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Past Events
Secondary Data Analysis Webinar: general population surveys
Thursday 21st March
In the past ten years, there has been an increase in symptoms of depression and anxiety among young women. We do not know whether this trend is echoed within the student population or how characteristics, including gender, ethnicity, sexuality or socio-economic status interact with mental health within this population. While the UK has a strong tradition of high-quality general population surveys, existing surveys do not lend themselves readily to comparing student mental health with that of non-students. Many fail to ask whether the respondent is a student, or miss details about education sector. Within population surveys, students are a small minority of respondents and those living in residential halls are likely to be under-represented in household surveys.
Despite the limitations of existing general population data sets informative analysis could be completed. For instance, the ESRC Understanding Society survey is one of a number of cross sectional and longitudinal data sets that could be used. Understanding Society indicates those in full time education, establishes whether this is FE, HE college or university and includes measures of mental health and wellbeing. As a longitudinal survey, tracking respondents over time, it provides insight into the impact of becoming a student. The sample is large, so inequalities in rates of mental distress between different groups of students could also be explored.
Led by Sally McManus from NatCen, this webinar covered topics including:
Below is a recording of the webinar (available for download) for those who were not able to attend or anyone who wishes to revisit it.
Despite the limitations of existing general population data sets informative analysis could be completed. For instance, the ESRC Understanding Society survey is one of a number of cross sectional and longitudinal data sets that could be used. Understanding Society indicates those in full time education, establishes whether this is FE, HE college or university and includes measures of mental health and wellbeing. As a longitudinal survey, tracking respondents over time, it provides insight into the impact of becoming a student. The sample is large, so inequalities in rates of mental distress between different groups of students could also be explored.
Led by Sally McManus from NatCen, this webinar covered topics including:
- Discussing the data sets available that allow for comparison of student and non-student mental health
- Clarifying how to access this data
- Considering challenges in working with this data, and approaches that might be taken to navigate these challenges
- Identifying questions that might be addressed through secondary data analysis
Below is a recording of the webinar (available for download) for those who were not able to attend or anyone who wishes to revisit it.
Sandpit: measuring student mental health
Wednesday 13th March
For more information on this event, visit our blog to hear from some of those who attended!
Recent epidemiological studies of student mental health in the UK have been small scale with a narrow focus. Much of the data around student mental health comes from non-academic surveys, however these have produced estimates of the prevalence of student mental health difficulties ranging from 12% to 87%.
The range highlights two challenges. Firstly, the framing of a mental health survey may influence results; surveys that target specific occupations get higher rates of disorders than those that look at the same occupations within population samples, suggesting that there might be systematic over estimation of prevalence in any survey of ‘student stress’. Secondly, the perennial issue of definition cannot be overlooked, especially in a broader cultural context where a widening spectrum of psychological and emotional states is seen as problematic. Recent sociological studies of the rise of public concern about mental health suggest that, at least in part, everyday emotional distress is being relabelled as a mental health difficulty.
There is much promising activity focused around addressing the paucity of prevalence data for UK student mental health and improving our understanding of mental health difficulties in students. Through this sandpit we aimed to support collaboration between research groups and universities interested in measuring and tracking student mental health and wellbeing. Over 40 people from across a variety of universities and organisations, including members from our own student research team, attended the event.
This sandpit was linked to our first Plus-funding call. If assistance is necessary to get early stage projects established or to facilitate collaboration between existing projects, Plus-funding is available to pump prime research. To be eligible for the funding call we are running, projects need to be focused on understanding what is distinctive about student mental health. Please visit www.smarten.org.uk/funding for further details.
Key topics for discussion on the day were:
Recent epidemiological studies of student mental health in the UK have been small scale with a narrow focus. Much of the data around student mental health comes from non-academic surveys, however these have produced estimates of the prevalence of student mental health difficulties ranging from 12% to 87%.
The range highlights two challenges. Firstly, the framing of a mental health survey may influence results; surveys that target specific occupations get higher rates of disorders than those that look at the same occupations within population samples, suggesting that there might be systematic over estimation of prevalence in any survey of ‘student stress’. Secondly, the perennial issue of definition cannot be overlooked, especially in a broader cultural context where a widening spectrum of psychological and emotional states is seen as problematic. Recent sociological studies of the rise of public concern about mental health suggest that, at least in part, everyday emotional distress is being relabelled as a mental health difficulty.
There is much promising activity focused around addressing the paucity of prevalence data for UK student mental health and improving our understanding of mental health difficulties in students. Through this sandpit we aimed to support collaboration between research groups and universities interested in measuring and tracking student mental health and wellbeing. Over 40 people from across a variety of universities and organisations, including members from our own student research team, attended the event.
This sandpit was linked to our first Plus-funding call. If assistance is necessary to get early stage projects established or to facilitate collaboration between existing projects, Plus-funding is available to pump prime research. To be eligible for the funding call we are running, projects need to be focused on understanding what is distinctive about student mental health. Please visit www.smarten.org.uk/funding for further details.
Key topics for discussion on the day were:
- Preliminary feedback from the SMaRteN student-led research team project on measuring student mental health and wellbeing
- Preliminary early feedback from SMarRteN work on student ethnographic case studies, reflecting on how students are thinking about mental health and wellbeing
- The challenge of developing a set of core outcome measures for student mental health and well-being, and creating a common language
- Consideration of how to measure the cost implications of poor student functioning and mental health
- Networking opportunity
- Development of potential research projects for the Plus-funding call.
World mental health day 2018: SMaRteN's future retrospective
On world mental health day, we invited a panel of experts to imagine that it was 2030 and asked them to reflect on what student mental health will be like in 2030. Our panel discuss their thoughts on student mental health in the future and discuss the actions that the higher education sector needs to take, as a whole, to help the sector improve student mental health. The panel was opened by Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Regius Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences and included:
If you missed the event, you can catch up with all the highlights via our YouTube channel.
- Sherene Howard-Walker, Positive Peer
- Jo Levy, Head of Counselling, Outreach and Training
- Salman Shaheen, KCL Peer Supporter
- Rosie Tressler, CEO of Student Minds, the UK’s student mental health charity.
- Meg Zeenat Wamithi, Founder and Director of My Mind Matters Too
- Anne-Marie Henderson, Specialist Student Adviser for Vulnerable Students
If you missed the event, you can catch up with all the highlights via our YouTube channel.