By Lexi Matthews and Jenna Manto
Significant disparities exist in mental health treatment for minority and non-minority college students, according to the annual Healthy Minds study by Boston University School of Public Health researcher Sarah Ketchen Lipson and her colleagues.
Of the more than 43,000 undergraduate and graduate students at 60 institutions who were surveyed between 2012 and 2015, half of white students with “clinically significant mental health problems” received treatment in the past year, compared to one-quarter of African American and Asian students and one-third of Latinx students, according to a press release.
The study found several advantages for white students in the process of identifying and treating mental illnesses. Only 21 percent of African-American students with a mental health issue received a diagnosis, as opposed to 48 percent of white students. Similarly, 46 percent of white students received treatment for such issues, while on the low end, 23 percent of Asian/Asian-American students received treatment, according to the press release.
Lipson, an SPH professor of health law, policy and management, is the lead author of the study that appeared in the Journal of Adolescent Health this month. It is the first national study looking at the mental health of college students of color since the 1990s.
The Healthy Minds Study is “the most comprehensive ongoing study of mental health,” Lipson said.
While other research has delved into specific racial and ethnic groups, Lipson said the Healthy Minds Study data allow her and her colleagues to look at the data more broadly with the large sample sizes across many different racial and ethnic groups.
“It’s just incredibly important right now for us to be thinking of marginalized students on college campuses,” Lipson said, “and we know that campus culture, even more broadly, social and political culture, is affecting the experiences of college students and particularly college students of color.”
The study gave Lipson and her colleagues the opportunity to use “national, large-scale data” to bring to light the mental health disparities faced by college students of color, she said.
BU has participated in this study multiple times and, Lipson said, is one of the strongest examples of a school that has used its resulting data to reach students through improvements in programs and resources.
Lipson and her colleagues will partner with mental health advocacy groups Active Minds and The Steve Fund to add a new component to the study this fall, which will measure issues related to “diversity, equity, inclusion, discrimination, sense of belonging, identity formation and a range of related topics that we know affect and are affected by mental health,” she said in the release.
Active Minds Associate Director of Programs Becky Fein said that such surveys are important to progress mental health treatment.
“It is critical to be learning more about how some populations are or are not receiving mental health benefits and services,” Fein said, “so that we can better respond and so that we can … bring all the voices to the table and involve very diverse backgrounds and perspectives so that we can be inclusive and appropriate with our work.”
In response to these findings, colleges should make sure they provide struggling students with the adequate support they need, Fein said, including counseling centers with representative psychologists that represent a multitude of cultures and populations.
This would ensure that any student could walk into a university support center and feel “included and welcomed,” she said.
“Infusing the culture of campuses with messages supportive of mental health is really critical,” Fein said. “Being really straightforward and upfront about the fact that disparities exist and being proactive ensures that all students are receiving this work that they need and deserve in a way that works for them.”
Fein said she is hopeful that the fall study will help progress mental health treatment for all and diminish these disparities.
“I think it’s really, really important that we’re highlighting disparities that exist so we can respond more effectively,” Fein said, “It’s a really valuable research that shines a light on an injustice so that those fields can respond.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors for posts with multiple authors or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
