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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1391067

To Each Their Own: Sociodemographic Disparities in Student Mental Health

Provisionally accepted
Kristel De Groot Kristel De Groot *Sander M. Wieman Sander M. Wieman Jan W. Van Strien Jan W. Van Strien Oliver Lindemann Oliver Lindemann
  • Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Research has demonstrated high rates of mental health problems in university students, and even higher rates in students belonging to historically marginalised populations. However, research on disparities in student mental health has almost exclusively focused on internalising problems (like symptoms of depression and anxiety), overlooking other ways in which individuals experience and express negative emotion. To address this limitation, the present study employed the Brief Problem Monitor to examine three types of mental health problemsinternalising, externalising, and attentional problemsacross six sociodemographic characteristics: gender (male vs. female), sexual orientation (heterosexual vs. non-heterosexual), ethnicity (Dutch without vs. with migration background), internationality (domestic vs. international), disability (no disabilities vs. disabilities), and parental education (continuing-vs. first-generation). These sociodemographic variables were included in regression models simultaneously, thereby controlling for the effects of the others. Across a sample of 2256 students, internalising problems were significantly higher in students who were female, non-heterosexual, international, and in those with disabilities. Higher externalising problems were found in female students, students with disabilities, those with a migration background, and first-generation students. Finally, attentional problems were higher in non-heterosexual students and students with disabilities. These findings support the premise that different groups of students experience different types of mental health concerns, emphasising the importance of measuring mental health multidimensionally. As an example, had the present study only examined internalising problems, we would not have found mental health disparities for students with a migration background and first-generation students, which has clear implications for outreach and resources offered to them.

    Keywords: university students, Mental Health, Minority Groups, diversity, higher education

    Received: 29 Feb 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 De Groot, Wieman, Van Strien and Lindemann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kristel De Groot, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.