The number of 18-to-26-year-old students who report suffering from anxiety disorder has doubled since 2008, possibly due to rising financial stress and increased time spent on digital devices, a study has found.
The percentage of all students nationally who reported being diagnosed with or treated for anxiety disorder climbed from 10 per cent in 2008 to 20 per cent in 2018, according to researchers from University of California – Berkeley in the US.
Rates of anxiety disorder grew at higher rates for students who identified as transgender, Latinx and black, and they increased the closer all students got to graduation.
“It is what I am calling a ‘new epidemic,’ and that the data supports using that term, on college campuses. We need a heightened national awareness of this very serious epidemic,” said Richard Scheffler, a professor at UC Berkeley.
The team examined nine years of data from nationwide examinations of student well-being. The group also conducted 45-minute interviews with 30 UC Berkeley students who identified as suffering from anxiety.
