Mary Christie Institute
  • About Us
    • Our Mission and History
    • Who We Are
      • Leadership
      • Presidents’ Council
      • Our Partners
      • Our Funders
      • Fellows Program
    • News
    • Contact Us
  • Focus Areas
    • Mental and Behavioral Health
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Sexual Assault and Title IX
    • Substance Use
    • Student Success
    • College Affordability
    • Basic Needs
    • Physical Health
  • Publications
    • Mary Christie Quarterly
    • The MCFeed
    • The Quadcast
    • MCI Research and Reports
  • Events
  • Support MCI

Home  /  Mary Christie Quarterly  /  The Need for Data: Mental Health During Unprecedented Times

Opinion | Mental and Behavioral Health

The Need for Data: Mental Health During Unprecedented Times

By: Sarah Ketchen LipsonSarah Ketchen Lipson, Ph.D.
April 09, 2020

Unprecedented.

In recent weeks this word has risen to prominence in our collective lexicon. We are living in unprecedented times. Nothing is as it was before.

Now more than ever, we need data and evidence to guide our decisions and inform policies and programs.

This is true at all levels, including in higher education. Colleges and universities will need data in order to meet the needs of their students moving forward. But what will those needs be?

Pre-COVID, there were high and rising prevalence rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidality in college student populations.

Many referred to this as a campus mental health “crisis.” Data have and will continue to be essential in informing campus investments in student mental health.

When campus closures began in March, my colleagues and I began thinking about how the pandemic will impact student mental health. As is the new norm, we had only questions, no answers.

We quickly realized the opportunity to collect new data to measure the impact of the pandemic in college student populations, which include about 60% of all U.S. adolescents and young adults.

One of the most wonderful things about working in the field of college student mental health research is the partnerships and collaborations that my Healthy Minds colleagues and I have with other organizations across the country.

As we began developing new COVID-19 survey questions to add to the national Healthy Minds Study, we partnered with the American College Health Association, which will also be adding this set of questions to its National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA III).

Together, we came up with a set of about 10 new survey questions that will be added to the existing surveys for campuses that participate in the remainder of the spring 2020 semester.

With these new questions, we focused on measuring unique experiences related to the pandemic and campus closures, narrowing in on factors likely to vary significantly across students.

Ultimately the new questions fall into three categories:
the personal impact (symptoms/infection, economic, living situation, discrimination)
preventive behaviors and attitudes; and
perceived supportiveness of campus stakeholders.

The process of writing questions for immediate implementation into Healthy Minds and ACHA-NCHA III also resulted in the initial drafting of a longer survey “module” focused on COVID-19.

For fall 2020, we plan to offer a Healthy Minds survey module (about 25-30 questions) related to COVID-19, which campuses will be able to opt into. We welcome feedback and suggestions for this new survey module.

Sarah Ketchen Lipson is an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and co-Principal Investigator of the national Healthy Minds Study: http://healthymindsnetwork.org/.

If you have ideas for research priorities related to mental health in college student populations during these unprecedented times, please email healthyminds@umich.edu.

  • Tags: Coronavirus, Opinion, Public Health

TRENDING

  • 1 Physician, Heal Thyself: The increasing levels of stress in medical school
  • 2 FRONTLINES: Interview with Jake Baggott
  • 3 Real World Anxiety: Young professionals report poor mental health/burnout
  • 4 With Elis for Rachael, Yale alumni use their power to influence mental health policy
  • 5 Kylie Unell’s Leap of Faith

Related Articles

College Affordability, Mental and Behavioral Health, Student Success

Q&A: Dr. Michael Drake, President of The Ohio State University

With over 68,000 students, The Ohio State University is one of the largest institutions in the country. When asked if it is more challenging to preside over such a big school, its president, Dr. Michael Drake, likened it to swimming in an ocean as opposed to a pool. “There’s a…

MCQ. Issue 17
04/09/2020
Mental and Behavioral Health, Physical Health

Interesting People Doing Important Work

Marcia Morris, MD Dr. Marcia Morris wears a lot of hats. A psychiatrist at the University of Florida, Morris is an author, a blogger, an administrator, a professor and a parent of two young adults. In addition to teaching at the University of Florida Medical School, she is the Associate…

MCQ. Issue 16
01/13/2020
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mental and Behavioral Health

Q&A: Kent Syverud: Chancellor of Syracuse University

Kent Syverud’s earnest participation at the Presidents’ Convening on College Student Behavioral Health in September of 2019 prompted a follow-up interview at the school’s central New York campus. It was clear from his remarks at the Convening that the subject was of personal importance to him. On a panel discussion,…

MCQ. Issue 16
01/14/2020
Previous Article Next Article

Subscribe to the Mary Christie Quarterly and MCFeed

80 Hayden Avenue
Lexington, MA 02421

Email: info@marychristieinstitute.org

© 2023 Mary Christie Institute. All rights reserved.        Privacy Policy | Terms | CA Terms
×
×
×