By the numbers.

Mental health in young adults is a complex topic worthy of our time and attention. The years spent as a college student can be some of the most pivotal and formative years of our lives. For many students, they are also some of the most difficult years, as we strive to explore or solidify our identities, determine our career trajectories, and navigate new independence.

Prevalence

  • 33.1% of college students report being diagnosed or treated by a professional for a mental health condition (e.g. anxiety, depression, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, etc.) (1,2)

  • People aged 18-25 years have the highest prevalence of any mental illness (33.7%) compared to those aged 26-49 years (28.1%) and those aged 50 and older (15.0%). Additionally, young adults (those aged 18-25 years) had the highest prevalence of serious mental illness (11.4%) compared to those aged 26-49 years (7.1%) and those aged 50 and older (2.5%). (3)

  • Though 17% of college students identify as having a psychological disorder, it doesn’t take having a diagnosed mental illness to have mental health challenges. The majority of college students still experience negative mental health effects and negative subjective well being, with 55.9% of college students reporting feeling things were hopeless at any point within the last 12 months. (1,4)

Effects

  • Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10-14 and 25-34. (5-7)

  • 2% of students reported attempting suicide and 8.6% reported intentionally injuring themselves at any time within the last 12 months. To include people not enrolled in college, over 3.8 million young adults (aged 18-25) had serious thoughts of suicide in 2021. (2,3)

  • Diagnosed depression is associated with a 0.49 point (a half a letter grade) decrease in student GPA, and anxiety and mild to severe depression is associated with a 0.4 point decrease in GPA. While these drops may seem modest in absolute terms, they would lower a student with the 50th percentile GPA (3.61) down to the 37th-23rd percentiles. However, there is hope! Treatment for these conditions is associated with a protective effect of approximately 0.44 points.

    The impact of mental health on academic performance isn’t just observed on a community-level; students also self-report anxiety (27.8%), depression (20.2%), eating disorders (1.8%), and stress (34.2%) as having affected their individual academic performance. (2,8,9)

  • Depression is a significant predictor of dropping out, even when controlling for prior academic performance and other variables. (8)

Trends & Treatment

  • The CIRP Freshman Survey historical trends show that from 1985 to the present, incoming college students’ self-reported emotional health have consistently declined. For example, in 2015, 59.0% of men and 43.7% of women reported their emotional health as above average, while in 2019, 50.4% of men and 34.0% of women reported such. These reflect 8.6% and 9.7% decreases, respectively, over 4 years. Possible reasons proposed for this decline include: an increasingly competitive market in accessing and persisting in college and the influx of technology and social media. (10)

  • Only 47.2% of U.S. adults with mental illness received treatment in 2021. (11)

  • For young adults specifically (those aged 18-25), an estimated 9.7 percent of young adults (or 715,000 people) who received mental health services in the past year were unable to access needed care resulting in a perceived moderate to severe impact on health. An even greater number experiences delays in getting prescriptions, mental health service appointment delays, or appointment cancellations. (12)

Learn more from The Hub

References

  1. National Alliance on Mental Illness. Mental Health By the Numbers. NAMI. Published April 2023. Accessed October 26, 2023. https://www.nami.org/mhstats

  2. American College Health Association. American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II: Reference Group Executive Summary. American College Health Association. Published Spring 2019. Accessed October 26, 2023. https://www.acha.org/NCHA/ACHA-NCHA_Data/Publications_and_Reports/NCHA/Data/Reports_ACHA-NCHAIIc.aspx.

  3. National Institute of Mental Health. Mental Illness. NIH National Institute of Mental Health. Published March 2023. Accessed October 26, 2023. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness

  4. Higher Education Research Institute & Cooperative Institutional Research Program. CIRP Freshman Survey. HERI. Published in 2020. Accessed on October 26, 2023. https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-freshman-survey/ 

  5. National Institutes of Mental Health. Suicide. National Institute of Mental Health-National Institutes of Health (NIMH-NIH). Published May 1, 2023. Accessed October 26, 2023. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide.

  6. Center for Disease Control. Adolescent Health. CDC, National Center for Health Statistics. Published July 25, 2023. Accessed October 26, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/adolescent-health.htm

  7. National Safety Council analysis of National Center for Health Statistics. Deaths by Demographics: All Leading Causes of Death. NSC. Published 2021. Accessed October 26, 2023. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/deaths-by-demographics/all-leading-causes-of-death/data-details/ 

  8. Eisenberg, Daniel & Golberstein, Ezra & Hunt, Justin. Mental Health and Academic Success in College. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy. 2009; 9. 40-40. 10.2202/1935-1682.2191.

  9. Hysenbegasi A, Hass S, Rowland C. The impact of depression on the academic productivity of university students. J Ment Health Policy Econ. 2005 Sep;8(3):145-51. PMID: 16278502. https://pubmed-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.proxy.kansascity.edu/16278502/ 

  10. Stolzenberg E, Aragon M, Romo E, Couch V, McLennan D, Eagan M, & Kang N. The American Freshman: National Norms Fall. 2019; 1-77.  ISBN: 978-1-878477-51-4. https://heri.ucla.edu/publications-tfs/ 

  11. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 2021; HHS Publication No. PEP21-07-01-003, NSDUH Series H-56. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov/data/ 

  12. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 2022;HHS Publication No. PEP22-07-01-005, NSDUH Series H-57. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2021-nsduh-annual-national-report