Journal Analysis of Affective Disorder

Part I

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America conducted a study (n.d.), claiming that seven out of ten United States adults tend to experience stress or anxiety on a moderate level daily. Even though stress is unavoidable in life, it is showing more (Blanco et al., 2008) and has become more frequent and common throughout university students (Gallagher, 2008; Mackenzie et al., 2011). In the USA alone, close to close to 10% of university scholars have been diagnosed with, or treated for depression over the past twelve months (Wolfram, 2010). Even so, only about half of the people in America suffer from a diagnosed case of depression and are treated for the disorder (NIH, 2010).  To specify the treatments for the students related to their needs, universities need to be able to understand all the aspects of life other than just academics that may cause this spike in depression, anxiety, and stress (R. Beiter et al., 2015). Perceptions of negative body images have shown a correlation with increased depression and anxiety in adolescents (Kostanski and Gullone, 1998; Lifespan News, 2006). Significant impairment of social, occupational, and educational functioning resulted from low satisfaction in life, low self-esteem and feelings of inferiority (Gowami et al., 2012).

Behaviors such as smoking, inadequate diet, lack of employment, poor sleeping habits, and not sticking to medical treatment recommendations relates to depression (Doom and Haeffel, 2013). People that experience high levels of anxiety report a lower quality of life compared to people with no anxiety disorder (Barrera and Norton, 2009). Studies have shown that those college students that have satisficing relationships with family members and friends are more likely to have a better quality of life (Diener and Diener, 1995). The Franciscan University Counseling Center has reported that the number of counseling requests is at its highest three to four weeks into the semester and after mid-terms (R. Beiter et al., 2015). In the school year 2007/08 there were 196 clients totaling 1000 visits with an overall diagnosis of depression (R. Beiter et al., 2015). That number almost doubled in the year 2012/13 with 340 clients totaling 2311 visits with an overall diagnosis of anxiety and depression (R. Beiter et all., 2015).  The findings of this study would give prime insight main behaviors or factors connected with depression, anxiety, and stress throughout the university's student body, and potentially other universities of similar, or larger size (R. Beiter et al., 2015).

Part II

The population of interest for the study were students recruited from classes at Franciscan University using convenience sampling. The participants were selected across different areas of study offered at the University. All participants had to be in the age range of 18-24 and no surveys were included from participants outside that age range (Beiter et al., 2014). Permission was then obtained from the professors prior to the start of the study that was distributed during their class period. Over the course of three weeks, the survey was administered by a proctor in the selected class(Beiter et al., 2014),  Prior to completing the survey, each student received and signed an informed consent form containing information about the study, confidentiality and consent to analyze their results. Each student received a single sheet of paper consisting of a demographics sections, a list of stressors and the standard 21 question DASS. The instructed time to finish the survey was about 10 mins and instructions also included that students should fill in the answers to their best ability.

The survey included 3 parts, a demographic information, DASS section and a stressor evaluation.  The survey included demographic questions which included age, gender, marital status, household membership, home state, nature of home location, major, type of current housing accommodations, hours worked per week, hours spent on non-academic activities per week and whether the participant transferred from another school. The survey also included a section in which the student answered the 21 question version of the DASS (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale). The purpose of the questions is to "assess the severity of the core symptoms of depression, anxiety or stress over the prior week" (Beiter et al., 2014). Answers to these questions were reported on a four point Likert scale (0-3). A score of 0 indicated that the item "did not apply to them" and the score of 3 meant that the student considered the question to apply "very much or most of the time" (Beiter et al., 2014). The DASS 21 is not thought to diagnose disorders relating to depression, anxiety or tension. The last section of the survey consisted of a series of common stressors that were deemed to be pertinent to college students in prior research. Answers were reported on a Likert scale (0-4) and indicated the significance of each life stressor. Answers ranged from "not at all significant" to "extremely significant" (Beiter et al., 2014). The participants were asked to select the number along the scale that most closely describes them or their preferences.

Part III - Article Review

Based on the results and discussion sections of the article, summarizing the following:

1. What were the main results obtained from the research?    

The main results or initial goals obtained from this article are that the survey had a significant positive correlation with levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Out of the 19 foundations of this survey, the 10 that caused the most concerned were academic performance, relationship with friends, post-graduation plans, pressure to succeed, financial concerns, quality of sleep, relationship with family, overall wellness, body image, and self-esteem. The survey indicated the scored for anxiety, depression, and stress were compared to living status students who lived off-campus experienced the most stress, anxiety, and depression. Transfer students scored the highest in the three areas measured by the DASS 21, with a significant difference in anxiety levels between transfer and non-transfer students. Finally, upper-classmen scored the highest on the depression, anxiety, and stress scales when compared to underclassmen.

2. Were these results expected? (i.e. did the results support the hypotheses?)

The results collected for this survey does support the hypotheses. It suggested that mental health issues do pose important problems for many college students. There is potential correlation of depression, anxiety, and stress sin a sample of college students. While stress is unavoidable part of life it is very present (Blanco et, al., 2008) and becoming more prevalent among students (Gallagher, 2008; Mackenzie et al., 2011). Over the past 12 months almost 10% of university scholars have been diagnosed with, or treated for depression in the United States (Wolfman, 2010). The study has revealed potential sources of awareness within our university community of students, as well as specific demographic groups that have the highest incidences of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.

3. What are the implications of this article, that is, what future actions, directions, or recommendations are suggested by the author(s)?

One of the main implications of this article is the need for universities to implement a systematic and continuous method to monitor the mental health of their students. The article indicates that given the large number of students in this study indicating extreme depression, anxiousness, and tension, as considerably as the overall increasing trend of serious psychological symptoms in college students (Baron et al., 2003; Hunt and Eisenberg, 2010).  Universities should consider implementing a similar type of survey to evaluate the psychological health of their students on a regular basis. Any other form of implication is universities should try to encourage organizations such as Active Minds, National Alliance on Mental Illness, To write Love on Her Arms; that promotes awareness about mental health and seek to take rid of the societal stigma associated with such problems (McKinney, 2009). Such type of special care along with additional programs that are available would allow universities to assess the mental health needs of their students as well as improving the effectiveness of their current counseling programs. Lastly universities should share information between each other in regards to counseling centers and student life.

Part IV - Own personal evaluation

There is a big opportunity for the government to use the conclusions of this study in order to design and implement public policies in both, state and private universities, thereby preserving the mental health of young students becomes a priority, because they represent new actors of society in the near future so we must take care of them.  After the Franciscan University has developed this valuable research, it would be very helpful if it this information is given to senior officials in the education area, for example, the new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It is important to get the message out by highlighting the impact of applying some social policies that counteract the stress, depression, and anxiety of college students and promote their mental health. A lecture by some experienced speaker, with a summary of the study process and the results obtained would be a good way to transmit the message.

If any of the factors change or another is added, for some other questions that you want to add to the study, how could this be implemented without having to completely redo the whole study?. This research could be improved by finding the way to make it flexible to be adjusted based on the necessities, as long as the factors and variables may vary from one region to another.  This study could be also standardized through some software tool that allows the timely management of the variables and automatically throws the results. This standardized software for the study and control of the mental illnesses of university students could come from the secretary of education and be distributed in the different universities. This software could save the history of variations over time so that it could become a self-learning tool that provides suggestions for decision-making and to be able to assess whether the applied policies are having the expected results.

According to the journal of affective disorders (Beiter et al., 2014), young students' mental health is affected by some triggers of stress, depression, and anxiety based on some variables.   The fact of knowing in advance, what is the tendency of certain groups of university students, according to some criteria, makes easier to take proactive actions based on this information. In general, uncertainty, a radical change of environment, and both academic and family pressures for success affect the mental health of young people. It would be very useful to have a program of preparation for both parents and new students before starting the academic classes, thereby both perspectives could be tuned and synchronized. These preparation programs could include financial basis, self-esteem, post-graduation plans, relationships, the correlation between well-being and professional success.

In what way could we measure the impact of the policies applied by each university on the basis of its findings in this study? How could the Education Secretary create a university support center to centralize the mental health management of universities? These are good questions to follow-up this issue.

Reference

Beiter, R., Nash, R., McCrady, M., Rhoades, D., Linscomb, M., Clarahan, M., & Sammut, S. (2014). The prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of college students. Journal of Affective Disorders.