pression Affects College Students

How Depression Affects College Students
Nikki M. Broadnax
Elementary Education Major Abstract The age group of depressed college students is 18 – 32 many students find the adjustment from high school to college difficult. Even the student that seems most at ease with their new lifestyle will often confess to moments of missing their familiar high school friends, family and other comforts of home. A study by UCLA reports that more than 25-30 percent of college freshmen say they feel overwhelmed most of the time in the beginning stages of college. Some students, however, find themselves feeling much more than simply overwhelmed. 2006 college seniors surveyed, the numbers has increased 50% since the 1970s. Unthinking depression has its peak in females between the ages of 18-40, and for males between 21-40, emphasize that depression occurs at all ages. The difference between adult and childhood pictures of depression have been attributed to an inability of the child to verbalized his or her affective state incomplete superego development, and absence of consistent self-representation.
How Depression Affects In College Students
More than 18 million adults, almost a tenth of the United States population above the age of 17-23, have been found to demonstrate symptoms of a depressive disorder each year (Rosack, July 8, 2010) Depression is defined as a state of intense sadness or despair that has progressed to a level that is troublesome to an individual's social functioning and the basic activities of daily living. Many people understand the feelings associated with depression as "lacking motivation to get through the day" or "feeling sad and lonely for no obvious reason." Common feelings of depression may include but are not limited to irritability, fatigue, apathy, and sadness. When these feelings become stronger and more consistent, substance abuse and risky sexual behavior tend to become outlets for young adults who experience frequent low feelings (Swanholm, Vosvick, & Chng, 2009).

Rates of depression in college students are at an all time high. Millions of emerging adults are experiencing symptoms that are making daily routines challenging. These symptoms may include, but are not limited to, drowsiness, loss of appetite, sense of despair, lack of concern, and irritability. Long periods of suffering through such feelings are non-conducive to dealing with the demands of college life. The causes of depression are as exclusive as the individual that experiences the turmoil. For many students, however, depression can be accredited to stressors such as academic pressure, insufficient social adjustment, insufficient sleep, and the stress of the overall transition to college life. A consistent finding in the literature is the relationship between stressors and the development of depressive symptoms in the college student. In addition, the coping skill of an individual significantly impacts his or her response to stress. Individuals experience stress when they are faced with demands that may exceed their ability to cope
(Dyson & Renk, 2006). When faced with these stressors, students must utilize coping strategies to manage and effectively adapt to the pressures in their lives. The inability to effectively manage these stressors may lead to chronic levels of high anxiety for college Reports show an inequality of depressive symptoms experienced by male and female students for unknown reasons, nevertheless assumptions have been made. The American Psychiatric Association provides specific symptomatic criteria for the medical diagnosis of Major Depressive Episode in the book, Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Test Revision (American
Psychiatric Association, 2000). The symptoms indicative of a Major Depressive Episode include the following:
• depressed mood for most of the day, nearly every day as indicated by either
• subjective report of observation made by others;
• markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most
• of the day, nearly every day;
• significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain, or decrease or
• increase in appetite nearly every day;
• insomnia or hyper somnia nearly every day;
• psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day;
• fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day;
• feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every
• day;
• diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every
• day;
• recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific
• plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide (356).
To meet the criteria for the medical diagnosis of Major Depressive Episode, at least five of these symptoms must be present for at least a two week period of time, and cause distress or impairment in the individual’s life (American Psychiatric Association,
2000). It is not uncommon for the traditional student age group to resort to substance abuse and other risky behaviors to escape depressive symptoms. In many cases students experience eating disorders, and others choose suicide. Binge drinking was associated with poor diets, unhealthy weight control, body dissatisfaction, and sedentary behavior. Binge drinking was associated with an array of adverse behaviors. These associations did not differ between undergraduate and graduate students.(Melissa C. Nelson & Katherine Lust, 2008)
Depressive symptoms have been increasing among college students. Growth and development, as described by Erikson, Piaget and Kohlberg, has an important impact on the adolescent stage of life. To begin with, Erik Erikson described eight components of psychosocial development. According to Erikson, the development f a healthy personality involves the ability to successfully overcome a potential crisis during each of the eight developmental stages of life. Erikson describes a healthy personality as “containing elements which are most noticeably absent or defective in neurotic patients and which are most obviously present in the kind of man that the
Educational and cultural systems seem to be striving, each in its own way, to create, to support, and to maintain” (Erikson, 1959, p.51).Erikson’s first four stages of development (see Table 2) occur in children before they reach the age of 12 years. According to Erikson, college students between the ages of 18 to 20 years of age would fall under one of two stages of development. The first of these stages is identity verses role confusion. Identity verses role confusion is considered the stage of adolescence, including individuals between the ages of 12 to 20 years. Erikson states the adolescent’s mind, “is essentially a mind of moratorium, a psychosocial stage between childhood and adulthood, and between the morality learned by the child and the ethics to be developed by the adult”, (Erikson, 1963, p.263). The ability to successfully overcome the crisis presented in this stage is dependent upon the extent to which earlier tasks were completed. These developmental crises result as individuals encounter “a radical change in perspective” (Erikson, 1959, p. 55) as their personality grows throughout their lifespan. The ability to successfully overcome earlier crises influences the adolescent’s ability to establish identity and develop stable principles that will be carried into adulthood (Erikson, 1963). Individuals that are not able to successfully overcome the crisis of this stage may develop feelings of alienation from others, as well as a lack of clear goals in life. Erikson uses the term, “apathetically lost,” to describe these individuals (Erikson, 1963, p. 263).

According to a study of college students receiving counseling services between the years of 1988 and 2001, a 20% increase occurred in the number of students seeking help for depressive symptoms during that time period (Benton, Robertson, Tseng,
Newton, & Benton, 2003). In a survey of university counseling center directors completed in 2006, it was noted that 91.6% of the respondents reported that they had observed an increase in the number of students experiencing psychological problems in the recent years (Blanco, et. al, 2008). The development of depressive symptoms may have a significant impact on the ability of college students to successfully complete
Academic requirements. In a nationwide study, 43% of college students reported feeling so depressed that it was difficult for them to study (American College Health
Association, 2009).
This statistic suggests that the potential for the development of depressive symptoms in college students is significant.
The type of coping strategies college students utilize to manage stressors vary in their ability to promote positive adaptation. It has been noted in the literature that male and female students utilize different coping methods. Several studies have suggested that female college students have less adaptive coping skills than male students (Grant, 2004;
Nolan, Roberts, & Gotlib, 1998; Alfeld-Liro & Sigelman, 1998; Chaplin, 2006; Dyson &
Renk, 2006; VanBoven & Espelage, 2006; Reed et al., 1996). In one study examining gender and depressive symptoms, ruminative coping was found to be more common among female college students (Grant, 2004). Ruminative coping was defined as
“focusing on negative mood, negative aspects of self, or stressors” (p. 525). In a longitudinal study of undergraduate students (N = 135) from a private institution, 67 of which who were female, higher levels of ruminative coping were found to be predictive of higher levels of depressive symptoms. Data for this investigation were collected at two time points, approximately 8 to 10 weeks apart. Path analysis was completed on the data collected. This analysis supported a path model in which ruminative response style mediated the effect of neuroticism on depression (Nolan, Roberts, & Gotlib, 1998)
In another longitudinal investigation of college students (n = 287), rumination, defined as a more internal method coping, was examined in both male and female college students. Data were collected at two time periods, first during the summer orientation prior to the beginning of college classes, and secondly at the end of the first semester of classes. The majority of the subjects in this investigation were Caucasian (73%), followed by Asian (14%), African American (5%), and other (8%). Ruminative coping was found to be more common in female college students. As an internal coping method, individuals who utilized ruminative coping were more likely to blame themselves for negative events in their lives, avoiding blame to external people and events. This selfblame was felt to increase the development of depressive symptoms in female college students (Alfeld-Liro & Sigelman, 1998). Internal coping methods were also noted to be more common among female students in a study of first and second year college students
(N = 100), the majority whom were Caucasian (80%). The researcher demonstrated that feeling anger internally, but not outwardly displaying this anger may place the female students at higher risk of developing depressive symptoms (Chaplin, 2006).

The college years are an important time in the spiritual growth of young adults as they begin to search for meaning in their lives. It is during this time that students may begin to examine their own religions and spiritual beliefs (Bryant, Choi, & Yasuno,
2003). Six stages of faith development have been described by Fowler. These stages represent “faith as a way of construing, interpreting, and responding to the factors of contingency, finitude, and ultimacy in our lives” (Fowler, 1984, p, 52). According to
Fowler, college students would be in the third stage of faith development, known as the
Synthetic-Conventional Faith. It is during this stage that the individual’s ability to develop hypothetical considerations and think using use abstract concepts, begins to provide the foundation for faith development. Individuals in the Synthetic-Conventional stage are beginning to develop their own belief systems, however, they mainly seek to conform to the beliefs of individuals they relate to, such as family and peers. Because they have not fully developed their own belief systems, “there must be a deep reflection and examination of what one believes compared to what his/her religion believes in order to move on to the next stage” (Fowler, 1984, p. 63).
It has been proposed that, for college students, “spiritual support may be expected to exert an influence on well-being independent of perceived social support” (Maton,
1989, p. 311). Studies have demonstrated a negative correlation between higher levels of spirituality and depressive symptoms in college students (Maton, 1989; Muller & Dennis,
2007; Turner-Musa & Lipscomb, 2007; Young, Cashwell, & Shcherbakova, 2000).
There is a limited amount of research examining the relationship between spirituality and

References

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Works Cited
◦Melissa C. Nelson, P. R. (n.d.). Alcohol Use, Eating Patterns, and Weight.
BRANDY, J. M. (AUGUST 2011). DEPRESSION IN FRESHMEN COLLEGE STUDENTS.
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Rosack, J. (July 8, 2010 ). Depression most costly illness for employers. American Psychiatry Association.
Swanholm, E. V.-l. (2009, May 3). Pessimismn, Trauma, Riscky sex:corvaites of depression in college students. American Journal of healthy Behavior .

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