Survey of American College Students 2022: State of Mental Health 

Survey of American College Students 2022: State of Mental Health 

Students who grew up in rural areas seemed more impacted than others; more than 51% felt their capacity to maintain friendships was impacted a great deal or a lot. Students who don’t practice a religion at all also seemed more affected; nearly 50% were impacted a great deal or a lot. Broken out by academic field, students in the visual and performing arts, and those studying environmental sciences, were the most severely impacted; nearly 65% of the former and more than 62% of the latter were significantly impacted. Bisexual and gay students were more likely than straight students to be significantly affected; more than 49% of gay students and 51.6% of bisexual students were so impacted.

This 145-page report, based on a representative survey of 1,076 US full time college students at 4-year colleges and universities in the United States, presents highly detailed data on the perceptions of college students about how the pandemic have impacted their mental health and their personal prospects. We asked the representative panel how the pandemic impacted their capacity to make and maintain friendships, whether they have had to intervene to help a fellow student in psychological crisis, and how the pandemic had impacted their overall mental health. We asked about plans to see a therapist or counselor in the next year, and also asked students if they had entertained suicidal thoughts in the past year. In addition, the report gives detailed data on student assessment of the performance of the college mental health service during the crisis. In addition to quantitative questions, we also asked students to expound on how the pandemic had impacted them.