Location
Moultrie, GA
Start Date
9-5-2024 1:00 PM
End Date
9-5-2024 4:00 PM
Description
Introduction: Prior literature has highlighted the high prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses amongst college students. We propose that developmental influences that shape the emergence of psychiatric disorders amongst individuals are reflected in early intellectual pursuits. Furthermore, we propose that collegiate institutional stressors relating to these pursuits can further the declaration of a disorder in students with a psychiatric diathesis. Methods: We acquired data anonymously from 1,133 colleges via a Web-based survey of 17,425 students who were ≤ 22 years old. We report the association between psychiatric disorder and choice of academic major in the first collegiate year to illuminate early developmental influences. We considered changes reported in the relative frequency of academic majors over the four years as reflective of institutional stressors. We report frequencies of four psychiatric categorizations (major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD], and eating disorder) in relation to four classifications of academic major: humanities; social sciences; science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields; and undecided. Results: As hypothesized, students positive for a diagnosis more frequently majored in the humanities and less frequently in STEM in the first year compared with controls not meeting criteria for any of the psychiatric disorders assessed. These differences widened as students progressed through the class years. Frequencies for those majoring in the social sciences were generally intermediate and less often statistically significant. Although we hypothesized that students with OCD will major more often in STEM due to the phenomenological compatibility between the purported OCD cognitive style and optimal STEM procedures, we noted results similar to the other diagnostic groups. Discussion: We interpreted results as illustrating developmental influences that mutually shape the development of psychopathology and the selection of academic majors, and (b) institutional stressors that shape the declaration of majors toward humanities and away from STEM. We also discussed patterns of findings specific to the diagnostic groupings. Our data suggests that college counseling centers can advance diagnosis and treatment by inquiring about two of the most fundamental attributes of a student’s collegiate presentation: academic major and year in school.
Embargo Period
6-12-2024
Included in
Association between psychiatric diagnosis and academic major in college students
Moultrie, GA
Introduction: Prior literature has highlighted the high prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses amongst college students. We propose that developmental influences that shape the emergence of psychiatric disorders amongst individuals are reflected in early intellectual pursuits. Furthermore, we propose that collegiate institutional stressors relating to these pursuits can further the declaration of a disorder in students with a psychiatric diathesis. Methods: We acquired data anonymously from 1,133 colleges via a Web-based survey of 17,425 students who were ≤ 22 years old. We report the association between psychiatric disorder and choice of academic major in the first collegiate year to illuminate early developmental influences. We considered changes reported in the relative frequency of academic majors over the four years as reflective of institutional stressors. We report frequencies of four psychiatric categorizations (major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD], and eating disorder) in relation to four classifications of academic major: humanities; social sciences; science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields; and undecided. Results: As hypothesized, students positive for a diagnosis more frequently majored in the humanities and less frequently in STEM in the first year compared with controls not meeting criteria for any of the psychiatric disorders assessed. These differences widened as students progressed through the class years. Frequencies for those majoring in the social sciences were generally intermediate and less often statistically significant. Although we hypothesized that students with OCD will major more often in STEM due to the phenomenological compatibility between the purported OCD cognitive style and optimal STEM procedures, we noted results similar to the other diagnostic groups. Discussion: We interpreted results as illustrating developmental influences that mutually shape the development of psychopathology and the selection of academic majors, and (b) institutional stressors that shape the declaration of majors toward humanities and away from STEM. We also discussed patterns of findings specific to the diagnostic groupings. Our data suggests that college counseling centers can advance diagnosis and treatment by inquiring about two of the most fundamental attributes of a student’s collegiate presentation: academic major and year in school.