Mental health in undergraduate engineering students: Identifying facilitators and barriers to seeking help

Abstract

BackgroundEngineering students encounter high levels of stress, which may negatively impact their mental health. Nevertheless, engineering students who experience mental health distress are less likely than their peers to seek professional help, even when controlling for gender and race/ethnicity.PurposeWe examined beliefs that undergraduate engineering students have about barriers and facilitators to seeking professional help for their mental health. We also sought to identify cultural and systemic factors within and beyond engineering that might affect help‐seeking. Together, these beliefs influence students' sense of personal agency around seeking mental health care.MethodWe implemented a pragmatic qualitative design that incorporated the integrated behavioral model to investigate engineering students' (N = 33) professional mental health help‐seeking beliefs. We used thematic analysis to analyze help‐seeking beliefs and perceived barriers and facilitators that students described during interviews.ResultsWe identified four themes: Navigating the system impacts personal agency; sacrifices associated with help‐seeking act as a barrier; engineering culture acts as a barrier to help‐seeking; and student confidence in help‐seeking varies significantly. These themes portray the effect of perceived barriers and facilitators on students' personal agency for accessing mental health care. Our findings have implications for engineering departments and university counseling centers that want to minimize barriers to help‐seeking.ConclusionsEngineering stakeholders must improve access to professional help for engineering students. Implementing changes to normalize help‐seeking behaviors, enhance personal agency, and facilitate engagement with mental health resources will create better conditions for engineers. Further research is necessary to understand how other beliefs (e.g., attitudes, perceived norms) inform the relationships between student mental health, professional help seeking, and engineering culture.

Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Dyspepsia in an Effort to Prevent Gastritis: Literature Review

“…Resilient families will be able to adapt to achieve balance in their family (Neo, Chang, and Fung 2016) and can become a model for their family members (students) to find good stress coping mechanisms. A resilient family is a type of social support that acts as a buffer against the negative impacts of stress or (academic) life events that cause a lot of pressure (Dupont, Galand, and Nils 2015;Janaye Wright and Miller Lucy Elizabeth Hargis Ellen L Usher Joseph H Hammer 2022). In this study, it is also clear that academic self-efficacy has a greater influence than family resilience on stress coping mechanisms.…”

Engineering culture under stress: A comparative case study of undergraduate mechanical engineering student experiences

“…Moreover, research on cultural beliefs in engineering has shown a juxtaposition between beliefs in social justice and public welfare and an active decentering of the social side of engineering (Cech, 2014;Leydens & Lucena, 2018;Riley, 2008). More recently, researchers have approached investigations of student mental health and well-being through a lens of engineering culture, making visible the connections between a culture of stress (Jensen & Cross, 2021) and student mental health outcomes (Danowitz & Beddoes, 2020;Fitzpatrick et al, 2023;Jensen et al, 2023;Roberts & Leydens, 2023;Wright et al, 2023). Many of these studies to date on engineering culture have approached culture through the student perspective (e.g., Cech, 2014;Tonso, 1996;Tonso, 2006).…”

The New Normal: Student Perspectives on Supportive University Policies during COVID and Beyond

“…Wellbeing has a particularly important place regarding engineering, which has been noted to exhibit a culture of a "boot camp" [12], "suck it up" mentality, and competition [13]. A 2019 study found a prevalence of mental health conditions (anxiety, depression, worry) in undergraduate engineering students with no past mental health issues [15].…”

“…A 2019 study found a prevalence of mental health conditions (anxiety, depression, worry) in undergraduate engineering students with no past mental health issues [15]. While mental health and wellbeing are widely discussed in fields like education, medicine, and psychology [16], their impact on engineering culture is more newly explored (e.g., [10,[13][14][17][18][19][20][21]). Engineering students show less intention to seek help regarding mental health concerns [13][14], and negative connotations or stigma associated with mental health concerns can be a significant barrier for them to obtain mental health care [14].…”

“…While mental health and wellbeing are widely discussed in fields like education, medicine, and psychology [16], their impact on engineering culture is more newly explored (e.g., [10,[13][14][17][18][19][20][21]). Engineering students show less intention to seek help regarding mental health concerns [13][14], and negative connotations or stigma associated with mental health concerns can be a significant barrier for them to obtain mental health care [14]. However, normalization of the discussion of student mental health and wellbeing in departments can promote help-seeking among students [20].…”