College Student Mental Health Research Paper

Words: 1621
Pages: 7

College Students and Mental Health: Who takes responsibility?
Conversation involving college students and their state of mental health is being discussed by several journalists and has been roaming college campuses. Researchers claim the struggles that college places on student’s shoulders such as high levels of stress and an abundance of new responsibilities are implicating mental health issues onto them. Although it is not refutable that college can take a toll on student’s mental well-being. In reality, the issue lies beyond the universities. The essential concern is that when faced with the hardships that come along with becoming independent college students, millennials are crumbling. Millennials have become over-sensitive and have proven
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Journalists Gregg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, published an article for The Atlantic stating “A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense” (Lukianoff and Haidt). They discuss an effort that focuses on the recent epidemic of mentioning micro-aggressions and trigger warnings and their effect on college campuses. Micro-aggressions are unimportant actions or statements that initially are not meant to be offensive or malicious but are considered harmful. Trigger warnings are meant to be helpful to those who have suffered trauma in the past. They are warnings about material that can cause discomfort or strong emotional responses. The agenda of the movement Lukianoff and Haidt bring to light is removing the presence of micro-aggressions as well as implementing trigger warnings on …show more content…
She writes about the six factors believed to contribute to the mental health decline of college students in “A Suffering Generation: Six factors contributing to the mental health crisis in North American higher education.” Flatt states “For many students, university and college differ dramatically from secondary school or their home environment. This can be an important time to develop independence, explore, and experiment as they live for the first time under their own rules.” She goes on to mention how making the wrong choices while in these situations can be detrimental to students. Poor decision making can lead to unhealthy dieting, lack of exercise, binge drinking and unsafe sexual behavior. These decisions in Flatt’s opinion “can have adverse mental health effects”