Planning for college can be stressful for high school students. For some people, that stress can deter them from attending college altogether, beyond worrying about whether they’ll get into their first-choice school.
A recent study by EAB’s university resource platform Appily, ‘Mental health challenges and their impact on university admissions’, surveyed 6,330 students in grades 9 to 12 and found that mental health issues regularly occur in the majority. (58.8%)), almost a third (28%) cited mental health concerns as a reason for not attending university.
This is especially true for vulnerable people. 54% of trans students and 53% of non-binary students report that mental health concerns may delay or stop attending college altogether. Thirty-three percent of Black students and 30% of Native American students reported the same.
Dr. Eric K. Leyland (Provided)
Dr. Eric K. Leyland, an assistant professor in the University of Delaware’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences who specializes in LGBTQ developmental research, is familiar with these kinds of numbers.
“LGBTQ teens and young adults have higher rates of mental health issues and suicidal thoughts than their straight cisgender peers, so this issue that makes mental health a challenge for LGBTQ youth It’s not a new problem for people who work with young people,” Leyland told Technical.ly.
For many transgender and non-binary students, mental health is a major deciding factor when considering attending college, he says. The question is whether university is the right environment for them to grow into adults.
Dr. Roderick L. Carey, assistant professor of human development and family science at the University of Delaware, explores the school experiences of urban black and Latino adolescent boys and young men and how they imagine their futures. I am devoting my research to something like this. He developed his PostcondaryFutureSelves, an educational tool based on his own research.
Dr. Roderick L. Carey (Provided)
“Black and Latino boys see school as a place of cultural conflict between themselves, the building, their teachers, and even their peers,” Carey told Technical.ly. “Some of them are very wary of replicating something like that, especially if they’re not athletes and don’t have that kind of support.”
Carey says the pandemic is another factor. After experiencing things like isolation and distance learning in their early years, many of this generation are more insular than previous generations.
“The core of the issue is that students are hurting as a result of COVID-19,” Carey said. “Kids come into high school with a tremendous amount of needs.”
What universities can support
As universities increasingly take steps to address at least some of these needs, vulnerable high school students are also receiving increased attention, and many are using a school’s culture, equity, and other factors as criteria when choosing a university. sexual and mental health provision.
For example, an organization called Campus Pride evaluates all major universities on how accepting they are toward LGBTQ people and ranks them on the Campus Pride Index. The Campus Pride Index is a tool that college students can use to see which universities are rated highly based on what criteria. LGBTQ centers, gender-inclusive housing options, gender-neutral restrooms, student life programs, and more. We also consider whether the school offers mental health services and whether it has staff trained to identify and respond to mental health crises in at-risk groups. (Just as importantly, there’s also a list of the worst)
“One of the really important things for universities to consider as the number of LGBTQ youth increases is that perhaps all faculty, all administrators, all staff, whether they have mental health support or not, are It’s about being in the right position, interacting with LGBTQ students,” Leyland said. “As such, it is important to consider how well-trained and prepared faculty and staff are to work with LGBTQ youth.”
Students surveyed in the Appily report are specifically looking for mental health considerations when deciding on a college, such as on-campus counseling and programs that support social connections. The most sought-after type of support, with no other equivalent, was mental health sick days, which have become increasingly common since the pandemic began.
Still, the report shows there is a long way to go.
“Universities must provide mental health support; that alone is not enough,” Carey said. “Universities need to remove the stigma around mental health issues. They not only have to offer programs, they have to connect kids to programs.”
And it has to start in kindergarten through high school, not in college. Carey said secondary schools need to teach students how to ask for help, just as they teach other necessary skills.
“If students don’t develop these muscles in high school, they will fail.”
Company: University of Delaware
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