From paying for school and taking exams to filling out internship applications, college students can face overwhelming pressure and demands. Some stress can be healthy and even motivating under the proper circumstances, but often stress is overwhelming and can lead to other issues.
“Stress is there for a reason. It’s there to help mobilize you to meet the demands of your day, but you’re also supposed to have times where you do shut down and relax and repair and restore,” says Emma K. Adam, professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University in Illinois.
Chronic and unhealthy levels of stress is at its worst among college-age students and young adults, some research shows. According to the American Psychological Association’s 2022 “Stress in America” report, 46% of adults ages 18 to 35 reported that “most days they are so stressed they can’t function.”
In a Gallup poll that surveyed more than 2,400 college students in March 2023, 66% of reported experiencing stress and 51% reported feelings of worry “during a lot of the day.” And emotional stress was among the top reasons students considered dropping out of college in the fall 2022 semester, according to findings in the State of Higher Education 2023 report, based on a study conducted in 2022 by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation.
As students are navigating a new environment and often living independently for the first time, they encounter numerous opportunities, responsibilities and life changes on top of academic responsibilities. It can be sensory overload for some, experts say.
“Going to college has always been a significant time of transition developmentally with adulthood, but you add to it everything that comes along with that transition and then you put onto it a youth mental health crisis, it’s just compounded in a very different way,” says Jessica Gomez, a clinical psychologist and executive director of Momentous Institute, a researched-based organization that provides mental health services and educational programming to children and families.
Experts say college students have experienced heightened stress since the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
“What some of our research at Gallup has shown is that we had a rising tide of negative emotions, not just in the U.S. but globally, in the eight to 10 years leading up to the pandemic, and of course it got worse during the pandemic,” says Stephanie Marken, senior partner of the education research division at Gallup who conducted the 2023 study. “For currently enrolled college students, there’s so many contributing factors.”
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Adam notes that multiple factors combine to contribute to heightened stress among younger adults, including the nation’s racial and political controversies, as well as anxiety regarding their futures fueled by climate change, global unrest and economic uncertainty. Female students reported higher levels of stress than males in the Gallup poll, which Marken says could be attributed to several factors like increased internal academic pressure, caregiving responsibilities and the recent uncertainty regarding abortion rights following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
All of this, plus the residual effects of pandemic learning, has contributed to rising stress for college students, Marken says.
“We need to give them a lot of credit,” she says. “They had the most challenge in remote learning of all the learners that have come before them. Many of them had to graduate high school and study remotely, or were a first-year college student during the pandemic, and that was incredibly difficult.”
The challenges that came with that learning environment will likely affect students throughout college, she says, as well as typical stressors like discrimination, harassment and academic challenges.
“Those will always be present on college campuses,” she says. “The question is, how do we create a student who overcomes those challenges effectively?”
Experts suggest a range of specific actions and positive shifts that can help ease stress in college students:
— Notice the symptoms of heightened stress.
— Build and maintain social connections.
— Sleep, eat well and exercise.
— Seek help.
Notice the Symptoms of Heightened Stress
College students can start by learning to identify when normal stress increases to become unhealthy. Stress will appear differently in each student, says Lindsey Giller, a clinical psychologist with the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit focused on helping children and young adults with mental health and learning disorders.
“Students prone to anxiety may avoid assignments as well as skip classes due to experiencing shame for being behind or missing things,” she says. “For some, they may also start sleeping in more, eating at more random times, foregoing self-care, or look to distraction or escape mechanisms, like substances, to fill time and further avoid the reality of workload assignments.”
Changes in diet and sleeping are also telling, as well as increased social isolation and pulling away from activities that once brought you pleasure is also a red flag, Gomez says.
She warns students to watch for signs of irritability, a classic indicator of increased stress that can often compound issues, especially within interpersonal relationships.
“Your body speaks to you, so be in tune with your body,” she says.
Build and Maintain Social Connections
Socializing can help humans release stress. Experts say having fun and finding joy in life keep stress levels manageable, and socializing is particularly important developmentally for young adults. In the 2023 Gallup poll, 76% of students reported feeling enjoyment the previous day, which Marken says was an encouraging sign.
But 39% reported experiencing feelings of loneliness and 36% reported feeling sad. “We are in the midst of an epidemic of loneliness in our country, where we are noticing people don’t have the skills to build friendships,” Gomez says.
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Talking about feelings of stress can help college students cope, which is why the amount of students feeling lonely is concerning, Marken says. If students don’t feel like they belong or have a social network to call on when feeling stressed, negative emotions are compounded.
“I think we’re more connected, and yet we’re more isolated than ever,” she says. “It feels counterintuitive. How can you be more connected to your network and campus than ever, yet feel this lonely? Just because they have a device to connect with each other in a transactional way doesn’t mean it’s a meaningful relationship. I think that’s what we’re missing on a lot of college campuses is students creating meaningful connections about a shared experience.”
Setting boundaries on social media use is crucial, Gomez says, as is getting plugged in with people and organizations that will be enriching. For example, Gomez says she joined a Latina sorority to be in community with others who shared some of her life experiences and interests.
Sleep, Eat Well and Exercise
Maintaining healthy habits can help college students better manage stressors that arise.
“Prioritizing sleep, moving your body, getting organized, and leaning on your support network all help college students prevent or manage stress,” John MacPhee, CEO of The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to protect emotional health and prevent suicide among teens and young adults, wrote in an email. “In the inevitable moments of high stress, mindful breathing, short brain breaks, and relaxation techniques can really help.”
Experts suggest creating a routine and sticking to it. That includes getting between eight and 10 hours of sleep each night and avoiding staying up late, Gomez says. A nutrient-rich diet can also go a long way in maintaining good physical and mental health, she says.
Getting outdoors and being active can also help students limit their screen time and use of social media.
“Walking to campus, maybe taking that longer walk, because your body needs that to heal,” Gomez says. “It’s going to help buffer you. So if that’s the only thing you do, try to do that.”
Seek Help
Colleges typically offer mental health resources such as counseling and support groups for struggling students.
[MORE: How Colleges Are Improving Mental Health]
Students dealing with chronic and unhealthy stress should contact their college and reach out to friends and family for support. Reaching out to parents, friends or mentors can be beneficial for students when feelings of stress come up, especially in heightened states around midterm and final exams.
Accessing student supports and counseling early can prevent a cascading effect that results in serious mental health challenges or unhealthy coping mechanisms like problem drinking and drug abuse, experts say.
“Know there are lots of resources on campus from academic services to counseling centers to get structured, professional support to lower your workload, improve coping skills, and have a safe space to process anxiety, worry, and stress,” MacPhee says.
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Stress in College Students: What to Know originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 08/14/23: The story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
