Stress on Rise in College Students

Julie lives in the dorms, yet has no friends and feels isolated from other students. She has recently become anorexic. Depressed and lonely, she has trouble concentrating on her studies, and she’s contemplating dropping out of school. She needs her family’s support, but her parents were divorced last year, and they’re so preoccupied with their own problems that they aren’t tuned in to Julie’s needs.

Bob suffers from extreme test anxiety. During a recent biology exam, he became nauseous. He fears that if he doesn’t get an A in the class, he may not get into medical school. He feels a lot of pressure to get into a solid career and make a good living. That’s what his parents want for him, and he is constantly pushing himself to meet their expectations.

Kathy wants to major in English because she enjoys writing, but her parents want her to major in a practical subject, such as accounting. She is confused, anxious and feels estranged from her family.

Julie, Bob and Kathy (not their real names) are all UC Irvine students who recently sought help from Arthur Resnikoff, a psychologist at the UCI student counseling center. They are among a growing number of college students seeking help in overcoming severe depression and anxiety--reactions to myriad pressures that, according to some university counselors, are more serious than those faced by previous generations of students. Today’s students are reacting to such stresses as the struggle to find work in an increasingly competitive job market, the breakup of their families, the threat of nuclear war and the difficulty of resolving moral and personal conflicts in an age of ambiguity, Resnikoff says.

Because the traditional family is no longer the norm, Resnikoff said, today’s students often lack a stable support system. “They come in with a very different kind of upbringing. Many feel they haven’t had adequate contact with their parents,” he said.

Family Unit Weaker

Jeanne Walker, director of Academic Assessment and Counseling at Chapman College, said: “Not only are more students coming in for more counseling, but the types of problems they are coming in with are more serious. The family unit is not as strong, and now these children have grown up and are showing these problems. A lot of students are confused about what they want to do and where they want to go. They need to start from ground zero and figure out what their skills and interests are.”

Walker also feels--although she says most young people deny it--that the nuclear arms race has many students worried. “Years ago, parents were people you went to for protection, but these kids have grown up with feelings that even their parents cannot protect them from nuclear holocaust. Depression and despair can be the result of this general sense of, ‘What is this all for?’ ” Walker said.

The student counseling centers at both UCI and Chapman College report increases in the number of students seeking counseling in recent years.

Marianne Poster, coordinator of clinical services at UCI, estimates that since last fall, the number of students getting counseling on a drop-in basis has increased by about 25%--from 95 to 120 students a week. As a result, the counseling center has had to limit the number of individual counseling sessions to 12--and even then a six-week waiting list builds up by spring break, Resnikoff said.

“It’s not just that more students are coming in but that a greater percentage of them are reporting more significant problems,” Resnikoff explained. “There are simply more stresses than in the past.”

Hugh Peterson, director of the Chapman College Counseling Clinic, said that in the past five years, “the number of students seeking counseling has increased 15 times, and the number of counselors has doubled”--from two students a day to 30 and from a staff of 13 counselors to 26. However, he added, “this is partly because of the increased acceptance among students that it is OK to seek counseling, that everyone has their problems and needs some counseling sometimes.”

Paul Gustafson, associate director of the Mental Health Counseling center at Cal State Fullerton, agrees that students seem to accept the counseling process more easily today than in the past--and to be more aware of counseling services on campuses. But he said there hasn’t been any noticeable increase in students seeking counseling at Cal State--possibly because the college is a commuter campus and students may be seeing their own private therapists instead of college counselors. There is also the possibility, he suggested, that the problems facing students are no greater today than they were in the past.

Statistical Support

Supporting that view are statistics compiled by the U.S. National Center for Health that show the suicide rate for young people between 15 and 24 stabilized between 1970 and 1980. In 1970, 8.1 persons per 100,000 in that age range committed suicide; in 1975, 10 per 100,000; in 1979, 10.6, and in 1980, 10.1. “Stress is there whether you are in college or not, and there is no statistic that shows college students are any more likely to commit suicide than other people of the same age group,” Gustafson said. “The pressures a student faces in college may contribute to a suicide, but it is impossible to say how big a factor this pressure may be.”

Sashi Muralidharan, a junior majoring in social ecology at UCI, said: “I think students have always been under a lot of pressure. In the ‘50s, for example, there was pressure to conform. Stress will always be there in one form or another.”

Resnikoff believes student problems are cyclical. The ‘50s produced a generation of conservative students who, like those of the ‘80s, were primarily concerned about their careers. The students of the ‘60s, on the other hand, were out to change the world. Although there are plenty of issues for students to rally around today, there is much less involvement in issues or causes--largely because of the increased emphasis on careers and financial success.

“Fifteen years ago, students were primarily concerned about how to end the war in Vietnam, and they developed support groups of people who believed the same things. People don’t have the same strong support groups today,” Resnikoff said.

Resnikoff said many of today’s young people do not work well with others and generally have difficulty making friends.

“They don’t have (anyone) to turn to and say, ‘Hey, talk to me,’ ” Resnikoff explained. “More and more students come into the counseling center with a poor base of friends. They don’t feel as close to other people and are handling their problems by themselves. This lack of friends makes a big difference.”

“You see a lot of people who are isolated on campus,” said Eric Borigini, 22, a psychology senior at UCI. “I know a lot of students who don’t know what they are doing or where they are going. It makes you feel lonely, and you don’t know who to ask about anything.”

Generation of Problems

“We are dealing with a generation of students who, during their formative years, went through the Kennedy assassination (1963), the Vietnam War, a President being forced to resign and the breakdown of the family,” Walker said. “It is harder for these students to leave home, to separate from their families because they are so much in need of that family--even if it isn’t functioning very well. There is also a resurgence of fraternities and sororities, and I think this is indicative of the need for family-type support.”

Family neglect has led to a widespread fear among today’s college students of entering into relationships, according to some college psychologists. “Students are more frightened about whether a relationship or marriage will be lasting due to what many have seen happen to their parents’ relationships,” said Tim Emmons, director of client services at Cal State Long Beach.

Walker added: “If students live in a family with poor relationships, they don’t learn appropriate ways of handling their own relationships.”

Today’s college students are also concerned about succeeding in a more competitive job market. “A college education is no longer a guarantee that you will get a good job,” Resnikoff said. “Students are very serious about their career decisions and how they will establish themselves financially. It leads to a lot of academic pressure. Students are really upset because they get Bs instead of A’s.”

This, the psychologists say, is because students are more concerned about their future and therefore feel a lot of uncertainty. “Students are under increasedpressure to get stabilized or directed toward a career,” Emmons said. “Even students in junior high are being pressured to choose a career.”

Decisions Under Pressure

Rather than evolving from a student’s interests, career decisions are being made under pressure--and far too soon, Emmons said. “There is a lot of emphasis in our society on selecting a career without exploring the various possibilities through the educational process--or just trial and error,” Emmons explained. “Students are not allowing themselves time to explore.”

One UCI junior who wished to remain anonymous said: “Everyone tells you how important it is to find a major early, something that will lead to a lucrative career. Next you hear about how hard it is to get that job. It’s a lot of pressure.

“I’m majoring in biology, but I don’t really know what I’ll do with it. I went to see a counselor last year, and we talked about possible careers. But I was still confused and depressed about everything. . . . I almost dropped out.

“I think students always had some pressure (to select a career),” she continued, “but it is a lot more intense today. A lot of people hate school or just drop out because of the pressure. A lot of people don’t have anyone to talk to. They seem alone and kind of lost.”

Some students respond to this pressure by changing their majors in hopes of increasing their marketability upon graduation. “When I first started school I was majoring in fine arts because it was something that really interested me,” said Johnna Beeson, a senior studying legal studies at Chapman College in Orange. “But I felt it wouldn’t lead to a financially sound future so I changed my major to something that would increase my chances of employment.”

“A bachelor’s degree today is what a high school degree used to be in the job market. Today employers expect you to have a master’s,” said Charlotte Jacobs, 27, who after earning a BA in English literature from Humboldt State University is studying at Chapman College for a degree in food science and nutrition. “People who don’t even have an aptitude for business or science take it because they think that’s where the money is. People are sacrificing their interests for what is realistic financially.”

Anxiety Over Career

Resnikoff recently treated a student for severe depression and anxiety stemming from pressure to select a career. Doug (not his real name), a junior majoring in history at UCI, has changed his major three times and is constantly worried about his future. He works 30 hours a week to pay his college fees and living expenses and is doing well in his classes. However, he is not involved in any extracurricular activities; he spends all his time either working or studying. Due to Doug’s limited social contacts, he has no real friends with whom to discuss his problems.

Resnikoff said he advised Doug to get involved in activities outside the classroom--clubs or sports that would help him discover his interests and develop friendships. In order to free himself from the anxiety that was causing his depression, Doug needed to let go of his sense of urgency about deciding on a career, Resnikoff told the student.

Doug began working less, which allowed him time to participate in extracurricular activities such as camping trips. He also began introducing himself to students in his classes, and now Doug is making friends and living a more balanced life, Resnikoff said.

The counseling center at UCI has a variety of programs to assist students who are feeling this pressure to make decisions before they are ready.

One of them was helpful to a biology major we’ll call Steve who came into the counseling center recently suffering from test anxiety. Steve usually crams for his biology exams, but if he can’t answer the first question instantly, he gets a mental block and feels sure he’s going to fail. If that happens, he may not pass the course, will be rejected for medical school--and his whole life will be a mess. So goes his thinking.

This kind of reasoning can cause immobilizing anxiety and stress in a test situation--or potentially in any decision a student faces, explained Resnikoff, who is trying to help Steve understand how his own thinking process is hurting him.

“It happens so quickly, they are not even aware of how they got there. They must understand the process, then intervene in it. It is the thinking that creates the feeling,” Resnikoff explained. “We must teach them to do something about their thinking--awareness is not enough.”

Counseling Helped

Through counseling, Steve began to realize he was placing too much emphasis on his performance on one exam and that the worst thing that could happen--a poor grade on one test--would not necessarily mean the end of a career in medicine. As Steve began to think more realistically about exams, they became less anxiety-provoking and his grades improved.

The counseling center at UCI also offers group therapy. Among the special groups are those for students who were raised by alcoholic parents, older women returning to school, black women, gays and lesbians. There are also regular group sessions open to anyone. “Most students are scared off by group therapy,” Resnikoff said, “but once they have gone through the initial meeting, they really prefer it. They can relate to one another because they are experiencing the same things at the same time in their lives.”

Students with eating disorders are among those involved in group therapy sessions at UCI. Experts are pointing to increased stress as the cause of the eating disorders that have become epidemic among college students.

According to Dr. Barton Blinder, director of Eating Disorder Programs and Research at the UCI College of Medicine, an estimated 50% to 75% of female college students will at some time during their college years exhibit some symptoms of an eating disorder such as bulimia, a condition in which the individual binges and then vomits, or anorexia, which involves a severe reduction in food intake and a dangerous degree of weight loss.

Other students have turned to drugs and alcohol to combat their problems. “Students in the ‘60s were smoking marijuana, with a lot less significant physiological and psychological effects than (those caused by) today’s high levels of alcohol and cocaine,” Resnikoff said.

Despite all these signs of distress among today’s college students, Resnikoff is hopeful.

“Students are discovering that a psychologist is not someone you see just because things are all screwed up in your life,” he said. “Students are learning that counseling can be a very educational process through which they can better learn to manage their lives. And they are beginning to come in before their problems become too serious.”