mental health research title for college students

150+ Trending Mental Health Research Topics For Students (2023)

Mental health is an important part of our well-being, encompassing our emotional, psychological, and social health. In the United States, the importance of addressing mental health has gained recognition, with growing concerns about stress, anxiety, and depression. 

In this blog, we will guide you the meaning of mental health research topics with our 5 useful tips. Moreover, we give you a list of 150+ Mental Health Research Topics in 2023, including qualitative, interesting, and even controversial ones, you’ll find options that suit your interests. From the impact of social media to the intersection of Mental Health with political science and music therapy, we’ve got you covered. 

Stay tuned for more on mental health research topics, and do not forget our bonus tips for selecting the best topics.

What Is Mental Health?

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Mental health is about how we feel and think inside our minds. It’s like taking care of our thoughts and emotions, just like we take care of our bodies. When our mental health is good, we usually feel happy and calm and can handle life’s challenges. But when our mental health is not so good, we might feel sad, anxious, or overwhelmed.

What Are Mental Health Research Topics? 

Mental health research topics are subjects that scientists and experts study to learn more about our thoughts and emotions. These topics include things like understanding what causes mental health problems, finding better ways to help people who are struggling, and figuring out how to prevent these issues from happening. Researchers also examine how different treatments, like therapy or medication, can help improve mental health.

These research topics are important because they help us learn more about our minds and how to keep them healthy. By studying these topics, scientists can discover new ways to support people who are facing mental health challenges, making it easier for everyone to lead happier and more balanced lives.

5 Useful Tips For Choosing Mental Health Research Topics

Here are some useful tips for choosing mental health research topics: 

1. Your research will be more focused and impactful.

2. You will be more likely to find funding and support.

3. You will be more likely to publish your research in peer-reviewed journals.

4. You will be more likely to make a huge contribution to the field of mental health research.

5. You will be more likely to enjoy your research experience.

Choosing the right mental health research topic is essential for success. By following the tips above, you can choose a topic that is focused, impactful, and relevant to your interests and expertise.

150+ Mental Health Research Topics In 2023

In this section, we will explore 150+ mental health research topics on different categories: 

Mental Health Research Topics For College Students

College students often face unique mental health challenges. Here are 15 research topics for studying mental health in this demographic:

• The impact of academic stress on college students’ mental health.
• Exploring the relationship between sleep patterns and mental well-being among college students.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of campus mental health services.
• Investigating the prevalence of substance abuse and its effects on mental health in college students.
• The role of peer support groups in reducing anxiety and depression among college students.
• Examining the influence of social media usage on the mental health of college students.
• The correlation between mental stress and financial stress issues in college students.
• The value of practicing mindfulness and meditation for college students’ mental health.
• Getting a better idea of how different cultures affect college students’ mental health.
• Trying to figure out how mental health and physical movement affect college students.
•  Investigating the stigma surrounding mental health issues in college environments.
•  Analyzing the role of academic pressure in the onset of eating disorders among college students.
•  The effectiveness of online mental health resources and apps for college students.
•  Examining the mental health challenges faced by LGBTQ+ college students.
•  The impact of COVID-19 and remote learning on the mental health of college students.

Mental Health Research Topics For High School Students

High school students also encounter unique mental health concerns. Here are 15 research topics for studying mental health in this age group:

•  The effects of academic pressure on the mental health of high school students.
•  Investigating the role of family dynamics in the emotional well-being of high school students.
•  Analyzing the impact of bullying and cyberbullying on the mental health of teenagers.
•  The relationship between social media use and body image issues in high school students.
•  Examining the effectiveness of mental health education programs in high schools.
•  Investigating the prevalence of self-harm and suicidal ideation among high school students.
•  Analyzing the influence of peer relationships on the mental health of adolescents.
•  The role of extracurricular activities in promoting positive mental health in high school students.
•  Exploring the effects of substances abuse on the mental well-being of teenagers.
•  Investigating the stigma surrounding mental health issues in high schools.
•  The effects of COVID-19 and remote learning on the mental health of high school students.
•  Examining the mental health challenges faced by immigrant and refugee high school students.
•  Analyzing the relationship between sleep patterns and mental health in adolescents.
•  The effectiveness of art and creative therapies in treating mental health issues in high school students.
•  Investigating the role of teachers and school counselors in supporting students’ mental health.

Mental Health Research Topics For Nursing Students

Nursing students play a vital role in mental health care. Here are 15 research topics relevant to nursing students:

•  The impact of nursing education on students’ mental health.
•  Investigating the effectiveness of therapeutic communication in psychiatric nursing.
•  Analyzing the role of psychiatric medications in mental health treatment.
•  The importance of self-care practices for nursing students’ mental well-being.
•  Exploring the challenges faced by nursing students in caring for patients with severe mental illness.
•  Investigating the influence of nursing curricula on reducing mental health stigma.
•  Analyzing the role of clinical placements in preparing nursing students for mental health nursing.
•  The effects of peer support programs on nursing students’ mental health.
•  Examining the prevalence of burnout and stress among nursing students.
• The importance of cultural skills in nursing care for different mental health patients.
•  Investigating the impact of technology and telehealth on mental health nursing practices.
•  Analyzing the ethical dilemmas faced by nursing students in mental health care.
•  Exploring the use of simulation training in psychiatric nursing education.
•  The effectiveness of mindfulness and stress management programs for nursing students.
•  Finding out what nursing students think about the healing model in mental health care is the goal of this study.

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Psychology Culture, And Mental Health Research Topics

Psychology and culture intersect in complex ways. Here are 15 research topics in this area:

•  Cross-cultural variations in the manifestation of mental disorders.
•  The influence of cultural beliefs on help-seeking behaviors for mental health issues.
•  Analyzing cultural factors in the diagnosis and treatment of depression.
• The effect of acculturation on the mental health of newcomers.
•  Exploring cultural stigma surrounding mental illness in different societies.
•  Investigating the role of traditional healing practices in mental health care.
•  Cross-cultural perspectives on the concept of resilience in mental health.
•  Analyzing cultural variations in the experience of anxiety disorders.
•  The role of cultural competence in psychotherapy and counseling.
•  Exploring indigenous perspectives on mental health and well-being.
•  The impact of globalization on cultural attitudes toward mental health.
•  Investigating the influence of religion and spirituality on mental health outcomes.
•  Analyzing cultural differences in the perception and treatment of eating disorders.
•  The role of cultural identity in coping with trauma and adversity.
•  Cross-cultural perspectives on the use of psychotropic medications in mental health treatment.

Community Mental Health Research Topics

Community mental health research is crucial for improving public well-being. Here are 15 research topics in this field:

•  Evaluating the effectiveness of community-based mental health programs.
•  Investigating the role of peer support networks in community mental health.
•  Analyzing the impact of housing instability on mental health in urban communities.
•  Why early intervention programs are so important for avoiding serious mental illness.
•  Exploring the use of telemedicine in delivering mental health services to underserved communities.
•  Investigating the integration of mental health care into primary care settings.
•  Analyzing the effectiveness of crisis intervention teams in community policing.
•  The role of community art and creative programs in promoting mental well-being.
•  Examining the mental health challenges faced by homeless populations.
•  The impact of community outreach and education on reducing mental health stigma.
•  Investigating the use of community gardens and green spaces for improving mental health.
•  Analyzing the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and mental health disparities.
•  Exploring the role of community leaders and advocates in mental health policy.
•  The effectiveness of community-based substance abuse treatment programs.
•  Finding out what part social determinants of health play in the mental health of a community.

Global Mental Health Research Topics

Mental health is a global issue with unique challenges. Here are 15 research topics in global mental health:

•  Analyzing the burden of mental illness on global public health.
•  Investigating the cultural variations in mental health stigma worldwide.
•   The impact of arms conflict and displacement on mental well-being.
•  Exploring the use of teletherapy for improving access to mental health care in low-resource settings.
•  Analyzing the role of traditional healers in global mental health care.
•  Investigating the mental health challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers.
•  The effectiveness of international mental health aid and interventions.
•  Examining the mental health implications of weather change and natural disasters.
•  Analyzing the global prevalence and treatment of common mental disorders.
•  Exploring the intersection of infectious diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS) and mental health.
•  Mental Health in Urban Environments: Analyzing the unique challenges faced by individuals living in densely populated urban areas.
•  Mental Health and Digital Technology: Exploring the impact of digital technology on mental well-being across cultures and age groups.
•  Mental Health in Indigenous Communities: Investigating mental health disparities among indigenous populations and the role of cultural preservation.
•  Mental Health in the Workplace: Examining workplace-related stressors and policies to support employees’ mental well-being globally.
•  Youth Mental Health: Studying mental health challenges among children and adolescents, considering factors like education and family dynamics.

Qualitative Mental Health Research Topics

Qualitative research in mental health can provide rich insights into individuals’ experiences and perceptions. Here are 15 qualitative research topics in mental health:

•  Exploring the lived experiences of individuals with schizophrenia.
•  Qualitative analysis of the stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment.
•  Understanding the coping mechanisms of parents with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
•  Investigating the narratives of individuals recovering from addiction.
•  Analyzing the cultural perceptions of depression and its treatment.
•  Examining the subjective experiences of caregivers of dementia patients.
•  Discussing the role of spirituality in the recovery process for people with mental illness.
•  Qualitative assessment of the impact of mindfulness-based interventions on stress reduction.
•  Investigating the narratives of survivors of suicide attempts.
•  Understanding the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in mental health care.
•  Analyzing the perceptions of veterans regarding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment.
•  Exploring the subjective experiences of individuals with eating disorders.
•  Qualitative assessment of the role of peer support groups in recovery from substance abuse.
• Investigating the stigma and barriers faced by individuals with bipolar disorder.
• Understanding the cultural variations in perceptions of anxiety disorders.

Interesting Mental Health Research Topics

Fascinating mental health topics can engage researchers and readers alike. Here are 15 intriguing research topics in mental health:

• The impact of virtual reality therapy on anxiety and phobias.
• Investigating the connection between creativity and mental well-being.
• Analyzing the role of pet therapy in reducing stress and anxiety.
• Exploring the effects of nature and green spaces on mental health.
• The relationship between personality types (e.g., introversion, extroversion) and mental health outcomes.
• Investigating the benefits of laughter therapy on mood and stress.
• Analyzing the effects of lucid dreaming on nightmares and trauma.
• Exploring the mental health benefits of volunteering and altruism.
• The impact of time-restricted eating on mood and cognitive function.
• Investigating the use of virtual support groups for individuals with social anxiety.
• Analyzing the relationship between music and memory in Alzheimer’s disease.
• Exploring the mental health effects of color psychology and interior design.
• The role of adventure therapy in enhancing self-esteem and resilience.
• Investigating the influence of childhood hobbies on adult mental well-being.
• Analyzing the connection between humor and emotional intelligence in mental health promotion.

Social Media On Mental Health Research Topics

Social media’s impact on mental health is a timely and relevant research area. Here are 15 research topics on this subject:

• Analyzing the relationship between social media use and feelings of loneliness.
• Investigating the effects of cyberbullying on adolescent mental health.
• The influence of social media comparison on body image dissatisfaction.
• Exploring the role of social media in the dissemination of mental health information.
• Analyzing the impact of social media detoxes on well-being.
• Investigating the link between excessive screen time and sleep disturbances.
• The effects of online support communities on mental health recovery.
• Exploring the role of influencer culture in shaping mental health perceptions.
• Analyzing the relationship between social media activism and mental well-being.
• Investigating the impact of “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out) on anxiety levels.
• The role of social media in spreading wrong information about mental health.
• Exploring the effects of targeted advertising on mental health outcomes.
• Analyzing the relationship between online gaming and addictive behaviors.
• Investigating the influence of social media on political polarization and mental health.
• The role of social media in fostering a sense of community among marginalized groups with mental health issues.

Cool Mental Health Research Topics

Cool mental health topics can pique interest and lead to innovative research. Here are some cool research topics in mental health:

• Investigating the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances for mental health treatment.
• Analyzing the impact of virtual reality gaming on managing stress and anxiety.
• Exploring the use of artificial intelligence and chatbots in mental health counseling.
• The effectiveness of mindfulness apps and wearable devices in promoting mental well-being.
• Investigating the role of gut microbiota in mood and mental health.
• Analyzing the use of neurofeedback technology for improving attention and focus in ADHD.
• Exploring the benefits of equine-assisted therapy for individuals with PTSD .
• The potential of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for treating depression.
• Investigating the use of art therapy and virtual art galleries for mental health support.
• Analyzing the impact of music and sound therapy on sleep quality and anxiety.
• Exploring the use of scent and aroma therapy in mood regulation.
• The role of biofeedback and wearable sensors in managing panic disorders.
• Investigating the mental health benefits of urban gardening and green rooftops.
• Analyzing the use of brain-computer interfaces in enhancing emotional regulation.
• Exploring the connection between outdoor adventure activities and resilience in mental health recovery.

Understanding what mental health is and exploring various mental health research topics is crucial in addressing the challenges individuals face today. Choosing the right topic involves considering your audience and interests, as highlighted in our five tips. With 150+ mental health research topics for 2023, we have provided options for college, high school, and nursing students and those interested in psychology, culture, and global perspectives. 

Moreover, qualitative and intriguing topics offer diverse avenues for exploration while acknowledging the impact of social media on mental health is essential. Remember our bonus tips when selecting your mental health research topic – prioritize relevance and impact to make a meaningful contribution to this vital field.

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Research Topics & Ideas: Mental Health

100+ Mental Health Research Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

If you’re just starting out exploring mental health topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of mental health-related research topics and ideas.

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Mental Health Topic Ideas

• Mood disorders
• Anxiety disorders
• Psychotic disorders
• Personality disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Eating disorders
• Substance-related disorders

Mood Disorders

Research in mood disorders can help understand their causes and improve treatment methods. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• The impact of genetics on the susceptibility to depression
• Efficacy of antidepressants vs. cognitive behavioural therapy
• The role of gut microbiota in mood regulation
• Cultural variations in the experience and diagnosis of bipolar disorder
• Seasonal Affective Disorder: Environmental factors and treatment
• The link between depression and chronic illnesses
• Exercise as an adjunct treatment for mood disorders
• Hormonal changes and mood swings in postpartum women
• Stigma around mood disorders in the workplace
• Suicidal tendencies among patients with severe mood disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Research topics in this category can potentially explore the triggers, coping mechanisms, or treatment efficacy for anxiety disorders.

• The relationship between social media and anxiety
• Exposure therapy effectiveness in treating phobias
• Generalised Anxiety Disorder in children: Early signs and interventions
• The role of mindfulness in treating anxiety
• Genetics and heritability of anxiety disorders
• The link between anxiety disorders and heart disease
• Anxiety prevalence in LGBTQ+ communities
• Caffeine consumption and its impact on anxiety levels
• The economic cost of untreated anxiety disorders
• Virtual Reality as a treatment method for anxiety disorders

Psychotic Disorders

Within this space, your research topic could potentially aim to investigate the underlying factors and treatment possibilities for psychotic disorders.

• Early signs and interventions in adolescent psychosis
• Brain imaging techniques for diagnosing psychotic disorders
• The efficacy of antipsychotic medication
• The role of family history in psychotic disorders
• Misdiagnosis and delayed treatment of psychotic disorders
• Co-morbidity of psychotic and mood disorders
• The relationship between substance abuse and psychotic disorders
• Art therapy as a treatment for schizophrenia
• Public perception and stigma around psychotic disorders
• Hospital vs. community-based care for psychotic disorders

Personality Disorders

Research topics within in this area could delve into the identification, management, and social implications of personality disorders.

• Long-term outcomes of borderline personality disorder
• Antisocial personality disorder and criminal behaviour
• The role of early life experiences in developing personality disorders
• Narcissistic personality disorder in corporate leaders
• Gender differences in personality disorders
• Diagnosis challenges for Cluster A personality disorders
• Emotional intelligence and its role in treating personality disorders
• Psychotherapy methods for treating personality disorders
• Personality disorders in the elderly population
• Stigma and misconceptions about personality disorders

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Within this space, research topics could focus on the causes, symptoms, or treatment of disorders like OCD and hoarding.

• OCD and its relationship with anxiety disorders
• Cognitive mechanisms behind hoarding behaviour
• Deep Brain Stimulation as a treatment for severe OCD
• The impact of OCD on academic performance in students
• Role of family and social networks in treating OCD
• Alternative treatments for hoarding disorder
• Childhood onset OCD: Diagnosis and treatment
• OCD and religious obsessions
• The impact of OCD on family dynamics
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Causes and treatment

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Research topics in this area could explore the triggers, symptoms, and treatments for PTSD. Here are some thought starters to get you moving.

• PTSD in military veterans: Coping mechanisms and treatment
• Childhood trauma and adult onset PTSD
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) efficacy
• Role of emotional support animals in treating PTSD
• Gender differences in PTSD occurrence and treatment
• Effectiveness of group therapy for PTSD patients
• PTSD and substance abuse: A dual diagnosis
• First responders and rates of PTSD
• Domestic violence as a cause of PTSD
• The neurobiology of PTSD

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

This category of mental health aims to better understand disorders like Autism and ADHD and their impact on day-to-day life.

• Early diagnosis and interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder
• ADHD medication and its impact on academic performance
• Parental coping strategies for children with neurodevelopmental disorders
• Autism and gender: Diagnosis disparities
• The role of diet in managing ADHD symptoms
• Neurodevelopmental disorders in the criminal justice system
• Genetic factors influencing Autism
• ADHD and its relationship with sleep disorders
• Educational adaptations for children with neurodevelopmental disorders
• Neurodevelopmental disorders and stigma in schools

Eating Disorders

Research topics within this space can explore the psychological, social, and biological aspects of eating disorders.

• The role of social media in promoting eating disorders
• Family dynamics and their impact on anorexia
• Biological basis of binge-eating disorder
• Treatment outcomes for bulimia nervosa
• Eating disorders in athletes
• Media portrayal of body image and its impact
• Eating disorders and gender: Are men underdiagnosed?
• Cultural variations in eating disorders
• The relationship between obesity and eating disorders
• Eating disorders in the LGBTQ+ community

Substance-Related Disorders

Research topics in this category can focus on addiction mechanisms, treatment options, and social implications.

• Efficacy of rehabilitation centres for alcohol addiction
• The role of genetics in substance abuse
• Substance abuse and its impact on family dynamics
• Prescription drug abuse among the elderly
• Legalisation of marijuana and its impact on substance abuse rates
• Alcoholism and its relationship with liver diseases
• Opioid crisis: Causes and solutions
• Substance abuse education in schools: Is it effective?
• Harm reduction strategies for drug abuse
• Co-occurring mental health disorders in substance abusers

Choosing A Research Topic

These research topic ideas we’ve covered here serve as thought starters to help you explore different areas within mental health. They are intentionally very broad and open-ended. By engaging with the currently literature in your field of interest, you’ll be able to narrow down your focus to a specific research gap .

It’s important to consider a variety of factors when choosing a topic for your dissertation or thesis . Think about the relevance of the topic, its feasibility , and the resources available to you, including time, data, and academic guidance. Also, consider your own interest and expertise in the subject, as this will sustain you through the research process.

Always consult with your academic advisor to ensure that your chosen topic aligns with academic requirements and offers a meaningful contribution to the field. If you need help choosing a topic, consider our private coaching service.

Good morning everyone. This are very patent topics for research in neuroscience. Thank you for guidance

What if everything is important, original and intresting? as in Neuroscience. I find myself overwhelmd with tens of relveant areas and within each area many optional topics. I ask myself if importance (for example – able to treat people suffering) is more relevant than what intrest me, and on the other hand if what advance me further in my career should not also be a consideration?

This information is really helpful and have learnt alot

Phd research topics on implementation of mental health policy in Nigeria :the prospects, challenges and way forward.

This info is indeed help for someone to formulate a dissertation topic. I have already got my path from here.

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Mental health research topics are becoming increasingly important in our society today. With the rise of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it is essential for students to understand the causes and effects of these conditions. Researching mental health can help us prevent and treat these illnesses before it's not too late.

That's why our paper writers curated this list compiling mental health research paper topics and ideas spanning various aspects. From psychological disorders to the role of society in mental health and therapeutic strategies, we covered 250 top mental health topics to write about. So, if you’re looking for help on starting your next mental health project, this list will provide you with the best ideas.

What Are Mental Health Research Topics?

Mental health research topics focus on understanding the causes, effects, and treatment of mental illnesses. It is important for students to explore these topics as they can help us understand how psychological disorders develop. This, in turn, allows us to optimize our treatment strategies. Researching mental health can also help us form healthier habits and lifestyles that promote positive mental health.

Characteristics of Good Mental Health Research Topics

How well you understand the theme characteristics can either make or break your research project. That's why, before you choose any mental health research topic, it is important to consider the features that make it good. Make sure your research topic about mental health meets the criteria listed below:

• Relevant Give preference to topic ideas that are relevant to the current trends in society.
• Interesting Find a topic you can approach from various angles while maintaining your engagement in research.
• Feasible Ensure that the idea can be researched in a reasonable amount of time.
• Original Try to pick between original mental health research questions and take a unique approach when investigating a certain aspect.
• Accessible Make sure you have access to enough resources and data to complete your research.

How to Choose a Mental Health Research Topic?

Narrowing down your choices can be an intimidating process. To make it easier for you, we’ve rendered some secrets that will help you select the right research topic about mental health:

• Brainstorm Try to come up with as many ideas as possible by writing them out on paper or creating a mind map.
• Analyze your ideas Once you have a list of mental health project ideas, analyze each one and decide which ones are more appropriate for your research.
• Explore further Certain topics may require extra research before settling on them. Make sure to look for relevant studies and determine whether you have enough time to run your research.
• Seek consultation Sometimes you may just miss out something important. Discuss your ideas with your peers, professors, or online research paper writers to get constructive feedback.
• Refine After getting input from others, polish your research topic idea further before committing to it.

Hopefully, these tips  will help you select the best research topics on mental health and start your exploration on the right note. Let’s now move forward to the actual ideas.

List of Mental Health Research Paper Topics

Below you will find a unique collection of hot mental health research paper topics. Designed to inspire students, budding researchers, and knowledge seekers, this list of ideas will surely be helpful.

• The impact of socioeconomic status on mental health conditions.
• Exploring the role of social media in mental illness.
• Analyze how trauma affects mental health.
• Investigating stress management strategies for anxiety disorders.
• Impact of sleep disorders on mental health.
• Art therapy: A non-traditional approach to emotional health.
• The relationship between childhood trauma and adult mental health.
• The role of genetics in mental health disorders.
• Understanding the psychology of eating disorders.
• The interplay of physical activity and mental health.
• The psychological impact of chronic diseases.
• Internet addiction and its psychological implications.
• Comparative analysis of Western and Eastern mental health practices.
• Suicide prevention strategies in youth.
• The role of AI and technology in emotional health care.
• A closer look at post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• The intersection of mental health and homelessness.
• The efficacy of animal-assisted therapy in emotional wellbeing.
• The role of culture in mental health treatment.
• Exploring the link between mental illness and substance abuse.

Good Mental Health Research Topics

Below we’ve put together a list of good research topics about mental health worth your attention. Take a look and you may find the perfect topic to inspire your next project:

• Nature vs. Nurture: The origins of emotional wellbeing disturbance.
• Effectiveness of virtual therapy in treating depression.
• Investigating anxiety management strategies through mindfulness.
• Understanding the psychological effects of online harassment.
• The growing mental health crisis in young adults.
• Exploring the influence of family relationships on mental health.
• Investigating the role of exercise in reducing stress.
• How climate change influences emotional wellness.
• Assessing the role of financial stress in psychological illness.
• Examining the need for improving healthcare systems related to mental health.
• The Influence of social media on teenage mental health.
• Exploring the connection between mental illness and addiction.
• Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in treating anxiety.
• The impact of social isolation on mental wellness.
• Understanding the impacts of racism on emotional wellbeing.

Interesting Mental Health Research Topics

Sometimes all you need is a spark of inspiration. If that’s the case for you, then take a look at these captivating topics about mental health:

• Exploring the impacts of divorce on mental health.
• Examining the role of good nutrition in emotional wellbeing.
• An analysis of the impact of unemployment on mental illness.
• Impact of taxation policies on emotional wellness.
• Analyzing the role of online support groups in mental health care.
• Investigating the stigma of mental health in universities.
• The need for better communication strategies in treating psychological illness.
• Analyze the impact of occupational stress on mental wellbeing.
• Examine how social exclusion affects emotional wellness.
• The growing need for mental health education in schools.
• Understanding the importance of parental support for emotional stability.
• The role of financial literacy in reducing psychological distress.
• Investigating the effectiveness of aromatherapy for stress relief.
• Analyzing the use of peer counseling in mental health care.
• Exploring new technologies for mental health diagnosis.

Unique Mental Health Research Topics

Ready for something more authentic? Take a look at these research paper topics about mental health and give them your best shot:

• Examining the need for gender-sensitive mental health care.
• Exploring the impacts of physical disability on emotional wellbeing.
• The use of digital technology for mental health awareness.
• Analyzing the impact of video gaming on psychological health.
• Exploring the efficacy of yoga and meditation in treating depression.
• The importance of early identification and treatment of mental illness.
• Examining the need for mental health support among LGBTQ+ individuals.
• Are alternative therapies effective in treating distress?
• Exploring the links between pet ownership and emotional stability.
• Use of music therapy in treating anxiety disorders.
• Exploring the psychological effects of noise pollution.
• Investigating the effectiveness of online forums in emotional health therapy.
• Examining the impacts of aging on mental health.
• How does cognitive restructuring benefit emotional wellbeing?
• The role of herbal remedies in managing psychological distress.

Best Mental Health Research Topics

Are you looking for the very best mental health topics for research papers or projects? We’ve got you covered! Take a look at these amazing ideas to get inspired:

• The need for social acceptance in treating psychological disorders.
• How do friendships help in managing stress?
• How can virtual reality be used in mental health care?
• How does religion impact psychological well being?
• How economic policies affect psychological stability?
• Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global mental health.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder in military personnel.
• Cyberbullying and its effect on adolescent peace of mind.
• Benefits and challenges of teletherapy in emotional stability recovery.
• Understanding and managing self-harm behaviors.
• Examining the need for mental health support at the workplace.
• Exploring the relationship between sleep deprivation and mental health.
• Negative impact of toxic relationships on emotional wellness.
• Importance of creating a supportive environment for psychological well being.
• Benefits of self-care for emotional wellness.

Controversial Mental Health Research Topics

The mental health research topics below are sure to spark some debate. If you’re browsing for debatable argumentative paper topics or project on mental health, take a look at these themes:

• Investigating the role of propaganda in creating mental health stigmas.
• Exploring the impact of false news and its influence on mental wellbeing.
• The need for mental health awareness campaigns in the media.
• Medical marijuana and emotional stability: beneficial or harmful?
• Forced hospitalization in psychiatry: necessity or violation of rights?
• Is suicide representation in media preventive or harmful?
• The "Anti-Vax" Movement's impact on public mental health.
• The use of electroconvulsive therapy in modern psychiatry.
• Does ADHD overdiagnosis contribute to misunderstood child behavior?
• Are personality disorders just extreme versions of normal personality traits?
• Is there a connection between mental health and gun control laws?
• The validity of self-diagnosis in mental health: empowering or harmful?
• Controversy over the DSM-5's expanding definition of mental illness.
• How does political instability affect emotional wellbeing?
• Investigating the effectiveness of government policies in mental health care.

Research Questions About Mental Health

Mental health research questions are key in helping you focus on the right topics when writing a dissertation or any other capstone project. Here are a few examples to get started:

• How do parenting styles affect children’s emotional stability?
• How does a positive self-image contribute to mental health resilience?
• Can a supportive community significantly mitigate the symptoms of mental disorders?
• Is there a correlation between high academic pressure and mental health disorders in students?
• How can workplace policies be improved to better support employee wellbeing?
• How does exposure to nature influence mental well-being?
• How do personal belief systems and religion influence attitudes towards psychiatric disorders?
• Can implementing a regular digital detox improve the state of mind?
• How do life-changing events, such as migration or job loss, impact our emotional health?
• What role do hormones play in mood disorders?
• What are the psychological effects of long-term unemployment?
• How does grief affect mental health, and how can it be managed effectively?
• How does living in an urban vs. rural environment impact emotional health?
• How do microaggressions in daily life contribute to stress and mental health disorders?
• What is the impact of gender identity and sexual orientation on emotional wellbeing?

>> View more: Medical Research Paper Topics

Mental Health Research Topic Ideas for Students

Covering a broad spectrum of themes, our list aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the multidimensional aspects of mental health. These mental health topics for students can foster critical thinking and bring about scholarly conversations.

Mental Health Research Topics for High School

Hover over these interesting mental health research topics for high school students to find a fitting idea.

• The influence of social media on teen mental health.
• How does school environment influence a student's state of mind?
• The role of peer pressure in psychiatric issues among teens.
• The psychological impact of body image and self-esteem issues.
• Mental health implications of academic stress and burnout.
• The role of counseling in schools for mental health support.
• Understanding eating disorders in adolescence.
• The impact of parental emotional stability on adolescents.
• What are the most effective ways of reducing student stress and anxiety?
• Can social media platforms be used to promote positive mental health messages?
• How can parents identify childhood depression and anxiety in their children?
• Enhancing social and emotional skills in high school students.
• Mindfulness and stress reduction techniques for high school students.
• How does physical activity impact mental health in teenagers?

Mental Health Research Topics for College Students

Take a look at this collection of research paper topics on mental health for college students to find the one that suits your needs.

• The impact of chronic stress on physical and psychological health.
• Addressing mental illness stigma among university students.
• What are the most effective methods for reducing anxiety in college students?
• Examining the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions for mental health disorders.
• Risk factors and triggers that contribute to depression in higher education settings.
• Exploring the relationship between academic performance and psychological health.
• The influence of online communication on student’s emotional wellbeing.
• How can university professors promote mental health awareness among their students?
• Benefits of cognitive behavior therapy for college students.
• What are the most effective ways to prevent suicidal ideation in college students?
• Role-playing games as a therapeutic approach to emotional disorders.
• Intersectional approaches to mental health: gender, race and ethnicity.
• The link between drug and alcohol abuse and psychiatric disorder.
• Does cultural awareness influence the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders?
• Investigating the role of technology in deteriorating mental health among young people.

Mental Health Research Topics and Ideas Worth Considering

Here, you'll find worthy research paper ideas on mental health focusing on different aspects. From understanding how our minds and bodies connect, to looking at the impact of society, and even studying new therapies, we've got a range of mental health research ideas for you.

Mental Illness Research Paper Topics

This selection covers an array of mental illness ideas focusing on various disorders, their causes, symptoms, and treatment options. They are ideal for students and researchers looking to broaden their knowledge.

• How complex is dissociative identity disorder and what factors contribute to its development?
• What role does trauma play in the development of borderline personality disorder?
• What are the implications of long-term antidepressant use in major depressive disorder?
• How do psychiatric service dogs impact the management of post-traumatic stress disorder?
• Which psychotherapeutic approaches are effective in managing schizophrenia?
• Does eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) effectively treat trauma?
• How does family therapy contribute to the management of anorexia nervosa?
• What are the neuroscientific insights into bipolar disorder?
• How do socioeconomic factors influence major depressive disorder?
• What are the mechanisms behind selective mutism in children?
• To what extent does genetics contribute to autism spectrum disorder?
• Psychodynamics of narcissistic personality disorder.
• Implications of stigma in the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia.
• Is there a link between childhood abuse and dissociative disorders that warrants exploration?
• What impact does neurofeedback training have on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?

Research Topics on Mental Health Counseling

This collection of research topics for mental health focuses on the various aspects of counseling, from psychological theories to practical approaches.

• How important is cultural sensitivity in therapy and its impact on treatment outcomes?
• What ethical dilemmas arise in therapy, particularly concerning privacy and confidentiality?
• What is the role of positive psychology in therapeutic practices and its impact on well-being?
• Does therapists' mental health influence the outcomes of their clients?
• What are the methods and benefits of group therapy?
• Can cognitive behavioral therapy effectively manage panic disorders?
• Why is self-care important for therapists and how does it impact their work?
• How does counselor bias affect mental health therapy outcomes?
• The use of dialectical behavior therapy in addressing emotional instability.
• How does play therapy support children's mental health?
• What are the unique challenges in providing therapy for veterans with PTSD?
• Can family systems therapy serve as a panacea for family-related issues?
• How effective is grief counseling in helping individuals cope with bereavement?
• What is the power of storytelling in emotional health care and its impact?
• How effective is solution-focused brief therapy in achieving quick emotional recovery?

Young Mothers Mental Health Research Topics

This selection of research ideas about mental health covers how young mothers navigate the physical, psychological and social changes.

• What are the unique mental health challenges faced by teenage mothers?
• How does postpartum depression impact parenting and mother-child bond?
• The effects of poverty on young maternal mental health.
• Examining the effects of early adolescent pregnancy on social relationships.
• What coping strategies can be used to address stress among young mothers?
• Can breastfeeding serve as a protective factor against postpartum depression?
• The correlation between exercise and mental health among young mothers.
• What role do support networks play in assisting young mothers to access mental health services?
• How does becoming a mother affect the identity of teenage girls?
• Exploring the link between single parenthood and adolescent mental health.
• What psychological interventions are effective in improving the mental health of young mothers?
• What role does childcare play in supporting mental wellbeing among young mothers
• Investigating the link between socioeconomic status and maternal depression among teenage mothers.
• What role does health education play in improving the mental health of young mothers?
• Are there any long-term effects of postpartum depression on child development?

Research Topics in Mental Health Nursing

Are you looking for good research topics on mental health nursing? Don't miss out on these ideas. Below you will find an idea or two in this direction.

• How does nurse-patient relationships impact mental health recovery?
• What is the role of psychiatric nurses in de-escalating crisis situations?
• Ethical dilemmas faced by mental health nurses.
• Stress and burnout among mental health nurses: Causes and coping strategies.
• Are mental health nursing interventions effective for patients with PTSD?
• Psychiatric nurses' role in managing patients with dual diagnosis.
• Enhancing communication skills in mental health nursing.
• Mental health nursing practices in pediatric care.
• The role of nurses in suicide prevention and postvention.
• Challenges in providing culturally sensitive care in mental health nursing.
• The impact of mental health nurses in reducing hospital readmission rates.
• The integration of telepsychiatry into nursing practice.
• Training needs and professional development for nurses.
• The efficacy of trauma-informed care in nursing.
• Transition challenges for mental health nurses from inpatient to community care.

>> Read more: Nursing Research Topics

Mental Health Law Research Topics

Are you searching for some interesting research topics in mental health law? Here are a few ideas that could help you narrow down your focus.

• The implications of involuntary commitment laws on civil rights.
• Should mental health treatment be legally mandated for those deemed dangerous?
• What are the legal safeguards when interpreting informed consent in psychiatric hospitals?
• How can legal systems address violence risk assessment and management?
• Exploring the ethical dilemmas behind forced medication in a psychiatric hospital.
• Should involuntary commitment laws be amended to include substance use disorders?
• What role does the Mental Health Act play in safeguarding the rights of patients?
• Can therapeutic jurisprudence provide a viable solution for mental health law reform?
• The implications of the Mental Capacity Act on decision-making and autonomy.
• Analysis of consent capacity assessments in mental health law.
• The role of civil commitment laws in improving access to treatment and care.
• Mental health law provisions for those with chronic or terminal illnesses.
• How does criminal justice reform help reduce the number of mentally ill inmates?
• What are the legal considerations for ensuring patient confidentiality in mental health?
• Does the Mental Health Act adequately protect the rights of young adults?

>> Read more: Legal Research Paper Topics

Mental Health Research Topics on Behavioral Issues

If you're browsing for mental health topics to research behavioral issues, here are a few titles that could help get you started.

• The role of emotions in decision-making and behavior.
• Exploring the link between impulsivity and depression.
• How does stress-coping impact emotion regulation abilities?
• Examining the impact of cognitive distortions on behavioral responses.
• The role of metacognition in addressing anxiety and depression.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of anger management interventions.
• The impact of social media on self-esteem and behavior.
• How can parents encourage healthy coping strategies in children?
• Examining the role of reward systems for enhancing motivation.
• How do family dynamics influence behavior problems?
• The implications of trauma on behavior and emotion regulation.
• Exploring the link between sleep habits and behavior problems.
• Can mindfulness be an effective tool to reduce aggressive behavior?
• What strategies can be used to manage impulsivity?
• Can virtual reality serve as a cognitive-behavioral therapy tool?

Extra Mental Health Research Topics

The following list features unique research topic ideas on mental health that are less explored but equally important. Whether you're seasoned or a beginner in mental health research, these ideas are sure to spark engaging conversations and deepen your understanding. So, let's dive in and explore these intriguing aspects in this direction together.

Psychiatry Research Topics

The collection below spotlights a wide range of subjects, from understanding psychiatric disorders to exploring advanced treatment methods. It's an excellent resource for anyone interested in diving deeper into this intriguing medical specialty. Get ready to immerse yourself in these psychiatric research topics and contribute to the field.

• The effects of combining psychotherapy with medication for the treatment of depression.
• Exploring the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for treating bipolar disorder.
• What role do genetics play in the development of schizophrenia?
• Examining the long-term impact of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
• The use of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of mental illness.
• Can mindfulness be an effective tool for treating anxiety?
• The efficacy of virtual reality (VR) therapy in treating phobias.
• What role do diet and nutrition play in managing psychiatric disorders?
• The use of telepsychiatry to improve access to care.
• How do brain activity and behavior interact in psychiatric disorders?
• Exploring the role of technology in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.
• What is the role of childcare in supporting mental wellbeing among young mothers?
• How does early childhood development influence mental health later in life?
• The importance of social connectedness for psychological well being.
• Exploring how cultural beliefs and practices influence mental health.

>> Read more: Psychology Research Paper Topics

Research Topics on Mental Disorder

This list of research topics regarding mental health disorders provides an exciting opportunity to explore the underlying causes, symptoms, and treatments for a wide range of psychological issues. Let's take a closer look at these compelling research topics in mental health.

• What are the risk factors and warning signs of bipolar disorder?
• How can family therapy be used to support children with autism?
• Exploring differences in diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia between men and women.
• The role of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• Examining the impact of trauma on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• What role do environmental factors play in determining vulnerability to depression?
• Neuroimaging research on schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.
• Can virtual reality (VR) therapy be used to treat anxiety disorders?
• Identifying the most effective psychotherapeutic approaches for treating borderline personality disorder.
• Analysis of the role of medication in treating eating disorders.
• The effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in managing gambling addiction.
• Exploring the use of music therapy for symptoms of psychosis.
• What are the best practices for supporting individuals with dissociative identity disorder?
• What role does lifestyle play in managing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?
• The potential of exercise and nutrition in preventing dementia.

Bottom Line on Research Topics About Mental Health

We did our best to provide you with exciting mental health research topics. No matter which topic you choose, make sure it resonates with your interests and provides new insights. Once you select a fitting idea, make sure to check how to write a research paper to nail your task.

Turn to our experts and have your paper completed quickly and with quality in mind! Submit your requirements and get your ' write my term paper ' request processed by a pro. 

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

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Expert Commentary

Improving college student mental health: Research on promising campus interventions

Hiring more counselors isn’t enough to improve college student mental health, scholars warn. We look at research on programs and policies schools have tried, with varying results.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource September 13, 2023

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/education/college-student-mental-health-research-interventions/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

If you’re a journalist covering higher education in the U.S., you’ll likely be reporting this fall on what many healthcare professionals and researchers are calling a college student mental health crisis.

An estimated 49% of college students have symptoms of depression or anxiety disorder and 14% seriously considered committing suicide during the past year, according to a national survey of college students conducted during the 2022-23 school year. Nearly one-third of the 76,406 students who participated said they had intentionally injured themselves in recent months.

In December, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a rare public health advisory calling attention to the rising number of youth attempting suicide , noting the COVID-19 pandemic has “exacerbated the unprecedented stresses young people already faced.”

Meanwhile, colleges and universities of all sizes are struggling to meet the need for mental health care among undergraduate and graduate students. Many schools have hired more counselors and expanded services but continue to fall short.

Hundreds of University of Houston students held a protest earlier this year , demanding the administration increase the number of counselors and make other changes after two students died by suicide during the spring semester, the online publication Chron reported.

In an essay in the student-run newspaper , The Cougar, last week, student journalist Malachi Key blasts the university for having one mental health counselor for every 2,122 students, a ratio higher than recommended by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services , which accredits higher education counseling services.

But adding staff to a campus counseling center won’t be enough to improve college student mental health and well-being, scholars and health care practitioners warn.

“Counseling centers cannot and should not be expected to solve these problems alone, given that the factors and forces affecting student well-being go well beyond the purview and resources that counseling centers can bring to bear,” a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine writes in a 2021 report examining the issue.

Advice from prominent scholars

The report is the culmination of an 18-month investigation the National Academies launched in 2019, at the request of the federal government, to better understand how campus culture affects college student mental health and well-being. Committee members examined data, studied research articles and met with higher education leaders, mental health practitioners, researchers and students.

The committee’s key recommendation: that schools take a more comprehensive approach to student mental health, implementing a wide range of policies and programs aimed at preventing mental health problems and improving the well-being of all students — in addition to providing services and treatment for students in distress and those with diagnosed mental illnesses.

Everyone on campus, including faculty and staff across departments, needs to pitch in to establish a new campus culture, the committee asserts.

“An ‘all hands’ approach, one that emphasizes shared responsibility and a holistic understanding of what it means in practice to support students, is needed if institutions of higher education are to intervene from anything more than a reactive standpoint,” committee members write. “Creating this systemic change requires that institutions examine the entire culture and environment of the institution and accept more responsibility for creating learning environments where a changing student population can thrive.”

In a more recent analysis , three leading scholars in the field also stress the need for a broader plan of action.

Sara Abelson , a research assistant professor at Temple University’s medical school; Sarah Lipson , an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health; and Daniel Eisenberg ,  a professor of health policy and management at the University of California, Los Angeles’ School of Public Health, have been studying college student mental health for years.

Lipson and Eisenberg also are principal investigators for the Healthy Minds Network , which administers the Healthy Minds Study , a national survey of U.S college students conducted annually to gather information about their mental health, whether and how they receive mental health care and related issues.

Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg review the research to date on mental health interventions for college students in the 2022 edition of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research . They note that while the evidence indicates a multi-pronged approach is best, it’s unclear which specific strategies are most effective.

Much more research needed

Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg stress the need for more research. Many interventions in place at colleges and universities today — for instance, schoolwide initiatives aimed at reducing mental health stigma and encouraging students to seek help when in duress – should be evaluated to gauge their effectiveness, they write in their chapter, “ Mental Health in College Populations: A Multidisciplinary Review of What Works, Evidence Gaps, and Paths Forward .”

They add that researchers and higher education leaders also need to look at how campus operations, including hiring practices and budgetary decisions, affect college student mental health. It would be helpful to know, for example, how students are impacted by limits on the number of campus counseling sessions they can have during a given period, Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg suggest.

Likewise, it would be useful to know whether students are more likely to seek counseling when they must pay for their sessions or when their school charges every member of the student body a mandatory health fee that provides free counseling for all students.

“These financially-based considerations likely influence help-seeking and treatment receipt, but they have not been evaluated within higher education,” they write.

Interventions that show promise

The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the chapter by Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg both spotlight programs and policies shown to prevent mental health problems or improve the mental health and well-being of young people. However, many intervention studies focus on high school students, specific groups of college students or specific institutions. Because of this, it can be tough to predict how well they would work across the higher education landscape.

Scientific evaluations of these types of interventions indicate they are effective:

• Building students’ behavior management skills and having them practice new skills under expert supervision . An example: A class that teaches students how to use mindfulness to improve their mental and physical health that includes instructor-led meditation exercises.
• Training some students to offer support to others , including sharing information and organizing peer counseling groups. “Peers may be ‘the single most potent source of influence’ on student affective and cognitive growth and development during college,” Abelson, Lipson and Eisenberg write.
• Reducing students’ access to things they can use to harm themselves , including guns and lethal doses of over-the-counter medication.
• Creating feelings of belonging through activities that connect students with similar interests or backgrounds.
• Making campuses more inclusive for racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ students and students who are the first in their families to go to college. One way to do that is by hiring mental health professionals trained to recognize, support and treat students from different backgrounds. “Research has shown that the presentation of [mental health] symptoms can differ based on racial and ethnic backgrounds, as can engaging in help-seeking behaviors that differ from those of cisgender, heteronormative white men,” explain members of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee.

Helping journalists sift through the evidence

We encourage journalists to read the full committee report and aforementioned chapter in Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research . We realize, though, that many journalists won’t have time to pour over the combined 304 pages of text to better understand this issue and the wide array of interventions colleges and universities have tried, with varying success.

To help, we’ve gathered and summarized meta-analyses that investigate some of the more common interventions. Researchers conduct meta-analyses — a top-tier form of scientific evidence — to systematically analyze all the numerical data that appear in academic studies on a given topic. The findings of a meta-analysis are statistically stronger than those reached in a single study, partly because pooling data from multiple, similar studies creates a larger sample to examine.

Keep reading to learn more. And please check back here occasionally because we’ll add to this list as new research on college student mental health is published.

Peer-led programs

Stigma and Peer-Led Interventions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Jing Sun; et al. Frontiers in Psychiatry, July 2022.

When people diagnosed with a mental illness received social or emotional support from peers with similar mental health conditions, they experienced less stress about the public stigma of mental illness, this analysis suggests.

The intervention worked for people from various age groups, including college students and middle-aged adults, researchers learned after analyzing seven studies on peer-led mental health programs written or published between 1975 and 2021.

Researchers found that participants also became less likely to identify with negative stereotypes associated with mental illness.

All seven studies they examined are randomized controlled trials conducted in the U.S., Germany or Switzerland. Together, the findings represent the experiences of a total of 763 people, 193 of whom were students at universities in the U.S.

Researchers focused on interventions designed for small groups of people, with the goal of reducing self-stigma and stress associated with the public stigma of mental illness. One or two trained peer counselors led each group for activities spanning three to 10 weeks.

Five of the seven studies tested the Honest, Open, Proud program, which features role-playing exercises, self-reflection and group discussion. It encourages participants to consider disclosing their mental health issues, instead of keeping them a secret, in hopes that will help them feel more confident and empowered. The two other programs studied are PhotoVoice , based in the United Kingdom, and

“By sharing their own experiences or recovery stories, peer moderators may bring a closer relationship, reduce stereotypes, and form a positive sense of identity and group identity, thereby reducing self-stigma,” the authors of the analysis write.

Expert-led instruction

The Effects of Meditation, Yoga, and Mindfulness on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Tertiary Education Students: A Meta-Analysis Josefien Breedvelt; et al. Frontiers in Psychiatry, April 2019.

Meditation-based programs help reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among college students, researchers find after analyzing the results of 24 research studies conducted in various parts of North America, Asia and Europe.

Reductions were “moderate,” researchers write. They warn, however, that the results of their meta-analysis should be interpreted with caution considering studies varied in quality.

A total of 1,373 college students participated in the 24 studies. Students practiced meditation, yoga or mindfulness an average of 153 minutes a week for about seven weeks. Most programs were provided in a group setting.

Although the researchers do not specify which types of mindfulness, yoga or meditation training students received, they note that the most commonly offered mindfulness program is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and that a frequently practiced form of yoga is Hatha Yoga .

Meta-Analytic Evaluation of Stress Reduction Interventions for Undergraduate and Graduate Students Miryam Yusufov; et al. International Journal of Stress Management, May 2019.

After examining six types of stress-reduction programs common on college campuses, researchers determined all were effective at reducing stress or anxiety among students — and some helped with both stress and anxiety.

Programs focusing on cognitive-behavioral therapy , coping skills and building social support networks were more effective in reducing stress. Meanwhile, relaxation training, mindfulness-based stress reduction and psychoeducation were more effective in reducing anxiety.

The authors find that all six program types were equally effective for undergraduate and graduate students.

The findings are based on an analysis of 43 studies dated from 1980 to 2015, 30 of which were conducted in the U.S. The rest were conducted in Australia, China, India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kora, Malaysia or Thailand. A total of 4,400 students participated.

Building an inclusive environment

Cultural Adaptations and Therapist Multicultural Competence: Two Meta-Analytic Reviews Alberto Soto; et al. Journal of Clinical Psychology, August 2018.

If racial and ethnic minorities believe their therapist understands their background and culture, their treatment tends to be more successful, this analysis suggests.

“The more a treatment is tailored to match the precise characteristics of a client, the more likely that client will engage in treatment, remain in treatment, and experience improvement as a result of treatment,” the authors write.

Researchers analyzed the results of 15 journal articles and doctoral dissertations that examine therapists’ cultural competence . Nearly three-fourths of those studies were written or published in 2010 or later. Together, the findings represent the experiences of 2,640 therapy clients, many of whom were college students. Just over 40% of participants were African American and 32% were Hispanic or Latino.

The researchers note that they find no link between therapists’ ratings of their own level of cultural competence and client outcomes.

Internet-based interventions

Internet Interventions for Mental Health in University Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Mathias Harrer; et al. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, June 2019.

Internet-based mental health programs can help reduce stress and symptoms of anxiety, depression and eating disorders among college students, according to an analysis of 48 research studies published or written before April 30, 2018 on the topic.

All 48 studies were randomized, controlled trials of mental health interventions that used the internet to engage with students across various platforms and devices, including mobile phones and apps. In total, 10,583 students participated in the trials.

“We found small effects on depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, as well as moderate‐sized effects on eating disorder symptoms and students’ social and academic functioning,” write the authors, who conducted the meta-analysis as part of the World Mental Health International College Student Initiative .

The analysis indicates programs that focus on cognitive behavioral therapy “were superior to other types of interventions.” Also, programs “of moderate length” — one to two months – were more effective.

The researchers note that studies of programs targeting depression showed better results when students were not compensated for their participation, compared to studies in which no compensation was provided. The researchers do not offer possible explanations for the difference in results or details about the types of compensation offered to students.

About The Author

Denise-Marie Ordway

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The Top 10 Most Interesting Mental Health Research Topics

In the United States, the majority of people have been diagnosed with at least one mental disorder. Once considered shameful, mental health issues are now being discussed more openly through various online platforms, such as the best mental health podcasts and blogs, which have made information more accessible. As a result, more people are seeking forms of mental healthcare and researchers are learning even more.

While research on mental health has come a long way, there is still a long way to go in destigmatizing mental health conditions and spreading mental health awareness. If you are looking for mental health research paper topics and are struggling to narrow down your list, take a look at the top 10 most interesting mental health research topics to help get you started.

Find your bootcamp match

What makes a strong mental health research topic.

The best way for you to develop a strong mental health research topic is by first having a specific and well-defined area of interest. Your research topic should provide a clear and simple roadmap to help you focus your research paper. Additionally, consider your audience and the topic’s significance within the mental health field. What does it contribute?

Tips for Choosing a Mental Health Research Topic

• Choose a topic that is interesting to you. You may be writing to share your findings with your peers, but your topic should excite you first and foremost. You will spend a significant amount of time on it, so it should be work you are eager to dive into.
• Choose a fresh approach. There is an extensive amount of mental health research conducted by mental health professionals. Use your research skills to choose a topic that does more than just restate the same facts and information. Say something that hasn’t been said before.
• Choose a topic that matters. The topic you choose should make a contribution to all the mental health education and research that already exists. Approach your topic in a way that ensures that it’s of significance within the field.
• Choose a topic that challenges you. A sure-fire way to find out if your topic meets the criteria of being interesting, fresh, and significant, is if it challenges you. If it’s too easy, then there must be enough research available on it. If it’s too difficult, it’s likely unmanageable.
• Choose a topic that’s manageable. You should aim to choose a topic that is narrow enough in its focus that it doesn’t overwhelm you. Consider what’s feasible for you to dedicate to the research in terms of resources and time.

What’s the Difference Between a Research Topic and a Research Question?

The purpose of a research topic is to let the reader know what specific area of mental health research your paper will focus on. It is the territory upon which your research paper is based. Defining your topic is typically the initial step of any research project.

A research question, on the other hand, narrows down the scope of your research and provides a framework for the study and its objectives. It is based on the research topic and written in the form of a question that the research paper aims to answer. It provides the reader with a clear idea of what’s to be expected from the research.

How to Create Strong Mental Health Research Questions

To create a strong research question, you need to consider what will help guide the direction your research takes. It is an important part of the process and requires strong research methods . A strong research question clearly defines your work’s specific focus and lets your audience know exactly what question you intend to answer through your research.

Top 10 Mental Health Research Paper Topics

1. the effects of social media platforms on the mental well-being of children.

The effects of social media platforms on the mental well-being of children is a research topic that is especially significant and relevant today. This is due to the increasing usage of online social networks by children and adolescents. Evidence shows a correlation between social media usage and increased self-harming behaviors, anxiety, and psychological distress.

2. The Psychology of Gender Identity, Inclusivity, and Diversity

With the conversations surrounding gender and identity in recent times, a research topic on the psychology of gender identity, inclusivity, and diversity is a good option. Our understanding of gender now, in the 21st century, has evolved and gender identity has become non-binary, more inclusive, and more diverse.

3. The Psychological Effects of Social Phobia on Undergraduate Students

Some of the most common mental illnesses in the United States are phobias, so the topic of the psychology and effects of phobias is interesting and relevant to the majority of people. There are various categories of phobias that have been identified by the American Psychiatric Association that you could choose to focus on.

4. Eating Disorders Among Teenagers and Adolescents

Eating disorders among teenagers and adolescents in the United States are prevalent, especially among young women. The statistics surrounding mental health issues show that 10 in 100 young women suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, as well as a preoccupation with food and body dysmorphia.

5. The Correlation Between Childhood Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Problems in Adulthood

When groups of people with learning disorders (LD) were compared with groups that had no known history of LD, a correlation between childhood LD and mental health issues in adulthood was found. This research is important because it helps us to understand how childhood LD increases mental health risks in adulthood and affects emotional development.

6. How Mental Disorder is Glamorized and Sensationalized in Modern Media

Shows and movies centered around the depiction of mental illness have become more popular in recent years. The portrayal of characters with mental illnesses can often be damaging and fail to take into account the complexities of mental disorders, which often leads to stigmatization and discrimination, and a reluctance to seek mental health care.

7. The Relationship Between Self-esteem and Suicide Rates Among Adolescents

A relationship between self-esteem and suicide rates among adolescents has been found when looking into their suicidal tendencies. This is more so the case with any individual who already suffers from a mental health issue. Low self-esteem has been linked to increased levels of depression and suicide ideation, leading to higher chances of suicide attempts among adolescents.

8. Destigmatizing Mental Illness and Mental Disorders

The rates at which people are diagnosed with mental illnesses are high. Even so, their portrayal in the media has resulted in the belief that those who suffer from a mental health issue or live in mental health facilities are dangerous. Conducting research on abnormal psychology topics and destigmatizing mental illness and mental disorders is important for mental health education.

9. Psychological Trauma and the Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Mental health statistics show that most abuse happens in childhood, causing long-lasting psychological trauma. The type of trauma caused by child abuse and childhood sexual abuse affects development in infants and children. It has been linked to higher levels of depression, anxiety, guilt, sexual issues, dissociative patterns, and relationship issues, to name a few.

10. Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Psychological Well-Being

There is no doubt about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 confinement on psychological well-being. The threat to public health, the social and economic stresses, and the various reactions by governments and individuals have all caused unexpected mental health challenges. This has affected behaviors, perceptions, and the ways in which people make decisions.

Other Examples of Mental Health Research Topics and Questions

Mental health research topics.

• How trauma affects emotional development in children
• The impact of COVID-19 on college students
• The mental effects of bullying
• How the media influences aggression
• A comparative analysis of the differences in mental health in women and mental health in men

Mental Health Research Questions

• Are digital therapy sessions as impactful as face-to-face therapy sessions for patients?
• What are the best methods for effectively using social media to unite and connect all those suffering from a mental health issue in order to reduce their isolation?
• What causes self-destructive behavior in some children?
• Can introducing mental health topics in the school curriculum help to create understanding and reduce the stigmatization of mental disorders?
• What are the most effective methods to improve brain health and emotional intelligence as we go through the aging process?

Choosing the Right Mental Health Research Topic

When choosing the right mental health research question, it is essential to figure out what single issue you want to focus on within the broader topic of mental conditions. The narrower your scope, the easier it will be to conduct thorough and relevant research. Vagueness can lead to information overload and a lack of clear direction.

However, even though it needs to be specific, your research question must also be complex enough to allow you to develop your research. If it’s too narrow in its focus, you won’t give yourself enough room to flesh out your findings as you build on your research. The key is to find the middle ground between the two.

Mental Health Research Topics FAQ

A mental disorder refers to any of the various conditions that affect and alter our behavior, thoughts, and emotions. More than half of Americans get diagnosed with a mental disorder at some point in their lives. They are common and manageable with the right support. Some mental illnesses are occasional, such as postpartum depression, while others are long-term, such as panic attacks.

Mental health research raises awareness of mental health disorders and promotes mental health care. It provides support and evidence for the effectiveness of mental health services and programs designed for psychiatric patients and those with mental health disorders. The information provided by the research helps us better understand mental illnesses and how best to approach treatment plans.

Behavioral health and emotional health are part of a person’s overall mental health since they are all interlinked and each one affects the other. When we speak of mental health, we are referring to behavioral, cognitive, and emotional well-being, which can also affect physical health.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the five main categories of mental illness include dementia, mood disorders such as bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, feeding and eating disorders, and personality disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2023 Annual Report

This report from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) presents descriptive data on various domains of mental health and factors related to treatment and care for college students in the United States. The data included in this report was gathered from 195 colleges and universities across the U.S., describing 185,114 de-identified college students seeking mental health treatment. The report examines trends among students seeking mental health services, including prior treatment and “threat-to-self" characteristics, along with trends in various mental health indicators, including depression, anxiety, family distress, and substance use. The report also includes data on appointment statistics, including utilization of mental health services and types of services. 

The 2023 report also explores how experiences of discrimination are associated with mental health concerns at college counseling centers, analyzing how discrimination due to race/ethnicity, disability, gender, nationality, religion, or sexuality impact mental health. 

Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2023 Annual Report. Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2024. https://ccmh.psu.edu/annual-reports .

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Mental health and well-being of university students: a bibliometric mapping of the literature.

• 1 Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
• 2 Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
• 3 Psychological Counseling Center, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

The purpose of this study is to map the literature on mental health and well-being of university students using metadata extracted from 5,561 journal articles indexed in the Web of Science database for the period 1975–2020. More specifically, this study uses bibliometric procedures to describe and visually represent the available literature on mental health and well-being in university students in terms of the growth trajectory, productivity, social structure, intellectual structure, and conceptual structure of the field over 45 years. Key findings of the study are that research on mental health and well-being in university students: (a) has experienced a steady growth over the last decades, especially since 2010; (b) is disseminated in a wide range of journals, mainly in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and education research; (c) is published by scholars with diverse geographical background, although more than half of the publications are produced in the United States; (d) lies on a fragmented research community composed by multiple research groups with little interactions between them; (e) is relatively interdisciplinary and emerges from the convergence of research conducted in the behavioral and biomedical sciences; (f) tends to emphasize pathogenic approaches to mental health (i.e., mental illness); and (g) has mainly addressed seven research topics over the last 45 years: positive mental health, mental disorders, substance abuse, counseling, stigma, stress, and mental health measurement. The findings are discussed, and the implications for the future development of the field are highlighted.

Introduction

The entrance to the university marks a period of transition for young people. Through this transition, students face new challenges, such as making independent decisions about their lives and studies, adjusting to the academic demands of an ill-structured learning environment, and interacting with a diverse range of new people. In addition, many students must, often for the first time, leave their homes and distance themselves from their support networks ( Cleary et al., 2011 ). These challenges can affect the mental health and well-being of higher education students. Indeed, there is evidence that a strain on mental health is placed on students once they start at the university, and although it decreases throughout their studies ( Macaskill, 2013 ; Mey and Yin, 2015 ), it does not return to pre-university levels ( Cooke et al., 2006 ; Bewick et al., 2010 ). Also, the probabilities of experiencing common psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and stress, increase throughout adolescence and reach a peak in early adulthood around age 25 ( Kessler et al., 2007 ) which makes university students a particularly vulnerable population.

The interest in mental health and well-being in university students has grown exponentially in the last decades. This is likely due to three interrelated challenges. First, although university students report levels of mental health similar to their non-university counterparts ( Blanco et al., 2008 ), recent studies suggest an increase and severity of mental problems and help-seeking behaviors in university students around the world in the last decade ( Wong et al., 2006 ; Hunt and Eisenberg, 2010 ; Verger et al., 2010 ; Auerbach et al., 2018 ; Lipson et al., 2019 ). Some researchers refer to these trends as an emerging “mental health crisis” in higher education ( Kadison and DiGeronimo, 2004 ; Evans et al., 2018 ). Second, psychological distress in early adulthood is associated with adverse short-term outcomes, such as poor college attendance, performance, engagement, and completion (e.g., King et al., 2006 ; Antaramian, 2015 ), and others in the long term, such as dysfunctional relationship ( Kerr and Capaldi, 2011 ), recurrent mental health problems, university dropout, lower rates of employment, and reduced personal income ( Fergusson et al., 2007 ). Third, there is a widespread agreement that higher education institutions offer unique opportunities to promote the mental health and well-being of young adults as they provide a single integrated setting that encompasses academic, professional, and social activities, along with health services and other support services ( Eisenberg et al., 2009 ; Hunt and Eisenberg, 2010 ). However, the majority of university students experiencing mental health problems and low levels of well-being are not receiving treatment ( Blanco et al., 2008 ; Eisenberg et al., 2011 ; Lipson et al., 2019 ) and, while universities continue to expand, there is a growing concern that the services available to provide support to students are not developing at an equivalent rate ( Davy et al., 2012 ).

In response to the increasing volume of research on the mental health and well-being of university students, there have been several attempts to synthesize the accumulating knowledge in the field and to provide an illustration of the theoretical core and structure of the field using traditional content analysis of the literature (e.g., Kessler et al., 2007 ; Gulliver et al., 2010 ; Hunt and Eisenberg, 2010 ; Sharp and Theiler, 2018 ). This study aims to extend the understanding of mental health in university students by providing a bird’s eye view of the research conducted in this field in recent decades using a bibliometric approach. Bibliometric overviews provide an objective and systematic approach to discover knowledge flows and patterns in the structure of a field ( Van Raan, 2014 ) reveal its scientific roots, identify emerging thematic areas and gaps in the literature ( Skute et al., 2019 ) and, ultimately, contribute to moving the field forward. Accordingly, this study employs several bibliometric indicators to explore the evolution of the field based on publication and citation trends, key actors and venues contributing to the advancement of research on mental health and well-being of university students, and the structure of the field in terms of patterns of scientific collaborations, disciplines underlying the foundations of the field, and recurrent research themes explored in the literature. This is important because, despite significant advances in the field, research on mental health and well-being remains a diverse and fragmented body of knowledge ( Pellmar and Eisenberg, 2000 ; Bailey, 2012 ; Wittchen et al., 2014a ). Indeed, mental health and well-being are nebulous concepts and their history and development are quite intricate, with a multitude of perspectives and contributions emerging from various disciplines and contexts (see section “Conceptualization of Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Well-Being: An Overview”). Therefore, mapping research on mental health and well-being in university students is essential to identify contributions and challenges to the development of the field, to help guide policy, research, and practice toward areas, domains, populations, and contexts that should be further explored, and to provide better care of students at higher education institutions ( Naveed et al., 2017 ).

Conceptualization of Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Well-Being: An Overview

This section provides an overview of the different perspectives adopted in the literature to conceptualize mental health, well-being, and other relevant constructs in order to identify the glossary of key terms that will be used in the search strategy to create a comprehensive corpus of documents on mental health and well-being in university students for this bibliometric review.

Perspectives on Mental Health and Mental Illness

There is no general agreement on the definition of mental health. For a long time, the term mental health has been used as a euphemism for mental illness ( Manwell et al., 2015 ). However, mental health and mental illness are regarded as distinct constructs nowadays and two main perspectives differentiating between mental health and illness are available in the literature. The continuum approach considers that mental health and mental illness are the two opposite poles of a continuum. Thus, there are various degrees of health and illness between these poles, with most of us falling somewhere in between. The categorical approach, on the other hand, represents mental health and illness as a dichotomy. People who manifest mental illness symptoms would belong to that category and labeled correspondingly, while those absent of these symptoms can be considered as mentally healthy ( Scheid and Brown, 2010 ).

Disciplinary Approaches to the Conceptualization of Mental Health/Illness

Conceptualizations of mental health/illness are largely dependent on the theoretical and paradigmatic foundations of the disciplines from which they emerge. In this context, the field has progressively evolved through the accumulation of knowledge generated in a diverse range of disciplines in the biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences. Biomedical disciplines are grounded in the medical paradigm focused on disease and (ab)normality and often emphasize dichotomous conceptions of mental health/illness ( Scheid and Brown, 2010 ). Research on mental health and well-being in this domain has been traditionally conducted from a psychiatric perspective, which aims to understand the dysfunctionality in the brain that leads to psychiatric symptoms and to also offer a pharmacological treatment to correct neuronal dysfunctions. Consequently, psychiatrists have historically considered mental health as a disease of the brain (e.g., depression), similar to any other physical disease, caused by genetic, biological, or neurological factors ( Schwartz and Corcoran, 2010 ). While the prevalence of psychiatric approaches to mental health is currently incontestable, the development of other biomedical disciplines has tremendously contributed to the progression of the field in recent decades. For example, Insel and Wang (2010) argue that insights gained from genetics and neuroscience contribute to the reconceptualization of “the disorders of the mind as disorders of the brain and thereby transform the practice of psychiatry.” (1979). In addition to that, other disciplines such as behavioral medicine have made important contributions to the field, although it has recently argued that mental health and behavioral medicine should be as two separate fields ( Dekker et al., 2017 ).

Within the behavioral sciences, the study of mental health focuses on the distinct psychological processes and mechanisms that prompt thoughts, feelings, and behaviors ( Peterson, 2010 ). Clinical psychology has the longest tradition in the psychological study of mental health and tends to focus on the assessment and treatment of mental illness and disorders that can alleviate psychological distress or promote positive states of being ( Haslam and Lusher, 2011 ). However, significant contributions to the field have also emerged from other branches of psychology less focused on psychopathology, including personality and social psychology, psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology, and cognitive psychology ( Peterson, 2010 ). Despite the diversity of theories, principles, and methodological approaches to understanding mental health within the behavioral sciences, these disciplines acknowledge that mental health have a biological basis and reside in the social context, and tend to prioritize continuum approaches to mental health ( Scheid and Brown, 2010 ).

Perspectives from the social sciences complement the biomedical and behavioral approaches by considering the influence of social and cultural environments in mental health/illness ( Horwitz, 2010 ). For example, sociologists are interested in how social circumstances (e.g., level of support available) affect levels of mental health/illness and how social structures shape the understanding and response to mental health issues [see Compton and Shim (2015) for an overview of the social determinants of mental health]. Similarly, medical anthropologists attend to the mental health beliefs and practices that form the cultural repertory within and across populations ( Foster, 1975 ). Beyond sociology and anthropology, social researchers in the fields of business and economics, family and ethnic studies, and educational research have also played a key role in advancing research on mental health in different directions.

The Importance of the Context in Mental Health

Certainly, most notions of mental health/illness in the literature derive from prevailing psychiatric and psychological traditions developed in Western countries ( Gopalkrishnan, 2018 ). However, cultural values and traditions do shape how mental health and mental illness are conceptualized across contexts ( Vaillant, 2012 ). In this regard, Eshun and Gurung (2009) pointed out that “culture influences how individuals manifest symptoms, communicate their symptoms, cope with psychological challenges, and their willingness to seek treatment.” (4). Fernando (2019) argued that issues related to the ‘mind’ developed and are often interpreted very differently in non-Western and Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). For example, cultures explain the manifestation of certain feelings and behaviors based on a range of motives including biological, psychological, social, religious, spiritual, supernatural, and cosmic. Failure to acknowledge alternative non-Western approaches to mental health and mental illness has resulted in imbalances of knowledge exchange and the permeation of dominating Western narratives into LMICs (i.e., so-called medical imperialism) ( Timimi, 2010 ; Summerfield, 2013 ). To address this issue, scholars have advocated for a greater willingness to embrace pluralism in the conceptualization of mental health and illness, which might help people to engage with particular forms of support that they deem to be appropriate for them, and to explore how knowledge and practices developed in LMICs can benefit those living in higher-income countries (i.e., knowledge “counterflow”) (see White et al., 2014 ).

Prioritizing Positive Mental Health: The Science of Well-Being

Despite the diversity of disciplinary and contextual approaches to mental health, current definitions of mental health have two things in common. First, mental health is considered from a biopsychosocial point of view that incorporates biological, psychological, and social factors. Second, mental health implies something beyond the absence of mental illness (e.g., Bhugra et al., 2013 ; Galderisi et al., 2015 ). An example is the definition by the World Health Organization which refers to mental health as “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community” ( World Health Organization, 2004 ). This definition contributed to substantial progress in research and practice in the field as it expanded the notion of mental health beyond the absence of mental illness and integrated the presence of positive features ( Galderisi et al., 2015 ).

Research on positive mental health is relatively new but has grown rapidly in the last decades fueled by advocates of positive medicine and psychology, who have argued for a change of paradigm from medical and psychopathological-oriented models of mental health that focus on disorders and illness toward more strength-based approaches, which pay more attention to what is right about people and positive attributes and assets ( Kobau et al., 2011 ). In this regard, the term mental well-being has been progressively incorporated into the study of mental health to account for the positive aspects of mental health beyond the absence of negative factors. While there is not a universally accepted definition of well-being, two perspectives have dominated the discourses on well-being in the literature: subjective well-being (SBW) and psychological well-being (PWB). SWB is based on hedonic perspectives of pleasure and represents “people’s beliefs and feelings that they are living a desirable and rewarding life” ( Diener, 2012 ). SBW is strongly linked with the idea of happiness and is typically understood as the personal experience of high levels of positive affect, low levels of negative affect, and high satisfaction with one’s life ( Deci and Ryan, 2008 ). PWB is grounded in Aristotelian ideas about eudaimonia, i.e., self-realization, with the ultimate aim in life being to strive to realize one’s true potential ( Ryff and Singer, 2008 ). PWB has been broadly defined as a state of positive psychological functioning and encompasses six dimensions: purpose in life (i.e., the extent to which respondents felt their lives had meaning, purpose, and direction); autonomy (i.e., whether they viewed themselves as living in accord with their own convictions); personal growth (i.e., the extent to which they were making use of their personal talents and potential); environmental mastery (i.e., how well they were managing their life situations); positive relationships (i.e., the depth of connection they had in ties with significant others); and self-acceptance (i.e., the knowledge and acceptance they had of themselves, including awareness of personal limitations) ( Ryff, 1989 ).

Integrating Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Well-Being

The contribution of positive mental health frameworks to the advancement of the field has been undeniable. However, definitions that overemphasize positive emotions and productive functioning as key indicators of mental health have been recently challenged because of the potential they have to discriminate against individuals and groups that, for example, might not be able to work productively or function within the environment because of individual physical characteristics or contextual constraints ( Galderisi et al., 2015 ). To address these issues, Keyes has successfully integrated the notions of mental illness, mental health, well-being, and other related terms in the literature into a conceptual framework that allows for a more comprehensive understanding of mental health ( Keyes, 2005 , 2007 ; Keyes and Michalec, 2010 ). The model argues that neither pathogenic approaches focusing on the negative (e.g., mental illness) nor salutogenic approaches focusing on the positive (e.g., well-being) can alone accurately describe the mental health of a person ( Keyes and Michalec, 2010 ). Instead, the model proposes that mental illness and well-being represent two correlated but differentiated latent continua in defining mental health. More specifically, mental illness and well-being lie on two separate spectra, the first going from absent to present mental illness and the second running from low to high well-being ( Slade, 2010 ). The absence of mental illness, therefore, does not necessarily imply high levels of well-being. Correspondingly, low levels of well-being do not always indicate the presence of mental illness. Further, in this model, mental health is defined as not only the absence of mental illness, not the mere presence of high well-being. Complete mental health (i.e., flourishing) is a result of experiencing low mental illness and high levels of well-being. Incomplete mental health (i.e., languishing), on the other hand, refers to the absence of mental illness symptoms and low reported levels of well-being. Two other conditions are possible within this framework. Incomplete mental illness (i.e., struggling) refers to high levels of well-being accompanied by high mental illness symptoms. Lastly, complete mental illness (i.e., floundering) accounts for low levels of well-being and high mental illness symptoms ( Keyes and Lopez, 2002 ).

The Present Study

In light of the complexity of the constructs of mental health and well-being and the multiple theoretical, disciplinary, and contextual approaches to their conceptualization, this study seeks to map out the terrain of international research and scholarship on mental health and university students for the period 1975–2020. More specifically, this study aims to provide new insights into the development and current state of mental health research in university students by mapping and visually representing the literature on mental health and well-being of university students over the last 45 years in terms of the growth trajectory, productivity, and social, intellectual, and conceptual structure of the field. First, the study describes the development of research mental health and well-being in university students examining the trends in publication and citation data between 1975 and 2020 (i.e., growth trajectory). Second, the study identifies the core journals and the research areas contributing most to the development of the field, as well as the key authors and countries leading the generation and dissemination of research on mental health and well-being in university populations (i.e., productivity). Third, the study outlines the networks of scientific collaboration between authors, and countries (i.e., social structure). Fourth, the scientific disciplines underlying the intellectual foundations of research on mental health and well-being in university settings (i.e., intellectual structure) are uncovered. Fifth, the study elucidates the topical foci (i.e., conceptual structure) of the research on the mental health and well-being of university students over the last 45 years.

Materials and Methods

A bibliometric approach was used in this study to map the literature on mental health and well-being in university students over the last 45 years using metadata extracted from four indexes of the Web of Science (WoS): The Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-Expanded); the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI); the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI); and the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). Several reasons justified the selection of the WoS database in this study. First, the WoS remains as the standard and most widely used for bibliometric analysis ( Meho and Yang, 2007 ). Second, the WoS is a multidisciplinary database and includes publications on mental health and well-being emerging from distinctive research areas and disciplines published in more than 20,000 journals ( McVeigh, 2009 ). Using specialized databases such as PubMed would introduce biases into the search strategy favoring biomedical research disciplines. Still, it is important to note that interdisciplinary databases such as WoS and Scopus discriminate against publications in the Social Sciences and Humanities and publications in languages other than the English language ( Mongeon and Paul-Hus, 2016 ), so the picture provided by WoS is still imperfect. Third, while other databases might provide wider coverage, WoS includes publication and citation information from 1900. For example, Scopus has complete citation information only from 1996 ( Li et al., 2010 ). Moreover, Google Scholar provides results of inconsistent accuracy in terms of citations, and citation analyses in PubMed are not available ( Falagas et al., 2008 ). Fourth, WoS has demonstrated better accuracy in its journal classification system compared to Scopus database ( Wang and Waltman, 2016 ).

The methodological approach used in this study is presented in Figure 1 and further elaborated in the following paragraphs.

Figure 1. Methodological framework.

Search Strategy

To create a comprehensive corpus of documents on the mental health and well-being of university students, three parallel searches were performed, which accounted for the multiple approaches and perspectives that have been used in the field, as identified in the Section “Conceptualization of Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Well-Being: An Overview.” All the searches were conducted in the last week of January 2020. The first search aimed at capturing research on mental health broadly and included one single keyword in the topic field: [“mental health”]. The second search was implemented to capture research focusing on pathogenic approaches to mental health. Key terms used in the literature to refer to the negative side of mental health, as well as the most frequent mental health problems experienced by university students, were introduced in this search in the title field: [“mental illness,” “mental disorder ∗ ,” “mental distress,” “psychological distress,” “psychopathology,” “depression,” “anxiety,” “stress,” “suicide,” “eating disorder ∗ ,” “substance use”]. In the third search, keywords reflecting salutogenic approaches to mental health were input. These included terms related to mental health from a positive mental health perspective (i.e., well-being). These key terms were added in the title field and included the following: [“well-being,” “wellbeing,” “wellness,” “life satisfaction,” “happiness,” “positive affect,” “purpose in life,” “personal growth,” “self-determination”].

To retrieve research relevant only to higher education students, another set of keywords was imputed in all three searches in the title field. These included: [“university,” “college,” “higher education,” “tertiary education,” “post-secondary education,” “postsecondary education,” “undergrad ∗ student,” “grad ∗ student,” “master’s student,” “doctoral student,” “Ph.D. student”]. The Boolean operator OR was used between keywords in all the three searches to secure a higher number of relevant hits. Also, asterisks were used as wildcards to account for multiple variations in several keywords (e.g., disorder and disorder-s). All searches were limited to journal articles published between 1975 and 2020 (both inclusive). No restrictions on language were implemented in the search.

The search strategy retrieved a total of 6,356 hits ( n search 1 = 2782; n search 2 = 2814, n search 3 = 760). After the removal of duplicates, 5,561 research articles were finally selected and retained for the study. For each of the documents obtained in the search, the authors extracted metadata about the title of the paper, the year of publication, the journal, the number of citations, and the authors’ name, organization, and country. Also, the title, the abstract, the author’s keywords, and cited references were retrieved.

Data Analysis Procedures

The corpus of the literature was then analyzed using descriptive and bibliometric approaches to provide an overall picture of the evolution and current state of the research on mental health and wellbeing in university settings. Frequency counts of the number of publications and citations per year were obtained to describe the growth trajectory of research on the mental health and well-being of university students. Rank ordered tables were produced to describe the productivity of the field in terms of core journals and research areas, as well as leading scholars and countries contributing to the development of the field.

Bibliometric analyses in VOSViewer software were implemented to examine and visually represent the social, intellectual, and conceptual structure of the field. VOSViewer is a freely available computer software for viewing and constructing bibliometric maps 1 . In VOSViewer, the units of analysis are journals, publications, citations, authors, or countries, depending on the focus of the analysis. The units of analysis are represented in the maps as circular nodes. The size of the node accounts for volume (e.g., number of publications in the dataset by an author) and the position represents the similarity with other nodes in the map. Closer nodes are more alike than nodes far apart from each other. The lines connecting nodes represent the relationship between nodes and their thickness indicates the strength of that relationship. Finally, the color of the node denotes the cluster to which each node has been allocated. Nodes are clustered together based on relatedness ( Van Eck et al., 2010 ). The software uses a distance-based approach to constructing the bibliometric maps in three steps ( Van Eck and Waltman, 2014 ). In the first step, the software normalizes the differences between nodes. In the second step, the software builds a two-dimensional map where the distance between the nodes reflects the similarity between these nodes. In the third step, VOSViewer groups closely related nodes into clusters ( Van Eck and Waltman, 2014 ).

A series of co-authorship analyses were performed to examine the social structure of research on mental health and well-being in university students. In these analyses, the units of analysis were authors and countries/territories. Each node in the map represents an author or a country/territory and the lines connecting them reflect the relationship between nodes. Clusters represent networks of scientific collaboration, which might be interpreted as groups of authors or countries frequently publishing together (e.g., research groups in the case of authors).

Co-citation analysis of journals was implemented to explore the intellectual structure of the field. Here, the units of analysis were journals in the dataset and the map reflects co-citation relationships between journals. Two journals are co-cited if there is a third journal citing these two. The more times a pair of journals are cited by other journals, the stronger their co-citation relationship will be. Frequently co-cited journals are assumed to share theoretical and semantical grounds. Therefore, in our study, clusters of frequently co-cited journals can be interpreted as disciplines underlying the foundations of research on mental health and well-being in university students.

Finally, a co-occurrence analysis of keywords was used to uncover the conceptual structure of the field. The units of analysis, in this case, were the authors’ keywords. The more often two keywords appear in the same record, the stronger their co-occurrence relationship. Clusters of co-occurring keywords represent in this study the topical foci (i.e., knowledge base) that have been addressed in the literature in mental health and well-being in university students in the last 45 years.

Findings and Discussion

Growth trajectory: evolution of publications and citations in the field.

The developmental patterns of a particular field can be well demonstrated by trends in publications and citations. The 5,561 publications in the dataset have been cited 87,096 times, with an average of 15.6 citations per item. Figure 2 shows the growth trajectory of publication data of research on mental health and well-being in university students from 1975 to January 2020. Overall, the trends demonstrate a gradual increase in the scholarly interest in the mental health of university students over the last 45 years that can be organized in three stages: an emergence stage, in which publications rose slowly (1975–2000); a fermentation stage, with a notable increase in publications in the field (2000–2010); and a take-off stage, during which the number of records published per year in the field has almost risen 10 times (2010–2020). The steady increase of publications in the last 15 years coincides with the first calls for attention on the increase and severity of mental problems and help-seeking behaviors of college students ( Kadison and DiGeronimo, 2004 ; Evans et al., 2018 ), potentially indicating a growing interest in exploring the epidemiology of mental disorders and the role of universities in promoting the mental health and well-being of students. A similar pattern has also been observed in a recent bibliometric study examining global research on mental health both in absolute terms and as a proportion of all papers published in medicine and across disciplines, which certainly reflects an increase in the general interest in the field ( Larivière et al., 2013 ).

Figure 2. Growth of research on mental health and well-being of university students.

Productivity I: Core Journals and Research Areas

In total, 1,560 journals published the 5,561 records included in the dataset. Table 1 presents the ten core journals in the field. The Journal of American College stands out as the main publication venue in the field, accumulating around 5% of the publications in the dataset ( n = 270). Psychological Reports and Journal of College Student Development also stand out, publishing 119 and 102 studies, respectively. The Journal of Counseling Psychology ranks fourth in the list with 83 records. Despite being an interdisciplinary and relatively young journal, Plos One appears in the top five journal publishing research on mental health and well-being in university students.

Table 1. Core journals ranked by number of records.

The top research areas contributing to the publication of research on the mental health and well-being of university students are presented in Table 2 . Nearly half of the records in the dataset are published in psychology journals. Another influential research area in the field is psychiatry , which captures almost 20% of the publications. Journals on education and educational research also accumulate a considerable number of publications in the field (15%). Other relevant research areas in the field are connected with health and medicine, including public environmental occupational health , substance abuse , general internal medicine , neurosciences neurology , health care sciences services , and nursing . Finally, the field is also grounded, although to a lower extent, in the publications emerging from journals in the social sciences , family studies , and social work research.

Table 2. Top research areas ranked by number of records.

All in all, the productivity analysis for journals and research areas showed that most research on mental health and well-being in university students is disseminated in journals in the “psy disciplines”’ (i.e., psychology and psychiatry) ( McAvoy, 2014 ), which is consistent with previous research on mental health in general populations (e.g., Haslam and Lusher, 2011 ). However, our findings demonstrated that the volume of research in psychology doubles that of research emerging from psychiatric journals. This contrasts with the findings by Haslam and Lusher (2011) , who demonstrated that psychiatry journals had a greater influence on mental health research compared to clinical psychology journals and that psychiatry journals accumulate a higher volume of research and citations on mental health research. This is probably because our study includes publications emerging from all branches of psychology, unlike the study by Haslam and Lusher, which included only journals in the field of clinical psychology. Additionally, mental health services in higher education are typically provided by counseling centers led and staffed by non-medical professionals (e.g., psychologists, social workers, counselors, and family therapists) who tend to adopt developmental models of practice grounded in the behavioral sciences and focused on adjustment issues, vocational training, employment, and other personal needs rather than diagnosis and symptom reduction, more common in the biomedical sciences (i.e., psychiatry) ( LeViness et al., 2018 ; Mitchell et al., 2019 ).

Productivity II: Leading Authors and Countries/Territories

The 5,561 publications in the dataset were published by a total of 16,161 authors from 119 countries worldwide. Table 3 shows the researchers with the highest number of publications in the field. D. Eisenberg appears as the most productive researcher, followed by K. Peltzer and S. Pengpid. Authors on the list come from diverse geographical backgrounds. Five of the authors work at three different American universities (University of Michigan, Harvard Medical School, and Boston University), two researchers work at KU Leuven University (Belgium), and two other authors are affiliated to the same two universities in Thailand and South Africa. Other prolific researchers are affiliated with higher education institutions in the Netherlands, Egypt, and Germany.

Table 3. Leading authors ranked by number of records.

Countries and territories leading research on mental health and well-being of university students are presented in Table 4 . The United States is the indisputable leader in this field, publishing more than half of the records in the dataset. This is nearly 10 times the number of publications produced in China, which occupies the second position in the ranking and accounts for nearly 6% of the volume of research in the dataset. Three predominantly English speaking countries/territories complete the top five of the ranking: Canada (265 records), Australia (254), and England (243). The rest of the countries in the list are situated in Europe (Spain, Germany, Turkey), Western Asia (Iran), Africa (South Africa), and East Asia (Japan), which demonstrates that research on college students’ mental health and well-being is a matter of concern in different regions of the world, at least to some extent.

Table 4. Leading countries/territories ranked by number of records.

Overall, the productivity analysis for authors and countries indicated that the research of mental health and well-being of university students occurs in a variety of locations around the world, especially in developed countries, and in a very prominent way, in the United States. This is not surprising since it is in those countries where better infrastructures and more abundant resources for research are available ( Wong et al., 2006 ), and a more lasting tradition in the study of mental health, in general, exists ( Gopalkrishnan, 2018 ). However, Larivière et al. (2013) found that the productivity of the United States on mental health research has dropped significantly and remained stable in other two English speaking countries (the United Kingdom and Canada) since 1980. On the contrary, the number of publications from European countries and the five major emerging national economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), has experienced remarkable growth, and collectively account nearly for half of the publications in the field. Still, the predominance of knowledge generated in the developed world today, which tends to be grounded on psychiatric and psychological perspectives, might be eclipsing non-traditional views on mental health and well-being that are popular in other regions of the world and, therefore, limiting the development of effective initiatives that align better with local norms, values, and needs in LMICs ( Timimi, 2010 ; Summerfield, 2013 ).

Social Structure: Networks of Scientific Collaboration

Research collaboration is regarded as an indicator of quality research and a means to improve research productivity and academic impact (i.e., citations) ( Kim, 2006 ; Abramo et al., 2009 ). In particular, international research collaboration is considered a key contributor to the social construction of science and the evolution of scientific disciplines ( Coccia and Wang, 2016 ). There is recent evidence that national and international research collaborations have been accelerating in recent years ( Gazni et al., 2012 ; Wagner et al., 2015 ), especially in applied fields such as medical and psychological disciplines ( Coccia and Bozeman, 2016 ). In this study, co-authorship analyses were performed to find out patterns in the scientific collaboration between researchers and countries/territories on the mental health and well-being of university students.

Figure 3 demonstrates collaborative ties among authors who published at least 5 articles in the dataset ( n = 179). The map shows the existence of multiple productive collaborative networks of five or more researchers contributing to the development of the field. The largest collaboration network (red cluster) represents an international research group composed of 15 scholars affiliated to universities in the United States, Belgium, and Netherlands. This cluster groups some of the leading scholars in the field, including R. P. Auerbach, R. Brauffaerts, R. C. Kressler, and P. Cuijpers. Moreover, researchers in this cluster lead The WHO World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) Initiative, a large scale international project aimed at promoting the mental health and well-being of college students around the world through generating epidemiological data of mental health issues in university students worldwide, designing web-based interventions for the prevention and promotion of mental health, and disseminating evidence-based interventions ( Cuijpers et al., 2019 ). The second biggest cluster (green) represents an intra-national research network that includes 10 researchers from eight different higher education institutions in the United States. The dark blue cluster represents an institutional collaborative network, including nine researchers from the School of Public Health, Puerto Rico. Other prominent clusters in the map represent collaborative research networks between eight (olive color) and seven researchers (turquoise, violet, orange, and mellow mauve). This contrasts, however, with the limited collaboration that exists between clusters. Only four of the clusters on the map demonstrate some kind of scientific collaboration in the field (light blue, pink, brown, and yellow).

Figure 3. Collaborative research networks between researchers. Only researchers with five or more publications were considered in the analysis ( n = 179).

Cross-country collaboration networks in mental health and well-being of university students study are presented in Figure 4 . Research collaborations between countries with 20 or more publications were considered in this analysis ( n = 45). The United States occupies the central position of the map and shares collaborative ties with all other countries/territories, forming a cluster together with China, South Korea, and Taiwan. Overall, the results suggest that international collaborations in the field are framed to a large extent by cultural, linguistic, and geographical proximity. For instance, the largest cluster (red) is formed by two European countries (Spain and Portugal) and other South American countries with whom they share historical and cultural backgrounds. Other European countries form the purple cluster. Similarly, the blue cluster clearly brings together predominantly English-speaking countries and territories, while the green cluster agglomerates a range of Asian countries.

Figure 4. Collaborative research networks between countries and territories. Only countries with 20 or more publications were considered in the analysis ( n = 45).

Collectively, the results of our study suggest that research collaboration in the field of mental health and well-being in university students remains relatively scarce and localized to date. The social structure of the field at the author level could be described as an archipelago formed by a large number of islands (research groups) of different composition and size but with few bridges connecting them, which suggests a relatively fragmented research community. Moreover, while the existence of international collaborative networks was evident in the analysis, they seem to be formed within national borders, between researchers in neighboring countries/territories, or between countries that share cultural, linguistic, and historical heritages. This may be due to the important role that cultural and traditional values play in the conceptualization of mental health and well-being across contexts ( Eshun and Gurung, 2009 ; Vaillant, 2012 ; Fernando, 2019 ). Also, language differences, divergent cross-national institutional and organizational traditions, and increased costs of extramural collaboration, have been found to complicate the formation and continuity of research partnerships in health research ( Hooper et al., 2005 ; Freshwater et al., 2006 ). Nevertheless, limited within- and between-country research collaboration arguably poses challenges to the development of a field in terms of lost opportunities to challenge assumptions taken for granted and move toward fresh perspectives, push boundaries in methods and techniques, meet diverse groups of people from differing cultures and get immersed in those cultures, share information, resources, and skills, and address common mental health problems through the pooling of resources ( Rolfe et al., 2004 ; Freshwater et al., 2006 ).

Intellectual Structure: Disciplines Underlying the Foundations of the Field

Interdisciplinarity is considered as a valuable approach to address the complex and multidimensional nature of health and well-being ( Mabry et al., 2008 ). Buckton (2015) argues that the integration of medical, psychological, and social sciences have contributed to generate “new insights into theory, practice, and research in mental health and development.” (3). To examine the disciplines underlying research on the mental health and well-being of university students, a journal co-citation analysis was performed. In this analysis, only journals with at least 50 citations were considered ( n = 593). The nodes on the map represent journals and their size reflects the number of co-citation relationships with other journals. Colors account for journal clusters, which agglutinate journals with higher co-citation relationships and stronger semantic connectedness. Clusters were interpreted and labeled accounting for the WoS categorization of the journals with the highest co-citation links within each cluster. For example, if the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , the Journal of Counseling Psychology , and Personality and Individual Differences clustered together, this group was interpreted as the personality, social, and counseling psychology cluster.

In general, the findings of this study suggest that research on mental health and well-being in university students is interdisciplinary, to a certain extent, and mainly emerges from the convergence of research conducted in the behavioral and biomedical sciences, as it has been suggested elsewhere ( Schumann et al., 2014 ; Wittchen et al., 2014b ). More specifically, the map shows that the research in the mental health and well-being of university students is constructed through the integration of knowledge generated in five interconnected disciplines (see Figure 5 ). To the left of the map, the red cluster integrates journals on personal, social, and counseling psychology . To the right, the blue cluster represents the contribution of psychiatric journals to research to the formation and development of the field. At the top, the yellow cluster groups journals on substance abuse and issues related to alcohol consumption, addiction, and interpersonal violence. At the bottom of the map, journals covering topics on eating behaviors, sleep, and other issues related to physical health converge on the green cluster. At the center of the map is the purple cluster, which includes journals in the area of clinical psychology and behavioral therapy .

Figure 5. Map of clustered network journals based on co-citation data. Only publications with 50 or more citations were considered in the analysis ( n = 593).

More broadly, the findings suggest that biomedical sciences contribute to a large extent to the composition of the field. Psychiatric research emerged in our study as an obvious building block in the study of university students’ mental health and well-being, which is not surprising considering the historical contributions of biomedical disciplines to mental health research ( Schwartz and Corcoran, 2010 ). Within the behavioral sciences, personality and social psychology, which explores processes and mechanisms through which social phenomena influence mental health and well-being ( Sánchez Moreno and Barrón López de Roda, 2003 ), appears as a key discipline underlying the foundations of the field. Surprisingly, clinical psychology journals occupy a central position in the map and demonstrate co-citation relationships with journals from all other clusters but make up the most dispersed network and account for a considerably lower volume of co-citation relationships in the field. This suggests that clinical psychology journals are more subordinate to journals in other disciplines in terms of citations flows, and ultimately, play a less unique role in research on the mental health and well-being of university students, as suggested by Haslam and Lusher (2011) . Interestingly, research arising from the social sciences (e.g., sociology and anthropology) does not seem to make a distinctive contribution to the intellectual structure of the field, which suggests that the influence of social contexts and cultures on university students’ mental health and well-being (e.g., inequality, social norms, public policies, cultural beliefs, and values) is an underexplored research area. Still, the density of co-citation network relationships within and between clusters is particularly noteworthy, considering the lack of common language between disciplines, the absence of a shared philosophy of practice on mental health, and the tensions between medical, psychological, and social explanations of mental distress ( Bailey, 2012 ).

Conceptual Structure: Topical Foci Addressed in the Literature Over the Last 45 Years

The topical foci of research on the mental health and well-being of university students during the 1975–January 2020 period are presented in Figure 6 . The map offers a visual representation of the co-occurrence analysis of author keywords of all the publications included in the dataset. Only the most frequently occurring keywords (25+ occurrences) were considered in the analysis ( n = 84). Items that were not related to others and do not belong to the existing clusters were excluded. The size of the nodes indicates the occurrence of author keywords in the dataset and the thickness of edges represents the co-occurrence strength between pairs of keywords.

Figure 6. Topical foci in mental health and well-being of university students research. Only keywords with 25 or more occurrences were considered in the analysis ( n = 84).

The most frequent keywords in the dataset, excluding students’ descriptors (e.g., college students and university students), refer to common mental health challenges experienced by university students such as depression ( n = 612), anxiety ( n = 353), and stress ( n = 341). Salutogenic-related keywords such as well-being and life satisfaction occurred less often ( n = 138, n = 113, respectively), suggesting that pathogenic approaches to the exploration of mental health issues in higher education are more widespread. More broadly, seven general themes seem to summarize the topical foci of interest in the field of mental health and well-being of university students over the last 45 years. First, there has been a general interest in positive mental health , as denoted by frequently co-occurring key terms such as well-being, self-esteem, life satisfaction, social support, emotional intelligence, and happiness (red cluster). Second, mental disorders stand as another theme widely addressed in the literature, with a special emphasis on depression, anxiety, and to a lesser extent, suicide and suicidal ideation (green cluster). A third topical area in this field has been substance abuse , most predominantly alcohol consumption (blue cluster). The fourth theme reflects college counseling for mental health , including interventions and protective factors such as mindfulness, stress management, spirituality, and help-seeking (yellow cluster). Other topics reflected in the map are mental illness stigma (purple), stress (e.g., psychological distress and coping) (light blue), and mental health measurement (orange).

This study provides a comprehensive overview of the research on university students’ mental health and well-being in the last 45 years using bibliometric indicators. In general, the results reveal interesting trends in the evolution of the field over the last four decades and promising scientific patterns toward a better understanding of the mental health and well-being of university students internationally. First, the interest in the mental health and well-being of university students has grown in the last decades and in a very significant way during the last 10 years, indicating that this area has not still reached its maturity period and will continue developing in the future. Second, research in the field is relatively interdisciplinary and emerges from the convergence of research conducted in several disciplines within the behavioral and biomedical sciences. Third, research in this field is produced by a community of productive researchers coming from several regions around the world, most notably in the United States, which secures a generation of scholars that will continue shaping the field in the years to come. Fourth, over the last 45 years, researchers have been able to address a multitude of research topics in the field, including positive mental health, mental disorders, substance abuse, counseling, stigma, stress, and mental health measurement.

However, this study also identified some issues that could be hindering the development of the study of the mental health and well-being of university students. For example, the research available overrepresents theoretical and disciplinary approaches from the developed world. Additional studies on the field from developing economies and LMICs are needed to provide a more comprehensive picture and ensure a fair representation of the multiple perspectives available in the field. Such studies would inform administrators and practitioners on how to broaden and enrich available programs and initiatives to promote mental health and well-being in higher education contexts in order to offer alternative forms of support that university students find appropriate for their social and cultural values. Moreover, the research community contributing to the development of the field is relatively fragmented. There are multiple research groups but little research collaborations between them and, at the international level, these connections tend to be limited by geographic, cultural, and language proximity. In this context, more actions like the WMH-ICS Initiative could provide a partial solution to this problem by strengthening national and international research partnerships and facilitating knowledge exchange across regions. Also, special issues in the core journals in the field inviting cross-cultural studies on the topic could contribute to promoting research collaboration across regions and research in less represented countries. The field would also benefit from a greater volume of research from the social sciences and humanities exploring the influence of social, cultural, economic, and educational factors on the conceptualization, manifestation, and experience of mental health and well-being. Moreover, more studies emerging from disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, business, and education, would likely increase the permeability of positive mental health concepts into the field and contribute to the promotion of salutogenic approaches to the study of mental health and well-being of university students.

This study has several limitations. First, publications were retrieved only from the WoS database, which limits the generalizability of the findings. Second, WoS provides stronger coverage of Life Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, and Engineering, and includes a disproportionate number of publications in the English language ( Mongeon and Paul-Hus, 2016 ). This could partially explain the low number of publications emerging from the Social Sciences, the Arts, and the Humanities, and research conducted in non-English speaking countries in the present study. Third, only journal articles were retrieved for analysis, excluding other relevant publications in the field such as reviews, book chapters, and conference proceedings. Future studies could replicate the findings of this study using alternative databases (e.g., Scopus and PubMed) or a combination of them, as well as different filters in the search strategy, to provide an alternative coverage of research conducted in the field. Nevertheless, we believe that the bibliometric approach used in this study offers novel insights about the development and current status of the field and some of the challenges that undermine its progression.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

Author Contributions

DH-T and LI contributed to conception and design of the study, organized the database, and performed the statistical analysis. DH-T, LI, and JS wrote the first draft of the manuscript. NL, AC, AA, YN, and AM wrote the sections of the manuscript.

This research was funded by the Nazarbayev University Faculty-Development Competitive Research Grants Program (Reference Number 240919FD3902).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords : mental health, mental illness, well-being, psychological distress, university students, higher education, bibliometric review, VOSViewer

Citation: Hernández-Torrano D, Ibrayeva L, Sparks J, Lim N, Clementi A, Almukhambetova A, Nurtayev Y and Muratkyzy A (2020) Mental Health and Well-Being of University Students: A Bibliometric Mapping of the Literature. Front. Psychol. 11:1226. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01226

Received: 03 March 2020; Accepted: 11 May 2020; Published: 09 June 2020.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2020 Hernández-Torrano, Ibrayeva, Sparks, Lim, Clementi, Almukhambetova, Nurtayev and Muratkyzy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Daniel Hernández-Torrano, [email protected] ; [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Student mental health is in crisis. Campuses are rethinking their approach

Amid massive increases in demand for care, psychologists are helping colleges and universities embrace a broader culture of well-being and better equipping faculty to support students in need

Vol. 53 No. 7 Print version: page 60

• Mental Health

By nearly every metric, student mental health is worsening. During the 2020–2021 school year, more than 60% of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem, according to the Healthy Minds Study, which collects data from 373 campuses nationwide ( Lipson, S. K., et al., Journal of Affective Disorders , Vol. 306, 2022 ). In another national survey, almost three quarters of students reported moderate or severe psychological distress ( National College Health Assessment , American College Health Association, 2021).

Even before the pandemic, schools were facing a surge in demand for care that far outpaced capacity, and it has become increasingly clear that the traditional counseling center model is ill-equipped to solve the problem.

“Counseling centers have seen extraordinary increases in demand over the past decade,” said Michael Gerard Mason, PhD, associate dean of African American Affairs at the University of Virginia (UVA) and a longtime college counselor. “[At UVA], our counseling staff has almost tripled in size, but even if we continue hiring, I don’t think we could ever staff our way out of this challenge.”

Some of the reasons for that increase are positive. Compared with past generations, more students on campus today have accessed mental health treatment before college, suggesting that higher education is now an option for a larger segment of society, said Micky Sharma, PsyD, who directs student life’s counseling and consultation service at The Ohio State University (OSU). Stigma around mental health issues also continues to drop, leading more people to seek help instead of suffering in silence.

But college students today are also juggling a dizzying array of challenges, from coursework, relationships, and adjustment to campus life to economic strain, social injustice, mass violence, and various forms of loss related to Covid -19.

As a result, school leaders are starting to think outside the box about how to help. Institutions across the country are embracing approaches such as group therapy, peer counseling, and telehealth. They’re also better equipping faculty and staff to spot—and support—students in distress, and rethinking how to respond when a crisis occurs. And many schools are finding ways to incorporate a broader culture of wellness into their policies, systems, and day-to-day campus life.

“This increase in demand has challenged institutions to think holistically and take a multifaceted approach to supporting students,” said Kevin Shollenberger, the vice provost for student health and well-being at Johns Hopkins University. “It really has to be everyone’s responsibility at the university to create a culture of well-being.”

Higher caseloads, creative solutions

The number of students seeking help at campus counseling centers increased almost 40% between 2009 and 2015 and continued to rise until the pandemic began, according to data from Penn State University’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH), a research-practice network of more than 700 college and university counseling centers ( CCMH Annual Report , 2015 ).

That rising demand hasn’t been matched by a corresponding rise in funding, which has led to higher caseloads. Nationwide, the average annual caseload for a typical full-time college counselor is about 120 students, with some centers averaging more than 300 students per counselor ( CCMH Annual Report , 2021 ).

“We find that high-caseload centers tend to provide less care to students experiencing a wide range of problems, including those with safety concerns and critical issues—such as suicidality and trauma—that are often prioritized by institutions,” said psychologist Brett Scofield, PhD, executive director of CCMH.

To minimize students slipping through the cracks, schools are dedicating more resources to rapid access and assessment, where students can walk in for a same-day intake or single counseling session, rather than languishing on a waitlist for weeks or months. Following an evaluation, many schools employ a stepped-care model, where the students who are most in need receive the most intensive care.

Given the wide range of concerns students are facing, experts say this approach makes more sense than offering traditional therapy to everyone.

“Early on, it was just about more, more, more clinicians,” said counseling psychologist Carla McCowan, PhD, director of the counseling center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “In the past few years, more centers are thinking creatively about how to meet the demand. Not every student needs individual therapy, but many need opportunities to increase their resilience, build new skills, and connect with one another.”

Students who are struggling with academic demands, for instance, may benefit from workshops on stress, sleep, time management, and goal-setting. Those who are mourning the loss of a typical college experience because of the pandemic—or facing adjustment issues such as loneliness, low self-esteem, or interpersonal conflict—are good candidates for peer counseling. Meanwhile, students with more acute concerns, including disordered eating, trauma following a sexual assault, or depression, can still access one-on-one sessions with professional counselors.

As they move away from a sole reliance on individual therapy, schools are also working to shift the narrative about what mental health care on campus looks like. Scofield said it’s crucial to manage expectations among students and their families, ideally shortly after (or even before) enrollment. For example, most counseling centers won’t be able to offer unlimited weekly sessions throughout a student’s college career—and those who require that level of support will likely be better served with a referral to a community provider.

“We really want to encourage institutions to be transparent about the services they can realistically provide based on the current staffing levels at a counseling center,” Scofield said.

The first line of defense

Faculty may be hired to teach, but schools are also starting to rely on them as “first responders” who can help identify students in distress, said psychologist Hideko Sera, PsyD, director of the Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Morehouse College, a historically Black men’s college in Atlanta. During the pandemic, that trend accelerated.

“Throughout the remote learning phase of the pandemic, faculty really became students’ main points of contact with the university,” said Bridgette Hard, PhD, an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. “It became more important than ever for faculty to be able to detect when a student might be struggling.”

Many felt ill-equipped to do so, though, with some wondering if it was even in their scope of practice to approach students about their mental health without specialized training, Mason said.

Schools are using several approaches to clarify expectations of faculty and give them tools to help. About 900 faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina have received training in Mental Health First Aid , which provides basic skills for supporting people with mental health and substance use issues. Other institutions are offering workshops and materials that teach faculty to “recognize, respond, and refer,” including Penn State’s Red Folder campaign .

Faculty are taught that a sudden change in behavior—including a drop in attendance, failure to submit assignments, or a disheveled appearance—may indicate that a student is struggling. Staff across campus, including athletic coaches and academic advisers, can also monitor students for signs of distress. (At Penn State, eating disorder referrals can even come from staff working in food service, said counseling psychologist Natalie Hernandez DePalma, PhD, senior director of the school’s counseling and psychological services.) Responding can be as simple as reaching out and asking if everything is going OK.

Referral options vary but may include directing a student to a wellness seminar or calling the counseling center to make an appointment, which can help students access services that they may be less likely to seek on their own, Hernandez DePalma said. Many schools also offer reporting systems, such as DukeReach at Duke University , that allow anyone on campus to express concern about a student if they are unsure how to respond. Trained care providers can then follow up with a welfare check or offer other forms of support.

“Faculty aren’t expected to be counselors, just to show a sense of care that they notice something might be going on, and to know where to refer students,” Shollenberger said.

At Johns Hopkins, he and his team have also worked with faculty on ways to discuss difficult world events during class after hearing from students that it felt jarring when major incidents such as George Floyd’s murder or the war in Ukraine went unacknowledged during class.

Many schools also support faculty by embedding counselors within academic units, where they are more visible to students and can develop cultural expertise (the needs of students studying engineering may differ somewhat from those in fine arts, for instance).

When it comes to course policy, even small changes can make a big difference for students, said Diana Brecher, PhD, a clinical psychologist and scholar-in-residence for positive psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), formerly Ryerson University. For example, instructors might allow students a 7-day window to submit assignments, giving them agency to coordinate with other coursework and obligations. Setting deadlines in the late afternoon or early evening, as opposed to at midnight, can also help promote student wellness.

At Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC) near Chicago, Shelita Shaw, an assistant professor of communications, devised new class policies and assignments when she noticed students struggling with mental health and motivation. Those included mental health days, mindful journaling, and a trip with family and friends to a Chicago landmark, such as Millennium Park or Navy Pier—where many MVCC students had never been.

Faculty in the psychology department may have a unique opportunity to leverage insights from their own discipline to improve student well-being. Hard, who teaches introductory psychology at Duke, weaves in messages about how students can apply research insights on emotion regulation, learning and memory, and a positive “stress mindset” to their lives ( Crum, A. J., et al., Anxiety, Stress, & Coping , Vol. 30, No. 4, 2017 ).

Along with her colleague Deena Kara Shaffer, PhD, Brecher cocreated TMU’s Thriving in Action curriculum, which is delivered through a 10-week in-person workshop series and via a for-credit elective course. The material is also freely available for students to explore online . The for-credit course includes lectures on gratitude, attention, healthy habits, and other topics informed by psychological research that are intended to set students up for success in studying, relationships, and campus life.

“We try to embed a healthy approach to studying in the way we teach the class,” Brecher said. “For example, we shift activities every 20 minutes or so to help students sustain attention and stamina throughout the lesson.”

Creative approaches to support

Given the crucial role of social connection in maintaining and restoring mental health, many schools have invested in group therapy. Groups can help students work through challenges such as social anxiety, eating disorders, sexual assault, racial trauma, grief and loss, chronic illness, and more—with the support of professional counselors and peers. Some cater to specific populations, including those who tend to engage less with traditional counseling services. At Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), for example, the “Bold Eagles” support group welcomes men who are exploring their emotions and gender roles.

The widespread popularity of group therapy highlights the decrease in stigma around mental health services on college campuses, said Jon Brunner, PhD, the senior director of counseling and wellness services at FGCU. At smaller schools, creating peer support groups that feel anonymous may be more challenging, but providing clear guidelines about group participation, including confidentiality, can help put students at ease, Brunner said.

Less formal groups, sometimes called “counselor chats,” meet in public spaces around campus and can be especially helpful for reaching underserved groups—such as international students, first-generation college students, and students of color—who may be less likely to seek services at a counseling center. At Johns Hopkins, a thriving international student support group holds weekly meetings in a café next to the library. Counselors typically facilitate such meetings, often through partnerships with campus centers or groups that support specific populations, such as LGBTQ students or student athletes.

“It’s important for students to see counselors out and about, engaging with the campus community,” McCowan said. “Otherwise, you’re only seeing the students who are comfortable coming in the door.”

Peer counseling is another means of leveraging social connectedness to help students stay well. At UVA, Mason and his colleagues found that about 75% of students reached out to a peer first when they were in distress, while only about 11% contacted faculty, staff, or administrators.

“What we started to understand was that in many ways, the people who had the least capacity to provide a professional level of help were the ones most likely to provide it,” he said.

Project Rise , a peer counseling service created by and for Black students at UVA, was one antidote to this. Mason also helped launch a two-part course, “Hoos Helping Hoos,” (a nod to UVA’s unofficial nickname, the Wahoos) to train students across the university on empathy, mentoring, and active listening skills.

At Washington University in St. Louis, Uncle Joe’s Peer Counseling and Resource Center offers confidential one-on-one sessions, in person and over the phone, to help fellow students manage anxiety, depression, academic stress, and other campus-life issues. Their peer counselors each receive more than 100 hours of training, including everything from basic counseling skills to handling suicidality.

Uncle Joe’s codirectors, Colleen Avila and Ruchika Kamojjala, say the service is popular because it’s run by students and doesn’t require a long-term investment the way traditional psychotherapy does.

“We can form a connection, but it doesn’t have to feel like a commitment,” said Avila, a senior studying studio art and philosophy-neuroscience-psychology. “It’s completely anonymous, one time per issue, and it’s there whenever you feel like you need it.”

As part of the shift toward rapid access, many schools also offer “Let’s Talk” programs , which allow students to drop in for an informal one-on-one session with a counselor. Some also contract with telehealth platforms, such as WellTrack and SilverCloud, to ensure that services are available whenever students need them. A range of additional resources—including sleep seminars, stress management workshops, wellness coaching, and free subscriptions to Calm, Headspace, and other apps—are also becoming increasingly available to students.

Those approaches can address many student concerns, but institutions also need to be prepared to aid students during a mental health crisis, and some are rethinking how best to do so. Penn State offers a crisis line, available anytime, staffed with counselors ready to talk or deploy on an active rescue. Johns Hopkins is piloting a behavioral health crisis support program, similar to one used by the New York City Police Department, that dispatches trained crisis clinicians alongside public safety officers to conduct wellness checks.

A culture of wellness

With mental health resources no longer confined to the counseling center, schools need a way to connect students to a range of available services. At OSU, Sharma was part of a group of students, staff, and administrators who visited Apple Park in Cupertino, California, to develop the Ohio State: Wellness App .

Students can use the app to create their own “wellness plan” and access timely content, such as advice for managing stress during final exams. They can also connect with friends to share articles and set goals—for instance, challenging a friend to attend two yoga classes every week for a month. OSU’s apps had more than 240,000 users last year.

At Johns Hopkins, administrators are exploring how to adapt school policies and procedures to better support student wellness, Shollenberger said. For example, they adapted their leave policy—including how refunds, grades, and health insurance are handled—so that students can take time off with fewer barriers. The university also launched an educational campaign this fall to help international students navigate student health insurance plans after noticing below average use by that group.

Students are a key part of the effort to improve mental health care, including at the systemic level. At Morehouse College, Sera serves as the adviser for Chill , a student-led advocacy and allyship organization that includes members from Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University, two other HBCUs in the area. The group, which received training on federal advocacy from APA’s Advocacy Office earlier this year, aims to lobby public officials—including U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, a Morehouse College alumnus—to increase mental health resources for students of color.

“This work is very aligned with the spirit of HBCUs, which are often the ones raising voices at the national level to advocate for the betterment of Black and Brown communities,” Sera said.

Despite the creative approaches that students, faculty, staff, and administrators are employing, students continue to struggle, and most of those doing this work agree that more support is still urgently needed.

“The work we do is important, but it can also be exhausting,” said Kamojjala, of Uncle Joe’s peer counseling, which operates on a volunteer basis. “Students just need more support, and this work won’t be sustainable in the long run if that doesn’t arrive.”

Further reading

Overwhelmed: The real campus mental-health crisis and new models for well-being The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2022

Mental health in college populations: A multidisciplinary review of what works, evidence gaps, and paths forward Abelson, S., et al., Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 2022

Student mental health status report: Struggles, stressors, supports Ezarik, M., Inside Higher Ed, 2022

Before heading to college, make a mental health checklist Caron, C., The New York Times, 2022

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Examining the mental health of university students: A quantitative and qualitative approach to identifying prevalence, associations, stressors, and interventions

Affiliations.

• 1 Department of Dental Public Health and Behavioural Sciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, Kansas City, MO, USA.
• 2 Office of Research and Graduate Programs, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, Kansas City, MO, USA.
• PMID: 35380931
• DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2022.2057192

Objective To identify the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation that would place university students at risk for mental health disorders. To explore the source of stressors and possible interventions that may benefit student mental health in a university setting.

Participants: University students (n = 483) who had been learning remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A mixed-methods cross-sectional survey was administered in 2020.

Results: Students were at an increased rate of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation as compared to the general population. Female gender, lack of social support, living alone, being a first-generation college student and COVID-19 were significantly associated with mental health disorders. Stressors were identified and categorized into themes and interventions were recognized that may improve student well-being.

Conclusion: Students enrolled in university programs appear to experience significant amounts of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Additional mental health education, resources, and support is needed.

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; college students; depression; suicidal ideation.

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Supporting mental health and wellbeing of university and college students: A systematic review of review-level evidence of interventions

Joanne deborah worsley.

1 Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Andy Pennington

2 Department of Public Health and Policy, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Rhiannon Corcoran

Associated data.

The authors have provided detailed information regarding their search strategy and the articles that were found. The information necessary to replicate the study is in the Supporting information files.

The review of reviews had three aims: (i) to synthesize the available evidence on interventions to improve college and university students’ mental health and wellbeing; (ii) to identify the effectiveness of interventions, and (iii) to highlight gaps in the evidence base for future study.

Electronic database searches were conducted to identify reviews in English from high-income OECD countries published between 1999 and 2020. All review-level empirical studies involving post-secondary students attending colleges of further education or universities that examined interventions to improve general mental health and wellbeing were included. Articles were critically appraised using an amended version of the AMSTAR 2 tool. Evidence from the included reviews were narratively synthesized and organised by intervention types.

Twenty-seven reviews met the review of reviews inclusion criteria. The quality of the included reviews varied considerably. Intervention types identified included: mindfulness-based interventions, psychological interventions, psychoeducation interventions, recreation programmes, relaxation interventions, setting-based interventions, and stress management/reduction interventions. There was evidence that mindfulness-based interventions, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and interventions delivered via technology were effective when compared to a passive control. Some evidence suggested that the effects of CBT-related interventions are sustained over time. Psychoeducation interventions do not appear to be as effective as other forms of intervention, with its effects not enduring over time.

Conclusions

The review of reviews located a sizeable body of evidence on specific interventions such as mindfulness and cognitive-behavioural interventions. The evidence suggests that these interventions can effectively reduce common mental health difficulties in the higher education student body. Gaps and limitations in the reviews and the underlying body of evidence have been identified. These include a notable gap in the existing body of review-level evidence on setting-based interventions, acceptance and commitment training, and interventions for students attending colleges in UK settings.

Introduction

Poor mental health of further and higher education students is a growing public policy concern [ 1 , 2 ]. Recent research indicates that levels of common mental health difficulties, self-harm, and suicide are increasing among young people, especially young women [ 3 – 5 ]. There have been particular concerns about university students, with research and official figures suggesting that there has been an increase in the number of students experiencing mental health problems over recent years. Data on young people aged 16 to 24 years from three UK National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys (2000, 2007, and 2014) highlighted that the prevalence of common mental health problems, suicide attempts, and self-harm was similar in students and non-students [ 6 ]. Between 2007 and 2014, however, the prevalence of common mental health problems increased in female students but not in female non-students. Although the prevalence of non-suicidal self-harm increased between 2000 and 2014 in both students and non-students, a smaller proportion of students than non-students reported suicide attempts [ 6 ]. US college students are also increasingly reporting common mental health problems and suicidality [ 7 ]. It is, therefore, important for educational institutions to offer accessible and effective interventions for their students.

Research suggests that young people’s mental health is poorer during university study than before entry. In a UK study, anxiety and depression were found to be higher at mid-course compared to one-month pre-entry into university [ 8 ]. Similarly, a UK cohort study found that levels of psychological distress increase on entering university and levels of distress did not return to pre-registration levels [ 9 ]. Other studies have also demonstrated that students’ mental health is poorer during their first year of study compared to pre-entry into university [ 10 ].

Concern around students’ mental health has prompted recent focus on mental health provision [ 11 ]. Services offered within educational institutions typically include either individual or group counselling. Although these services are well-positioned to provide mental health care, many college counselling centres across the US are under-resourced and operate at full capacity during much of the year [ 12 ]. According to an online survey of UK student counselling services, there was an increase in demand for support services over a three-year period in further education sectors [ 13 ]. Similarly, there has been an increase in the number of students seeking support from university counselling services [ 14 ]. Despite this increase, the capacity of professional services to offer 1 to 1 support to large numbers of students is limited [ 2 ]. Although requests for professional support have increased substantially [ 15 ], only a third of higher education students with mental health problems seek support from counselling services in the UK [ 16 ]. Many students do not seek help due to barriers such as stigma or lack of awareness of services [ 17 – 19 ]. Without formal support or intervention, there is a risk of further deterioration.

Given the increase in mental health problems among students and the surge in demand for formal support [ 1 , 20 , 21 ], reactive services alone cannot effectively support student mental health and wellbeing [ 11 ]. Educational institutions have recognised the need to move beyond traditional forms of support and provide alternative, more accessible interventions aimed at improving mental health and wellbeing. Such institutions have unique opportunities to identify, prevent, and treat mental health problems because they support multiple aspects of students’ lives. Although interventions exist to improve general mental health and wellbeing of students, research on the effectiveness of the various interventions has not been effectively synthesised to date. To address this, we conducted a review of review-level evidence to capture the largest body of existing research on general mental health and wellbeing interventions for college and university students. As there was a substantial body of reviews to be synthesised, the purpose of our review of review-level evidence was to summarise and synthesise this evidence and identify remaining gaps and limitations in the evidence base. This review of reviews aimed to: (i) synthesize the available evidence on interventions to improve college and university students’ mental health and wellbeing; (ii) identify the effectiveness of interventions, and (iii) highlight gaps for future study. The review of reviews explored two questions:

• What is the current evidence on interventions to improve the general mental health and wellbeing of college and university students?
• What does the evidence tell us about the effectiveness of current interventions and what interventions are likely to be the most effective?

Study identification

Search strategy.

We conducted a search of English language peer-reviewed literature of MEDLINE and MEDLINE In Process and other Non-Indexed Citations (via OVID) ; PsycINFO (via EBSCOhost) ; Social Science Citation Index (via Web of Science) ; and CINAHL Plus (via EBSCOhost) , from 1999 (01/01/1999) to 2020 (31/12/2020), which reflects review-level evidence of interventions before the global COVID-19 pandemic. Reference lists of all eligible reviews were hand-searched in order to identify additional relevant reviews (citation ‘snowballing’). Examples of each search strategy can be found in S1 File .

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

We included all review-level empirical studies (reviews of Randomised Controlled Trials [RCTs] and/or Non-Randomised Studies of Interventions [NRSIs]) involving post-secondary students attending colleges of further education or universities that examined interventions to improve general mental health and wellbeing. Both universal and indicated interventions aimed at improving mental health were included. Universal interventions are aimed at students without any pre-existing mental health problems, whilst indicated interventions are aimed at students who meet criteria for mild to moderate levels of mental health problems or have acknowledged an existing mental health problem, such as depression or anxiety. Thus, studies were included involving both general student populations and students with mental health problems. Studies were excluded if they examined interventions to address specific, pre-existing neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or focused on non-health or wellbeing outcomes (e.g., educational performance outcomes). The search was limited to English language literature. Only peer-reviewed reviews published from year 1999 onwards from high-income countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were included.

Titles and abstracts of publications were independently screened by two reviewers (JW and AP). Full-text copies of relevant reviews were obtained and assessed independently for inclusion by two reviewers (JW and AP). Any queries or disagreements were resolved by discussion or by recourse to a third reviewer (RC).

Assessment of methodological quality

All reviews that met the inclusion criteria were critically appraised using an amended version of the AMSTAR 2 tool [ 22 ]. The tool was amended to make it sensitive enough to differentiate between the various methodological standards of this particular body of evidence (see S2 File ). The reviews were quality assessed independently by two reviewers. Based on the results of the critical appraisal, reviews were then categorised as: (i) higher methodological quality (score 10 or above); (ii) moderate methodological quality (score 6 to 9); or (iii) lower methodological quality (score 0 to 5). This is a rating/categorisation of relative methodological quality across this body of evidence.

Data extraction and synthesis

The following data was extracted by the first author and checked for accuracy by the second author: aims, primary study design, setting/country, type of intervention, comparator (if any), population, outcomes reported, main findings in relation to the review questions, limitations, and conclusions specified by authors. Key findings from the reviews were tabulated and narratively synthesised [ 23 ]. Findings were grouped by intervention category, with evidence from higher methodological quality reviews reported first and in greater detail [following 24 , 25 ].

The search generated 4,006 records. Title and abstract screening resulted in 44 articles that met the study inclusion criteria. Full-text screening resulted in the inclusion of 27 reviews. Seventeen reviews were excluded as not meeting inclusion criteria (see S3 File ). A summary of our study selection process is presented in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Flow Diagram ( Fig 1 ).

Characteristics of the included reviews

The characteristics of included reviews are summarised within Table 1 . Information on setting (country) should be provided within Table 1 ; however, very few reviews specified the country in which interventions took place.

Overview of quality of included reviews

As shown in Table 1 , the methodological quality of the reviews varied. Using the AMSTAR 2 quality assessment tool, eleven reviews were categorised as higher methodological quality, ten reviews were categorised as moderate methodological quality, and seven reviews were categorised as lower methodological quality.

Findings of included reviews

1. mindfulness-based interventions.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs (rated as higher methodological quality) of different interventions for common mental health problems in 3396 university and college students found that MBIs were effective in reducing both depression and generalized anxiety disorder in the short term but were not durable [ 26 ]. In their meta-analysis, the authors found evidence that MBIs led to statistically significant reductions in depression (pooled effect size: -0.52, 95% CI: -0.88 to -0.16). Art, exercise and peer support interventions (-0.76, 95% CI: -1.19 to -0.32), and cognitive-behavioural related interventions (-0.59, 95% CI: -0.72 to -0.45) led, however, to greater reductions. They found no evidence that the effects of MBIs on depression were sustained over time. They also found evidence that MBIs significantly reduced anxiety (-0.49, 95% CI: -0.84 to -0.15) but, again, other interventions such as peer support and music (-0.84, 95% CI: -1.19 to -0.49) and CBT related interventions (-0.39, 95% CI: -0.55 to -0.22) led to greater reductions.

Another systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs, which was graded as higher quality, examined the effectiveness of MBIs for mental health outcomes in 4211 post-secondary students [ 27 ]. Halladay and colleagues found evidence that MBIs significantly reduced symptoms of depression (Standardised Mean Difference [SMD] -0.49, 95% CI: -0.68 to -0.30), anxiety (SMD -0.53, 95% CI: -0.78 to -0.29), and perceived stress (SMD -0.39, 95% CI: -0.50 to -0.27) when compared to a passive control group (receiving no intervention/on waiting list). There was, however, no significant difference between the MBI intervention group in levels of depression, anxiety or perceived stress when compared to an active control group receiving health education, relaxation, physical activity, or other approaches including CBT.

Halladay et al. [ 27 ] also analysed the impacts of different lengths of intervention. They found that there was no significant difference in effects, for depressive symptoms, anxiety and stress, between brief and longer interventions. They also analysed the impact of traditional compared to adapted interventions (i.e., Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction [MBSR] versus Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy [MBCT] versus other or adapted MBIs), and found that MBCT (SMD: -1.21, 95% CI: -1.76 to -0.66) was more effective than both MBSR (SMD = -0.44, 95% CI: -0.72 to -0.16, p = 0.01) and other MBIs (SMD = -0.29, 95% CI: -0.45 to -0.12, p<0.01). When compared to no intervention, MBCT was found to be the most effective type of MBI.

Studies examining whether effects were sustained over time (follow-up studies) were split by type of intervention. Halladay et al. [ 27 ] found that MBCT interventions demonstrated sustained reductions in depression one month after (post-) intervention in two studies with a total of 64 participants (Mean Difference [MD] on the Beck Depression Inventory -5.06, 95% CI: -6.52 to -3.59). Other MBIs did not demonstrate sustained reductions in depression at one month or 2–3 months post-intervention in three studies (with a total of 374 participants), although reductions in depression were found at 4–5 months post-intervention in two studies (with a total of 191 participants; SMD -0.43, 95% CI: -0.72 to -0.14). MBCT interventions also demonstrated sustained reductions in anxiety symptoms at both 1-month in two studies (with a total of 66 participants; MD on Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI] -7.12, 95% CI: -8.23 to -5.97) and 6 months in two studies post-intervention (a total of 65 participants; MD on BAI -5.95, 95% CI: -10.78 to -1.13). Other MBIs demonstrated significant reductions 1-month post-intervention in one study using a different measure (with a total of 33 participants; MD Hamilton Anxiety Scale -9.50, CI: -17.27 to -1.73).

A systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs (rated as higher methodological quality) of MBIs for mental and physical health in university students found that MBIs were effective in reducing distress, depression and state anxiety when compared to passive controls [ 28 ]. In their meta-analysis, the authors found evidence that MBIs led to significantly significant reductions in distress (SMD -0.47, 95% CI: -0.60 to -0.34), depression (SMD -0.40, 95% CI -0.57 to -0.24), and state anxiety (MD -3.18, 95% CI -5.51 to -0.85) when compared to a passive control (receiving no intervention/waiting list). MBIs led to improvements in wellbeing (SMD 0.35, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.50) when compared to a passive control. Effects of MBIs lasted beyond three months for distress (SMD -0.32, 95% CI -0.50 to -0.13). When compared with active control groups, MBIs significantly reduced distress (SMD -0.37, 95% CI -0.56 to -0.18) and state anxiety (MD -5.95, 95% CI -9.49 to -2.41), but not depression (SMD -0.19, 95% CI -0.43 to 0.05) and wellbeing (SMD -0.08, 95% CI -0.43 to 0.27).

Ma and colleagues conducted a meta-analytic review of RCTs (rated as higher methodological quality) of MBIs [ 29 ]. They found that MBIs were effective in reducing depressive symptoms in university students (effect size: 0.52, 95% CI 0.39 to 0.65). The authors found evidence that universal MBIs (effect size: 0.41, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.55), selective MBIs (effect size: 0.44, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.70), and indicated MBIs (effect size: 0.88, 95% CI 0.64 to 1.11) led to significant reductions in depressive symptoms.

Bamber and Morpeth’s [ 30 ] review, graded as moderate quality, included a meta-analysis of evidence on the effects of MBIs on anxiety in 1492 college students. A number of primary study designs were included: studies with two-group comparisons (e.g., MBI versus control) and studies with pre-test and post-test analysis of MBI (one-group MBI). They found MBIs significantly reduced anxiety, compared to no-treatment controls (ES 0.56, 95% CI: 0.42 to 0.70, p<0.001). MBI groups’ pre and post intervention comparisons showed large significant reductions in anxiety. There was, however, a small but significant reduction in control group anxiety pre/post comparisons. They also found that higher numbers of sessions (number not specified) increased the effects of MBIs (p = 0.01), with more sessions leading to greater reductions in anxiety.

Fenton et al. [ 31 ] conducted a moderate quality systematic review of evidence on the impacts of different recreation programmes, including MBIs, on mental health outcomes in post-secondary students in North America. Randomised controlled trials, non-randomised with control, and non-randomised no control studies were all included. They found that mindfulness interventions reduced depression, anxiety, stress, and negative mood.

Conley et al. [ 32 ] conducted a moderate quality review and meta-analysis of evidence on the impact of universal mental health prevention programmes including MBIs for higher education students. The review included two study designs: quasi-experimental and random designs. They found that skill-training programmes with supervised practice were significantly more effective than both skill-training programmes without supervised practice and psychoeducation in reducing depression, anxiety, stress, and general psychological distress. Conley and colleagues found that relaxation interventions demonstrated the most overall benefit in terms of effectiveness, followed by mindfulness interventions and cognitive-behavioural interventions that did not differ from each other.

Regehr et al. [ 33 ] conducted a review and meta-analysis (rated as lower methodological quality) of evidence on the effectiveness of preventative interventions in reducing mental health outcomes in 1431 university students, including randomised and parallel cohort designs. Regehr and colleagues found that mindfulness-based interventions focussing on stress reduction significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. In their meta-analysis, mindfulness-based interventions were assessed for their impact on anxiety. They found that mindfulness-based interventions led to significant improvements, compared to control groups (SMD -0.73, 95% CI: -1.00 to -0.45).

Conley et al. [ 34 ] reviewed evidence on the effectiveness of 83 (controlled) universal promotion and prevention interventions (rated as lower methodological quality). These authors explored whether skill-orientated interventions were more effective with or without supervised skills practice. The authors also examined the effectiveness of different strategies employed in skill-oriented interventions such as cognitive-behavioural interventions, mindfulness interventions, relaxation interventions, and meditation in quasi-experimental and random designs. They found that skill-oriented interventions were more effective with supervised practice, and that supervised skills practice interventions reduced depression, anxiety, and stress. They found mindfulness interventions to be the most effective form among the skill-oriented programmes containing supervised practice. Mindfulness interventions were significantly more effective in comparison to other interventions (the proportion of all significant post-intervention outcomes combined was 78.8% for mindfulness, in comparison to psychoeducation [12.5%], cognitive behavioural [43.4%], relaxation [27.1%], meditation [13%], and other interventions [21.9%]).

Bamber and Schneider [ 35 ] explored the effects of MBIs such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Meditation (MM) on mental health outcomes including anxiety and stress in college students (rated as lower methodological quality). Both MBSR and MM were found to significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and stress.

2. Psychological interventions (e.g., cognitive-behavioural interventions)

Huang et al. [ 26 ] conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCT evidence (rated as higher methodological quality) on the effectiveness of interventions for common mental health difficulties in 3396 university and college students. They found that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) had significant positive effects on depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Meta-analysis results showed that cognitive-behavioural-related interventions led to greater reductions in depression (-0.59, 95% CI: -0.72 to -0.45) than mindfulness-based interventions (-0.52, 95% CI: -0.88 to -0.16) and attention/perception modification (-0.46, 95% CI: -1.06 to 0.13). Other interventions (art, exercise, and peer support) led to a greater reduction in depression (-0.76, 95% CI: -1.19 to -0.32). The follow-up (pooled) effect size of cognitive-behavioural related interventions (-0.75, 95% CI: -0.95 to -0.54) had a greater significant effect (the follow-up ranged from 2 weeks to 7 months post intervention).

CBT related interventions were associated with significant (pooled) reductions in anxiety (-0.39, 95% CI: -0.55 to -0.22). The pooled effect of other interventions (peer support and music; -0.84, 95% CI: -1.19 to -0.49) and mindfulness (-0.49, 95% CI: -0.84 to -0.15) for generalised anxiety disorder were associated with greater reductions in anxiety compared to CBT.

Winzer et al. [ 36 ] conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis (rated as higher methodological quality) to assess whether the effects of mental health promotion and mental ill-health prevention interventions were sustained over time. They found that CBT-related interventions led to significant (pooled) effects for 3–6 month and 13–18 month follow-ups in sub-group analyses for combined mental ill-health outcomes (-0.40, 95% CI-0.64 to 0.16; -0.30, 95% CI: -0.51 to 0.08, respectively). They also analysed impacts on combined positive mental health and academic performance at 3–6 months, and found that the interventions had significant effects (pooled effect size: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.06 to 0.98).

Cuijpers et al. [ 37 ] carried out a meta-analysis of evidence (rated as moderate methodological quality) that examined the effectiveness of different forms of psychological treatment, such as CBT and behavioural activation therapy (BAT), for addressing symptoms of depression in 997 college students. The review found a large overall (pooled) effect of the therapies versus controls (g = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.66 to 1.11). It also found that individual therapy was significantly more effective than group therapy (p = 0.003) but that type of treatment (CBT, BAT, or other) was not significantly associated with the size of effect.

In their review and meta-analysis (rated as moderate methodological quality) of the impact of universal mental health prevention programmes for higher education students, Conley et al. [ 32 ] found that skill-training programmes with supervised practice such as cognitive-behavioural interventions, mindfulness interventions, relaxation interventions, and meditation significantly reduced depression, anxiety, stress, and general psychological distress. Programmes without supervised practice were significantly less effective. Comparing the effectiveness of different interventions overall, they also found that relaxation interventions were the most effective (mean effect size: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.41 to 0.68), followed by CBT interventions (0.49, CI: 0.40 to 0.58), MBIs (0.34, CI: 0.19 to 0.49), meditation (0.25, CI: 0.02 to 0.53), and then psychoeducational interventions (0.13: CI: 0.06 to 0.21).

In their review and meta-analysis of evidence (rated as lower methodological quality) on the effectiveness of preventative interventions in reducing mental health outcomes in university students, Regehr et al. [ 33 ] found that cognitive and behavioural interventions focusing on stress reduction significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. In their meta-analysis, cognitive-behavioural interventions were assessed for their impact on anxiety. They found that cognitive-behavioural interventions (SDM -0.77, 95% CI: -0.97 to -0.57) led to significant improvement, compared to control groups.

Howell and Passmore [ 38 ] conducted a review and (‘initial’) meta-analysis (rated as lower methodological quality) on the impacts of ACT interventions for university student wellbeing (N = 585), including randomized controlled experimental designs. Their meta-analysis showed a small significant (pooled) effect on wellbeing (d = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.11 to 0.47, p = 0.008) when assessed with the Wellbeing Manifestations Measure Scale. ACT interventions were also found to reduce depression, anxiety, and stress.

Conley et al. [ 34 ] examined the effectiveness of different strategies employed in skill-oriented interventions such as cognitive-behavioural interventions, mindfulness interventions, relaxation interventions, and meditation (rated as lower methodological quality). Conley and colleagues found that interventions with supervised skills practice reduced depression, anxiety, and stress. Mindfulness interventions were found to be the most effective (78.8%) form of intervention among the skill-oriented programmes containing supervised practice, followed by cognitive-behavioural interventions (55.8%) which performed significantly better than relaxation (28.9%, OR = 3.11, p<0.01) and meditation (19.4%, OR = 5.26, p<0.001) interventions.

One review graded as lower quality reviewed evidence on the prevention and early intervention for mental health problems in higher education students found that CBT approaches are effective for prevention and early intervention [ 39 ]. The authors also reported that these approaches are effective for at least some months following the CBT intervention. The authors did not report the primary study designs they included.

In a literature review of studies of depression and treatment outcomes among US college students, graded as lower quality, brief individual cognitive therapy was found to be effective at reducing mild to moderate depressive symptoms [ 40 ]. This finding was based on only one RCT, however.

3. Psychoeducational interventions

In their review of RCTs (graded as higher methodological quality), Winzer et al. [ 36 ] explored whether the effects of mental health interventions (e.g., psychoeducational interventions) for students in higher education were sustainable over time. They did not find significant (pooled) effects on combined mental ill health outcomes at 3–6 months, 7–12 months, or 13–18 month follow-ups. They reported no superior effect of psychoeducational intervention. The 3–6 month and 13–18 month follow-up were, however, both only based on one study.

When Conley et al. [ 32 ] reviewed evidence on the impact of universal prevention programmes for higher education students, they found that skill-training programmes with supervised practice (0.45, CI: 0.39 to 0.52) were significantly more effective than both psychoeducation (information only) interventions (0.13, CI: 0.06 to 0.21) and skill-training programmes without supervised practice (0.11, CI: -0.01 to 0.22) in reducing depression, anxiety, stress, and general psychological distress (rated as moderate methodological quality). Psychoeducational interventions yielded significant effects for several mental health related outcomes including anxiety, stress, and general psychological distress (ESs>0.13). However, these interventions did not yield significant effects for depression, social and emotional skills, or interpersonal relationships. Psychoeducational interventions were found to be less effective than relaxation interventions, cognitive-behavioural interventions, mindfulness interventions, and meditation. Although interventions with supervised skills practice produced a significant positive effect averaged across all types of outcomes at follow-up (0.28, CI: 0.16 to 0.40), psychoeducational interventions did not.

In their 2013 review (graded as lower methodological quality), Conley et al. [ 34 ] explored whether skill-oriented interventions that included supervised skills were more effective than psychoeducational programmes. They found that psychoeducational programmes were not as effective as preventive interventions for higher education students.

3a. Educational/personalised feedback interventions

In their review (rated as lower methodological quality) of prevention and early intervention for mental health issues in higher education students, Reavely and Jorm [ 39 ] reported mixed findings on the effectiveness of educational/personalised feedback interventions.

Miller and Chung [ 40 ] explored treatment for depression and found that an intervention using personalised mailed feedback was effective at reducing symptoms of depression (rated as lower methodological quality). This finding was only based on one study, however.

4. Recreation programmes

In their review of RCTs (rated as higher methodological quality) on the effectiveness of interventions for common mental health difficulties, Huang et al. [ 26 ] found that recreational interventions including exercise, art and peer support were effective treatments for depression and anxiety. Although both CBT and MBIs were found to be effective, other interventions (i.e., art, exercise, and peer support) showed larger effects for both depression and generalized anxiety disorder.

When exploring the combined effects of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness on depression, anxiety, and stress in 1373 tertiary education students, Breedvelt et al. [ 41 ] found moderate positive effects for yoga, meditation, and mindfulness on symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress (rated as higher methodological quality). They found no significant differences in subgroup analysis when they compared the effectiveness of yoga, mindfulness meditation, and MBSR. A small number of the included studies (N = 6) provided long-term follow-up data which ranged from 1 to 24 months. The (pooled) effect at follow-up was found to be small to medium (g = 0.39, 95% CI: 0.17 to 0.61).

A network of meta-analysis of RCTs (rated as higher methodological quality) of exercise interventions for depression in 2010 college students found that exercise interventions were effective in reducing depression [ 42 ]. When compared with usual care, Tai Chi (SMD = -11, 95% CI -16 to -6), yoga (SMD = -9.1, 95% CI -14 to -4), dance (SMD = -5.5, 95% CI -11 to -0.39) and running (-6, 95% CI -10 to -1.6) interventions were effective in reducing depressive symptoms. The authors found Tai Chi to be the most effective exercise intervention followed by yoga.

Fenton et al. [ 31 ] reviewed evidence on the impacts of recreation programmes such as mindfulness, meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, exercise, and animal therapy on mental health outcomes in post-secondary students in North America (rated as moderate methodological quality). They included a number of different primary study designs: non-randomised with control, non-randomised no control, and RCTs. They found that mindfulness, yoga, meditation, exercise, and animal therapy all reduced depression, anxiety, stress, and negative mood.

The review of evidence (rated as moderate methodological quality) on the impact of universal mental health prevention programmes by Conley et al. [ 32 ] found that meditation interventions were more effective than psychoeducational interventions but less effective than relaxation, cognitive-behavioural and mindfulness interventions.

The review (rated as lower methodological quality) by Conley et al. [ 34 ] also examined the relative effectiveness of different approaches used in skill-oriented interventions, including cognitive-behavioural, mindfulness, relaxation, and meditation. They reported that mindfulness interventions were more effective than cognitive-behavioural interventions, relaxation interventions, and meditation; and found that cognitive-behavioural interventions were more effective than both meditation and relaxation interventions which did not differ significantly from each other.

5. Relaxation interventions

In their review of universal mental health prevention programmes for higher education students (rated as moderate methodological quality), Conley et al. [ 32 ] found relaxation interventions to be the most effective. In contrast, Conley et al [ 34 ] examined the relative effectiveness of different strategies used in skill-oriented interventions including cognitive-behavioural, mindfulness, relaxation and meditation, and found that mindfulness interventions and cognitive-behavioural interventions were more effective than relaxation interventions, and that meditation and relaxation interventions did not differ significantly from each other (rated as lower methodological quality).

6. Setting-based interventions

Fernandez et al. [ 43 ] conducted a systematic review of evidence (rated as moderate methodological quality) on the mental wellbeing impacts of setting-based interventions for university students. They included experimental (e.g., RCT) and observational (e.g., controlled trial without randomisation, pre-post/before and after, and time series) study designs. Academic-based interventions, to enhance learning and teaching, were found to significantly improve mental wellbeing.

7. Stress management/reduction interventions

A systematic review and meta-analysis (rated as higher methodological quality) of stress management interventions for college students found that stress reduction interventions were effective in reducing distress [ 44 ]. In their meta-analysis, the authors found evidence that stress management interventions were effective in reducing stress (g = 0.61, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.93), anxiety (g = 0.52, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.78), and depression (g = 0.46, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.77) for students with high stress levels. The authors found evidence that the effects of stress management interventions were sustained over time. The effect of stress management programmes for students with high stress levels remained up to the 12-month follow-up (g = 0.40, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.60). Stress management interventions were also found to be effective in reducing depression (g = 0.36, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.51), anxiety (g = 0.52, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.68), and stress (g = 0.58, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.73) in an unselected college student population.

Yusufov et al. [ 45 ] conducted a meta-analysis (rated as lower methodological quality) of evidence on the impacts of stress reduction interventions. In their meta-analysis of stress reduction interventions, the authors found that stress reduction interventions were effective in reducing anxiety and stress.

Interventions delivered via technology

Different categories of interventions (e.g., CBT) can be delivered through different means. Harrer et al. [ 46 ] systematically reviewed and performed a meta-analysis of evidence (rated as higher methodological quality) on the impacts of internet interventions on symptoms of common mental health problems, wellbeing and functional outcomes among university students. Small effects from internet interventions were found on depression ( g = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.27), anxiety ( g = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.40), and stress ( g = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.38). There were, however, no significant effects on wellbeing. The effects were higher for interventions that were based on CBT principles.

Similarly, Davies et al. [ 47 ] reviewed evidence on the effectiveness of computer-delivered and web-based interventions in improving depression, anxiety, and psychological wellbeing in 1795 higher education students (rated as higher methodological quality). When compared to an inactive control group (receiving no-treatment or on a waiting list), sensitivity meta-analyses showed that interventions significantly improved anxiety (Pooled SMD −0.56; 95% CI: −0.77 to −0.35, p <0.001), depression (SMD −0.43; 95% CI: −0.63 to −0.22, p <0.001), and stress (SMD −0.73; 95% CI: −1.27 to −0.19, p = 0.008). The sensitivity analyses showed no significant effects for anxiety or depression, however, when compared to the active control group (in which participants received materials designed to mimic the time and attention received in the intervention group). Sensitivity analyses also showed no significant difference between the computer and web-based intervention for anxiety or depression when compared to comparison interventions that included a face-to-face version of the intervention, a web-based stress management intervention, another computer-based CBT program, and an online support group.

Lattie et al. [ 48 ] conducted a systematic review of evidence (rated as moderate methodological quality) on the effectiveness of digital mental health interventions on mental health outcomes in college students. All study designs were included. They found that digital mental health interventions can be effective for improving depression, anxiety, and psychological wellbeing among college students.

Conley et al. [ 49 ] conducted a meta-analytic review of evidence on the impact of universal and indicated technology-delivered interventions (TDIs) targeting mental health outcomes in 4763 higher education students, including randomized and quasi-experimental study designs (rated as moderate methodological quality). Universal interventions are aimed at students without any pre-existing mental health problems whereas indicated interventions are aimed at students who meet criteria for mild to moderate levels of mental health problems or have acknowledged an existing mental health problem such as depression or anxiety. They found that both universal and indicated TDIs were significantly effective in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Indicated interventions produced higher overall (mean) improvements (0.37, CI: 0.27 to 0.47, p<0.001) than universal interventions (0.19, CI: 0.11 to 0.28, p<0.001). Both universal (0.21, CI: 0.11 to 0.31, p<0.001) and indicated (0.39, CI: 0.29 to 0.50, p<0.001) skill-training interventions led to significant improvements. Interventions without skill training were, however, only significant among indicated interventions (0.25, CI: 0.01 to 0.49, p = 0.042). Three of the 22 universal interventions, and eight of the 26 indicated interventions, assessed outcomes at follow-up (ranging between 13 to 52 weeks, and 2 to 26 weeks, respectively). Both universal and indicated interventions sustained significant positive effects on mental health outcomes at follow up (0.30, CI: 0.06 to 0.54, p = 0.015; 0.49, CI: 0.31 to 0.67, p<0.001, respectively).

Farrer et al. [ 50 ] systematically reviewed evidence on the effectiveness of technology-based interventions for mental health outcomes in tertiary students (rated as moderate methodological quality). They included both randomized controlled trials and randomized trials (equivalence trials). In interventions targeting both depression and anxiety, they found that technology-based CBT was effective in reducing anxiety and depression, although to a lesser degree than traditional therapy with human contact.

Other evidence

Conley et al. [ 51 ] conducted a meta-analysis of evidence (rated as moderate methodological quality) on the impacts of indicated prevention programmes for various forms of early-identified mental health problems such as sub-threshold depression and anxiety symptoms. Although they report significant effects, they provided insufficient information on the type of interventions to be categorised.

Rith-Najarian et al. [ 52 ] conducted a systematic review of evidence (rated as moderate methodological quality) on the effectiveness of preventative interventions in reducing depression, anxiety, and stress in university students. Rith-Najarian and colleagues found that prevention programmes reduced symptoms. The average effect sizes for preventative programmes were moderate (g = 0.65, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.73) regardless of delivery format or prevention level. According to delivery format, the effect sizes were similar for group (g = 0.69, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.81), self-administered (g = 0.65, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.81), and online/computer-delivered (0.52, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.63). According to prevention level, effect sizes differed for universal (0.69, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.83), selective (0.73, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.87), and indicated (0.53, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.63).

This review of reviews identified a range of interventions for student mental health and wellbeing, including mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), psychological interventions (e.g., cognitive-behavioural therapy; CBT), psychoeducation interventions, recreation programmes, relaxation interventions, and setting-based interventions (e.g., academic and curriculum-based strategies). There was evidence that MBIs, CBT, and interventions delivered via technology were effective when compared to a passive control. There is some evidence to suggest that the effects of CBT-related interventions are sustained over time. The effects of interventions delivered via technology were found to be higher for interventions that were based on CBT principles in one higher quality review. Although technology-based CBT was effective in reducing depression and anxiety, traditional therapy with human contact was found to be more effective.

Moving beyond CBT, recreation programmes were also found to be effective. In fact, while both CBT and MBIs were found to be effective, other interventions (i.e., art, exercise, and peer support) were found to be more effective in one higher quality review. The review-level evidence suggests that psychoeducation interventions are not as effective as other interventions such as MBIs, cognitive-behavioural interventions, relaxation interventions, and meditation. The effects of psychoeducation interventions do not appear to sustain over time.

The review of reviews only located single reviews of evidence on acceptance and commitment training interventions [ 38 ] and setting-based interventions such as developing curricula to support wellbeing [ 43 ]. Although these interventions were shown to be effective, it should be noted that some of these reviews only included a small number of studies with small sample sizes [e.g., 38 ], and their findings should be viewed with some caution.

Limitations in the review of reviews

This is the first review of reviews to synthesise evidence on interventions to improve college and university students’ mental health and wellbeing. Despite every effort to gather the best evidence available, the review had several limitations. First, as our searches were limited to English language literature, we did not include evidence from studies reported in other languages. Identification and synthesis of evidence published in other languages is therefore desirable, although this would require sophisticated, technical, multilingual skills during study identification, appraisal and synthesis. Second, the searches were limited to a 21-year date range (1999 to 2020). Although this date range was deemed appropriate as we aimed to identify interventions that are most relevant to modern student populations and contexts, it should be noted that this review of review-level evidence reflects the time period before the global COVID-19 pandemic. Last, scarcity of high quality evidence syntheses on interventions to improve student mental health and wellbeing led to our decision to analyse data from all 27 reviews. This decision impacts on the quality of evidence synthesised. Despite limitations in the methodological strength of some evidence, the search identified a substantial group of higher methodological quality reviews and a large number of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. It should, therefore, be used to inform policies and practice alongside other considerations.

Gaps and limitations in the body of evidence

Although there was a large body of evidence on specific interventions such as mindfulness and cognitive-behavioural interventions, review-level evidence was limited in relation to other interventions such as setting-based interventions and acceptance and commitment training. Therefore, further primary studies examining the efficacy of setting-based interventions and acceptance and commitment training for students are required. Also, as there was a notable gap in the existing body of review-level evidence on interventions for students attending colleges in UK settings, a systematic review should be conducted in this area to identify primary level studies.

There are several limitations in the body of evidence. First, a number of the included reviews did not specify country and setting of the underlying evidence. It is likely that a substantial portion of the evidence is from US institutions, as this is typical for most evidence on health and wellbeing interventions. Another important limitation was that the included reviews only reported findings on beneficial effects of interventions. The underlying primary studies may have only attempted to assess efficacy and not the potential broader impacts of interventions. This is an important omission in the primary literature or the reviews. Interventions aiming for beneficial outcomes can often lead to unintended, adverse impacts for some participants. Primary and secondary research (including reviews) should attempt to identify adverse impacts so they can be eliminated or ameliorated, in accordance with the ‘first do no harm’ principle. A further limitation was that many of the included reviews did not consider the distribution of impacts from interventions across different population subgroups such as socio-economic status, age, gender, disability, and sexuality. As it is entirely possible that some interventions may work better for some students than for others, an evidence base that is more nuanced in terms of individual differences and differential impacts could underpin the tailoring of interventions to suit particular student characteristics leading, in time, to more suitable and effective interventions associated with nuanced, evidence-based delivery strategies. In addition to this, some of the included studies were lacking in detail on the nature of control groups. Greater detail on the nature of control groups should be provided in future studies. Last, few studies examined duration of effects over time. Future studies should routinely assess the duration of effects over time.

Implications

In light of the above, future primary and review-level research should carefully consider the distribution of impacts of interventions by population sub-groups, including socioeconomic, gender, ethnic, age, sexuality, and disability groups [ 53 ]. Intersectionalities between these population characteristics should also be considered. Cultural and faith backgrounds may also be important factors to consider. Future research should also explore latency and durability of effects overtime as some interventions, such as CBT, showed promise of effects sustained post intervention. This could include exploring further and longer pre and post intervention studies and studies exploring the impacts of top-up sessions. Moving beyond CBT, there are wider social determinant interventions which may be particularly important in this context such as debt or financial management, quality of student accommodation and housing, the competitive versus cooperative ethos of the learning environment, and sense of belonging to the student body and to the institution [ 54 ]. With the increasing prevalence of student mental health issues pointing to the influence of these wider determinants, it is clear that primary research in this area that takes note of the distribution of impacts is needed.

The review-of-reviews located a large body of evidence on specific interventions such as mindfulness and cognitive-behavioural interventions. The evidence suggests that these interventions can effectively reduce the common mental health difficulties of students. Evidence on other interventions was, however, limited. For example, although some work has begun developing curricula to support wellbeing, review-level evidence on organisational and structural interventions was limited. Thus, it is not currently possible to determine and rank which interventions work best, where and for whom, as this would require a larger body of evidence on certain intervention types, and comparative studies or reviews. Most of the included reviews did not consider the distribution of the intervention impacts (inequalities) for population subgroups such as age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Noting the gaps and limitations in the review-level evidence previously identified, universities should select interventions based on the best available evidence, taking into consideration: the methodological strength of the underlying evidence, and the evidence on effectiveness. A good quality primary evidence-base examining these areas needs to be developed and then systematically reviewed before confident conclusions can be drawn about what works best to sustain positive mental health and wellbeing in today’s diverse and growing post-secondary student population. The need for effective support in this area can only have grown following the global COVID-19 pandemic and the associated disruption to teaching, learning, and university and college life. Following the disruption to teaching and learning, together with other stressors placed on young people from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an imperative need to support students’ mental health and wellbeing. Future research in this area should elucidate the unique challenges that COVID-19 has presented for students to inform and tailor interventions for this generation and future cohorts facing disruptions to their teaching and learning experience.

Supporting information

S1 checklist, acknowledgments.

We would like to thank the review advisory group for their support and the What Works Centre for Wellbeing.

Funding Statement

The What Works Centre for Wellbeing Communities of Place evidence programme is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and partners. The funders had no role in data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Data Availability