Study: 1 in 5 College Students Has Weighed Suicide

One in five college students reported thoughts of suicide in the previous year, according to a study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is associated with Harvard Medical School.

The report, published in the journal Depression and Anxiety (abstract available here), includes responses from 67,000 college students from more than 100 American institutions. Racial, sexual and gender minorities are particularly vulnerable to suicidal thoughts, the study found. It relied on data from the annual survey conducted by the American College Health Association.

About one in four students reported being diagnosed or treated for a mental health condition, according to the findings, with one-fifth thinking about suicide and 9 percent of the students surveyed attempting it.

In an interview with The Boston Globe, the lead author of the report, Cindy Liu, said the current generation of college students is “pulled in many directions” and “expected to succeed in all of them.” Social media has also skewed their perceptions, Liu told the Globe.

“I think that there is pressure to achieve,” Liu said.