College Students’ Awareness of Mental Disorders and Resources: Comparison across Academic Disciplines

ABSTRACT

Mental Health Disorders (MHDs) are an increasingly pervasive issue on college campuses. The aim of the present investigators was to identify differences in the frequency of attendance in counseling, recognition of warning signs, and awareness of resources for mental distress between and within college students enrolled in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) majors and in mental health majors. Significant differences emerged in students’ attendance in counseling, recognition of warning signs, and awareness of resources by academic major, gender, and past attendance in counseling. Our findings both complement and extend the extant literature on the importance of outreach and consultation as key roles of college counseling practitioners.

KEYWORDS:

• College counselor
• outreach
• consultation
• help-seeking
• academic disciplines

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.