Mental Health in College Students
#stressrelief #collegelife #studentleaders
Why young people need a dose of Campus Calm:
A record number of ambitious college students, our next generation of leaders, are experiencing maladaptive perfectionism, anxiety, depression, stress, overwhelm and sleep difficulties. These are all barriers to health, resilience and confidence building, which become critical barriers to leadership.
Perfectionism = Barrier to College Student Success & Leadership:
Fact: Recent generations of young people* perceive that others are more demanding of them, are more demanding of others, and are more demanding of themselves.
Fact: 74 percent** of young women between the ages of 13 and 21 say they feel the pressure to be perfect.
*2017 American Psychological Association “Perfectionism Is Increasing Over Time: A Meta-Analysis of Birth Cohort Differences From 1989 to 2016”
** Seventeen/Yahoo survey.

Despite a 3.99 GPA, I am miserable and feel completely overwhelmed by the demands that I continue to put on myself. Campus Calm is the only site I have seen that conveys realistic expectations that actually consider and acknowledge the importance of a young person’s health and personal life. I wish that more professors and professionals fully understood the increasing demands and problems of perfectionism among students of this generation, and what a miserable prison it can be.
Mental Health in College Students = Barriers to Student Leadership:
Fact: Stress, anxiety, sleep difficulties and depression are the top 4 life issues that American college students say affects their studies.
College students reported experiencing the following within the last 12 months:
Fact: 92 percent of female students and 78 percent of male students reported feeling overwhelmed by all they had to.
Fact: 89 percent of female students and 76 percent of male students reported feeling exhausted (not from physical activity).
Fact: 72 percent of female students and 51 percent of male students reported feeling overwhelming anxiety.
Fact: 59 percent of female students and 48 percent of male students reported feeling things were hopeless.
Fact: 55 percent of female students and 43 percent of male students reported that academics have been “traumatic” or “very difficult to handle”.
***American College Health Association Spring 2019 National College Health Assessment
Sleep Difficulties = Barriers to Mental Health, which become Barriers to Leadership:
Fact: There is a relationship between insufficient sleep and mental health symptoms in collegiate students, including varsity athletes.
American Academy of Sleep Medicine, “Insufficient sleep linked to mental health in college students and athletes”
Fact: Insomnia complaints among college students are significantly associated with a decline in school performance based on self-reported grade-point average (GPA).
American Academy of Sleep Medicine, “Insomnia significantly affects the school performance of college students”
Connect with your students with the help of an expert College Mental Health Speaker
Maria Pascucci, national college speaker and the founder of Campus Calm, is uniquely positioned to connect with your students and empower them to overcome these alarming barriers to leadership because she speaks from the power of personal experience with the professional expertise to coach students to create their own solutions.
While it’s important to hear the message that it’s ok to slow down and let go of perfectionism to become stronger leaders, it’s more important that we hear that message from Maria as opposed to some suit with a PowerPoint presentation.