Mental health and mental well-being of Black students at UK universities: a review and thematic synthesis

Abstract

BackgroundThere is a knowledge gap about the experiences that affect the mental health of Black university students in the UK. Current research is focused on understanding the continuation, attainment and progression gap between Black students and non-Black students. It is essential to know more about the interactions between personal and institutional factors on the mental health of Black students to explain the inequalities in their experiences and outcomes across the university lifecycle. The current study set out to thematically synthesise articles that explore the experiences that affect the mental health and mental well-being of Black university students in the UK.MethodsThis study is a qualitative thematic synthesis of a literature review. We developed search strategies for four online databases (PubMed, Social Science Premium Collection via ProQuest, Open Access Theses and Dissertations, and Open Grey) covering January 2010 to July 2020. This search was combined with a manual search of reference lists and related citations. All articles in English addressing mental health and mental well-being experiences among Black university students studying at a UK university were included. Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Checklist was used to assess bias. A thematic synthesis was conducted using Braun and Clarke (2006)’s six-step guide to develop descriptive themes and analytical constructs.ResultsTwelve articles were included. Several themes were identified as affecting the mental health of Black university students in the UK: academic pressure, learning environment, Black gendered experience, isolation and alienation, culture shock, racism and support.DiscussionThis review provides an appraisal of the factors affecting the mental health and mental well-being of Black students at UK universities, which need to be addressed by higher education policy-makers and key decision-makers. Further research is needed about the mental health experiences of Black university students in relation to Black identities, suicidality, mental health language, the physical environment, and racism and other institutional factors.

Understanding self-harm and suicidal behaviours in South Asian communities in the UK: systematic review and meta-synthesis

“…40 Further, racism has been associated with common mental health difficulties in ethnic minority groups in the UK. 38,39,41 Our findings also reveal that financial problems have a considerable influence on the mental health of South Asian people in the UK. 42 Although the impact of economic difficulty on mental health has been acknowledged nationally, ethnic minorities seem to be more disadvantaged because of uncertain residency status or language barriers.…”

University Students’ Mental Health and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from the UniCoVac Qualitative Study

“…Trammel et al also found in their study among American undergraduates that Latinax and Asian students experienced higher COVID-19 related threat and negative beliefs than White students [ 52 ]. It is to be noted that ethnic minority students have been experiencing disproportionate mental health problems even before the pandemic due to inequality in access, gaps in academic attainment, unequal representation etc., and there is a strong likelihood that these factors may have exacerbated during the pandemic [ 53 ]. Universities should be more vigilant in identifying these at-risk groups and become proactive in dealing with instances of discrimination and, racially motivated hate crimes both inside and outside the campus.…”

Just ethnic matching? Racial and ethnic minority students and culturally appropriate mental health provision at British universities

“…The context of British student support services is therefore interesting. As we have underlined elsewhere, research on the relationships between the British university environment, racial microaggressions, REM student mental health, and the counselling interaction is an underdeveloped yet growing field; Stoll et al ( 2022 ) identify a corpus of twelve articles addressing mental health and mental well-being experiences among Black students at UK universities published between 2010 and 2020. Clearly, this literature emerges from a different cultural context from the USA, which is structured by the legacy of plantation slavery and Jim Crow; nonetheless, work by Arday ( 2018 ), Akel ( 2019 ), Bunce et al ( 2019 ) and others identify the commonplace nature of racial abuse, both overt and implicit, experienced by racialized minority students within the inequitable environments of British universities.…”

“…Clearly, this literature emerges from a different cultural context from the USA, which is structured by the legacy of plantation slavery and Jim Crow; nonetheless, work by Arday ( 2018 ), Akel ( 2019 ), Bunce et al ( 2019 ) and others identify the commonplace nature of racial abuse, both overt and implicit, experienced by racialized minority students within the inequitable environments of British universities. Synthesizing, Stoll et al identify an experience common to Black students of being subjected to racism and racial stereotyping in the classroom, through teaching materials and staff-student and student-student interactions; and for Black women, in addition, being subjected to the overpolicing of their academic knowledge by teaching staff (Stoll et al, 2022 , p. 6). Five of their corpus of twelve studies discussed how “institutional racism, discrimination and hegemonic white privilege made universities toxic spaces for Black students, which affected their mental health and well-being” (Stoll et al, 2022 , p. 7).…”

“…Synthesizing, Stoll et al identify an experience common to Black students of being subjected to racism and racial stereotyping in the classroom, through teaching materials and staff-student and student-student interactions; and for Black women, in addition, being subjected to the overpolicing of their academic knowledge by teaching staff (Stoll et al, 2022 , p. 6). Five of their corpus of twelve studies discussed how “institutional racism, discrimination and hegemonic white privilege made universities toxic spaces for Black students, which affected their mental health and well-being” (Stoll et al, 2022 , p. 7). The lead author’s own work, completed for the study of which this paper is a part, has identified REM students as typically experiencing campus climates as hostile and characterized by everyday racial microaggressions, multiple types of othering, and tokenist institutional approaches to social and racial diversity (Olaniyan, 2021 ) .…”