The Mental Health Crisis Hitting College Campuses

Over the past decade, college campuses have been working hard to reinvent themselves with new majors, state-of-the-art facilities, and creative ways of learning.

At the same time, another shift has been happening: more and more, college students are struggling with their mental health and wellbeing.

A new large‑scale study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, McDaniel College, the University of Maryland, and several other Maryland institutions shows just how dramatically mental health has changed over time for students.

WHAT STUDENTS ARE MOST STRUGGLING WITH MOST

One of the researchers was Carol Vidal, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. She and the others examined mental‑health data from more than 560,000 U.S. college students collected between 2007 and 2022 through the Healthy Minds Study. This is a long‑running national survey used widely in academic research.

They found that depression symptoms increased every single year for 15 straight years, without a single pause, dip, or reversal. For those who study mental health trends, this kind of uninterrupted rise is extremely concerning.

To understand this on a deeper level, the team used the PHQ‑9, the same clinical questionnaire health providers use to assess depression.

Students gave their personal scores for nine categories, like sleep issues, appetite changes, and suicidal ideation. They used a scale from 0 (“never”) to 3 (“nearly every day”). When researchers collected these scores year by year, the trend line only moved in one direction, and that was up.

Some symptoms rose far faster than others. Suicidal ideation increased by nearly 154%, the highest jump of any symptom. Restlessness rose by about 80%, and trouble concentrating increased by more than 77%.

The data also showed that women, students of racial minority groups, and those facing financial stress experienced the steepest climbs across many symptoms.

WHO IS MOST VULNERABLE?

According to Dr. Vidal, students in these groups often face both immediate challenges and long‑term stressors — pressures that can shape their mental and even physical health, including elevated stress‑hormone levels. Students who reported high levels of financial stress were more likely to experience poor appetite, feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal thoughts.

Minorities, especially Hispanic students, had greater increases in sleep disturbances. Also, women showed increases in losing interest in activities they once enjoyed. Although men reported fewer symptoms overall, research showed that they are less likely to report their mental‑health struggles. Male suicide rates overall were higher.

The fact that suicidal ideation rose across every demographic group means the mental health crisis should be a campus‑wide concern, says Vidal. So where do we go from here?

Dr. Vidal says the response to help reverse this crisis should be a collaborative effort from colleges, families, health providers, and students themselves. She says that universities can also address the issue by building stronger support systems targeted to groups facing higher risk.

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