Abstract

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health disorders in the U.S. and is becoming increasingly common and problematic for college students across the country. Building on research conducted at single universities, we used a large national data set from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) and compared self-reported levels of anxiety amongst various groups of college students across the U.S., as well as the prevalence of comorbidity between anxiety reported on the generalized anxiety subscale of the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS) and other mental health concerns. We found that a number of self-reported variables (e.g., considered attempting suicide, experienced traumatic event, non- suicidal self-injury, etc.) on the CCAPS had a positive correlation with anxiety levels at intake. Interestingly, we found that those who participated in organized college athletics and those who are international students were found to have lower anxiety at intake than others. We further found that participants from certain demographic backgrounds had higher levels of anxiety than others. Notably, participants who reported they were born female had higher levels of anxiety than those born male. Similarly, women and transgender individuals had higher anxiety levels than men, and those who self-identified their gender identity had higher anxiety scores than women, men, and transgender individuals. Our results also indicate that, at intake, those who self-identified in their sexuality and identified as bisexual reported the highest levels of anxiety compared to those who identified as lesbian, questioning, gay, or heterosexual. Our model, which contained the variables sexual orientation, gender identity, marijuana use, experienced traumatic event, considered attempting suicide, non-suicidal self-injury, current financial situation, prescribed medication for mental health concerns, and emotional support from social network, was the best fit that most parsimoniously described which variables had the greatest impact on anxiety levels at intake. Finally, our results indicate that there is a relationship between generalized anxiety symptoms and other presenting concerns (distress, depression, social anxiety, hostility, eating concerns, substance use). Given our study's large sample size, we provide more generalizable data than single university studies and provide clinical and research recommendations.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Counseling Psychology and Special Education

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2024-03-05

Document Type

Dissertation

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13106

Keywords

anxiety, treatment outcome, university setting

Language

english

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