Research Topic

The research topic will be based on mental health issues among college students.

Research Questions

The key research questions regarding the research proposal are as follows:

• What are the key elements that promote mental health disorders among young students?
• What are the strategies to overcome mental health issues in college students?
• Does college life encourage mental health issues among adolescent students?
• Why mental health is important for college students?
• What are the negative impacts of lack of mental health on students?

Concepts and Variables

Age is one of the common factors which are responsible for the causes of mental health issues in people. Among college students, age plays a vital role in terms of defining their stress or the degree of concerns they face in their day-to-day life. Often students with bachelor's degrees are comparatively less stressed than students with master's or Ph.D. levels.

Kinship and family relations are some other crucial factors that may truer levels of anxiety and depression leading to various mental health and psychological issues within studentsalong with high concerns of bipolar shift within their mindset. Abrupt family relations may lead to unnecessary concerns and deviations within personal life. Even tension or cold relations with peers may bring in several stress and depression-related incidents for students.

Stress due to academics may also lead to various psychological or mental health issues among students at college or university levels. Often it is found that unwilling stress due to course lengths and deadlines are causing a deficiency of mental stability in students at various levels of higher education.

Relevant Literature

The overall topic of this research study is college students' psychological well-being. Mental health is one of the rapidly rising issues majorly among college students. Mental health plays an important role for college students as it can assist them to maintain and develop strong connections with other individuals as well as promote a sense of commitment. In addition, good mental well-being further enables them to deal with the stressors and challenges of life that they face in their frequent lives (Kamarunzaman et al., 2020). Experts say that without effective psychological well-being, students are unable to concentrate on their educations. This further leads to increase in nervousness and anxiety (Limone & Toto, 2022). Mental health issues are common among college students because of the fact that various undergraduate and non-traditional students consider their stay in college difficult. In addition, students are introduced to an environment that is completely different from what they encounter in high school. They also gain liberty which is simultaneously terrifying and attractive Campbell et al. (2022). All of these components input pressure among college students, consequently which affects their psychological health (Nami et al., 2014). Apart from that, mental health has various negative consequences on college students. It hiders their overall performance of them and lower their energy as well as concentration levels. Students encountering risks of mental health can often rapidly become lose their social abilities to develop connections easily (Zada et al., 2021).

Some of the common mental health issues that college students experience are anxiety& stress, depression, eating disorders and addiction. Among all of these issues, anxiety and depression are the biggest psychological issues that majority of the college students are facing right now. According to American Psychological Association (2013), over 41% of college students are going through anxiety. In addition, as per a current study, one out of five students in college experiences mental health disorders. Suicide rates are also increasing day by day due to mental health challenges. For college pupils, suicide is the second most factor for death. Each year, nearly 1,100 students do suicide on college campuses (Warren, 2023).

A wide range of strategies are there to address mental well-being among college students. The students need to consider proper sleep and diet in order to overcome this challenge. In addition, they need to attempt some mental health exercises like yoga, swimming and walking. This will help to lower negative mood, depression and anxiety. They also have to improve their social connection as effective relations are effective for psychological health. Additionally, it will also give emotional support to the students having mental well-being issues. At last, they need to acquire new skills in order to boost their self-esteem and confidence as well as lower psychological health risks (NHS, 2022).

Methodology

The research shall be based on pure a mixed-methodological approach. The use of qualitative as well as quantitative data shall be used for the purpose of the research. Surveys will be conducted in the form of close-ended questions with target response groups as university and college students along with their respective stakeholders. Assumptions will be based on the responses obtained ND also the data collected from various records and previous research studies on the same domain. A critical approach shall be used for the purpose of conducting the research along with compliance towards ethical and legal considerations. Other than that the entire research would be field-oriented and would depend on the size and sample of respondents selected for the study or purpose of the research.

Ethical and Legal Considerations

Some of the major legal concerns during the course of conducting the research shall be related to the issues of confidentiality about the students and their demographics. Most of the respondents would not prefer their personal details to be revealed in open forums. Thus maintaining confidentiality about the participants' identity is a crucial part to take care. Other than this the activities such as surveys or questionnaire rounds must be held in a formal and organized manner along with prior approval from local authorities and legal bodies associated with the institutions or stakeholders related to the research. Mutual consent of the participants should also be gained in formal written methods when they are made to participate in the surveys or questionnaire rounds. Above all the research should not be biased or controlled by external factors. Rather it should be guided on the basis of analysis obtained from the original responses and results obtained from the study.

References

American Psychological Association. (2013, June). College students’ mental health is a growing concern, survey finds. Https://Www.apa.org . https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/06/college-students

Campbell, F., Blank, L., Cantrell, A., Baxter, S., Blackmore, C., Dixon, J., & Goyder, E. (2022). Factors that influence mental health of university and college students in the UK: a systematic review. BMC Public Health , 22 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13943-x

Kamarunzaman, N. Z., Shanthi, A., Md Nen, Z., Zulkifli, N., & Shamsuri, N. I. (2020). Mental Health Issues Among University Students and Educators’ Readiness to Detect and Help. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences , 10 (9). https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v10-i9/7738

Limone, P., & Toto, G. A. (2022). Factors That Predispose Undergraduates to Mental Issues: A Cumulative Literature Review for Future Research Perspectives. Frontiers in Public Health , 10 (5). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.831349

Nami, Y., Nami, M. S., & Eishani, K. A. (2014). The Students’ Mental Health Status. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences , 114 (3), 840–844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.794

NHS. (2022). 5 Steps to Mental Wellbeing . Nhs.uk; NHS. https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/guides-tools-and-activities/five-steps-to-mental-wellbeing/

Warren, D. (2023, March 13). Student Suicides and the Need for Better Mental Health Support on College Campuses . NextStep Solutions. https://www.nssbehavioralhealth.com/nss-blog-student-suicides-and-the-need-for-better-mental-health-support-on-college-campuses/#:~:text=Annually%2C%20more%20than%201%2C100%20college

Zada, S., Wang, Y., Zada, M., & Gul, F. (2021). Effect of Mental Health Problems on Academic Performance among University Students in Pakistan. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion , 23 (3), 395–408. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2021.015903

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