Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is surgng among American college students, a new study shows. PTSD rates increased by 4.1 percentage points, jumping to 7.5 percent in 2021–2022 from 3.4 percent in 2017–2018.
The stark increase likely stems from a combination of events, including campus shootings, nationwide racial tensions, and the loss of loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who conducted the study, suggest.
Trauma Grips US Colleges
In the analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the team examined student populations from a diverse array of 332 higher education institutions across the U.S., encompassing a broad geographic range and various institutional types. Their extensive survey captured data from nearly 400,000 college students, with females comprising a slight majority at 57.7 percent.
A.C. Dahnke
Author
A.C. Dahnke is a freelance writer and editor residing in California. She has covered community journalism and health care news for nearly a decade, winning a California Newspaper Publishers Award for her work.
