Psychological distress in students today and 20 years ago

What is it about?

Background: Due to the Bologna-Process, i.e., the reformation of all university courses, a higher psychological distress in today’s students was hypothesized. Methods: The present study investigated the prevalence of psychological distress (BSI: Franke, 2000, 2016) in students of different courses at different German universities in North and East Germany. Questionnaire assessment was conducted in a group setting in the same way as in a prior study carried out at a single university in 1994-1998 which allowed for assessing changes over time. 1659 today’s students (investigated 2013-2014) were compared with 589 students, investigated 1994-1998. Findings: Results showed that 18.4% of the today’s students suffered from clinically relevant psychological complaints. Compared to 1994-1998, self-reported mental health problems have significantly decreased (X²=66.24, p<.0001). Medical students suffer the most from Anger-Hostility, Anxiety, Interpersonal Sensitivity, and Global Symptom Distress (²=.01) Discussion: The data supported a result of Berger et al. (2015): the psychological distress of today’s students seems to be lower than it was 20 years ago. Possible explanations such as an improvement of health care, economic and study conditions (Jacobi et al., 2014) are discussed.

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Why is it important?

Psychological distress in today's students is lower than it was 20 years ago. Franke (2016) reports new normative data for the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), which is an economic and feasible instrument for self-assessment of mental health problems in student samples.