Notes from Ground Zero in America's Depression Epidemic: College Students Speak. A few months ago, I wrote about runaway rates of depression on America's college campuses .
My post was initially prompted by the release of an important survey, The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2010," involving more than 200,000 incoming full-time students at four-year colleges. The data indicated that emotional health of college freshmen is dreadful, at its lowest point since this survey began collecting data 25 years ago. For example, the percentage of students who said their emotional health was above average fell to 52 percent. It was 64 percent in 1985. Of course the most interesting question is: ?
Catherine Raley {*style:<i> Depression is on the rise in college students on campuses across the nation. The National Institute of Mental Health lists a number of symptoms that could potentially cause depression in college students. Due to budget cuts, higher costs, and a poor economic state, current college students feel the need to work more hours than their predecessors. 21 Things We Should Have Been Told at Graduation. The education that we receive barely prepares us for the challenges that lie ahead. This is what we should have been told at graduation instead of all the misplaced, self-congratulatory platitudes. 1. We strived to give you the best education. But what is the best education? The best education is not that which enables you to make a good living, nor even that which enables you to make a social contribution, but that which enables you on the path to freedom and individuation, and which, in the longer term, leads to the fullest living and the greatest social contribution. 2. 3. 4. 5.
College Campuses: Ground Zero in America's Depression Epidemic. On this blog, I have warned about the growing epidemic of severe depression in the USA , pointing to signs that this growing wave of depression is concentrated in the young . The latter development is especially troubling and ominous because depression that onsets early in life often has a worse course than later onset depression .
Depressed college students are likely to become depressed 30 somethings and depressed 40 somethings. Early adulthood is a tender age. Depression that onsets in early adulthood disrupts important developmental milestones like starting a career or starting a family. If you are skeptical, or think I'm exaggerating, please read this story. You may have a mental image of a sulky freshman facing existential ennui. No wonder counselors on college campuses are overwhelmed .
No doubt, college students certainly have it bad, with college debts, poor job prospects, fear of doing worse than parents , and families that are economically stressed, etc, etc. Having a Bad Job Is Worse for Mental Health Than No Job At All. Overworked and underpaid. You'd think in this economy the mental outlook of an unemployed person seeking a job would be worse than someone who is employed, right?
Not always true, says a new study from Australia. According to a study published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine , researchers from the Australian National University concluded that people with poor-quality jobs (i.e., high demands, low control over decision-making , high job insecurity and an imbalance regarding effort and their rewards), actually experienced worse mental health than those who were jobless. Results from a seven year study showed that although unemployed people experienced significantly poorer mental health than people who were employed, they actually experienced superior mental health compared to people who had a job with very poor quality.
Furthermore, the mental health of people in low-satisfying jobs continued to deterioriate over time.