A random sample of 4,000 Tufts students received an email this week as part of the Healthy Minds Study (HMS), an annual survey that examines mental health issues among college students across the nation.
Tufts Counseling and Mental Health Service (CMHS) is conducting the survey in conjunction with Daniel Eisenberg, an associate professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan; other researchers at the University of Michigan; other universities participating in the study and the Survey Sciences Group (SSG Research), an independent research firm that is overseeing data collection and data management for the study.
The survey, which generally takes 15−20 minutes to complete, examines mental and emotional health issues and includes questions related to students' moods, mental or emotional issues, academics, social lives and use of alcohol or other drugs.
Marilyn Downs, director of outreach at CMHS and principal investigator for the survey at Tufts, wants to use the survey to understand why students seem to prefer to resolve mental health issues on their own rather than seeking outside help.
"What we hope to see is a continued upward trend in knowledge about mental health services and positive attitudes about getting help when people are struggling," Downs said.
The survey is entirely confidential and participation is voluntary.
All participating students across the country will be entered into a sweepstakes to win one of ten $100 prizes and two $500 prizes. Tufts students who complete the survey will also be entered into a separate sweepstakes for additional prizes, including one Amazon Kindle and ten $25 gift certificates to the Tufts bookstore.
Approximately 30 schools across the country are participating as researchers hope to better understand mental health among college students.
According to Downs, Tufts is permitted to add its own questions and has included several in this year's survey asking students about their tendencies to reach out or keep to themselves when they experience distress.
Tufts previously participated in the HMS in 2007 and 2010. In both years, over half of the students who received invitations completed the study.
The 2007 survey showed that about 54 percent of Tufts participants had experienced some type of negative impact on their academic performance as a result of mental health difficulties, according to Downs.
Downs said that in 2007, around 15 percent of survey respondents at Tufts reported some symptoms of clinical depression and nine percent admitted to anxiety issues.
Downs added that the data was sent to high−level administrators in order to show them that the mental and emotional difficulties that plague college students can have negative effects on all aspects of their lives.
"Mental and emotional difficulties are affecting our students at a significant rate and can affect their academic well−being and other aspects of how they are doing in their lives," she said.
The results from the 2007 study were used to obtain a suicide−prevention grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration.
The data and the grant were used to develop a training program to educate people about recognizing others' mental health difficulties and responding to them as well as promoting greater awareness and positive attitudes about seeking help, according to Downs.
According to Ryan Kollar, president of the Tufts chapter of Active Minds, a national non−profit organization aimed at empowering students to talk about mental health, student groups are playing an active role in ameliorating some of these issues on campus.
"Our main focus is to make sure that people understand that we are one of the populations in this country that is most at risk to both fall victim to the whims of the mental health problems and to let them go unnoticed and untreated," Kollar, a junior, said.
Max Tanguay−Colucci, a freshman who received the email containing the survey, was not surprised to see that a survey examining mental health issues was sent out to students.
"I just thought that it was a routine kind of survey to check up on students and their perception of mental health services on campus," he said. "It came to me as no surprise."
Tanguay−Colucci said he believes that most Tufts students know that mental health services are available on campus.
"I definitely think that people know [mental health issues exist], because as soon as we got to campus for orientation, there were a lot of people promoting mental health services on campus," he said. "Students know about it and can access it when they need it."
