The (College) Kids Are Not Alright: How Undergraduate Students Experience the Mental Healthcare Landscape

• In Event: Medical Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 5. Mental Health

Abstract

A staggering mental health crisis has emerged in the U.S. higher education system over the past 15 years. In this study, I focus on one aspect of the crisis, mental healthcare. Specifically, I examine the cases of 23 undergraduate students who used mental healthcare while enrolled at a large public university in the United States. Drawing from the Network Episode Model, I identify a four-stage process through which students navigate the network of mental health services available to them both on and off campus. This process is mediated by the university counseling center and varies by students’ socioeconomic status (SES). On-campus resources do not meet the needs of most students, but higher-SES students are able to access long-term effective care off campus while lower-SES students are not. These findings offer important insight into students’ mental healthcare needs and the limits of university mental health services. Theoretically, this study advances sociological understandings of the mechanisms by which inequalities in mental illness by socioeconomic status persist.

Author

• Charlotte Bliss Perez, University of Texas at Austin