Surveys of tens of thousands of community college students across the country found that many struggle with mental health challenges that can hurt their academic success.
The Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE), a service and research initiative at the University of Texas at Austin, released a new report Wednesday drawing on data from two student surveys, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement and the Survey of Entering Student Engagement. The surveys represent at least 60,000 mostly returning community college students from 149 institutions, and almost 14,000 entering students from 61 institutions.
The report noted that more than half of respondents (56 percent) to the Community College Survey of Student Engagement reported that mental or emotional challenges affected their academic performance in the last month. More than a third (37 percent) said mental health challenges could cause them to withdraw from classes or stop out of college.
Also, 66 percent said that in the last two weeks they felt anxious, nervous or on edge, and 60 percent were concerned that they experienced little interest in or pleasure from doing day-to-day activities, the report found.
Community college students also struggled to seek out mental health supports. While most respondents in both surveys agreed their colleges prioritized mental health, 30 percent of respondents to the Community College Survey of Student Engagement said they didn’t know where to go if they needed help with mental health issues, and 42 percent of students said they needed help but had never sought out supports. For entering students, an even larger share, 39 percent, didn’t know where to seek help.
“Given the impact mental health concerns have on academics, colleges should take a more active role in both understanding and addressing students’ mental health and well-being,” Linda García, executive director of CCCSE, said in a news release. “Community colleges have an opportunity to be the place where students find the mental health support they need.”
