Mary Christie Quarterly

Real World Anxiety: Young professionals report poor mental health/burnout

Young professionals who graduated in the last six years have come of age in an anxious and uncertain time. From the proliferation of social media, to political and cultural divisiveness, to the epic changes brought on by the global pandemic, these young people saw the norms of human behavior rewritten…

The Stress You Hand Down: How Parent’s Anxiety Impacts Their Grown Children

Phone calls with her father lately were starting to leave Paige, a college junior in Texas, feeling stressed and confused. His questions about her grades had expanded to include concern about her progress on internships and jobs, with an undercurrent of tension about finances. She was starting to worry about…

More Than A Friend (Group)

When Laurie Burstein-Maxwell’s son Dan told her he felt like something was wrong, she understood why he seemed to be distancing from his friends. Before his depression, his mom said, the high school senior spent all his free time out and about in Radnor, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. In…

Understanding and Promoting Resilience among College Students

The Making Sense of Science column is a partnership with the University of Maryland School of Public Health, Department of Behavioral and Community Health, Center on Young Adult Health and Development. Stress during college is inevitable. College administrators, faced with unprecedented levels of student distress, sometimes feel pressure to take the…

Sexual Assault and Title IX, Mental and Behavioral Health

Students in Strict Abortion States Face Multiple Obstacles After Dobbs Decision

Fighting uncertainty with information, student advocacy prevails, even in the states where reproductive rights have been most attacked. When Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) graduate student Cheyenne Sanchez was growing up in McAllen — the largest city Hidalgo County, Texas — students were not required to take any form of…

With Elis for Rachael, Yale alumni use their power to influence mental health policy

Alicia Floyd is still on the clock when she sits down to record. Leaning forward, she films herself from the shoulders up, dressed in a black scrub top, with the pale, empty walls of a hospital call room behind her. “Briefly,” she recounts, “my story is that I matriculated in…

12/07/2022

Q&A with Dr. Judi Alperin King: Supporting students without a safety net during the holidays

In 2014, Dr. Judi Alperin King, PhD, founded the Boston area’s first organization dedicated to supporting students who would otherwise need to navigate college on their own: the Wily Network. Eight years later, Dr. King and her team work with 75 students, called Wily Scholars, across ten campuses. For their…

11/30/2022

Interview with Jamie Davidson, Associate Vice President for Student Wellness at University of Nevada at Las Vegas

Jamie Davidson, Associate Vice President for Student Wellness at University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV), found his “sweet spot” when moving from majoring in business to becoming a psychologist. He wove together his interests in spirituality, youth ministry, and collaborative care when he came into thefield of college health. …

MCQ.

11/02/2022

The Roommate Lottery

From the messages they’d exchanged before move-in day, Nichole K., now 24, never suspected that her relationship with her newly-assigned college roommate would be anything other than cordial. The two incoming members of the University of Delaware’s class of 2020 didn’t seem to have much in common, Nichole said, but…

Basic Needs, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mental and Behavioral Health

LaGuardia’s Mental Health Peer Specialist Training Program Provide Careers and Community for People with Mental Health Conditions

The pandemic got Sylvia Mahjabeen thinking about her education again. She had spent the last decade cycling through jobs, in industries like retail and fast food, and left her latest gig, packing for Amazon, when lockdown began. The longtime Queens resident from Bangladesh decided to give school another shot. Nearly…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mental and Behavioral Health

Policy Decisions on Affirmative Action and Student Debt Directly Impact the Emotional Health of Students of Color

Two critical issues that affect mental health and emotional well-being of young people of color and their education are currently on the national stage. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on October 31st regarding landmark college race-based affirmative action cases. Whatever opinion emerges will have a bearing on whether colleges…

Supporting Healthy Social Interactions for Students in a Post-Pandemic World

The Making Sense of Science column is a partnership with the University of Maryland School of Public Health, Department of Behavioral and Community Health, Center on Young Adult Health and Development. It’s 8:30 on a Saturday night. It’s your first semester away at college, and you’re still getting the hang of…

Mental and Behavioral Health, College Affordability, Physical Health

10/12/2022

Interview with Dr. Giang Nguyen, the Executive Director of Harvard University Health Services

This FRONTLINES interview gives a fascinating look at an eloquent leader in college health whose journey, family values and wisdom are examples of excellence and expertise; Dr. Giang Nguyen is a model for all college health centers. His journey began in Saigon, Vietnam, leaving for the United States one week…

MCQ.

09/14/2022

Physician, Heal Thyself: The increasing levels of stress in medical school

Like drinking from a fire hose. That’s the longstanding analogy used to describe the deluge of information aimed at medical school students studying to become doctors. Medical school has long been synonymous with anxiety and achievement, intense training, and acute pressure. Certainly, graduate work by nature involves hard work and…

What I learned from Rachael Lau

It was 10pm in Kathmandu when Rachael began to tell her story. I know some things about her. She is a disaster engineer, a Fulbright awardee, and PhD candidate at Duke University. She went to Duke on an academic scholarship, was a Division 1 athlete, and was a “grand challenge”…

Questions and Answers with Brett Scofield, Executive Director of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) at Penn State University

The state of college student mental health came sharply into focus around 2006 when a group of counseling center staff from centers across the nation, in collaboration with the newly-formed Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH), created a standardized data set that could be used by counseling centers throughout the…

Mental and Behavioral Health, Student Success

Taking risks, saving lives: MCI report examines peer support in the college setting

Amanda Fowler had been trying to do college the right way. During her first months at the University at Albany in 2019, the 18-year-old threw herself into parties that reminded her of those she’d seen on social media—ones that promised to secure her the most desirable college experience. As she…

Research on pandemic’s influence on identity development in first-year college students

In a study published in Emerging Adulthood in October 2022, Pasupathi et al detail the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students’ mental health, identity development, and academic resilience. According to College, Interrupted: Profiles in First-Year College Students Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Across One Year, all three were…

Mental and Behavioral Health, Student Success

Application Angst: Just Thinking About Grad School Can be Stressful

As a college senior, while engrossed in my final year of school, my mind is also increasingly focused on the question, “What’s next?” My field of study, psychology, generally requires at least a master’s degree to practice. But in my experience, the process of applying to graduate school is very…

Mental and Behavioral Health, Student Success

Big Thinking at Bennington College

Laura Walker did not set out to be a college president though the decades she spent in public media may have prepared her well for the job. The former president and CEO of New York Public Radio says her primary mission has always been in alignment with the one she…

From the Quadcast: A Conversation with Dr. Eric Wood, Counseling Center Director at Texas Christian University on TCU’s Comprehensive Collaborative Care Model

MM: Dr. Wood is well-known as a change agent in the college mental health community. He is the architect of the TCU Comprehensive Collaborative Care Model, which to me, sounds like a counseling center without walls. What are some of the drivers of that very interesting approach? EW: The drivers…

Opinion

ESAs and College Students

Many college students grow up with pets in their homes. When they go off to college, in addition to all the adjustments to college life, they also have to adjust to life without their constant companion. My second half of my first year and the first semester of my sophomore…

Opinion | Sexual Assault and Title IX, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

10/12/2022

Intersectionality is a key consideration in sexual assault policies on campus

From the beginning of the #MeToo movement, many among us have felt that our stories of sexual assault and harassment were finally given legitimacy. Though never brave enough to formerly join the social media movement by telling my own story, I embraced it as a win for people who had…

10/12/2022

Questions and Answers with Marvin Krislov, President of Pace University

Pace University’s mission is captured in the Latin word “Opportunitas,” which the school defines as “Providing all students, regardless of economic background, access to the transformative power of education.” As evidence that it lives up to its word, Pace has been ranked as the best private, four-year college or university…

Opinion | Substance Use

The Importance of Integrating Routine Screening for Substance Use in College and University Mental Health Service Settings

Alcohol and other substance use among young adults in general and college students in particular is a significant public health concern. Alcohol and substance use increase with age, tend to peak in young adulthood (i.e., between 18 and 25 years old) and diminish in later adulthood. Recent national statistics indicate…

Outcomes of intervention on connectedness show power of peer relationships in college

The Adolescence Research Group, a psychology lab at the University of Virginia, explores the experience and social development of teens and young adults. A recent study published in the College Student Affairs Journal evaluates an intervention called The Connection Project, which the group designed in-house to help change the quality…

Opinion | Physical Health

Reflections on health and wellbeing from a first-year college student

When students first go off to college, they bring with them what they’re most interested in. For me, it was participation in many sports and a keen interest in physical health and mental wellbeing. My name is Owen Chicos, and I’m a rising sophomore at Wake Forest University. I’d like…

Further Evidence for the Importance of Screening for Anxiety and Suicide in College Students

In a Mary Christie Op Ed last year, I wrote about the importance of studying the relationship between anxiety and suicide in college students in A Path Towards Identifying Suicide Risk Factors in College Students. Last month, I was excited to see my research in collaboration with Sarah Lipson and…

Student Success, Mental and Behavioral Health

College can be hard; Coaching can help

In talking with Brendan Griffiths, it is clear he chose the right profession. A Student Success Manager at Worchester Polytechnic University, Griffiths describes his role with doctoral students as “academic life coaching,” in which he supports students with their scholarly development, but also in their work-life balance and “all the…