The annual survey, “The American Freshman: National Norms for 2010,” has determined the emotional health of college freshmen has dropped to a 25-year-record low in 2010.
The survey is conducted by University of California, Los Angeles’s Cooperative Institutional Research Program and is based on the responses from 201,818 first-year, full-time students from 279 colleges and universities around the nation.
The survey also saw an increase in the percentage of students reporting they felt overwhelmed as seniors in high school.
Students also responded to questions regarding their economic situations, political and social views, and expectations for their college experience.
The report showed a little more than half of the students, 51.9 percent, rated their emotional behavior above average or higher. This is a 3.4 percentage drop from 2009 and a large decline from 63.6 percent from when the survey began in 1985.
According to the survey, there was a noticeable difference between male and female students. 45.9 percent of males versus 59.1 percent of females reported high levels of emotional health—a 13.2 percent difference.
Even so, students said their drive to achieve and their academic abilities are trending upward. 71.2 percent of students rated their academic abilities as above average and 75.8 percent rated their drive to achieve above average as well.
John Pryor, director of CIRP and lead author of the report, said in a statement although high levels and drive are positive notions, it could also contribute to students’ stress levels.
“Stress is a major concern when dealing with college students,” he said. “If students are arriving in college already overwhelmed and with lower reserves of emotional health, faculty, deans and administrators should expect to see more consequences of stress, such as higher
levels of poor judgment around time management, alcohol consumption and academic motivation.”
Only 17.6 percent of male students said they felt overwhelmed, but more than twice the number of female students—38.8 percent—said they were extremely stressed.
Eastern Michigan University student Kelsey Evans said she remembers being stressed her freshman year.
“My stress came from trying to take way too many classes my first semester here,” Evans said. “I just wanted to impress my parents. I wanted to finish school early.”
Senior Brent Ward said he doesn’t recall being stressed. Ward said freshman year was his best in college so far.
“My freshman year was pretty easy going,” he said. “I wasn’t stressed at all. I don’t see how anyone could be stressed because we were only taking our gen ed classes. They should have done the study with seniors. I think we’re way more stressed out than the freshman.”
The study also analyzed how financial concerns affect and influence students. The report said because of the economic downturn, more students are relying on student loans to pay for college. 53.1 percent of incoming students used loans in 2010.
Some good news did come out of the survey, though.
Students receiving grants and scholarships rose from 70 percent in 2009 to 73.4 percent in 2010.
Ariana Gonzalez said she was able to take more classes this semester because she saw an increase in her Pell Grant and Stafford Loans.
“No one wants to take out loans, but a lot of us have to,” she said. “My parents can’t contribute any money to my bill, so I didn’t have any other choice. It’s a gamble though because I hope I get a job when I graduate to back all these loans.”
The study also revealed students’ beliefs on a variety of economic issues.
According to the survey, nearly two-thirds of students agreed with the statement “wealthy people should pay more taxes than they do now.”
One third of students—32.8 percent—agreed the federal government should raise taxes to help reduce the deficit, which is the highest percentage since the study began.
The study also showed there is much more support amongst liberal students for another policy impacting the economic health care plan. Liberal students were more likely to agree a national health care plan is needed to cover Americans’ medical costs than conservative students—84.4 percent versus 28.2 percent, respectively.
However, the overall population of students support for national health care dropped from 70.3 percent in 2008 to 61.3 percent in 2010.
EMU junior Zachary Zeid said he once supported the health care bill, but he no longer does.
“I thought in principle it was good, but the actual law is ridiculous,” Zeid said. “I don’t like the options at all.”
Students were also asked how they felt about gays and lesbians being able to adopt children. More than 76 percent of those surveyed agreed gays and lesbians should have the legal right to adopt a child. One half—51.7 percent—of conservative students were in favor.
Erin Wilkinson said she wasn’t surprised with the statistics regarding gays and lesbians adopting.
“I think even though some of us students identify ourselves as conservative, we still have some liberal thinking,” she said. “I mean, whose business is it anyways if they choose to adopt. As long as they take care of the baby, I could careless.”
