Prevalence and psychiatric correlates of suicidal ideation in UK university students

Akram, Umair; Ypsilanti, Antonia; Gardani, Maria; Irvine, Kamila; Allen, Sarah; Akram, Asha; Drabble, Jennifer; Bickle, Eleanor; Kaye, Lauren; Lipinski, Damian; Matuszyk, Eva; Sarlak, Helia; Steedman, Ellie; Lazuras, Lambros

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.185

Cited by 68 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Nevertheless, prevalence of mental ill-health in the current sample of PGRs is comparable to that reported by postgraduates in other countries (e.g. Evans et al, 2018;UC Berkeley Graduate Assembley, 2014), and undergraduates in the UK (Akram et al, 2020;McIntyre et al, 2018), and elsewhere (cf. Alvi et al, 2010;Ibrahim & Abdelreheem, 2015;Moutinho et al, 2017;Wong et al, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Evaluating Mental Health and Wellbeing of Postgraduate Researchers: Prevalence and Contributing Factors

Milicev¹,

McCann²,

Simpson³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Introduction: Recent research has revealed high rates of mental health issues in postgraduate researchers (PGRs). Mental ill-health is a barrier to life satisfaction and academic success. More knowledge is necessary to understand the extent and origins of mental health problems of PGRs in the UK. Aims: To assess the prevalence of anxiety, depression, sleep problems, subjective mental wellbeing, and suicide behaviours of PGRs in the UK, as well as to explore the factors that underpin these outcomes.Methods: An online survey (N=479) was used to measure the mental health outcomes, and assess the influence of demographic, trait and academic variables, and social support. Results: In this sample the prevalence of mental ill-health was high, while wellbeing was lower than in the general population. Female, non-binary and non-heterosexual PGRs had poorer mental health than their male and/or heterosexual counterparts. Researchers in the field of Arts had higher levels of wellbeing, while those in the 5th year of study or above were at a higher risk of suicidal behaviours. Resilience, adaptive perfectionism, social support and positive evaluations of progress and preparation, departmental climate, and supervisory relationship were associated with positive outcomes, while maladaptive perfectionism and workaholism were linked to the negative ones. Resilience and workaholism were the only variables that played a role in all mental health outcomes.Conclusions: The current paper contributes new knowledge about the PGR wellbeing, the prevalence of mental health symptoms, and some of the factors that shape them. Our findings imply that institutional efforts to improve PGR mental health and wellbeing should include a variety of strategies to promote equality, diversity, resilience, integration and work-life balance of PGRs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Evaluating Mental Health and Wellbeing of Postgraduate Researchers: Prevalence and Contributing Factors

Milicev¹,

McCann²,

Simpson³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…University students are young adults, and research has shown that the levels of loneliness, mental health problems, and suicidality were higher in this group as compared to the general population in the pre-pandemic era ( Akram et al, 2020 ; Ibrahim, Kelly, Adams, & Glazebrook, 2013 ). Data from the UK Office for National Statistics also indicated that, as of November 2020, University students in the UK reported higher anxiety scores than the general population, and more than half experienced mental health deterioration.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 97%

Feelings of fear, sadness, and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from two studies in the UK

Ypsilanti

Mullings

Hawkins

et al. 2021

Journal of Affective Disorders

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, exposure to COVID-related stimuli, has been enormous. Exposure to threat-related stimuli, can have a significant impact on people's wellbeing particularly in relation to COVID-related anxiety. The present research comprises two empirical studies. In Study 1, a newly developed Emotional Stroop Task (EST) and an Image Rating Task (IRT) were used to assess, automatic and non-automatic affective responses to COVID-related words and images during the first wave of the pandemic in the UK general population. In Study 2, the same tasks were used to evaluate the affective responses of University students during the second wave of the pandemic. Additionally, loneliness and pro-social behaviours were explored in relation COVID-related anxiety in the same population. Overall, the results showed that automatic affective responses as measured by interference effects on the EST, remained unaffected during the pandemic. However, non-automatic affective responses to COVID-related images measured by the IRT, indicated that participants rated these images as more fearful sadder and higher in anger, compared to non-COVID negative images matched for arousal and negativity and this was more evident in people with high COVID-anxiety. Trait anxiety was related to higher levels of loneliness, more prosocial behaviour and higher intentions to help others, while COVID-related anxiety mediated these effects, suggesting that for high levels of trait anxiety, participants were more likely to have helped someone in need during the pandemic when their COVID-anxiety levels were low.

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“…College students have traditionally been identified as one of the most vulnerable groups in developing mental health problems compared to their counterparts that are not in tertiary education [23][24][25], coinciding with a heightened risk of suicidal behavior [26][27][28]. However, the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has new implications for the psychological effects affecting this collective of young people.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Fear, Resilience, Social Support, Anxiety, and Suicide among College Students in Spain

Rodríguez

Sánchez

Prados

2021

IJERPH

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Worldwide, previous studies have expressed concerns regarding the broad psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among college students as they are considered an especially vulnerable group. However, few studies have examined the prevalence of, risk of, and protective factors associated with fear of COVID-19 among college students in Europe. We have sought to address gaps in the literature by conducting a cross-sectional survey among 517 college students (79.1% women and 20.9% men) from a public university in the southeast of Spain. Participants were asked to complete the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) questionnaire and answer questions related to resilience, social support, anxiety, and suicide risk levels using validated scales. The results of the analysis of the variables associated with fear of COVID-19 suggest that, in addition to gender, the factor of anxiety shows a robust positive association and effect with COVID-19 fear (p < 0.001). According to our results, university institutions must adopt support mechanisms to alleviate psychological impacts on students during this pandemic, treating it similarly to other disasters. Implications for social work to reduce COVID-19 fear are also discussed.

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Prevalence and psychiatric correlates of suicidal ideation in UK university students

Cited by 68 publications

References 55 publications

Evaluating Mental Health and Wellbeing of Postgraduate Researchers: Prevalence and Contributing Factors

Evaluating Mental Health and Wellbeing of Postgraduate Researchers: Prevalence and Contributing Factors

Feelings of fear, sadness, and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from two studies in the UK

COVID-19 Fear, Resilience, Social Support, Anxiety, and Suicide among College Students in Spain

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