Sources of Stress and Their Associations With Mental Disorders Among College Students: Results of the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys International College Student Initiative

Abstract

The college years are stressful for many students. Identifying the sources of stress and their relative importance in leading to clinically significant emotional problems may assist in the development of targeted stress management interventions. The current report examines the distribution and associations of perceived stress across major life areas with 12-month prevalence of common mental disorders in a cross-national sample of first-year college students. The 20,842 respondents were from 24 universities in 9 countries that participated in the World Health Organization World Mental Health International College Student Initiative. Logistic regression analysis examined associations of current perceived stress in six life areas (financial situation, health, love life, relationships with family, relationships at work/school, problems experienced by loved ones) with six types of 12-month mental disorders (major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, alcohol use disorder, drug use disorder). Population attributable risk proportions (PARPs) were calculated to estimate the upper-bound potential effects of interventions focused on perceived stress in reducing prevalence of mental disorders. The majority of students (93.7%) reported at least some stress in at least one of the six areas. A significant dose-response association was found between extent of stress in each life area and increased odds of at least one of the six disorders. The multivariable models that included all stress measures were significant for all disorders ( F = 20.6–70.6, p < 0.001). Interpretation of PARPs as representing causal effects of stresses on disorders suggests that up to 46.9–80.0% of 12-month disorder prevalence might be eliminated if stress prevention interventions were developed to block the associations of stress with these disorders.

Perceived Stress and Coping Strategies Among Undergraduate Health Science Students of Jimma University Amid the COVID-19 Outbreak: Online Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Numerous worldwide studies were conducted to assess the level of perceived stress among University students before the COVID-19 pandemic (Shah et al, 2010 ; Borjalilu et al, 2015 ; Ahmed and Prashantha, 2018 ; Gazzaz et al, 2018 ; Al-Qahtani and Alsubaie, 2020 ; Karyotaki et al, 2020 ; Tariq et al, 2020 ), but only limited studies were conducted on the same issue during the COVID-19 outbreak. The available studies reported a high perceived stress level for students ranging from 12.6 to 30.2% during the current pandemic (AlAteeq et al, 2020 ; Pedrozo-Pupo et al, 2020 ; Sheroun et al, 2020 ).…”

Exploring the influence of testimonial source on attitudes towards e-mental health interventions among university students: Four-group randomized controlled trial

“…Besides suboptimal levels of mental health literacy [4], attitudinal barriers to utilize traditional (face-to-face) mental health services such as a preference to manage problems on one's own, desire for self-reliance or the fear of stigmatization, have been frequently observed among students, and appear to be more problematic than structural obstacles, such as limited access and costs [5][6][7]. On the other hand, recent research indicates that effective stress prevention could reduce up to 80% of the 12-month prevalence for mental disorders among university students [8].…”

Latent Class Analysis of Multiple Health Risk Behaviors among Australian University Students and Associations with Psychological Distress

“…In addition to mental disorders, university students commonly report experiencing stress. Further analyses of WMH-ICS initiative data from nine countries (24 universities) found that most students (93.7%) indicated some perceived stress within at least one of seven life domains relevant to university students (e.g., financial situation, love life, relationship with people at work/study), and that perceived extent of stress was associated with an increased odds of mental disorders [ 3 ]. University students may also face higher rates of psychological distress than non-university students.…”