The Factors associated with Student Mental Health - Reviewing the Evidence
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Abstract
Poor mental health of further and higher education students is a growing public policy concern. A 2020 Insight Network survey of students from 10 universities suggests that “1 in 5 students have a current mental health diagnosis” and that “almost half have experienced a serious psychological issue for which they felt they needed professional help” - an increase from 1 in 3 in the same survey conducted in 2018. The global coronavirus pandemic and measures to contain it has led to a worsening of the levels of poor mental health among young people including students in higher education. In order to develop high quality interventions that seek to improve the mental health of young people in higher education it is necessary to have a good understanding of the factors that contribute to poor mental health and also those that strengthen mental wellbeing.
Elena and Fiona have both led reviews in the past year that have looked at these factors. In this session, they will describe the different approaches they used to look at this problem and some of the methodological challenges that arose as a result. These include the challenges of measuring mental health outcomes, and synthesising different study designs to identify causal factors.
Despite using different approaches both reviews found consistent messages about the factors that increase the risk of poor mental health occurring in student populations, the factors that are protective of mental wellbeing and interventions that merit further development and evaluation. They look forward to describing their results in more depth, and highlighting areas where further research is needed.
Bios
Fiona Campbell
Fiona Campbell is a Research Fellow in Health Economics and Decision Science within the School for Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield. She has a clinical nursing background in oncology nursing, district nursing and health visiting and has worked in this capacity both in the UK and developing country settings. These experiences led to a keen interest in the use of research to inform and improve health care and public health. She trained in systematic review methodology and has conducted and published reviews for NICE, HTA and the Cochrane Collaboration. Her work has been used to inform NICE guidance for treatments for hypertension, obesity, excessive alcohol use, hospital errors and approaches to increasing levels of physical activity. She has designed, led and published work on methodological aspects of systematic reviewing and teaches systematic review methodology to postgraduate students.
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/people/staff/fiona-campbell
https://twitter.com/fionabell19
Elena Sheldon
Elena joined the ScHARR Clinical Trials Research Unit in 2019 as a Research Assistant, having previously completed a BSc degree in Psychology at the University of Durham.
Elena is currently working on the MAGIC and ASTIClite studies. Prior to this, she worked as a Paediatric Research Assistant in the Clinical Research Facility at Sheffield Children’s Hospital and has worked as a Research Assistant in the Psychology Department at the University of Durham. In this role Elena examined 4D ultrasound scans of foetuses at various gestation, focusing on self-touch and facial expressions in relation to prenatal depression, stress and anxiety.
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/people/staff/elena-m-sheldon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-sheldon-9450a1126/?originalSubdomain=uk