Why So Many College Students Are in Mental Distress, and What Parents Can Do About It
More supervision, less autonomy, and social media influences while growing up could be making college students more prone to anxiety and depression
The normal stressors of college may be perceived by some of today’s students as disproportionately dreadful.
A 2018 survey by the American College Health Association found that 63 percent of college students reported feeling overwhelming anxiety over the previous year. Shutterstock
With college classes underway for the fall semester, parents may worry about how their children will navigate campus life, balance academics and social pressures, and find their pathway to a meaningful career.
While parents of college students have long shared these common worries, they now confront new concerns.
Kerry McDonald
Author
Kerry McDonald is a senior education fellow at FEE and host of the weekly LiberatED podcast. She is also the author of “Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom” (2019) and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. She lives in Cambridge, Mass., with her husband and four children.
