Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the national healthy minds study, 2013–2021

Understanding and addressing mental health during young adulthood is of vital public health importance, as roughly half of lifetime mental disorders have first onset by mid-adolescence and three-quarters by the mid-twenties (Kessler et al., 2005a). Approximately 20 million young adults are enrolled in U.S. postsecondary education (NCES, 2020a). In the past decade, mental health symptoms have nearly doubled in college student populations (Duffy et al., 2019). Mental health problems during college are predictive of lower academic success, and depression is associated with a two-fold increase in risk in dropping out or “stopping out” of college without graduating (Eisenberg et al., 2009). Colleges and universities have many unique opportunities for identifying risk and delivering prevention and intervention to students in need, such as through residential life, athletics, and academic advising. For these reasons, higher education represents an ideal setting to address mental health during a psychosocially significant life period. (author introduction) #HES4A