engagement and academic achievement of college students

According to the input-environment-output model proposed by Astin (1984) , output refers to students’ ability, that is, the target of education and teaching in colleges and universities, input refers to the personal characteristics of students before receiving higher education, including the student’s family background, academic qualifications before admission, etc., environment refers to all kinds of actual experiences that students experience in universities and colleges, including those from course teaching, campus activities, social practice, and others ( Astin, 1984 ).

A study environment therefore refers to the physical, social and psychological situations that affect a student’s well being as well his studies. A study environment must be safe, healthy and promote the study life of a student ( Dempsey, 2020 ). A satisfying learning environment is conducive to college students’ reading engagement (time and energy), which in turn enhances their academic achievement. Therefore, the more college students participate in various practical activities, the better their comprehensive ability and quality will be improved ( Camelo and Elliott, 2019 ; Wu, 2019 ; Marley and Wilcox, 2022 ).

Research hypothesis

Reading is essentially the inheritance and innovation of knowledge (object) in the interactive relationship between subject (reader) and carrier (reading material). The differences of reading subjects (readers) mainly depend on individual preconditions and post-environments. In the preconditions, family reading characteristics (mainly the pros and cons of the students’ family cultural capital) play a leading role. In the post-endowment environment, the cultivation of reading habits in colleges and universities plays a leading role. Different kinds of colleges and universities play different roles in the cultivation of reading habits, which affects reading engagement. The object of reading is composed of explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is mainly composed of disciplinary professional knowledge, interdisciplinary integration knowledge and fragmented knowledge, while tacit knowledge is obtained through comprehension, and in university campus, it is mainly manifested as scholarly campus and cultural influence. Reading carriers are mainly composed of paper carriers and digital carriers. Under the background of technological change, intelligent knowledge production (IR, AI), interactive knowledge transmission and lively knowledge experience (AR, VR) are the inevitable trends of the development of reading carriers.

Therefore, this study explores the influence mechanism of college students’ reading engagement on the improvement of academic achievement from the perspective of students and universities. Based on this, this study puts forward the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: The characteristics of reading subjects (preconditions and college endowments) have a significant influence on the academic achievement of college students. The better the subject endowment, the better the academic achievement of college students.

Hypothesis 1a: Controlling other variables, the better the college students’ pre-existing conditions, the better their academic achievement;

Hypothesis 1b: Controlling other variables, the better the endowment of college students in colleges and universities, the better their academic achievement;

Hypothesis 2: College students’ reading engagement has a significant influence on academic achievement, that is, the more college students engage in reading, the better their academic achievement.

Hypothesis 2a: Controlling other variables, the more time college students devote to reading, the better their academic achievement;

Hypothesis 2b: Controlling other variables, the better the reading strategy of college students, the better their academic achievement;

Hypothesis 3: The cultivation of reading habits in colleges and universities has a significant impact on the academic achievement of college students by influencing their reading engagement, that is, the better the university’s curriculum driving mechanism, resource support mechanism, atmosphere stimulation mechanism and interaction promotion mechanism are played, the better the academic achievement of college students will be.

The logic of this research is to construct the relationship between reading engagement and academic achievement, and explore the influence mechanism of reading engagement on academic achievement by investigating the respective effects of reading engagement at the student level and the university level. The reading engagement (time and strategy) level of college students, from the individual level, is mainly affected by the individual’s preconditions. From the perspective of group characteristics, it is mainly affected by the endowment of colleges and the cultivation of college reading habits. The combined effect of the individual level and the university level constitutes a research system of college students’ reading engagement on academic achievement.

Research design

Questionnaire design and data collection, questionnaire design.

First of all, literature was sorted out to collect authoritative classical scales, and some mature scales were used for reference. In this study, the reading engagement questionnaire of college students draws on the questionnaire of “Research on Reading Motivation of College Students” by Chen Xiaoli of Jinan University and the questionnaire of “Chinese Reading Behavior in the Digital Age” by Li Xinxiang of Wuhan University. The college students’ academic achievement questionnaire was based on the “University Quality and Student Development Monitoring Project in Beijing” questionnaire and NSSE-China.

Secondly, through discussion among members of the research team and consultation with authoritative experts in this field, the contents of the questionnaire items and the wording of the questionnaire were modified, and the design content of the questionnaire was initially determined. In the first part, the purpose of the study was explained to the research subjects. The second part defines the background data of this study. The third part is mainly about the impact of college students’ reading engagement on academic achievement, including time reading motivation, family reading culture, college reading habit training, college organizational endowment and so on. The fourth part is the basic information of the research object, including age and other demographic variables.

Finally, a small number of qualified samples were screened, and the proposed questionnaire was used for pre-investigation, and the data of the recovered questionnaire was sorted out. At the same time, the reliability and validity of the questionnaire items were tested, and the inconsistent questions were deleted to form the final draft of the questionnaire.

Questionnaire distribution and collection

After the preliminary questionnaire survey, the re-adjustment and modification of the questionnaire were completed to improve reliability and validity, and the final questionnaire of this study was formed.

In this study, cluster sampling method was mainly adopted. This method is to merge the units in the population into several non-intersecting and non-repeating sets, that is, cluster; and then use the cluster as a sampling unit to draw samples.

Considering the representativeness and comprehensiveness of the sample, three undergraduate universities in Anhui Province were selected, one is a university of Project 985, one is a government-run undergraduate university, and one is a private undergraduate university. The student sample covers freshmen to seniors, and the majors cover humanities and social sciences, science and engineering. In the questionnaire survey, we gathered the students together and conducted the survey in the form of answering online questionnaires through smartphones. Finally, a total of 1,155 valid questionnaires were obtained.

Measurement of variables

This study takes the academic achievement of college students as the dependent variable, which includes three dimensions, namely, professional ability, general competence, and career planning ability. The reading engagement of college students was taken as the explanatory variable, and the individual characteristics of college students, reading motivation, family reading culture, college reading habit training and college organizational endowment were used as control variables. The definitions of main explanatory variables, explained variables and control variables are shown in Table 2 .

Table 2. Measurement of variables.

In order to verify the mechanism of college students’ reading engagement on college students’ academic achievement proposed in this paper, the following multiple regression models were used to analyze from the student level and the university level. The specific model is as follows:

Among them, X ij represents the reading engagement of college students, A ij represents the individual characteristics of college students; B ij represents the reading motivation of college students; C ij represents the reading culture of college students’ families; D ij represents the cultivation of reading habits in colleges and universities; E ij stands for organizational endowment of colleges and universities; Y ij is for academic achievement of college students. β i is the regression coefficient.

In Model 1, the dependent variable is X ij , and other variables are independent variables, which are used to explore the factors affecting college students’ reading engagement. In Model 2, the dependent variable is Y ij , and other variables are independent variables, which are used to explore the impact of college students’ reading engagement on their academic achievement.

Analysis of empirical results

Descriptive statistical analysis.

In terms of the grade distribution of the sample, there are fewer seniors. The main reason is that the courses of seniors have finished, and many students have been practicing abroad, so the number of seniors in school is small. The sample number of freshmen, sophomores and juniors was relatively balanced, with 238 freshmen, accounting for 20.6%, 436 sophomore students, accounting for 37.7%, 359 juniors, accounting for 31.1 percent. In terms of the types of colleges and universities, 203 students are from 985 colleges and universities, accounting for 17.6%. The number of students from local public undergraduate universities is 283, accounting for 24.5%; the number of local private undergraduate students is 669, accounting for 57.9%. In terms of gender, there are 633 boys, accounting for 54.8%, and 522 girls, accounting for 45.2%. In terms of majors, 382 students are in humanities and social sciences, accounting for 28.5%, while 826 in science and engineering, accounting for 71.5%. In terms of the source of students, 606 students are from rural areas, accounting for 52.5%, and 549 from urban areas, accounting for 47.5%. In terms of the types of high schools, 788 students, accounting for 68.2%, are enrolled in key high schools, and 367 students, or 31.8 percent, are enrolled in regular high schools. From the perspective of annual family income, 58.4% (674 students) have an annual family income of 50,000 yuan or less, 25% (289 students) 60,000–100,000 yuan, and the remaining 17.6% (242 students) 100,000 yuan or more. See Table 3 for details.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of the sample.

Reliability analysis

The reliability test of the questionnaire is mainly to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, so we conducted the reliability test of the questionnaire by using SPSS21.0. According to the structure of the questionnaire, we selected the following dimensions for reliability analysis, as shown in Table 4 .

Table 4. Reliability analysis.

Cronbach’s α coefficient is used to measure the reliability of the internal consistency of the questionnaire. If the Cronbach’s α coefficient is larger, it indicates that the degree of internal consistency of the questionnaire is higher, and the reliability of the questionnaire results is stronger. It is generally believed that the reliability coefficient should be between 0 and 1. If the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire is above 0.9, it means that the reliability of the questionnaire is very good. If the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire is between 0.8 and 0.9, it indicates that the reliability of the questionnaire is acceptable. If the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire is between 0.7 and 0.8, it indicates that some items of the questionnaire need to be revised. If the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire is below 0.7, it indicates that some items in the questionnaire need to be deleted.

The reliability of this questionnaire can be found from the above table, the reliability of each dimension of the questionnaire is above 0.8, indicating that the reliability of the questionnaire in this paper is good.

Validity analysis

The paper used structural equation modeling to test the construct validity of the main variables, including academic achievement and reading engagement. As can be seen from Figure 1 , the path coefficients of the three abilities of academic achievement are all above 0.7, and other observation indicators meet the requirements, indicating that the validity of the academic achievement in the questionnaire is good. As can be seen from Figure 2 , the path coefficients of the two aspects of reading engagement are both above 0.6, and the other observed indicators are consistent, indicating that the validity of reading engagement in the questionnaire is good.

Figure 1. Construct validity analysis chart of academic achievement (after normalization). Significance level * P < 0.1, ** P < 0.05, and *** P < 0.01.

Figure 2. Construct validity analysis diagram of reading input (after standardization). Significance level * P < 0.1, ** P < 0.05, and *** P < 0.01.

Analysis of influencing factors of college students’ reading engagement

The above analysis shows that different individual characteristics, different reading motivation, different family reading culture, different reading habit cultivation and different organizational endowment of colleges and universities show different reading input. Therefore, the paper took college students’ reading engagement as the dependent variable and college students’ individual characteristics, reading motivation, family reading culture, college reading habit cultivation and college organizational endowment as independent variables to construct a multiple regression model and analyze the influencing mechanism of these factors on college students’ reading engagement. The regression results are shown in Table 5 .

Table 5. Results of multiple linear regression of college students’ reading engagement.

The influence of college students’ individual characteristics on reading engagement

As can be seen from Table 5 , in the prediction of paper reading time, the grade of college students has a positive and significant effect on reading time, that is, with the rise of grade, college students will spend more and more time on paper reading. In the prediction of reading strategies, the grade of college students plays a significant role in the replication reading strategy. With the rise of grade, college students are more and more inclined to choose the replication reading strategy. Gender of college students plays a significant role in critical reading strategies, and male students are more inclined to think and reflect when reading.

The influence of college students’ reading motivation on reading engagement

As can be seen from Table 5 , in terms of reading motivation, both practical motivation and entertainment motivation have positive and significant effects on paper reading time, which also indicates that college students spend more time on practical and entertainment paper reading materials.

In terms of reading motivation, entertainment motivation has a positive and significant effect on e-reading time, while developmental motivation has a negative and significant effect on e-reading time. This also indicates that the main purpose of e-reading is entertainment, but college students choose to read from the perspective of their own development, so they spend less time on e-reading.

In terms of the impact of reading motivation on reading strategies, practical motivation, entertainment motivation and developmental motivation all play a positive and significant role in the replication and reflective reading strategies. In other words, on the whole, the stronger the reading motivation of college students, the better they will use the replication and reflective reading strategies.

The influence of college students’ family reading culture on reading engagement

As can be seen from Table 5 , in the prediction of reading time, only the father’s education years play a negative and significant role in the paper reading time of college students. That is, the higher the father’s education level, the less reading time of college students, which is obviously not in line with our conventional cognition, and the specific reasons need to be further analyzed.

However, the amount of family books, family reading education and family reading atmosphere all have significant positive effects on the paper reading time and electronic reading time of college students, which indicates that the more books in the family, the better the family reading education, the better the family reading atmosphere, and the longer the reading time of college students.

In the prediction of reading strategies, family reading education and family reading atmosphere had positive and significant effects on college students’ duplicative reading strategies and reflective reading strategies. The amount of family books has a positive and significant effect on the reflective reading strategy, which also indicates that family reading education, family reading atmosphere and the amount of family books are an important factor affecting the reading strategy of college students.

Influence of reading habit cultivation on reading input in colleges and universities

In terms of the prediction of reading time, the course-driven mechanism and the atmosphere stimulation mechanism have positive and significant effects on paper reading time and electronic reading time, which indicates that the opening of college guidance courses and the development of college reading activities will increase the reading time of college students.

In the prediction of reading strategies, the course-driven mechanism and the atmosphere stimulating mechanism play a positive and significant role in the replication reading strategy of college students, while the course-driven mechanism, the resource supporting mechanism and the atmosphere stimulating mechanism play a positive and significant role in the reflective reading strategy of college students. Generally speaking, the cultivation mechanism of college reading habits plays a very important role in the selection of reading strategies for college students. The more attention colleges pay to the cultivation of students’ reading habits, the better college students can use reading strategies.

Influence of organizational endowment on reading input in colleges and universities

In the prediction of organizational endowment of colleges and universities, the type of colleges and universities plays a positive and significant role in paper reading time, electronic reading time, replicative reading strategy and reflective reading strategy, that is, with the improvement of college selection, the longer the reading time of college students and the better the use of reading strategies.

Analysis of the impact of college students’ reading engagement on college students’ academic achievement

Through the above analysis, we can find that college students with different levels of reading engagement show different levels of academic achievement. Therefore, taking college students’ reading engagement as the independent variable, college students’ academic achievement as the dependent variable, and college students’ individual characteristics, reading motivation, family reading culture and organizational endowment as control variables, we constructed a multiple regression model to test whether college students’ reading engagement has an impact on college students’ academic achievement. At the same time, it also examines whether the individual characteristics of college students, reading motivation, family reading culture and organizational endowment of colleges and universities affect the academic achievement of college students. The regression results are shown in Table 6 .

Table 6. Results of multiple linear regression of college students’ academic achievement.

The influence of college students’ reading engagement on their academic achievement

(1) The influence of college students’ reading engagement on college students’ professional quality.

As can be seen from Table 6 , paper reading time, replicative reading strategy and speculative reading strategy all play a significant positive role in the prediction of professional literacy of college students. However, e-reading time has no significant effect on college students’ professional quality. The explanatory power of the whole model is 58.3%. The data show that paper reading time and critical reading strategy can promote the improvement of college students’ professional ability, that is, the more paper reading time of college students, the more professional quality can be promoted. The use of critical reading strategy can also significantly improve the professional quality of college students. The measurement of professional literacy includes the improvement of professional performance and self-directed learning ability. It can be seen that if college students want to improve their professional knowledge and enhance their autonomous learning ability, they must first increase their reading time of paper books. Secondly, we should use the critical reading strategy, that is, we should keep thinking while reading, so as to improve our professional ability.

(2) The influence of college students’ reading engagement on college students’ general ability.

As can be seen from Table 6 , only the critical reading strategy plays a significant positive role in predicting the general ability of college students. Paper reading time, electronic reading time and Replicative reading strategy have no significant effect on college students’ general ability. The explanatory power of the whole model is 48.3%. The data show that the critical reading strategy can promote the general ability of college students. The measurement of general ability includes two elements: expressive ability and organizational leadership ability. From the perspective of the function of reading, if college students want to improve their general ability, that is, their expressive ability and organizational leadership ability, they must strengthen the use of critical reading strategies in reading, think in reading, and constantly improve their general ability.

(3) The impact of reading engagement on college students’ career and career planning

As can be seen from Table 6 , in terms of the prediction of career and career planning ability, the critical reading strategy has a significant positive effect on college students’ career and career planning ability. Paper reading time, electronic reading time and replicative reading strategy have no significant effect on college students’ general ability. The explanatory power of the whole model is 62.7%. The data show that the critical reading strategy can improve college students’ career and career planning ability. The measurement of career and career planning ability includes two elements: determining future career direction and forming stage development goals. The more college students use critical reading strategies in reading, the more they can improve their career and career planning ability.

Path analysis of the impact of college students’ reading engagement on academic achievement

The above multiple linear regression analysis shows the degree of influence of college students’ reading engagement on academic achievement. For how each dimension of college students’ reading engagement affects college students’ academic achievement, it is necessary to construct structural equation model to conduct path analysis and analyze the specific impact mechanism of college students’ reading engagement on academic achievement. AMOSS20.0 was used for path analysis in this paper. The chi-square of the model was 135.873, the degree of freedom was 13, and the overall significance probability of the model was P&LT. 0.001, the model fit is good, and the indicators are shown in Table 7 .

Table 7. Fitting index of the model.

According to the Maximum Likelihood method, the model is analyzed. Figure 3 summarizes the standardized influence mechanism between “reading engagement and academic achievement.” The effect of college students’ reading engagement on standardized academic achievement reached 0.57, and the probability of significance was P&LT. 0.001, which indicates that college students’ reading engagement can indeed have a positive role in promoting academic achievement. This also confirms the conclusion in the regression model that college students’ reading engagement has a significant promoting effect on academic achievement, and verifies the basic hypothesis of this paper.

Figure 3. Structural equation model of college students’ reading engagement and academic achievement (after normalization). Significance level * P < 0.1, ** P < 0.05, and *** P < 0.01.

The impact of other factors on college students’ academic achievement

In this study, the individual characteristics, reading motivation, family reading culture of college students and the organizational endowment of colleges and universities were added into the regression model as control variables. The regression model was used to test whether college students’ individual characteristics, reading motivation, family reading culture, reading habit training in colleges and universities, and organizational endowment in colleges and universities would have an impact on college students’ academic achievement. The regression results are shown in Table 6 .

(1) The influence of college students’ individual characteristics on college students’ academic achievement.

In terms of professional literacy, it can be seen from Table 6 that both the place of origin and developmental motivation have significant positive effects on college students’ professional literacy, that is, the professional literacy of urban students is better than that of rural students, and the more college students read for their own development, the stronger their professional literacy will be.

In terms of general ability, it can be seen from Table 6 that grade, subject and place of origin all have negative and significant effects on college students’ general ability, that is, with the improvement of college students’ grade, their own general ability decreases. Compared with students majoring in science and engineering, students majoring in humanities and social sciences improve their general ability better. The origin of students has a positive and significant effect on the general ability of college students. Urban students improve their general ability more than rural students.

In terms of college students’ career planning ability, from Table 6 , the grade of career and career planning ability of college students has negative significant effect, namely as college students’ grade rises, the cognitive ability of college students decreases in their career planning, and the reason may be that as their grade grows, especially when they need to find a job, their self-efficacy for their career planning ability becomes even lower. Discipline has a significant negative effect on career and lifetime planning ability, that is, the improvement of career planning ability of humanities and social science students is higher than that of science and engineering students.

(2) The impact of reading motivation on the academic achievement of college students.

In terms of professional quality, Table 6 shows that developmental motivation has a significant positive effect on the professional quality of college students, which indicates that the more they pay attention to long-term development in reading, the higher their career planning ability will be.

In terms of general ability, Table 6 shows that practical motivation, recreational motivation and developmental motivation all have a significant positive effect on general ability, which indicates that the stronger the reading motivation of college students, the better they can improve their general ability.

In terms of career planning ability, Table 6 shows that practical motivation and developmental motivation have a significant positive effect on career planning ability, which shows that the more college students pay attention to practicality and long-term development in reading, the better they can improve their career planning ability.

(3) The influence of family reading culture on the academic achievement of college students.

In terms of professional quality, Table 6 shows that the schooling years of fathers have a significant negative effect on the professional quality of college students, which is contradictory to conventional understanding. The possible reason is that most of the students come from private colleges and are not enthusiastic about their major. So the more educated their father, the more they will be motivated to learn knowledge. That being said, due to their psychological inversion, their professional quality is usually not very good.

In terms of general ability and career planning ability, Table 6 shows that the variables of family reading culture have no significant impact on the dimensions of college students’ academic achievement.

The impact of the organizational endowment of colleges on the academic achievement of college students

In terms of the organizational endowment of colleges, that is, the types of colleges, Table 6 shows that the types of colleges have a significant positive impact on students’ general ability, and as college selection improves, college students can better improve their general ability. This shows that the better the organizational endowment of colleges, the more prominent the general abilities of college students, including organizational and communication skills.

Conclusion and recommendation

Factors affecting college students’ reading engagement.

(1) From the perspective of college students, in terms of college students’ reading time, grades, practical motivation, recreational motivation, family collection of books, family reading education, and family reading atmosphere have a significant positive impact on paper reading time. The same is true of the education level of fathers. College students’ grade, recreational motivation, developmental motivation, family book collection, family reading education, and family reading atmosphere have a significant positive impact on e-reading time. In terms of reading strategies, grades, practical motivation, recreational motivation, developmental motivation, family reading education, and family reading atmosphere have significant positive effects on replicative reading strategies, while gender, practical motivation, recreational motivation, developmental motivation, family book collection, family reading education, and family reading atmosphere have significant positive effects on critical reading strategies.

(2) From the perspective of colleges, the curriculum-driven mechanism, atmosphere stimulation mechanism, and organizational endowment have a significant positive impact on paper reading time and e-reading time. In terms of reading strategies, curriculum-driven mechanism, atmosphere-based incentive mechanism, and college organizational endowment have a significant positive impact on replicative reading, while curriculum-driven mechanism, resource support mechanism, atmosphere incentive mechanism, and college organizational endowment have a significant positive impact on critical reading.

Mechanism of factors affecting the academic achievement of college students

From the analysis on how college students’ reading engagement affect their academic achievement, the following two points are drawn: (1) Among others, reading time is the most important factor affecting reading behavior and reading volume. It is found that the reading time of paper books has a significant positive effect on the professional quality of college students, but has no significant effect on the general ability, career and lifetime planning ability of college students. Many students prefer paper books while studying professional knowledge, because they can take notes on them and they are conducive to systemic learning. This may be an important reason why paper-book reading time has a significant positive effect on the professional quality of college students. In addition, e-book reading time has no significant effect on the three abilities concerning college students’ academic achievement, which to some extent reflects the drawbacks of e-book reading. E-book reading can easily lead to fragmented reading, and it is difficult to form a systematic knowledge system. Moreover, students also reported that e-books are basically recreational. Therefore, it is difficult for such reading to have a significant impact on the three abilities, but this does not mean that e-reading is useless. (2) In terms of reading strategies, critical reading strategies have a significant positive effect on college students’ professional quality, general ability, career and lifetime planning. While reading, college students should not only rely on passive memory, but also learn to think and make explorations actively, which is conducive to the improvement of academic achievement.

Based on the analysis on how the individual characteristics, reading motivation, family reading culture and institutional endowment of college students on the academic achievement of college students, the following four conclusions are drawn: (1) Grades have a significant negative effect on college students’ general ability and career and lifetime planning ability. With the increase of grades, the general ability and the ability of career and lifetime planning decrease. Disciplines have a significant negative effect on the general ability and ability of career and lifetime planning: feedback from students of humanities and social sciences shows that they can better improve their general ability through reading than those of science and engineering. The source of students has a positive effect on the professional quality, general ability, career and lifetime planning of college students, that is, the self-evaluation of urban students on their academic achievement is higher than that of rural students. (2) Practical motivation has a positive and significant effect on college students’ general ability and career planning ability. Students believe that practical reading can promote the two abilities; recreational motivation has a significant impact on general ability; motivation has a significant positive effect on academic achievement overall. (3) In terms of family reading culture, only the education level of fathers has a significant negative effect on college students’ professional quality, while that of others has no significant effect, which is contrary to our cognition and requires further verification and analysis. (4) The organizational endowment of colleges has a significant positive effect on general ability. With the improvement of college selectivity, college students have a higher evaluation of their general ability.

Recommendation

This research verifies the functional mechanism of reading subject, reading object and reading carrier, and concludes that the core of the operating mechanism of college reading management lies in the management of reading input (reading time and reading strategy), and the mechanism of college reading management makes sure that the reading subject, reading object and the reading carrier are effectively integrated. The joint effect of the operation mechanism and the action mechanism of reading management in colleges can promote the effective implementation of reading management, and then improve the academic achievement of college students.

First of all, find the individual, group and epochal characteristics of college students, and based on systematically grasping their individual characteristics, encourage them to read and improve their reading efficiency. Based on the cultivation of reading content tendencies and reading habits, actively promote the application and conversion of replicative reading and critical reading. Second, give play to the role of the reading object, well manage and serve knowledge content, promote the transformation between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, and play the role of tacit knowledge and tacit curriculum. In particular, promote reading atmosphere and provide a comfortable reading space for students to combine the role of the environment and culture in talent cultivation. Finally, in terms of reading carriers, combine technology and reading form. The construction of resources and platforms in colleges is the foundation of reading management. The construction and application of electronic resources and online platforms has become an inevitable trend under the background of technological change. The application of new technologies to improve and promote reading, especially the method of “intelligence plus reading” will be the main trend leading the development of reading carrier management.

Improve the construction of reading system

A sound system can guarantee the effective operation of reading management. The study found that the intended purpose of reading management cannot be achieved only through encouragement and advocacy. It is also necessary to systematically build a flexible and rigid institutional system that combine universities, libraries, counselors, teachers and student.

(1) In the construction of flexible restraint system, requirements concerning the number of books that students should read (for example one hundreds Chinese and foreign classics) and thought sharing should be implemented in each term, and relevant achievements, such as the number of book sharing and essays on book reading, are directly linked to student awards, party membership, and student cadre elections.

(2) In terms of rigid system construction, the responsibility assessment system for university administrators such as librarians, counselors and teachers should consider whether they participate in and guide students’ reading activities. Libraries and curators promote reading services and counseling, extend the functions of libraries in a timely manner based on technological progress and actual needs. In particular, they are responsible for selecting and recommending classic books and offer monthly lectures on famous classics. The work assessment system for counselors should consider whether they organize and take part in reading group activities in class management activities. Teachers, especially those with senior professional titles, should regularly offer lectures on professional reading, which has become an important part of teacher assessment. At the same time, colleges have established a reading assistance system for students with financial difficulties through student scholarships and other means.

Enrich reading resources and promote platform building

Reading resources and platforms are the material basis of reading management in colleges. Efforts should be made to strengthen the information construction of libraries, encourage teachers to develop relevant reading websites, share proper reading resources among students, and students with a “reading corner” for sharing and reading, thus building a bridge connecting teachers and students and promoting communication among students. In addition, new technologies should be used to improve college students’ reading strategies. In particular, the method of “artificial intelligence plus reading” such as virtual reality and augmented reality can effectively resolve shortcomings caused by “fragmented reading,” and find a reasonable and effective way for the promotion of classic reading.

Build a better long-term reading mechanism

(1) Establish a mechanism for reading promotion. The formation of a reading culture is a long-term and accumulative process, which cannot be achieved by just one or two reading activities. Through online and offline reading tutoring and various reading promotion activities (special lectures, reading salons, etc.), colleges can effectively improve students’ reading enthusiasm and participation, and form an institutionalized and systematic reading tradition. Libraries should improve their reading service, and introduce themselves to freshmen so that they know their services. Efforts should also be made to optimize the information building, and build a recommendation column for new and good books. At the same time, we should focus on guiding students to use electronic resources, and conduct regular activities to let them know how to use electronic resources better.

(2) Build a reading interaction system. The reading interaction between teachers and students and among students is an important part of campus interaction, and also a beautiful “learning landscape” on campus. On the one hand, it is necessary to construct a benign reading interaction mechanism between teachers and students, involving the reading interaction between professional teachers and students, and between counselors and students, and the informal reading organization of teachers and students. On the other hand, it is also necessary to build an active classmate reading interaction mechanism that include formal reading interaction and informal reading activities.

(3) Build a development mechanism for college students’ reading behavior. First, increase the reading time. Through opening characteristic reading courses, building a wealth of electronic reading resources, and providing an elegant and comfortable reading environment on campus, students are encouraged to read at any time. Second, use appropriate reading strategies. Encourage teachers to offer guidance on reading in their teaching process; organize clubs and library activities; invite famous teachers to give reading strategy lectures. Third, optimize the structure of reading contents, help students choose reading contents reasonably based on their needs and major, promote classic reading, and prevent recreational reading from becoming the main body of reading.

Research outlook

(1) Expand the distribution area and number of samples. The follow-up research will cover more samples, select some colleges and universities in the eastern, central and western regions as the survey objects, expand the sample size to about 4,000, and conduct interviews with graduates and teachers to further explore factors influencing college students’ reading and their relationship with academic achievement.

(2) Systematically carry out reading management in colleges and universities. Reading management needs to implement targeted reading intervention measures for 2–3 years and quantify specific indicators, which will inevitably produce good practical results. Reading management in colleges and universities should further expand its thinking and pay attention to the reading intervention of college students before they go to college. Especially for students who come from rural areas and have a relatively weak cultural background, it is necessary to transfer reading management to the stage of compulsory education.

(3) Promote classic reading. Classical reading has always been the most important part among college students, but there are various reading difficulties in practice. How to use the reform of reading carriers brought by technological reform, especially the method of “artificial intelligence plus classics” in practice, to improve the popularity and efficiency of classic reading is one of focuses for follow-up research.

(4) Research on the relationship between e-reading and academic achievement. With the increase of electronic resources and the popularization of media such as film, television media and e-readers, television, the Internet, and mobile phones have become the major reading methods used by the Chinese people. How to effectively use the “artificial intelligence plus reading” method, especially the application of VR and AR, to improve the academic achievement of college students, is worthy of further research in the context of technological innovation.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Author contributions

X-WW proposed the research hypothesis and research design, analyzed the experimental data, and analyzed the experimental results. Y-JZ contributed to questionnaires and collected data. Y-CZ designed the framework of the manuscript and discussed the experimental results. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This study was supported by the major teaching and research project of Anhui Province, Construction and Exploration of Quality Culture System of Private Universities (Project No. 2020jyxm0779) and the construction of school-level scientific research team of Anhui Xinhua College (Project No. kytd202206).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : metaverse, reading engagement, academic achievement, college organizational endowment, college reading management

Citation: Wang X-W, Zhu Y-J and Zhang Y-C (2022) An empirical study of college students’ reading engagement on academic achievement. Front. Psychol. 13:1025754. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1025754

Received: 23 August 2022; Accepted: 21 September 2022; Published: 10 November 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Wang, Zhu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Yi-Cheng Zhang, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses among college students more than doubled between 2017 and 2022, climbing most sharply as the coronavirus pandemic shut down campuses and upended young adults’ lives, according to new research published on Thursday.

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Measuring School Performance: Looking Beyond Standardized Testing and Scores

Doctoral student ‘s research supports popular educational ecosystem framework as a way to understand and address school reform.

June 17, 2024 | By Brenda Gillen

A University of Northern Colorado study is reexamining Elliot Eisner's framework for school improvement. The late Stanford professor, who worked in school curriculum and qualitative research, advocated viewing education as an ecosystem of mutual dependence. Sarah Campbell, a student in UNC's Educational Studies Ed.D. program , is undertaking the study with Professor Christy McConnell in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences ' School of Teacher Education .

"Dr. McConnell and I have been trying to bring back into popular thinking the idea that instead of just looking at testing or test scores, we should be looking at the whole ecology. I love the metaphor from science — different parts of the ecology work together, depend on each other and influence each other," Campbell said.

Through focus groups and interviews, Campbell and McConnell are learning how nine U.S.-based researchers apply Eisner's ecology framework to their work. A paper about the study will be presented at the American Educational Research Association's annual meeting in April and subsequently submitted for publication.

After 17 years in the classroom, Campbell yearned to make a larger impact, bringing her to UNC. In the Educational Studies program, her cohort meets in person in Loveland for a week each summer. Otherwise, it connects online, enabling the Denver South High School English teacher to continue working.

She said Denver high schools are rated on the number of students who take the standardized college entrance exam, the SAT, or the practice version, the PSAT. Campbell said that metric is ineffective and doesn't help schools improve, largely because it misses so many other aspects of education.

"The way a teacher teaches is dependent on whether they have a classroom that is big enough, a school that has good support from leaders and curriculum that is meaningful. All the pieces are connected. The Eisner method could offer understanding of what's happening in schools and lead to changes that would benefit teachers and students," Campbell said.

As McConnell's graduate assistant, Campbell found her ideas were welcome when the two previously edited a book chapter, titled “Eisner’s School Ecology,” to be published in The Handbook of Educational Theories. And they continue to be positively received as the duo work together on the Eisner study.

"Dr. McConnell wanted me to collaborate with her, and I felt so honored she saw that capability in me. Eisner, too, was about building community, seeing through the lens of the arts and how we are all interconnected. The philosophy itself is so much about people connecting with each other," she said.

Last year, Campbell's paper, “How ‘Stayer’ Teachers are Impacted by Administrators: A Case Study,” was published in Curriculum & Teaching Dialogue, and she gave a related presentation at UNC's Fall 2022 Graduate Research Symposium. Many of her academic works are published in professional journals. Additionally, she's a creative writer with numerous publications, including a book of essays on Front Range mountains and lakes named for women coming out this Fall.

Similar to how her writing straddles genres, McConnell said Campbell bridges the theory and practice gap, taking concepts that could improve schooling and teachers' conditions and figuring out how to apply them in classrooms.

"Sarah sees connections and grasps a range of ideas quickly and easily and synthesizes them in a creative and unique way. For example, in the Perspectives of Curriculum class she was able to see, not just the big concepts from curriculum theorists, but also how to take these ideas and use them to help the conditions of teachers or what students are learning or how we're doing evaluations," McConnell said.

McConnell is hopeful their study will help those interested in school reform understand the complexity of schools. She noted that a change in one area, such as assessments, necessitates changes in other areas, like curriculum, pedagogy, intentions and structures. McConnell believes Campbell's work can expand Eisner's reach and further the framework's use as a communication tool between theory and practice.

"Sarah can write both analytically and creatively and allow those voices to feed each other. She intentionally weaves together her beautiful literary writing style with deeply intellectual and analytical concepts related to education. That will put her in a position to be heard in the academic field," she said.

After she graduates from UNC in May 2025, Campbell plans to keep teaching and contributing research to the field.

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How does student life impact the making and unmaking of democratic societies?

21 June 2024

A new report from Professor Georgina Brewis (IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society) and Dr Daniel Laqua (Northumbria University) explores the relationship between student activism and the construction of democratic societies amidst drastic political transformation.

Published by BERA, the ‘Rehearsals for democracy’ report explores the social and political dimensions of university student life in Central and Eastern Europe from 1919 to 1923, the aftermath of the First World War. 

It delves into the ways universities act as arenas for broader social, cultural and ideological tensions to play out, existing as spaces for young adults to engage in debate and encounter different views. 

Building off previous research on student activism in Britain , it looks at how changes in the national and international political climate post-WWI affected student life and its potential role in fostering – or hindering – the development of a democratic culture. 

The project was supported by a Brian Simon fellowship grant from the British Educational Research Association (BERA), which supports research on education and democracy, and the history of education. 

The report focuses on a case study of interwar Poland – which saw the creation of the Second Polish Republic in the aftermath of the dissolution of empires. Legacies of the First World War complicated its memorialisation as Polish students fought in different armies.  

The report highlights the intense antagonisms that shaped Polish student activism in the interwar years, where significant parts of the student body promoted anti-democratic ideas and sought to exclude fellow students on the grounds of culture, ethnicity or ‘race’. 

Some student organisations came to be dominated by an aggressive ethnic nationalism, though competing ideologies within the student body manifested itself in a diverse student press – reflecting the country’s own political polarisation. 

However, there were challenges to coexistence, particularly for national minorities. Violence and antisemitism against Jewish students rose, including institutional segregation from the mid-1930s onwards. This educational discrimination also extended to Ukrainian students. 

The Polish case study illuminates the polarisation of the higher education student body in the interwar years, thereby challenging the widely held perception of student activism as a predominantly ‘progressive’ movement. 

Future research will aim to investigate similar case studies of student movements and its impact on democracy for comparison.

• Read the report: Rehearsals for democracy
• More about Generation UCL: 200 Years of Student Life in London
• Professor Georgina Brewis’ UCL profile
• Dr Daniel Laqua’s BERA profile
• Department of Education, Practice and Society

Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (National Digital Archives Poland) via Wikimedia Commons.

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Psychology Ph.D. students tap bartenders, musicians to help address opioid misuse

The opioid epidemic has been on the rise in South Carolina for more than a decade. In both Richland and Lexington Counties, more than 100 people died from opioid overdoses in 2022. Statewide, more than 2,200 people died from unintentional overdose that same year.

Now, two University of South Carolina graduate students have recruited a new group of professionals to help offset the epidemic: Columbia’s local bartenders.

“We often hear this joke on sitcoms: ‘I don't see a therapist; I have a bartender,’” says Sarah Grace Frary, a doctoral student in USC’s clinical community psychology program.

“While it’s ideal for people to have access to trained professionals, our mental health systems are overstretched. So, I thought it could be helpful to equip communities with the resources that they need to meet the opioid crisis where it's at.”

Together with Jessica Pomerantz, another doctoral student in the program, Frary is studying how community members such as bartenders can intervene when they see opioid misuse happen at their venues.

“These are people who have closer proximity to substance use and are often very trusted members of their community. There is potential for them to communicate with others about concerns related to substance misuse,” Frary says.

One of the biggest challenges with harm reduction efforts in the hospitality community so far has been getting people to keep Narcan on site.

With grants from the American Psychological Association, Frary and Pomerantz have led focus groups to learn about the experiences of bartenders, musicians and others in the entertainment and hospitality industries.

After each focus group, they train participants on how to use Narcan, an emergency medication for opioid overdose. They also teach them about fentanyl test strips, which can alert an individual if fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, has been mixed into a substance.

By gathering data from these conversations, they hope to identify ways that establishments can offer support and resources for their staff.

Equipped to fight opioid misuse by USC fellowship

Frary and Pomerantz were both fellows of USC’s Integrated Care for Recovery center, or the I-CaRe center, which is directed by Sayward Harrison, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology.

The one-year fellowship trains future psychologists in the prevention and treatment of substance use disorder and places students in externships with community partners. Frary says the fellowship also helped her reconnect with community-based research, which was one of the main reasons she chose USC for graduate school.

She was in the first cohort of the program, which launched in 2022 with a federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration. By 2025, the program will have trained 18 fellows to help bridge the gap in professionals to help combat the opioid epidemic in the state and the nation.

Jessica Pomerantz joined the fellowship in its second year. She says the training will help her reach her goal of becoming a therapist working specifically with people employed in the food and beverage industries.

For Pomerantz, the focus groups are especially personal because she is a part of the local bartending community.

“I've been bartending since I was old enough to obtain a job, basically. It's been my family,” she says. “Hospitality has always been something very near and dear to my heart.

Pomerantz worked at some of the top bars in New York City and placed first in a national competition for women bartenders. When she moved to South Carolina to go to USC, she continued bartending and helped local restaurants develop their cocktail menus.

As an insider in the local hospitality industry, Pomerantz helped Frary get community buy-in for the project.

“One of the biggest challenges with harm reduction efforts in the hospitality community so far has been getting people to keep Narcan on site,” she says. “It’s kind of like, if you keep it, you're admitting you have a problem in your space.”

But Pomerantz says the problem of substance misuse hits close to home for many who work in the industry. She has also seen firsthand the deadly effects of opioid overdose in her own community.

“It would be hard for you to find a hospitality industry person who doesn't know someone who's overdosed. It's been a huge issue and it's getting to be more common than I think anyone's comfortable with,” she says.

The measure of success in fighting the opioid epidemic

Experts say that distributing Narcan widely has likely helped curb deaths from opioids in the last year. In fact, preliminary data from the Center for Disease Control predicts that 2023 saw the nation’s first drop in overdose deaths since 2018, with a decline of more than 6 percent in South Carolina that year. 2024 is looking even better for the state, with an predicted decline of 7 percent.

Harrison says she is proud the I-CaRe center is part of that progress, and she hopes to continue the work with a renewal of their grant funding in coming years.

“Since launching the fellowship, we’ve integrated our psychology trainees into many different settings, ranging from outpatient clinics at Prisma Health to The Courage Center, a recovery community organization, to a new school-based prevention program and online training modules for school nurses and other professionals,” Harrison says.

“We have to tackle this problem from multiple angles, and the fellows have brought so much innovation to their work in the community and the state, including policy-based research and novel community interventions.”

While the data may indicate that the work is making an impact on the state, Pomerantz says she uses a different number to measure success: zero.

“I’m thankful that I haven't had any friends die of an overdose in the last year,” she says. “That's what we call a win in our community. That's how I think about it, but it breaks my heart to say it out loud.”

Additional Resources

• South Carolina residents can find more information about how to access Narcan and fentanyl test strips from the South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services (DAODAS).
• For USC students, Gamecock Recovery is an excellent resource for connecting to an array of tools and services to reduce harms associated with substance use.
• USC is a designated a community distributor of naloxone through DAODAS. You can get a supply of Narcan for free at the SAPE Office, Suite 301B in the Wellness & Fitness Center, during weekday business hours.
• Learn how to get a supply of Narcan and training on when and how to use it.

Banner image courtesy of Jessica Pomerantz.

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Testing Policy

February 5, 2024

Update On Dartmouth's Standardized Testing Policy

Informed by new research, dartmouth will reactivate the standardized testing requirement for undergraduate admission beginning with applicants to the class of 2029.

When Dartmouth suspended its standardized testing requirement for undergraduate applicants in June 2020, it was a pragmatic pause taken by most colleges and universities in response to an unprecedented global pandemic. At the time, we imagined the resulting "test-optional" policy as a short-term practice rather than an informed commentary on the role of testing in our holistic evaluation process. Nearly four years later, having studied the role of testing in our admissions process as well as its value as a predictor of student success at Dartmouth, we are removing the extended pause and reactivating the standardized testing requirement for undergraduate admission, effective with the Class of 2029. For Dartmouth, the evidence supporting our reactivation of a required testing policy is clear. Our bottom line is simple: we believe a standardized testing requirement will improve—not detract from—our ability to bring the most promising and diverse students to our campus.

An Evidence-based Policy Reactivation Informed by New Research and Fresh Data

A new research study commissioned by Dartmouth President Sian Beilock and conducted by Dartmouth economists Elizabeth Cascio, Bruce Sacerdote and Doug Staiger and educational sociologist Michele Tine confirms that standardized testing— when assessed using the local norms at a student's high school —is a valuable element of Dartmouth's undergraduate application. Their illuminating study found that high school grades paired with standardized testing are the most reliable indicators for success in Dartmouth's course of study. They also found that test scores represent an especially valuable tool to identify high-achieving applicants from low and middle-income backgrounds; who are first-generation college-bound; as well as students from urban and rural backgrounds. It is also an important tool as we meet applicants from under-resourced or less familiar high schools across the increasingly wide geography of our applicant pool. That is, contrary to what some have perceived, standardized testing allows us to admit a broader and more diverse range of students.

The finding that standardized testing can be an effective tool to expand access and identify talent was unexpected, thought-provoking, and encouraging. Indeed, their study challenges the longstanding critique that standardized testing inhibits rather than broadens college access; they note that contextually strong testing clearly enhances the admission chances of high-achieving applicants from less-resourced backgrounds when such scores are disclosed. Indeed, their finding reinforces the value of Dartmouth's longstanding practice of considering testing within our broader understanding of the candidate as a whole person.  Especially during the pandemic's test-optional period, my colleagues and I sharpened our awareness of local norms and environmental factors, as well as the degree of opportunity available at a student's high school and in their community. Those environmental elements of discovery and assessment were one of the fortuitous by-products of the extended pandemic moment during which we reimagined traditional guidelines and practices.  Knowing what we now know, it is an approach we will preserve as we move forward. Contextualized testing is an essential element of our individualized, holistic review. Of course, Dartmouth will never reduce any student to their test scores. It is simply one data point among many, but a helpful one when it is present.

The faculty researchers write: "Our overall conclusion is that SAT and ACT scores are a key method by which Dartmouth can identify students who will succeed at Dartmouth , including high performing students…who may attend a high school for which Dartmouth has less information to (fully) judge the transcript." Simply said, it is another opportunity to identify students who are the top performers in their environments, wherever they might be.

Indeed, as Dartmouth experienced our first admissions round with a "testing recommended" advisory this past fall, we set new institutional records for access even as 75 percent of those early acceptances included testing as an element of the application. We celebrated two early milestones: 22 percent are first-generation college bound and 21 percent qualified for a zero-parent contribution with family incomes and assets at or below $65,000 USD. These outcomes encourage and excite us, and we view contextualized testing as another opportunity to amplify our objective to admit and enroll a broadly heterogenous undergraduate class that is well-prepared to succeed in the curriculum we offer.

Lessons Learned from Test-Optional Practices

Our experience with optional testing has been enlightening. As with the other optional elements of the Dartmouth application—an alumni interview, a peer recommendation—the decision to share testing was individualized. But as the faculty study notes, "Some low-income students appear to withhold test scores even in cases where providing the test score would be a significant positive signal to admissions." Dartmouth admission officers also observed this pattern: Our post-admission research showed students with strong scores in their local framework often opted for a test-optional approach when their scores fell below our typical mean or mid-50% range. Often, those scores would have been additive, positive elements of the candidacy had they been shared. The absence of such scores underscores longstanding misperceptions about what represents a "high" or a "low" score; those definitions are not binary. A score that falls below our class mean but several hundred points above the mean at the student's school is "high" and, as such, it has value as one factor among many in our holistic assessment. That is how we consider testing at Dartmouth, and the opportunity to imagine better ways to inform students about their "score strength" will be a priority for us.

Moreover, the Dartmouth faculty study found testing "allows Dartmouth admission officers to more precisely identify students who will thrive academically." In our high-volume, globally heterogeneous applicant pool in which most candidates are "high achievers," environmental and historical data, high school performance, and testing—when taken together—offer the most robust framework for predicting success at Dartmouth. That finding was especially true for applicants from under-resourced high schools, noting that students with standardized test scores at or above the 75th percentile of test-takers from their respective high schools are well prepared to succeed in our fast-paced, rigorous course of study. All scores are assessed through that local framing as we seek excellence from new geographies.

Reactivating and Reimagining Our Testing Requirement

Beginning with the Class of 2029, Dartmouth will once again require applicants from high schools within the United States to submit results of either the SAT or ACT, with no Dartmouth preference for either test. As always, the results of multiple administrations will be super-scored, which means we will consider the highest result on individual sections of either exam regardless of the test date or testing format. For applicants from schools outside the U.S. , results of either the SAT, ACT or three Advanced Placement (AP) examinations OR predicted or final exam results from the International Baccalaureate (IB), British A-Levels, or an equivalent standardized national exam are required. This distinction between students attending a school in the U.S. or outside the U.S. acknowledges the disparate access to American standardized testing—as well as the lack of familiarity with such testing—in different parts of the world. Dartmouth's English language proficiency policy remains unchanged: For students for whom English is not the first language or if English is not the primary language of instruction for at least two years, students are required to submit an English proficiency score from TOEFL, IELTS, Duolingo or the Cambridge English Exam.

Dartmouth will pair the restoration of required testing with a reimagined way of reporting testing outcomes, ideally in ways that are more understandable for students, families, and college counselors. For example, when testing was submitted as part of our Early Decision round for the Class of 2028, 94 percent of the accepted students who shared testing scored at or above the 75th percentile of test-takers at their respective high school. More significantly, this figure was a full 100 percent for the 79 students who attend a high school that matriculates 50 percent or fewer of its graduates to a four-year college. Accordingly, we will develop a new testing profile that seeks, in part, to disrupt the long-standing focus on the class mean and mid-50 percent range, with hopes of empowering students to understand how a localized score aligns with the admissions parameters at Dartmouth.

An Enduring Commitment to Holistic Admissions

Dartmouth has practiced holistic admissions since 1921, and that century-long consideration of the whole person is unquestionably as relevant as ever. As we reactivate our required testing policy, contextualized testing will be one factor—but never the primary factor—among the many quantitative and qualitative elements of our application. As always, the whole person counts, as do the environmental factors each person navigates. And, as always, we will evaluate and reframe Dartmouth's undergraduate admission requirements as the data and the evidence informs us.

Stan Ahalt studies society through a data lens

Data literacy is essential for tomorrow’s workforce, says the UNC School of Data Science and Society dean.

When the UNC School of Data Science and Society launched in 2022, it was the first school UNC-Chapel Hill had started from scratch in over 70 years. By spring 2023, the school had a strategic plan and approval for its first degree, the Master of Applied Data Science program . Its first students began classes in January 2024.

In fall 2024, the school will offer a Bachelor of Science in data science and the College of Arts & Sciences will offer a Bachelor of Arts in data science, both developed collaboratively with the College and other schools. Last year, the school awarded six seed grants to teams across campus in different areas.

“We went quickly from nothing to having a program that people are now enrolled in. We’re hiring another 15 faculty members, many of which are joint appointments with other schools on campus,” said Stan Ahalt, the school’s inaugural dean.

Here’s what Ahalt had to say about the school and its future.

Why is it important to study data science across disciplines?

Computers are at the forefront of everything we do. Those computers, whether they’re in your watch or in your car, create data. That data is an opportunity for us to understand ourselves and natural phenomena better.

We emphasize multidisciplinary research because data science permeates all disciplines. Science, the arts, and the humanities can all be studied through the lens of data. Data has made its way into disciplines that I would not necessarily have thought of previously, but where it’s obvious that there’s a reason to study it in a more quantitative way. We’ve focused on serving as a hub and creating connected spokes to other disciplinary areas. I’m hoping that we stimulate a new wave of science that is more team-oriented than in the past.

What are you hoping to accomplish with the Bachelor of Science program?

The primary goal is to create an option for students to become data scientists at the undergraduate level. The B.A. and B.S. degrees can apply to any disciplinary area should students want to double major. Over a thousand students are in the data science minor, and we’ve seen significant demand for these degrees. It’s clear that the need was there.

Being data literate is an essential skill for almost any graduate. A workforce trained in data science is one that’s going to be more prepared for the future. Many established and emerging market leaders see a lot of opportunity in the Triangle region but haven’t seen as many technically trained graduates as they would like. With this new degree, we’re increasing our impact by giving students skills that fit into jobs across every possible disciplinary area.

How do the new programs support the University’s public service mission?

We’ve established relationships with industry folks locally and across the state. We also made connections to our state government because they understand the utility and necessity of data science today. There are many ways for a data scientist to positively impact society. Certainly, the pandemic helped us understand that role of data in decision-making. We were trying to use a data-driven approach to suppress the pandemic and save as many lives as possible.

We need to work hard as data scientists to understand people’s perspectives when we’re asking them to allow us to collect their data to help them. We don’t want passive scientists who just gather data, go away and then bring back something. We want to help in a more collaborative way. We need to teach people the skills of being with the community that they’re helping. I think the only way you really get a deep understanding of communities is to spend time with them and understand their ethos and bring that to bear on your problem-solving.

How is the school approaching AI?

We’re figuring out how to accelerate the use of AI around campus in responsible ways. Many of our faculty are using AI to do interesting things, like finding interventions for diseases. AI shows us the utility and the incredible value of data. Data is the new oil, and we need to be able to refine it and turn it into products that help us shape our society in the right direction.

How will the school keep pace with changes in this field?

Compared to teaching curricula, data science is a fast-changing universe. A curriculum does mutate over time but relatively slowly. We’re going to have to pivot and make decisions in a more agile way than we’re accustomed to in the academy. We need to have a culture of flexibility so that we don’t get locked into teaching courses we taught 10 years ago when they aren’t needed. We’ll need to stay at the forefront if we want to maximize our impact.

The Carolina alumnus comes to Chapel Hill from the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

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Alert Carolina sirens test to be held June 18

No action is required as the University conducts a summer test of its Emergency Notification System.

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8 Faculty Members Named 2024-25 Fulbright Scholars

This year’s cohort will study methods to mitigate wildfires and educate the public about nuclear energy, among other academic and research pursuits around the world.

Eight NC State faculty members will be thinking and doing across the globe during the upcoming academic year following their selection as 2024-25 U.S. Fulbright Scholars.  

Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that provide unique opportunities for recipients to teach and conduct research abroad. Fulbright Scholars also play a critical role in U.S. public diplomacy, establishing long-term relationships between people and nations. Alumni of the program include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows and thousands of leaders and world-renowned experts across the private, public and non-profit sectors. 

Earlier this year, NC State was recognized as one of only 12 schools named as a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. Fulbright Scholars and Students. The Office for Faculty Excellence (OFE) supports faculty members seeking these types of awards with a dedicated Fulbright Week every March and a Fulbright Pathfinder mini grant program, which empowers faculty as they navigate the Fulbright application. The OFE also highlights recent recipients each November during International Education Week. 

For more resources and information about how to apply for Fulbright awards, visit NC State’s Fulbright website .

Meet NC State’s 2024-25 Fulbright Scholars

Sarah Bowen, Fulbright Global Scholar Program

Bowen is a sociology professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and she was recently named associate dean of research and engagement for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, effective Jan. 1, 2025. As a Fulbright Global Scholar, Bowen will study geographical indications (GIs) — place-based labels that designate traditional products from a community or region — in Spain and Colombia. She will work with two host institutions, the Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography at the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid and the School of Social Sciences at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. The project aims to outline whether Colombia’s GIs reproduce or subvert colonial power relations. It also will inform ongoing debates about whether GI policies can be reformed to benefit Indigenous producers and communities in the Global South.

Lauren Brooks, Germany

Brooks is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures. She will use her Fulbright Scholarship for a project that will help her develop a course on the Black German diaspora, which will be taught in spring 2026 at the University of Münster in Germany. Brooks’ area of research is foreign language pedagogy, project-based learning and universal design for learning as a form of feminist pedagogy. She also studies contemporary German media and literature with a focus on marginalized artists. 

Diane Chapman, France International Education Administrators (IEA) Program

Chapman is executive director and associate vice provost for faculty development at the Office for Faculty Excellence and a teaching professor in the College of Education. Chapman will use her IEA award to explore study abroad and collaborative online international learning opportunities for NC State students, based on an existing partnership she developed with Université Côte d’Azur in Nice. The award will also allow her to continue her studies in French culture, heritage and regional differences. 

Fernando Garcia Menendez, Canada

Garcia Menendez is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. As the Fulbright Canada Distinguished Chair in Environmental Science, Garcia Menendez will spend the academic year at Carleton University in Ottawa. During his visit, he will study the impacts of air pollution from Canadian wildfires and work with Canadian researchers to explore strategies to mitigate them.

Jason Hou, Italy

Hou is an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. The objective of his Fulbright project is to enhance the public understanding of nuclear energy by developing a basic principle open-source nuclear power plant simulator, designing hands-on learning materials, and holding seminars and interactive educational workshops. He will work with Politecnico di Milano in Italy. Hou is an advocate of nuclear energy, and the mission of his research is to promote nuclear energy primarily by advancing scientific understanding of advanced nuclear reactor technologies.

Praveen Kolar, Italy

Kolar is a professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. The goal of  his award is to enhance research collaborations between NC State and the University of Bologna, Italy, through a joint project focused on the value-addition of agricultural wastes to positively impact public health, the environment and agricultural sustainability. Kolar’s current research interests include the conversion of agricultural wastes into energy and value-added products, including heterogeneous catalysts and adsorbents.

Adriana San Miguel Delgadillo, Portugal

San Miguel Delgadillo is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The research she will carry out at the Universidade do Algarve in Faro, Portugal, is a collaborative project with the goal of using C. elegans as a novel model for studying aberrant stress granule formation in the context of neurodegenerative disease. Her area of expertise includes computer vision and microfluidics to study aging, stress and neurodegeneration in C. elegans.

Intae Yoon, South Korea

Yoon is an associate professor in the School of Social Work. Through his Fulbright award, he will collaborate with the Migration Research and Training Center, a governmental think tank under South Korea’s Ministry of Justice, to understand the emerging trend of reversed immigration from the United States to Korea, to enhance the well-being of these immigrants and to address population challenges in Korean localities. The results will be used to advocate for policies that improve social safety nets in both countries. Yoon’s research focuses on economic independence for low-income families, economic justice, social safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare, community assets and community development.

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The Power of Language in Shaping an Inclusive Classroom

In a world where language has the power to shape our perceptions and interactions, a pioneering group of students is challenging the status quo to ensure every voice is heard and respected. The Inclusive Language Instruction Research Group (LangIn, for short) was started in 2022 by six forward-thinking PhD students in the Departments of Spanish & Portuguese Studies (College of Liberal Arts) and Curriculum & Instruction (College of Education and Human Development). Established with an emphasis on promoting the use of gender-inclusive language, its members—Yoko Hama, Fernando González Lesniak, James Ramsburg, Camille Braun, Alejandra Takahira, and Jacky James—aim to foster collaboration among language instructors and create a safe learning environment for all students.  Since LangIn began, its members have largely focused on researching and raising awareness of gender-inclusive language. They’ve presented at a variety of events, including international conferences in Spain and the UK. More recently, they presented at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) here at the University of Minnesota.

Breaking New Ground

Developed by LangIn, this inclusive language zine is geared towards learners of Spanish.

Initially set up solely to raise awareness of gender-inclusive language in the classroom, LangIn’s ambitions quickly expanded. The group now spends much of its time exploring available resources and conducting essential research, particularly on support for gender nonconforming individuals. One of their recent studies focused on teachers' attitudes and found that many teachers desire to include some kind of gender-inclusive pedagogy. Unfortunately, it also highlighted that doing so can be a significant challenge because it’s an under-studied topic.

These findings emphasize the importance of researching language acquisition and gender inclusivity. As LangIn navigates the dynamic landscape of language instruction, their short-term goals center on observing and understanding evolving language norms while consolidating their research findings into tangible resources. They are currently finalizing the transcript of their first research article and are determined to see it through to its publication. “We always talked about putting our work out there,” González Lesniak says. Their current student outreach includes tabling at events and giving presentations for high school and undergraduate students as well as a workshop for instructors.

“Some people have changed their minds regarding gender-inclusive language and started to embrace it in their teaching,” Hama says. “There’s been a push in general about creating a more inclusive space and how to actively support and welcome gender diversity in the classroom,” González Lesniak adds. Their long-term research aspirations involve spearheading larger-scale studies to drive systemic change around gender-inclusive language.

The Fluidity of Language

LangIn recognizes the fluid and sometimes unpredictable nature of language and its ever-changing norms. Its members also take into account how linguistic norms are shaped and influenced by a complex interplay of cultural and social factors. What is acceptable today may be viewed differently in the future, or what is seen one way in some places may be viewed differently elsewhere. For example, take the use of inclusive language in Spanish. According to LangIn, a noticeable phenomenon has been its more widespread acceptance by certain groups in Argentina, Spain, and the US than in other parts of the Spanish-speaking world.

The members of LangIn are keenly aware of these shifts and differences as they work to navigate a terrain where the boundaries and standards of linguistic inclusivity are being constantly redrawn. “The way people use language changes, so one long-term goal would be to keep observing what's going on in the world,” Hama explains.

Through their research and advocacy, they seek to illuminate the ever-shifting landscape of linguistic norms and work towards a vision of language that fosters inclusivity across all contexts.

Looking Forward

As they approach graduation, LangIn’s six members don’t know where the future will take them. What is certain, however, is their steadfast commitment to LangIn and its values as they aim to continue this work wherever they end up. LangIn urges people to not only reflect on their use of language but to also actively engage in initiatives that promote inclusivity and respect for all gender identities.

“For language instructors specifically, seek out opportunities like the ones we provide on how to bring it into your classroom,” Ramsburg says. ”It’s a positive for everyone in the classroom. Especially in creating those welcoming spaces and having a positive impact on students. Our job is to help instructors get on board and figure out how to integrate [gender-inclusive language] into their curricula.”

How do you recognize gender in Spanish?

Most nouns and adjectives ending in -o are masculine while those ending in -a are feminine.

• El niñ o (the boy)
• La niñ a (the girl)
• Las niñ a s (the girls)

Los niñ o s (this is used for both 'the boys' as well as 'the kids' since masculine is the default gender-neutral for when there is at least one boy in the group, even if the rest are girls. This is an example of the way in which gendered language can play a factor in cultural norms such as machismo).

Another example of the way this heavily gendered language can influence social and cultural norms is the term nonbinary:

• No binari o (masculine use of nonbinary)
• No binari a (feminine use of nonbinary)

Inclusive language tends to use either -x or -e as replacement for the traditional, exclusionary -o and -a , though it’s less widespread in some places than in others.

Inclusive form for nonbinary: No binari e

• Find ways to get involved by visiting the LangIn website .
• Learn about the PhD in Hispanic & Lusophone Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics .
• LangIn’s work is supported by the Women’s Center. Learn more about their work advancing gender equality across identities by visiting the Women’s Center website .

This story was written by Regina Ramos-Francia Ylizaliturri , an undergraduate student in CLA.

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• v.81; 2022 Sep

Undergraduate students' involvement in research: Values, benefits, barriers and recommendations

• Yusuff Adebayo Adebisi

a Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

b Global Health Focus, Abuja, Nigeria

Developing, maintaining, and sustaining undergraduate research initiatives can benefit academic institutions, faculty mentors, and students. As the world evolves, more research is required to advance knowledge and innovation in all fields. This implies that students must be prepared for today's knowledge-driven world. Research in the medical and health sciences has stalled in many developing countries, where a dual burden of communicable and noncommunicable diseases is prevalent. In this article, I discuss the values and benefits of undergraduate healthcare students participating in research and scientific publishing, as well as the challenges they face. I also make recommendations to encourage undergraduates to get involved in research. The potential of undergraduate research has not yet been fully realized. Undergraduate research's main objectives are to teach students how to do research and to help them acquire skills that they can use beyond the academic environment. Undergraduate research will complement rather than conflict with university education and should go beyond the mandatory terminal year thesis and must cover the entire course of their studies. The key to successful undergraduate research participation is for students to see and understand the importance of rigor, academic integrity, and responsible research conduct. This means academic institutions should carefully plan research programs, activities, and courses for students. Building capacity in research has a long-term impact on valuable learning outcomes as undergraduate students prepare for professional service. Stakeholders and educational authorities must invest in strengthening undergraduate involvement in research.

1. Introduction

As the world evolves, the need for research grows, and it remains a factor of key importance in creating a knowledge-driven economy and supporting development initiatives as well as driving innovations across all fields [ 1 ]. It is becoming more and more important to increase undergraduate student involvement in research [ 2 ]. Academic institutions, faculty mentors, and students can all benefit from developing, maintaining, and sustaining undergraduate research initiatives. By integrating research into their academic courses and giving them a strong academic foundation, students can strengthen their autonomous critical thinking abilities as well as their oral and written communication skills, among others. As students are ready for professional service, the research process affects important learning goals that have a lasting impact. All students should be prepared for the contemporary knowledge-driven world because, today, doing research is not just for academics but also for individuals and institutions interested in knowledge creation and advancement.

The advancement and innovation of all fields, including the health sciences and related areas, depends on research [ 3 ]. Society can benefit greatly from health-related research [ 4 ], which can provide vital insights into disease trends and risk factors, treatment outcomes or public health interventions, care patterns, costs and usage of healthcare services, and more. By doing research to find solutions to problems that are currently unknown, we can close knowledge gaps and change the way healthcare professionals work as well as how we respond to public health issues. With the increase in health concerns ravaging the world [ [5] , [6] , [7] ], it is clear that research is indispensable – whether it be tackling diseases of poverty, performing clinical trials, responding to the rise of chronic diseases, improving access to medicines, increasing vaccines uptake, containing local epidemics, developing innovation in treatment plans, or ensuring that marginalized populations have access to HIV care treatments, among others. This suggests that there is a pressing need to advance knowledge creation and utilization, and that gathering local, grassroots data at all levels of healthcare is important.

Research in the medical and health sciences has seen a downturn in many developing countries [ 8 ], where a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases is highly prevalent. The development of undergraduate health sciences students' research capacity is a key intervention to address this issue. With the support of faculties, it is possible for undergraduate students to learn about and participate actively in research. In this article, I discuss the values and benefits of undergraduate healthcare students' involvement in research and scientific publishing, as well as the challenges they face. I also provide recommendations to advance undergraduates’ involvement in research.

2. Values and benefits of undergraduate research

Involving undergraduate students in research should go beyond the mandatory terminal year thesis and must cover the entire course of their studies. There are myriads of benefits to involving (healthcare) students in research and scientific publishing at the undergraduate level. Research is a methodical process of investigation that includes data collection and analysis, the recording of significant information, and subsequent analysis and interpretation of that information in accordance with the protocols defined by specific academic and professional disciplines [ 9 ]. This implies that conducting research is an important way to improve students’ ability to think critically and solve problems, both of which are essential throughout their career as healthcare professionals. Critical thinking abilities have been linked to better patient outcomes, higher patient care quality, and improved safety outcomes [ 10 ]. While problem-solving focuses on identifying and resolving issues, critical thinking entails asking insightful questions and critiquing solutions. Early exposure of healthcare students to the value of research is a critical strategy for increasing their interest in and attitude toward it. Table 1 highlights the achievements of some students that engaged in research as undergraduates.

Examples of students that got involved in research as undergraduate and their achievements.

The elements required for professional competency in the health fields are covered in healthcare student curricula. This includes understanding of the fundamental theories and literature in the field of study, as well as knowledge of the terminology or technical language specific to health sciences. Incorporating research methodology and the hypothesis-driven scientific process can help to build on this foundation while also stimulating independent critical thinking. By involving undergraduate students in research, they can build trust in the scientific process. Besides that, independent thinking can give an undergraduate student the confidence to draw their own conclusions based on available evidence. No doubt that undergraduate students who took part in research projects will have greater thought independence, a stronger intrinsic motivation to learn, and a more active role in their learning. As a result, as undergraduates prepare for their respective professions, the research process has a very positive impact on their practice.

Students who participate in research may have the chance to develop the advanced writing abilities needed for science publishing and communication [ 11 ]. Even though healthcare students write a lot throughout their time in college, many still struggle to write in a way that is considered acceptable. This is due to the fact that students frequently plagiarize in writing assignments since there is usually little to no formal training on academic writing, and some institutions pay less attention to this. It has also become more challenging for students to express themselves in their own words during academic assessments as a result of the encouragement to memorize academic information verbatim by some teachers. Writing is difficult, but it is a skill that can be honed. Improving students' writing skills is much easier if proper attention is paid to strengthening their capacity for and involvement in the academic research process. This will be useful to them throughout their career, whether they choose to be academic or not.

Investing in academic writing skills among students, particularly in developing countries, is critical for improving scientific outputs on health issues confronting the region. It is not enough to know how to conduct research; academic writing is also important. Additionally, it is crucial for academic institutions to encourage students to present their research work at scientific conferences, which are frequently restricted to postgraduate students. This gives them the chance to collaborate more frequently with faculty members while also giving them another learning opportunity and boosting their confidence and presentation skills. Students who make significant contributions to the intellectual aspect of a research should not be relegated to acknowledgement section of the paper but should be included as co-authors. Furthermore, students should not be denied first authorship because of power dynamics. This will definitely improve students’ attitude towards research.

Through research, students can observe how the theories and concepts they have learned are applied. The active learning aspect of research allows students to connect with their own interests, which is not possible in a passive learning setting. If a research culture and thought process are instilled in healthcare students as they progress through the academic institution in a more systematic, logical, and integrated manner, it will be easier for them to understand what they are learning and will promote active participation in class. This is due to the fact that students who conduct research will be able to understand the research process and how scientists think and work on problems; learn about different lab techniques (as needed); develop skills in data analysis and interpretation; and be able to integrate theory and practice. Further, undergraduates should be involved in research as early as possible because it allows them to identify, develop, and nurture their interests while being open-minded to other areas. This will make choosing and transitioning into research area of choice much easier for them as they pursue postgraduate studies. Because of the high-level of interest and fundamental knowledge gained through undergraduate research participation, it will be possible to increase the enthusiasm, completion rates, and quality of academic research at the postgraduate level. Besides that, undergraduate research allows students to decide whether or not they want to pursue a career in research.

Due to the opportunity for students to pursue their individual interests, research experiences have been linked to a boost in students' motivation to learn [ 12 ]. This means undergraduates will have the chance to take more control over their own learning experiences and have their intellectual curiosity piqued by research. Student-faculty research mentoring relationships frequently develop over time. In contrast to what is possible in the classroom, students form a distinct type of interaction with their research mentor. Most of the time, the interaction is more intense and lasts longer. It frequently serves as the foundation for lifelong friendships and career guidance. When students are looking for jobs or graduate schools, faculty research mentors are an excellent source of recommendations and advice. Additionally, students gain experience working in a research team, which typically involves group work, stronger relationships with colleagues and faculty members, and the development of communication skills. All of which are qualities that employers are increasingly looking for. The key to successful undergraduate research participation is for students to see and understand the importance of rigor, academic integrity, and responsible research conduct. This means academic institutions should carefully plan research programs, activities, and courses for students.

One of the most significant benefits of student research participation is the possibility of publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals. This will also give students early exposure to the process and concept of scientific publishing. Students who submit their manuscript to a reputable journal for publication can also benefit from peer review, which allows them to improve their paper and learn more from the reviewers’ comments. Also, undergraduate students who are exposed to the scientific publishing process early on will be less likely to become victims of predatory journals. Students with publishing experience may be inspired and motivated to pursue a career in research. Having publication allows students to improve their resumes and graduate school applications. Publishing counts as research experience and demonstrates that undergraduate students who have published are enthusiastic about research. As an active learning process, research requires students to frame questions, devise a strategy for testing their hypotheses, analyze data, and write clearly to report their findings, among other things. The research experiences, skills, and knowledge students acquire at the undergraduate level will better prepare them for many of their future endeavors, including careers and postgraduate study. In addition to exposing students to conducting original/primary research, it is important to engage them in secondary research activities including writing reviews, correspondence, commentary, viewpoints, book chapters, and more. Secondary research improves students' writing abilities and thought processes, enables the construction of intelligent arguments, enhances their capacity to use scientific databases to find evidence, and teaches them how to engage in constructive criticism, among others.

While the benefits of undergraduate research to students have been highlighted in the preceding paragraphs, academic institutions can also benefit from engaging undergraduates in research [ 13 ]. Teams conducting research benefit from the enthusiasm and energy of curious undergraduate students. They frequently keep asking for more tasks to complete since they are eager to learn. Undergraduate students often pose inquiries that can be quite perceptive and, perhaps rather unintentionally, alter the way advisors approach research problems and better improve the quality of scientific output from such institutions. In contrast to how faculty research mentors interact with graduate students and other senior team members, undergraduate researchers need responses to inquiries in unique ways, which usually facilitate an opportunity for multidirectional intense learning.

Furthermore, undergraduate students' contributions to peer-reviewed publications and local, regional, national, or international research presentations at conferences and other scientific gatherings will benefit the university or institution's visibility in the scientific community and attract more funding. Students can actively contribute to scientific knowledge provided they are motivated and have the necessary research knowledge and abilities. I serve as a practical example. At the undergraduate level, I published more than 50 articles (including both primary and secondary research) in peer-reviewed journals on a diverse range of public health issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic. While still an undergraduate, I received research and travel grants and presented scientific papers both locally and internationally. This captured the attention of the media, and many undergraduates are now inspired to participate in research more than ever. With the right support systems in place, undergraduates' contributions to scientific literature can be valuable, benefiting not only the student but also the academic institution and society. Imagine a university where students receive the assistance they require to develop their capacity for scientific publishing and research. Such an institution would contribute more to science and knowledge creation, raising their profile in the process. Undergraduate research initiatives are an untapped gold mine if they are nurtured, funded, and supported adequately.

3. Barriers and challenges facing involvement of undergraduate students in research

Healthcare undergraduates interested in research face a number of challenges that have been documented in academic literature. In this section, I conducted a rapid unsystematic review of primary studies and used Table 2 to summarize the challenges and barriers facing undergraduate research identified in randomly selected academic papers.

Barriers and challenges facing healthcare students’ involvement in research.

The rapid review of the fifteen (15) original studies in Table 2 revealed the major barriers and challenges limiting undergraduate student involvement in research across different countries. The findings of the reviewed studies were clearly similar. The key barriers and challenges to undergraduate involvement in research can be divided into three categories: a significant lack of knowledge and skills to participate in research; little to no faculty support, mentorship, funding and motivation for undergraduates to participate in research; and structural barriers limiting student involvement in research such as lack of time due to the loaded curriculum, dearth of research facilities as well as lack of major plans and strategies for undergraduate research.

4. Recommendations

There is an urgent need for stakeholders all over the world to look into the issues and devise tailored strategies to increase the involvement of (healthcare) students in research. Here are my eight (8) recommendations to advance the involvement of undergraduate students in research:

• 1. Research methods and processes should be taught to students as early as their second year of college. Even though some universities only cover research methodologies in the final year, it is essential to include more content on scientific writing and research methods as a mandatory course throughout the whole academic program. Undergraduate teaching curricula and approaches should promote inquiry-based learning. All professional classes' academic curricula might include regular discussions of new advances in the medical and health sciences, and the academic departments might be tasked with organizing these conversations. Long-term, this practice would foster a research aptitude in undergraduate students since opportunity like these would stimulate their minds.
• 2. As part of academic program, students should be evaluated for their interest in research and assigned suitable researchers to serve as their research mentors. Faculty research mentors must also be compensated. Lecturers do not receive credit for mentoring students for publications or research projects. Credit points should be awarded for each peer-reviewed publication attributed to such mentorship to encourage faculty-student research collaboration and motivate them to serve as research mentors for undergraduates. Mandatory structured mentorship programs are desperately needed.
• 3. During the undergraduate program, students should have the opportunity to participate in more research trainings, internships, and placements locally and internationally. This will contribute significantly to students' research skills and experience.
• 4. Students should be encouraged to publish at least two papers, either primary or secondary research, in peer-reviewed journals before graduation. Besides that, the final year thesis must be published and must be on a topic with the potential to make or drive impact.
• 5. Encourage undergraduate students to participate in scientific meetings, conferences, and seminars and to present their research, project, ideas or innovation in such gathering. Funding should be provided for undergraduate research conferences so that students can share their work, learn from the experiences of others, and improve institutional collaboration. This is a worthwhile investment towards advancing knowledge creation and utilization.
• 6. Existing undergraduate journals (e.g., International Journal of Medical Students), student research capacity building initiatives (e.g., Global Health Focus), undergraduate research funding initiatives, and other efforts aimed at promoting student involvement in research should be supported in order to provide more opportunities for students to participate in research.
• 7. A platform should be established to celebrate, provide incentives, and awards to undergraduates who contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge. More students will be inspired to participate in research as a result of this. Funding (e.g., travel grant, research grant, etc.) should be made more accessible to students that have demonstrated remarkable passion for knowledge creation.
• 8. More research should be conducted across academic institutions to better understand the local barriers that prevent undergraduates from participating in research.

5. Conclusion

Undergraduate research is a treasure trove that has yet to be fully tapped. The primary goal of undergraduate research is to teach students how to conduct research and to develop necessary skills that can be applied outside of the academic setting. Bolstering undergraduate research will complement, rather than conflict with, university education. There is an urgent need to develop global and local initiatives as well as strengthen current initiatives to further encourage undergraduate students to participate in research and scientific publishing.

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Declaration of competing interest