The present study sought to determine if mental health literacy was related to college major in a sample of undergraduate students that was highly diverse. We used the Mental Health Literacy Assessment for college students (MHLA-c; ), which is a multiple-choice measure with three validated alternate forms that each contain 18 items and assess similar mental health literacy domains. In doing this, we strive to determine the contribution of major to variability in mental health literacy in college students. However, studies on this topic are scarce, and the majority have assessed college students’ knowledge of 1–2 disorders, particularly depression and/or schizophrenia 24, 28,29,30 rather than having assessed for a wide range of disorders.
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To reduce participant burden, as students completed multiple-choice items from the MHLA-c and a two-page form related to demographic and relevant experiential variables, the MHLA-c items were split into two different forms, which each included 38 items (see Additional file 1 for sample items). Other methods of recruitment and administration included in-person invitation in populated campus locations (e.g., cafeterias, student lounges), postings in college-generated subject pool listings, and scheduled administration periods conducted in reserved classrooms. Some studies included a limited number of variables in their models, and many studies assessed knowledge of just 1–2 disorders, particularly depression and schizophrenia or just depression.
Additionally, deans of medical schools have suggested to increase teaching materials related to LGBTQ issues in order to improve medical services in schools (Van Bergen et al., 2013). Moreover, much research used the data from health or psychological surveys to state that policies, GSAs club, educator intervention, and LGBTQ related curriculum could improve the school climate; nevertheless, less experimental research could provide evidence and specific methods to guide schools. Willging et al. (2016) demonstrated that RLAS (Implementing School Nursing Strategies to Reduce LGBTQ Adolescent Suicide) is applicable to novel nurse-led intervention to address LGBTQ youth suicide and health-related concerns of other students. Furthermore, gay–straight alliance (GSAs) has been one of the major sources of support in high https://www.umaryland.edu/counseling/self-help-resources/student-parents-or-pregnant/ schools in the United States and Canada.
As a critical characteristic of a student’s school experience, only one study examined school-socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnic composition jointly (Crosnoe, 2009) while other studies controlled for school-SES as a covariate. Racism towards racial/ethnic minority students may occur more frequently in diverse schools and/or schools with greater non-Hispanic white enrollment because negative or forced interactions between groups are more likely to occur. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that the school context matters to mental health, despite vast methodological differences in study designs, populations, and measures of school race/ethnic composition and mental health.
Studies Examining School Race/Ethnic Diversity
- Flexible and widely applicable, evidence-based approaches like the UP-A have much potential to serve youth with internalizing concerns in multiple contexts outside of the clinic-based one for which they were originally designed, and adaptations made based on qualitative feedback will likely make the resulting U-PEACE approach more appealing for wider dissemination in school settings.
- The MHLA-c is a uni-dimensional instrument, with scores approximately normally distributed, and with preliminary psychometric support including evidence for internal consistency reliability, content validity, and construct validity (refer to , for information related to measure development and validation).
- Each scale includes 8 items measured on 5-point scales ranging from “never” to “almost always,” and higher scores suggest more elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression.
- Though this may be the result of increased academic knowledge and life experience, it may also be that familiarity with a college campus makes it more likely for a student to access available mental health services, a factor that potentially contributes to increased mental health literacy.
- Also, as noted above, this study was correlational and conclusions about the directionality of the findings cannot be drawn—particularly for variables such as college major and formal coursework related to clinical psychology.
The selection of participants, design, and procedures of the study are described in detail elsewhere.22 Briefly, 14 schools in an urban area in Texas agreed to participate in the study. The analysis also identifies points of convergence where no difference in mental health profiles exists between race/ethnic groups. This study examines both race/ethnic density (percent NL-White enrollment) and diversity (range/size of all race/ethnic groups enrolled). Diversity reflects educational policy goals of increasing representation of race/ethnic minority populations in educational institutions. Second, diversity indices are used to account for the range and size of all available race/ethnic groups in a school.3,4,7 A diversity index captures complete school race/ethnic composition in its calculation rather than one group.
The strategies in this action guide can align with schools’ existing MTSS to enhance the work schools have already started. An understanding of this body of literature should be a core competency for adolescent mental health researchers and should be applied in education policy. Policies in education should also consider mental health effects in addition to academic and economic achievement. Opportunities for natural experiments that make use of lotteries in bussing or school choice programs in select states and cities may allow for a naturally occurring random assignment of schools.
Those with moderate depression or moderate to severe anxiety were offered the same iCBT program with an advanced certified peer support (Tier 2). First, all registered UCLA students were eligible to complete an online screening survey including demographics and assessment of mental health symptoms (described in detail below under “Screening”). Additional research is needed to understand diverse student mental health needs and examine whether disparities in DMHI uptake exist when these programs are made available and accessible to students. To date, there is no evidence to suggest that universal screening for mental health problems can directly result in reductions in racial/ethnic disparities in mental health service use (Guo et al., 2017). For example, two of the largest nationally conducted studies, the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), and the Healthy Minds Study (HMS), were composed of 72% and 74% NHW students, respectively (Duffy et al., 2019).
