August 9 – 16, 2020
Summary
New CDC data shows a continuing upward trend in depression and anxiety among Americans, with young adults and POC especially impacted. A new report from OECD finds teens/young adults are most worried about mental health effects of the pandemic. A new US student survey finds many students still undecided and increasing concern about attending in-person (greater concern among SOC). An opinion piece in The Hechinger Report by Ted Mitchel, President of ACE, warns of huge setbacks for first generation and minority students.
Data / Reports
COVID-19: This is what worries young people the most
World Economic Forum, Alex Thornton, August 10, 2020
Global survey of teens/young adults by OECD found –
– 15- to 24-year-olds worry most about the pandemic’s effect on their mental health.
– Young people in poorer countries are more likely to be concerned about jobs and income.
– Getting sick from the virus is low on the list of concerns
Charted: The coronavirus’ staggering toll on America’s mental health
Advisory Board, August 14, 2020
Highlights a new CDC MMWR report on the pandemic and mental health and the latest CDC Household Pulse Survey report (July 21) including disproportionate impact on young adults and POC.
– Among adults 18 to 24, more than half reported depression, just under half reported anxiety disorder, and more than 1 in 4 reported considering suicide within the preceding 30 days.
– More than a third of Hispanics and just under a quarter of Blacks had experienced symptoms of depression or anxiety
– About 20% of Hispanics and 15% of Blacks had considered suicide in the past month
Nervous Freshmen, Nervous Colleges
Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschik , August 10, 2020
A SimpsonScarborough Survey finds that 40 percent of incoming freshmen at four-year colleges are likely or highly likely not to attend. Minority students are more likely to be “very worried” about contracting COVID-19 on campus than are white students (34 percent of students of color are very worried compared to 21 percent of white, non-Hispanic students). Campuses may be less diverse as a result. 28% of minority students say they are not returning to campus for in-person instruction, compared to 16 percent of white, non-Hispanic students.
Also covered in The Ground Is Shifting For Colleges And Students As Covid-19 Spikes
Forbes, Lucie Lopovsky, August 13, 2020
Americans concerned about schools reopening, returning to ‘normal life’
Ipsos/Axios, August 11, 2020
New Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index finds:
– Half of Americans (50%) report knowing someone who has tested positive. This has climbed from 4% in mid-March when we started this index.
– One in five (21%) know someone who died, of those, 42% lost a family member or close friend
Colleges/Universities
The Hechinger Report, Ted Mitchel (Pres. ACE) Aug. 11, 2020
The biggest danger that higher education faces as a sector, though, is the loss of gains that we have made over the past 20 years in access to a college education — with all of the accompanying benefits to individuals and our entire society — for first-generation and minority students.
Looking for an In-Person Experience
Inside Higher Ed, Lilah Burke , August 12, 2020
Students are still in favor of an in-person fall, but 56% of college students believe the education offered this fall will be less valuable than last fall. Workers who saw their work disrupted are interested in higher education, but only 44 % believe they can access the education/training they want.
Emerging Trends Could Threaten Equitable Outcomes For Marginalized Students
National Association of Colleges and Employers, August 10, 2020
Matthew Cowley warns that emerging best practice trends could potentially threaten equitable outcomes for marginalized students. He cites artificial intelligence that is increasingly used in college recruiting as an example. Facial recognition “technology is vulnerable to bias against women and people of color if it is not adequately trained.”
College move-in will be lonelier and weirder than ever this year
Bloomberg, Janet Lorin, August 14, 2020
College plans are varied and still changing.
Report: Higher Ed Presidents Focused on Managing COVID-19 and Confronting Injustice
Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Pearl Stewart, August 13, 2020
College and university presidents preparing for the upcoming school year amid COVID-19 are focused on maintaining academic programs and current tuition levels, cutting staff and administrative positions, and addressing issues of racial injustice, according to a national survey conducted by a leading higher education organization.
Study reveals one in four international college students seek mental health support due to stress.
The Jed Foundation (news release), August 11, 2020
The study, “Using Technology to Access Mental Health Support Services for International Students Attending American Colleges and Universities,” is a partnership between The Jed Foundation’s JED Campus Program and Morneau Shepell that examined how using technology to access mental health support services might benefit international students.
Keeping low-income college students from going hungry
The Hill, Melissa Laska And Sheila Fleischhacker, August 11, 2020
This pandemic has further intensified this food insecurity and poses significant challenges as colleges plan to reopen this fall. This summer the U.S. BLS reported the unemployment rate among 20 to 24 year-olds jumped from 9 percent to 26 percent, making it one of the hardest hit age groups.
College/Teen Mental Health
Coronavirus Might Worsen The College Mental Health Crisis: Can Apps Help?
Forbes, Jessica Gold, August 13, 2020
Students waiting for help are likely to be directed off-campus for care and also to the campus website for mobile apps to help with their stress, anxiety, and depression in the interim. The issue is, however, that most of their app recommendations are not good ones.
USA Today, Jessica Menton, August 10, 2020
Covers stories of students’ struggles and concerns, parents concerns, potential drop in enrollment and more.
Turning Anger Into Action: Minority Students Analyze COVID Data on Racial Disparities
Kaiser Health News, Esther, August 13, 2020
Resiliency Training Improves College Students’ Mental Health
Psych Central, Traci Pedersen, Aug 14 2020
The researchers looked at three classroom-based wellness training programs that incorporated breathing and emotional intelligence strategies. They found that two programs led to improvements in aspects of wellbeing with the most effective program leading to improvements in six areas, including depression and social connectedness
Original study: Promoting Mental Health and Psychological Thriving in University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Three Well-Being Interventions, Front Psychiatry, July 2020
Fewer Black teens seek treatment for depression, mental health issues than White counterparts
Washington Post, Rebecca Klisz-Hulbert, August 15, 2020
References: Perceived Mental Healthcare Barriers and Health-seeking Behavior of African-American Caregivers of Adolescents with Mental Health Disorders. Nneka Jon-Ubabuco , &Jane Dimmitt Champion Pages 585-592 | Published online: 27 Mar 2019
It’s Time To Invest In Better Health And Well-Being For Teens
Health Affairs, Benjamin F. Miller and Denise Dougherty, JULY 30, 2020
“Teens today are facing a myriad of challenges – many unique to their generation – and we are not doing enough to support teens. In the research, our funding, and our policy priorities, we ignore or discount the adolescent years too often.” Points to recommendations in Advancing Teen Flourishing: Moving Policy Upstream, from Well Being Trust.
Mental Health
Black psychiatrists are few. They’ve never been more needed.
Washington Post, Courtland Milloy, August 11, 2020
Interview with psychiatrist William Lawson, MD. Of the estimated 41,000 psychiatrists in the country, only two percent are Black, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
‘Fear is a primary driver’: Study details pandemic’s psychological impact on Americans
Yahoo Finance, Adriana Belmonte, August 12, 2020
Reporting based on large survey study completed in March.
Bereaved Families Are ‘the Secondary Victims of COVID-19’
Kaiser Health News, Judith Graham August 12, 2020
New research suggests for every person who dies of COVID-19, nine close family members are affected. Black families will lose slightly more close family members than white families, aggravating the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on African American communities. “OVID-19 bereavement has the potential to lower educational achievement among youth, disrupt marriages, and lead to poorer physical and mental health.”
The study: Tracking the reach of COVID-19 kin loss with a bereavement multiplier applied to the United States. PNAS July 28, 2020 117 (30) 17695-17701
Michelle Obama Reveals COVID-19 Also Affects Her Mental Health
Hep Treatment News, Alicia Green, August 11, 2020
COVID-19 doesn’t only affect people physically. The illness is also devastating to individuals’ mental and emotional health. Former first lady Michelle Obama recently revealed that she has been experiencing low-grade depression due to the pandemic, People reports.
The Importance of Mental Health Awareness in the Black Community
Theeverygirl.com, AUGUST 10, 2020
Once I learned about anxiety, I began to understand myself in a new way. I was able to understand and piece together how my childhood factored into my adult struggles . . . And I was able to realize how racism, oppression, trauma, and fear factor into my everyday experience as a Black woman in America.
Workplace
Business Insider, Reed Alexander, August 11, 2020
Meade shared a few tips with Business Insider for how young people of color in finance can identify a mentor at work and use that bond to advance career.
Older/Supporting Statistics
Special Report: A Defining Moment for Racial Equity
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 30, 2020
A series of articles looking at: Will nonprofits and foundations seize the momentum and move toward racial equity?
Report: Less than half of black students feel adequate mental health support from teachers, counselors
Education Dive, Shawna De La Rosa, March 11, 2020
Though 25% of American teens experience mental health issues, rural students and students of color are less likely to feel that they can reach out to a counselor or teacher for support, according to the ACT Center for Equity in Learning’s “Supporting the Mental Health Well-Being of High School Students” survey.
Issue Brief: Mental Health and Girls of Color, Kimberlyn Leary, Ph.D.
Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2019
– Women and girls of color, in particular, face unique stressors that are compounded by the intersection of race and gender identities. Negative experiences rooted in racism, discrimination, and sexism often remain unacknowledged as sources of distress.(2)
– “Children of color, like adults of color, have the highest rates of unaddressed mental health needs, but they are less likely to receive mental health care, whether because they do not seek services when those services are inaccessible or stigmatized, or because their needs are unrecognized by providers.” (2)
Vanessa Sacks & David Murphy, The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Nationally, By State, and By Race or Ethnicity, Child Trends (Feb. 20, 2018), (cited n : Issue Brief: Mental Health and Girls of Color, Kimberlyn Leary, Ph.D. Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2019)
Children of color have substantially higher rates of adverse childhood experiences than their white peers, which can significantly impact physical and mental health, as well as educational and economic outcomes.
Lyndonna Marrast, David U. Himmelstein & Steffie Woolhandler, Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health Care for Children and Young Adults: A National Study, 46 Int’l J. of Health Serv. 810 (2016). (cited in: Issue Brief: Mental Health and Girls of Color, Kimberlyn Leary, Ph.D.
Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2019)
– African-American and Hispanic children visited a mental health professional half as often as white children in 2016.(4)
– Primary care providers may fail to recognize the signs of distress in children of color or offer referrals.(4)
Kessler, RC, et al. Age of onset of mental disorders: A review of recent literature. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2007 Jul; 20(4): 359–364.
About half of all mental disorders begin by the mid-teens
Mojtabai, R, Olfson, M. National Trends in Mental Health Care for US Adolescents. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020;77(7):703-714. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0279
The rate of mental treatment or counseling among teen girls rose from an average of 22.8% in 2005-2006 to 25.4% in 2017-2018, an 11.4% increase, while the rate among boys fell from 17.8% to 16.4%, a 7.9% decrease. (6)
SAMHSA, Rachel N. Lipari, Ph.D., Sarra Hedden, Ph.D., Gary Blau, Ph.D., and Lisa Rubenstein, MHA, 2016
Asian adolescents were less likely than adolescents of most other races/ethnicities to receive mental health services regardless of the mental health services setting
Supportive Peer Relationships and Mental Health in Adolescence: An Integrative Review
Issues Ment Health Nurs.Ashley Roach. 2018 Sep;39(9):723-737. doi: 10.1080/01612840.2018.1496498.
Kathleen Ries Merikangas, et al. Lifetime Prevalence of Mental Disorders in US Adolescents: Results from the National Comorbidity Study-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2010 Oct; 49(10): 980–989. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2010.05.017
Detailed table of lifetime prevalence by disorders for teens 13-18, males and females, chart: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2946114/table/T2/?report=objectonly
The lifetime prevalence for any mental disorder was 51% for females and 48% for males.
SAMHSA, Behavioral Health Barometer, US, Volume 5, 2019 (2017 data)
This information was curated and analyzed by Debbie Cohen.