Learning and Teaching For Well-Being | NCHA Surveys
National College Health Assessment
The American College Health Association has conducted national surveys of college students called the "National College Health Assessment" for more than a decade. The findings provide insights into the multiple dimensions of today's college students, including findings about their mental health and well-being. Recent reports can be downloaded from the ACHA's Publications and Reports page.
To make the findings easier to understand and interpret, data from the mental health sections of reports from 2009 to 2020 have been compiled and converted to graphs. When available, findings from Cal Poly students' participation in the survey are also provided for comparison to the national sample.
Section 1: Mental Health Challenges
Survey data from a national sample of students on whether they experienced various forms of emotional and mental health challenges at least once within the prior 12 months.
Chart 1: Overall percentages from 2009-2018 reporting mental health challenges that they experienced at least once in the prior 12 months
Highlights:
- Almost all students (80-90%) report feeling "overwhelmed" and "exhausted," and percentages have been gradually rising.
- Most students (about two-thirds) report feeling "very sad" and "lonely," and percentages have been gradually rising.
- Most students (about two-thirds) current report "overwhelming anxiety," with notable increases during the past decade.
- Many students (about half) report feelings of hopelessness, and percentage has been gradually rising.
- Large numbers (30-40%) reported feeling overwhelming anger or being so depressed that they could not function
Chart 2: Percentages of students who reported thoughts or actions of self-harm
Highlights:
- Percentages of students reporting serious thoughts or suicide more than doubled from 2009 to 2018, with the incidence rate at about 13% -- one in seven students.
- The percentages of student reporting serious thoughts of suicide increased at an accelerating rate between 2009 and 2018.
- Percentages of students reporting self-harm have risen 66% from 2009 to 2018.
- Percentages of students reporting attempted suicides has risen 73% from 2009 to 2018.
Chart 3: Percentages of students who reported mental health challenges in Spring 2018 (the most recent year that was included on Chart 1)
Highlights:
- Most reported feeling "overwhelmed" (87%) and "exhausted" (82%)
- Two-thirds reported feeling "very sad" (65%)
- Six of 10 reported feeling "lonely" (60%) and experiencing "overwhelming anxiety" (59%)
- Half (50%) reported feelings of hopelessness
- A third (36%) reported feeling so depressed that they could not function
Chart 4: Comparison of percentages of females and males reporting mental health challenges in Spring 2018
Highlight: Females reported at higher percentages than males on all mental health indicators, and were dramatically higher on most (exhausted, overwhelmed, sad, lonely, anxious)
Chart 5: Comparisons of percentages of Cal Poly students' experiencing mental health challenges to the national sample of student respondents
Highlight: Cal Poly students reported in higher percentages on every mental health indicator (except the two not included on the Cal Poly survey) compared with the students in the national findings.
Section 2: Factors affecting academic performance
Another section of the NCHA surveys provides opportunities for students to identify the challenges they have experienced in the prior 12 months that affected their academic performance. "Affecting academic performance" included such major consequences such as receiving a lower grade on exam or important project, receiving a lower grade in the course, taking an incomplete or dropping the course.
Chart 6: Factors affecting academic performance
Highlights:
- A third (34%) reported that that they experienced levels of stress significant enough to hurt their academic performance
- More than a quarter (27%) reported that they experienced levels of anxiety significant enough to hurt their academic performance
- Approximately one in five reported that their experiences with sleep difficulties (22%) and depression (18%) were significant enough to hurt their academic performance
Chart 7: Comparisons of Cal Poly students and the national sample of student respondents for factors affecting academic performance
Highlight: Cal Poly students' percentages were higher than the national sample on every factor except one (work), most notable were higher percentages reporting stress, anxiety and cold/flu that affected their academic performance.
