Abstract
Objective: Psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety, can hinder academic performance among college-age individuals. Participants: Mental health among college students is a growing public health concern, with some scholars describing collegiate mental health as a crisis (Chen et al., Psychiatr Serv. 2019;70(6):442–449). Methods: This study analyzes data from four annual administrations of the American College Health Association (ACHA)’S NCHA (n = 117,430). Results: Overall, anxiety and depression were the most common conditions, at 9.2% and 8.7%, respectively. Of students reporting the focal symptom, 17.87% were treated for depression and 12.91% were treated for anxiety. Compared to not-treated students, diagnosed only students, had significantly lower grade averages, with effect sizes of −0.30 and −0.20 for depression and anxiety, respectively. Conclusions: Given the prevalence of depression and anxiety among college-aged students, continued research into help seeking behaviors and their effects on outcomes like grade average is an essential part of understanding the toll these disorders take.
Conflict of interest disclosure
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of The State University of New York at Buffalo.
Funding
No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.