The Disturbed Adolescent Goes to College

Abstract

During the past three years, the authors have undertaken an epidemiological study of mental health and mental illness among a randomly selected group of 350 high school students in three Chicago area high schools. Of these, 60 students were studied during their first post high school year. The major finding was that 20% of the students entering college were disturbed and in need of mental health care. We were interested in the help-seeking behavior among both our high school and post high school sample: Who gets mental health care for what problems, and if they do not receive care, why not? This paper also briefly reviews the rate of adolescent and young adult suicide in the past decade. The discussion focuses on the need for colleges to help those students who enter college with emotional problems but who have never received mental health care.