A comparative analysis of mental health conditions prevalence and help seeking attitudes of engineering students at two institutions in the U.S.A

As colleges and universities keep tackling the mental health crisis it is important to understand the nuances of the challenges in this space. Expanding our understanding of the different Mental Health Conditions (MHC) faced by engineering students, their prevalence, and their barriers to help-seeking is an important step forward to offer students the best support possible. Furthermore, identifying the groups with the highest prevalence is critical to continue the examination of engineering culture and how some marginalizing experiences persist. While some studies have presented multi-institutional estimates in MHC in engineering, institutional comparisons have not been conducted. In this study we explore the prevalence of MHC reported by students at two institutions in the continental U.S. We also present the demographic breakdown of such prevalence, as well as these students' trends in help-seeking attitudes and knowledge of resources for mental health.We found that the prevalence of MHC at both institutions was higher than the population rates, with anxiety, depression, and ADHD leading the specific conditions students cited. A plethora of very specific conditions were also shared by participants that could help faculty expand their knowledge about the different MHC that exist. The exploration by demographic variables resulted in only evidence for higher rates of MHC among females, and gender minorities than their counterparts. This contributes to existing evidence of the mental health challenges that these minoritized groups experience and opens the question of how STEM, and specifically engineering education environments exacerbate such challenges. Fortunately, these groups were also the ones with the highest help-seeking attitudes.