Why Do College Counselors Perceive Anxiety as Increasing? A Semi-structured Examination of Five Causes

ABSTRACT

Several studies suggest that college counselors believe anxiety has been rising in recent decades. However, these surveys do not allow counselors to give nuanced answers or explicate their reasons, leaving it unclear why counselors estimate such change and how they explain its etiology. Do counselors have more nuanced beliefs than surveys suggest? And to what causes do they attribute such cohort-level change? The current study aims to answer these questions through semi-structured interviews with long-tenured counselors, many of whom are also counseling-center directors. They answered open-ended questions about trends and etiology, and structured questions about five putative causes of cohort change. Counselors agreed that anxiety was higher in recent cohorts, but their answers were qualified, and they reflexively commented on personal biases and selection effects, suggesting their beliefs are more complex than quantitative surveys imply. Most counselors agreed that social change, helicopter parenting, competitiveness, and thwarted distinctiveness were causes.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• social change
• cohort change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.