“I'm Not Your Typical ‘Homework Stresses Me Out’ Kind of Girl”: Psychological Anthropology in Research on College Student Usage of Psychiatric Medications and Mental Health Services

Abstract

Research has established that a large minority of college students today are taking psychiatric medications and that college mental health services are overwhelmed by this relatively recent trend. Little is known about the subjective experience of these college students in regard to their medications and utilizations of services as they transition from home to a peer-based environment during a key developmental moment in the transition to adulthood. In this article we argue that theory and methods from psychological anthropology are ripe to guide data collection in this area. We provide data from a longitudinal mixed-methods pilot study with residential college students to argue that policy and practice regarding college mental health and psychiatric medication can benefit substantially from insights gained through psychological anthropology. In particular, college administrators, counseling and health centers, and their professional organizations can benefit from research examining student experience and meaning making in particular institutional and community settings.[college, psychiatric medication, mental health services, adolescence, psychological anthropology]

Problematizing “Drugs”: A Cultural Assessment of Recreational Pharmaceutical Use among Young Adults in the United States

“…These trends in prescribing are apparent in a number of different contexts (LeFever, Dawson & Morrow, 1999; Pincus et al, 1996; Robison, Scalar & Galin, 1999; Rushtom & Whitmire, 2001; Safer, Zito, & Fine, 1996; and Wilens et al, 2006). As a result, a wide range of pharmaceuticals are now widely accessible to young people and they possess considerable knowledge and experience regarding medications, including dosages, indications, effects, and side effects (Anderson-Fye & Floersch, 2011; Blanco et al, 2008; McKinney & Greenfield, 2010; Quintero, Peterson, & Young, 2006; Young, 2003). This experiential base provides a measure of confidence to individuals as they consider the use of these substances in a nonmedical context (Harmon, 2005; Quintero & Bundy, 2011).…”

Constructing “The Middle”: The Socialization of Monastic Youth in Buddhist Northern Thailand

“…More recently, scholars have noted that youth entering particular institutions do not always share the same understanding of the institution's purpose as the institution itself (e.g., Anderson‐Fye and Floersch ). As Katie Hejtmanek () demonstrates, youth in the United States living in mental institutions may have ideas of their treatment and its ability to transform them to become “better” that are markedly different than those who work at the institution.…”

Care, Closeness, and Becoming “Better”: Transformation and Therapeutic Process in American Adolescent Psychiatric Custody

“…Many anthropologists have been interested in studying therapeutic procedure, process, and outcome and thus healing. Many argue that treatment is effective, or healing occurs to some extent, if individual distress is located within broader social contexts, including cultural meanings and power (for example, Anderson‐Fye and Floersch ; Dow ; Good et al. ; Han ; Kleinman ; Lester ; Mattingly ; Waldram ).…”

“…Many anthropologists have been interested in studying therapeutic procedure, process, and outcome and thus healing. Many argue that treatment is effective, or healing occurs to some extent, if individual distress is located within broader social contexts, including cultural meanings and power (for example, Anderson-Fye and Floersch 2011;Dow 1986;Good et al 2008;Han 2012;Kleinman 1980;Lester 2011;Mattingly 2010;Waldram 2012). Others find that the therapeutic process effectiveness is informed by persuasion, or transforming the meaning of illness and the assumptive world of the afflicted (Bourguignon 1976;Csordas 1994;Nguyen 2010;Saris 2008;Waldram 2012).…”

“…However, I also wondered if and how the adolescent population would shape the transformation process or outcome. In other therapeutic contexts, young people are shown to be active agents in the interpretation of their illness (Armstrong et al 2000;Clark 2012) and treatment interventions (Anderson-Fye and Floersch 2011;Carpenter-Song 2009;Lester 2011). I turn now to the total institutional discourses and frameworks of treatment (therapeutic procedures) and the ways three boys talk about getting "better" or their healing (therapeutic outcome) and the reasons for this transformation (therapeutic process).…”