The (college) kids aren’t all right

A recent study concluded what many of us already know: There is a significant mental health crisis afflicting this generation of college students. Researchers looked at the responses of more than 390,000 participants between 2017 and 2022 in the Healthy Minds Study, which is administered by hundreds of colleges each year. They concluded there is a marked increase in diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder (ASD) among collegians.

The study points to several significant issues that have contributed to the marked rise in these diagnoses. Not surprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic looms large. But the study also notes factors such as campus shootings and racial trauma, which also tracks with the period under consideration.

During the years covered in this study, I was an administrator at two small Christian universities. I’ve had countless conversations with professors, student engagement personnel, and students about these issues. I’ve also talked with my peers at other institutions, both private and public. Everyone sees the same trends. Campus counseling centers cannot keep pace with the volume of students who need their services. Student accessibility offices are overwhelmed with requests for academic and other accommodations for students with mental health diagnoses.

If anything, I would argue the problem is more significant than this study indicates. For one thing, PTSD and ASD are far from the only mental health disorders with which students are struggling. Mood disorders such as depression and anxiety are rampant among collegians. There is also a marked increase in self-harm and suicidal ideation. Things have only gotten worse since 2022.

There are additional factors students say contributed to their mental health struggles from 2017 to 2022. Students were not only affected by sickness and death during COVID but they were also affected by shutdowns and quarantines. Consider violent protests in major cities, the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, concerns about climate change, and concerns about economic instability, all surrounded by coarsened political discourse. Again, things have only gotten worse since 2022, especially since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and the ensuing campus protests.

However, there is another factor that is eroding the mental health of college students and countless other members of Generation Z. It is always operating in the background, even when there seem to be few other stressors in the lives of a young person. When bad things happen, or when there is an issue that provokes significant debate, this factor inflames passions and exacerbates anxieties. Social media is driving young people crazy, literally, especially with its constant accessibility through smartphones.

The world changed with the advent of social media and smartphones in the 2000s. By the early 2010s, most teenagers owned a smartphone. Nicholas Carr sounded an early warning about the ill effects of all this in his 2011 book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. Carr wasn’t concerned primarily with Gen Z, but in the years since, social psychologists such as Jean Twenge and Jonathan Haidt have warned us about how constant access to social media is wrecking the mental health of young people.

Sadly, Christian college students are not immune to these trends. The Barna Group has published several significant studies since 2018 of Gen Z, including young people who are Christians. The same trends prevalent within Gen Z are also found among professing believers. This is confirmed by the experience of youth ministers, professors at Christian colleges, and, of course, parents.

The upshot of all this is that college students are struggling. The question is, how should colleges and universities respond?

Schools need to provide access to mental health services adequate to meet the growing demand from students. Many schools need to expand dramatically their counseling centers and accessibility offices. Sometimes this will be impossible for financial reasons, especially at smaller institutions. In such cases, schools need to find ways to form partnerships with community organizations and churches that have the needed expertise.

Schools should also find ways to push back creatively against the ever-encroaching social internet. Some third spaces on campus can be designated as device-free, at least during certain hours of the day. Professors should consider banning or at least restricting the use of devices in the classroom when possible. Student organizations should prioritize promoting a more rightly ordered engagement with social media. Schools should also take steps to prevent access to harmful content online such as pornography and gambling, both of which remain regrettably legal.

There is also a significant discipleship opportunity at Christian schools and within campus ministries at pluralistic institutions. Students need to be encouraged to respond to their mental health problems in ways that are rooted in faith and consistent with Scripture—meaning that sometimes the assumptions of our therapeutic culture and its idols need challenging. Students also need to be equipped to reflect Christianly about the various crises in our society. This will mean doing the hard work of cultivating a consistently Biblical worldview. Finally, collegians need to be taught a rightly ordered use of electronic devices and engagement with social media. This will mean embracing moderation and wisdom in an age of foolish decadence.