Mental disorders among college students in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

By R. P. Auerbach, Jordi Alonso, W. Axinn, Pim Cuijpers, David Daniel Ebert, J. G. Green, I. Hwang, Ronald C. Kessler, H. Liu, P. Mortier and 26 more. Psychological Medicine, 2016

1,205 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background Although mental disorders are significant predictors of educational attainment throughout the entire educational career, most research on mental disorders among students has focused on the primary and secondary school years. Method The World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys were used to examine the associations of mental disorders with college entry and attrition by comparing college students (n = 1572) and non-students in the same age range (18–22 years; n = 4178), including non-students who recently left college without graduating (n = 702) based on surveys in 21 countries (four low/lower-middle income, five upper-middle-income, one lower-middle or upper-middle at the times of two different surveys, and 11 high income). Lifetime and 12-month prevalence and age-of-onset of DSM-IV anxiety, mood, behavioral and substance disorders were assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Results One-fifth (20.3%) of college students had 12-month DSM-IV/CIDI disorders; 83.1% of these cases had pre-matriculation onsets. Disorders with pre-matriculation onsets were more important than those with post-matriculation onsets in predicting subsequent college attrition, with substance disorders and, among women, major depression the most important such disorders. Only 16.4% of students with 12-month disorders received any 12-month healthcare treatment for their mental disorders. Conclusions Mental disorders are common among college students, have onsets that mostly occur prior to college entry, in the case of pre-matriculation disorders are associated with college attrition, and are typically untreated. Detection and effective treatment of these disorders early in the college career might reduce attrition and improve educational and psychosocial functioning.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d9d54b7f8d133fb7955b7d36f55d049743bec438

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Identifying Objective Physiological Markers and Modifiable Behaviors for Self-Reported Stress and Mental Health Status Using Wearable Sensors and Mobile Phones: Observational Study (2018, methodology): “We chose to approach this goal beginning with college students, most of whom report high stress, and some of whom are at risk of low or declining mental health [15,16].”
MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IN COLLEGE FRESHMEN: PREVALENCE AND ACADEMIC FUNCTIONING (2017, background): “The current study builds on earlier work on academic functioning in college students (Mortier et al., 2015; Kiekens et al., 2016; Auerbach et al., 2016).”
College Students Mental Health Challenges: Concerns and Considerations in the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021, background): “In recent years, college students’ mental health has become a growing concern and a subject of much research (Alonso et al., 2019; American College Health Association, 2020; Auerbach et al., 2016; Lipson et al., 2019).”
Towards an evidence‐base for student wellbeing and mental health: Definitions, developmental transitions and data sets (2019, background): “In an earlier study in this major initiative, Auerbach et al. (2016) concluded that these psychological problems resulted from a complex set of risk factors including academic stress, financial strain, exposure to adverse life events, difficulties transitioning towards independence, difficult…”
Mental Health and Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (2020, background): “Anxiety and mood disorders are among the most prevalent problems, often start in early to middle adolescence, and persist into higher education (Auerbach et al., 2016, 2018).”