Study: Students now more stressed than ever before

Only 51.9 percent of students reported that their emotional health was “above average” or in the “highest 10 percent” in 2010. The report reflects a 3.4 percent decline from 2009 numbers, according to the study, which is administered by the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

These numbers mark a significant downturn from the 63.6 percent originally recorded in 1985.

Female students, on average, were 13.2 percent less likely to report high levels of emotional health than their male counterparts. Women were twice as likely as men to report feeling frequently “overwhelmed” as high school seniors.

However, the reported downturn in emotional health over the past two-and-a-half decades correlated with a significant increase in students’ perceptions of their academic abilities and ambition.

The number of students who reported their academic capabilities as “above average” or in the “highest 10 percent” hit 71.2 percent, the highest number since the survey started, while 75.8 percent of respondents reported that their level of ambition fell into the same category.

According to John H. Pryor, the director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program and the survey’s lead author, a psychological drive for academic success could be a factor in students’ stress.

“If students are arriving in college already overwhelmed and with lower reserves of emotional health, faculty, deans and administrators should expect to see more consequences of stress, such as higher levels of poor judgment around time management, alcohol consumption and academic motivation,” he said in a press release.

Several University students said that their personal experience agreed with the report’s findings and noted that freshmen might be particularly vulnerable to the increased stresses of college life.

“There are so many more sources of stress for freshmen than there are for any other students,” Samantha Ritter ’13 said.

Sofia Orlando ’14 said that she selected a lighter course load for her first semester but now feels weighed down by her writing seminar and distribution requirements.

“In the first semester, I didn’t have a really heavy course load, but now that I do, I can understand what my fellow freshmen are going through,” she said. “It’s not a free ride.”

Orlando is also a contributing photographer for The Daily Princetonian.

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The study cited the recent financial downturn as another potential factor affecting student happiness with 53.1 percent of respondents reporting that they needed loans to pay for college.

More students reported that their fathers were unemployed — 4.9 percent — than at any other point in the study’s history, while 8.6 percent of respondents reported that their mothers were unemployed.

More students than ever before also reported that they believed that “the chief benefit of college is that it increases one’s earning power,” with 72.7 percent agreeing.

Despite the additional burdens college students face, Orlando said that finding a supportive community helped insulate her from the negative trends the survey reported.

“I think having a good friend network definitely helps,” she said. “Even though I’m really stressed, my friends are very, very supportive.”