Annotated Biblograph

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College Student’s Depression

Jasmin Linthicum

Course Discovery Writing

Professor Aguiar

Date Due 02/24/2022

College Student’s Depression

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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is a common and severe

health issue that affects how someone feels, thinks and acts. The most common symptoms of

depression are; having bad moods and feeling very sad, losing interest in the activities that were

once fun, loss of appetite, which in turn will lead to massive weight loss or gain that is not related

to dieting and difficulty in concentrating, thinking or making decisions (LeMoult & Gotlib, 2019).

People become depressed due to various factors; some of the significant social factors that

bring about depression include; encountering traumatic events, separation from parents or

caregivers and being bullied. Personality some people are inclined towards experiencing

depression. For instance, people who tend to hold worries, have a low-self-esteem, are

perfectionists and are very sensitive towards negative criticism naturally have a higher likelihood

of facing depression.

Depression throughout history has always been a health problem for people. According to

articles written by philosophers and writers throughout humanity's history, there is depression,

which is a health condition. The articles also include some of the continuous struggles that have

been made to find a solution on treating this condition. For instance, the ancient Greeks and

Romans had different thinking on depression. Some of the literature shows that the Greeks had a

notion that depression was a form of evil spirit possession and used exorcism techniques like;

beatings and starvation as "treatments" to cure a person. On the other hand, the Romans thought

depression was a combination of biological and psychological issues and employed gymnastics,

special diet, herbal medicine and music to treat the patients (Taquet et al., 2020).

In our present day, some of the startling statistics concerning depression are; depression

affects approximately one in fifteen adults, that is close to 6.8% annually, and a projection of an

estimated one in six persons will encounter depression at a given point in their life, that is around

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16.7%. Studies show that females are more likely to experience depression compared to the men.

Clinicians have also found that depression is more likely to occur during the late teens to mid-20s.

This age group indicates that college students are the ones who are likely to suffer most from the

effect of depression.

Depression in college students has affected their social life adversely by lowering their

mood, feelings and self-esteem. It has also affected their school life by; making it challenging to

handle their schoolwork and losing interest in activities like sports. It has led to emotional

outbursts such as anger, faulty self-assessments, and lack of energy. Some of the statistics that

show the extent of this problem are; the overall rate of college students that have been reported to

have depression is about 45% (Moeller & Seehuus, 2019).

Suicide has become the third leading cause of death among college students; 76% of those

reported depression. Their first encounter was their mid-20, and nearly two-thirds of students who

developed substance abuse issues reported experiencing depression. These statistics indicate that

this is a significant health crisis among college students.

Another significant factor that makes this a significant issue is that close to 75% of the

students experiencing depression are reluctant to seek help and medication. This brings about an

additional risk of harmful outcomes like; dropping out of college, performing poorly academically,

the risk of substance abuse and a high chance of committing suicide in the event of a full

depression (Ramón-Arbués et al., 2020).

Depression among college students is a serious mental issue that affects in a big way how

the student thinks and behaves and can lead to significant emotional, functional and physical

issues. So it is crucial to understand the causes and effects of this issue among the students and

how it can be treated and even prevented.

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Some of the research approaches that can be employed to be able to identify depression in

college students include; getting help from the parents, this is by developing an approach of getting

to know from different parents on the well-being of the child, to be able to assess some of the most

common symptoms that could show depression. This is an essential aspect as it will be easier also

to train the parent on how to handle and provide support if the child is undergoing depression,

through; preparing the child for the unexpected, the importance of staying close, encouraging

healthy habits and developing a plan that is focused on student mental health (Park & Zarate Jr,

2019).

Another research method is designing a purpose design questionnaire that includes records

of sociodemographic data, such as; age, sex, year of study and performance in studies. The

questionnaire will consist of questions that will help measure the rate of depression among the

students. A number of colleges will be picked and select representatives to participate and increase

statistical power. To increase the accuracy of the research, it is essential to ensure that there is a

proportional stratified sampling of the colleges so that all the different age groups are represented.

Also, in the sampling process, the number of representatives to be obtained from each college will

be determined by calculations and proportional to size probability.

References

LeMoult, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2019). Depression: A cognitive perspective. Clinical Psychology

Review, 69, 51-66.

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Moeller, R. W., & Seehuus, M. (2019). Loneliness as a mediator for college students' social skills

and experiences of depression and anxiety. Journal of adolescence, 73, 1-13.

Park, L. T., & Zarate Jr, C. A. (2019). Depression in the primary care setting. New England

Journal of Medicine, 380(6), 559-568.

Ramón-Arbués, E., Gea-Caballero, V., Granada-López, J. M., Juárez-Vela, R., Pellicer-García, B.,

& Antón-Solanas, I. (2020). The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress and their

associated factors in college students. International Journal of Environmental Research and

Public Health, 17(19), 7001.

Taquet, M., Quoidbach, J., Gross, J. J., Saunders, K. E., & Goodwin, G. M. (2020). Mood

homeostasis, low mood, and history of depression in 2 large population samples. JAMA

Psychiatry, 77(9), 944-951.