ANN ARBOR—A substantial number of students at the University have directly experienced trauma, according to Phase II of a student mental health study. Of the students surveyed, 15.5 percent experienced traumatic events such as violent physical attack, auto accident, near drowning, or sexual assault. Altogether, 40 percent of those surveyed had some experience with trauma, including witnessing an event or learning about it.

Phase I of the study, conducted by Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), was completed two years ago. In addition to replicating Phase I, Phase II added three areas of inquiry: trauma, Internet use and non-suicidal self injury behaviors.

“We found significant differences by social identity groups in these new areas,” said Johanna Soet, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center and co-author of the study with Todd Sevig, director of CAPS. “For example, while all identity groups in the sample have experienced trauma, females compared to males and graduate students compared to undergraduates are more likely to have experienced a direct trauma. Further, the Latino/Latina group reported a high rate of direct trauma.”

The College Student Mental Health Survey, conducted by CAPS, is a longitudinal research project designed to identify trends in college student mental health involving the whole range of issues experienced by a diverse sample of U-M students, Sevig said. “It is the first study to track long term trends on multiple issues, and to specifically look at social identity group differences.”

A significant difference in social identity groups also showed up in the area of Internet use. Overall, a total of 36 percent of the sample reported that it was causing problems in their academics; however, males reported this problem at 40 percent, with females reported 31 percent.

“We found on closer examination, that males reported a higher rate of ‘surfing’ compared to females, while females reported a much higher rate of using e-mail or instant messaging, chat rooms and social networking Web sites. Undergrads (compared to grads) reported a much higher rate of using Facebook or MySpace,” Soet said.

Sevig said that most of the findings from Phase I remained consistent in Phase II, though there are some exceptions: for example, suicide ideation rates.

“In Phase I, we identified an overall rate of 23 percent of the sample reporting suicidal thought in ‘the past 2 weeks.’ In Phase II, the rate was identified as 17 percent for the overall sample,” Sevig said. Additionally, the rate of international students who reported ever seeking counseling, though less than domestic students, jumped significantly to 19.4 percent in Phase II from 9.4 percent in Phase I. “That 22.6 percent of first year students reported having ever been in counseling most likely suggests some students are coming to campus having received services while in high school.”

Overall, the study found that mental health issues interfere with academics at the rate of 26 percent. “We believe these data continue to inform our practice, our service delivery efforts, and contribute to the national discourse on college student mental health as we share the results with our peers,” said Soet.