How Can We Solve the College Student Mental Health Crisis? | Dr. Tim Bono | TEDxWUSTL
Summary
TLDRThis talk addresses the mental health crisis among college students, highlighting the disconnect between the idealized college experience portrayed by admissions offices and the reality students face. The speaker, a psychologist in higher education, emphasizes the importance of managing expectations to mitigate the crisis. They suggest that happiness is influenced by the gap between experiences and expectations, and the happiest students are those with realistic expectations and coping strategies for challenges. The speaker advocates for transparency about college life's difficulties to foster resilience and well-being.
Takeaways
- 🤔 The college student mental health crisis is a significant concern for university administrators and faculty.
- 🏫 A survey revealed that 66% of college presidents see student mental health as their top concern.
- 📈 The rise in students suffering from depression and anxiety is alarming and a key driver of the mental health crisis.
- 🎓 The admissions presentations often paint an idealized picture of college life, which may not align with the reality of student experiences.
- 🔍 The contrast between the idealized college experience and the actual challenges faced by students can contribute to mental health issues.
- 🧩 The formula for happiness as 'what we have divided by what we want' suggests that unrealistic expectations can lower student happiness.
- 👨🏫 The speaker, as a faculty advisor, consistently hears that unrealistic expectations are a primary driver of the mental health crisis.
- 🎞️ Cultural myths and media portrayals contribute to students having an inflated sense of what college life should be like.
- 🚫 It's important for prospective students to understand that college will have its challenges and that's a normal part of the experience.
- 🌟 The happiest students are those with realistic expectations and strategies to cope with the inevitable setbacks they will face.
- 💪 Developing resilience and coping skills is key to overcoming challenges and maintaining well-being during and after college.
Q & A
What was the primary focus of the conference the speaker attended?
-The primary focus of the conference was to gain insight into solving the college student mental health crisis.
What did the Chronicle of Higher Education survey reveal about college presidents' concerns?
-The survey revealed that 66% of college presidents identified student mental health as their top concern, outweighing other issues.
Why did the speaker decide to attend the admissions presentation?
-The speaker decided to attend the admissions presentation out of curiosity after hearing it was about to begin while they were taking a walk around campus.
What was the admissions officer's portrayal of college life during the presentation?
-The admissions officer portrayed college life as idyllic, focusing on positive experiences, internships, research opportunities, student organizations, campus activities, and amenities.
How did the speaker's experience at the admissions presentation relate to the mental health crisis?
-The speaker realized that the idealized portrayal of college life might contribute to unrealistic expectations, which could exacerbate the mental health crisis when students face inevitable challenges that don't align with those expectations.
What does the happiness formula mentioned in the script suggest about college students' happiness?
-The happiness formula suggests that a college student's happiness is determined by the ratio of their positive experiences (what they have) to their expectations (what they want), implying that unrealistic expectations can lead to unhappiness.
What role do unrealistic expectations play in the student mental health crisis according to the speaker?
-Unrealistic expectations can lead to disappointment and a sense of not belonging when students' actual experiences do not match the lofty promises and cultural myths about college life.
What has the speaker learned from studying college students' happiness over the years?
-The speaker has learned that the happiest students are those with realistic expectations about college challenges and who have strategies to cope effectively or know where to seek help.
What message does the speaker have for new college students regarding their expectations?
-The speaker advises new students to be excited about the positive experiences college offers but also to be mindful of their expectations to avoid setting themselves up for disappointment.
What does the speaker suggest could help alleviate the college student mental health crisis?
-The speaker suggests that being more open and upfront with students about the challenges they will face, along with promoting behaviors that contribute to well-being, could help reduce the crisis and foster resilience.
What is the speaker's view on the role of college admissions presentations?
-The speaker believes that while admissions presentations are important for exciting students about college, it's also crucial to communicate the full scope of the college experience, including the challenges, to set realistic expectations.
Outlines
🤔 The College Mental Health Crisis
The speaker, a psychologist in higher education, attended a conference focused on addressing the mental health crisis among college students. A survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that 66% of college presidents considered student mental health their top concern. During the conference, the speaker attended an admissions presentation that showcased the positive aspects of college life, yet this contrasted sharply with the mental health data discussed at the conference. The speaker suggests that the discrepancy between the idealized college experience and the reality contributes to the mental health crisis, as students often face challenges that don't align with their expectations.
🎓 Unrealistic Expectations and College Life
The speaker discusses the impact of unrealistic expectations on college students' mental health. Many students enter college with an idealized view of their experience, influenced by admissions presentations and societal myths that portray college as the best years of one's life. When these students encounter the inevitable challenges of college life, they often feel like they are failing or don't belong. The speaker, while not criticizing admissions officers, emphasizes the importance of preparing students for the realities of college, including the difficulties they will face. The speaker advises new students to be excited about college but also to manage their expectations and develop strategies for coping with challenges to maintain their mental health and well-being.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mental Health Crisis
💡College Administrators
💡Unrealistic Expectations
💡Happiness Formula
💡Admissions Presentation
💡Cultural Myths
💡Peer Counseling Center
💡Resilience
💡Well-being
💡Flourishing
Highlights
The conference aimed to address the college student mental health crisis, a top concern for college administrators.
66% of college presidents identified student mental health as their most pressing concern.
The speaker attended an admissions presentation, gaining insight into the mental health crisis.
Admissions officers often present an idealized image of college life, potentially contributing to unrealistic expectations.
Data from the American College Health Association shows high rates of anxiety and depression among students.
The portrayal of college to prospective students is often vastly different from the actual experience.
Happiness is conceptualized as having what you want, which can be influenced by unrealistic expectations of college life.
Unrealistic expectations are a primary driver of the student mental health crisis, according to peer counseling center co-directors.
Cultural myths and media sensationalize college, leading to inflated expectations.
Students often enter college without a realistic understanding of the challenges they will face.
The happiest students have realistic expectations and coping strategies for college challenges.
It's important for students to be excited about college but also mindful of the challenges they may encounter.
The speaker suggests that colleges should be more open about the challenges students can expect.
The goal is to shift the focus from crisis management to building resilience and well-being in college students.
The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of preparing students for the realities of college life.
Transcripts
a few years ago
i attended a conference that brought
together faculty members and
administrators
from universities all over the country
and as a psychologist who works in
higher education
i was eager to attend because one of the
goals of this conference
was to see if we could gain insight into
a question
that is on the mind of every college
administrator from coast to coast
which is how can we solve the college
student mental health crisis
now just a year before this conference
took place
the chronicle of higher education
surveyed more than a hundred college
presidents
asking them to report their most
pressing concerns outside of the
classroom
and according to the chronicle 66
of these leaders identified student
mental health as the
top issue which far outweighed any of
the other concerns that made the list
and this finding is not altogether
surprising when you consider that in
recent years
the proportion of students suffering
from depression and anxiety
has been skyrocketing well on the second
day of this conference
which was being held on a beautiful
college campus on the east coast
during a week with lovely fall weather
that was sunny and warm
i decided to play a little hooky and go
for a walk outside
and as i was making my way around campus
i happened upon the admissions office
where i was told an admissions
presentation was scheduled to begin just
minutes later
so out of curiosity i joined this group
of other campus visitors
and we were led to this admissions
presentation
which just so happened to be in the
exact same building as the conference i
was attending
the admissions presentation was upstairs
the conference where i was supposed to
be was
downstairs but it turns out that by
attending this admissions presentation i
wasn't playing hooky at all
because it was there that i gained even
more insight into the college student
mental health crisis
than i did at the conference itself and
probably not for reasons the admissions
office would have expected
this admissions officer spent 45 minutes
telling us what made that institution
great
she told us all about the experiences
the students were having that were
great she shared stories of students
doing internships
and pursuing research with faculty she
told us all about the student
organizations the campus activities
the dorms the rec center the food
making quite a compelling case that
being a college student today
is great
but then i remembered the real reason i
was on campus that day
and it occurred to me that although this
admissions officer may have been telling
the truth
she wasn't telling the whole truth
because
while she was upstairs painting this
idyllic picture of the college
experience
just downstairs were hundreds of faculty
members and administrators
discussing data sets like those from the
american college health association
showing that over the last year 66
percent of students
reported feeling overwhelming anxiety
and 46 percent of students reported
feeling
so depressed they could not function
which collectively was a glaring
reminder
that the portrayals of college that are
being delivered to prospective students
and the actual lived experiences of
students
in college are often vastly different
from one another
and that stark contrast could provide
some insight
into what has been fueling the college
student mental health
crisis one of the ways that
psychologists conceptualize happiness
is with a simple formula happiness
equals
what we have divided by what we want
in other words your happiness as a
college student
is determined not only by all of the
wonderful experiences you will
have during college it's also affected
by what you
want college to be like and what you
expect
college to be like since 2014
i have been the faculty advisor for
washu's peer counseling center
and at the end of every year i ask the
undergraduate co-directors of this
organization
what they believe to be the primary
driver
of today's student mental health crisis
and reliably the one phrase that comes
up
year after year is unrealistic
expectations many students start college
without a realistic sense of what the
experience is
actually going to be like and it makes
sense why
many of these students spent the latter
half of high school
attending admissions presentations and
going on
campus tours each one with loftier
promises than the last
and those messages are compounded by the
cultural myths
that have been propagated in the movies
and on social media
and by society in general all of which
have sensationalized college
as the best four years of your life
and then those students get to college
and they face inevitable difficulties
and they compare their actual
experiences
with those lofty expectations they
developed
and very often they are left with no
other conclusion to draw
than that they are doing college
incorrectly or
even worse that they do not belong there
at
all now i certainly don't mean to pick
on my friends in admissions
or to suggest that they are doing
anything wrong or that they need to be
doing anything differently
in fact i think it's important that they
offer these presentations
to get students excited about college
but i also think it's important for
prospective students
and their families to understand that
there's more to
the story than just what you see on the
college admissions tour
or in the movies or on social media
and those other parts of the story have
got to be delivered from someone
somewhere so as a psychologist who has
spent the last decade working on a
college campus
this is my message to new students
first of all you absolutely should be
excited about all of the wonderful
experiences
and the classes and the professors and
the relationships and the adventures
that will fill the numerator of that
happiness formula
during your college years but the other
thing you should do
in the interest of your mental health
during college
is to be mindful about some of the other
expectations you are bringing with you
that could be over inflating the
denominator
of that formula because if what you want
is for college to be perfect and if you
visit a campus and you leave
believing that you have found the
perfect place and a destination where
you're going to be happy all the time
i hate to be the one to have to break
this to you but if those are your
expectations
you very likely are setting yourself up
for disappointment
and at some point you're going to end up
disillusioned
because if you're doing college
correctly there are going to be hard
times you're going to have roommate
conflicts
you're going to take classes that leave
you feeling disappointed or that you
feel are unfair
you're going to pursue extracurriculars
or internship experiences
that you have your heart set on that you
still don't get to be a part of
and that's the case no matter where you
go you're going to face adversity
but one of the things i've learned from
studying the happiness of college
students over the years
is that the happiest students aren't
happy all the time
rather the happiest students have
realistic expectations
about the challenges that are in store
for them during
college and they have thought about that
ahead of time
and they come equipped with the
strategies that will allow them to
cope effectively or at very least they
know who to turn to for help
in those moments remember
college is great but
part of what will make college great
will be the ways that you develop the
wherewithal
to overcome setbacks that come your way
so that you can stay on track toward
your dreams and aspirations
not only during college but also
throughout your life when i think back
to that conference i attended a couple
of years ago
about how to solve the college student
mental health crisis
i'm still not sure there's anyone who
has the definitive solution
but i do think that if we can be more
open and upfront
with students about the kinds of
challenges they can expect to face
during college
along with the behaviors that will
proactively contribute to their
well-being
then maybe one day when we talk about
the mental health of college students
it will be less of a crisis and instead
have more to do with their resilience
their well-being
and their flourishing thank you
[Applause]
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