Abel N. Gonzalez, Rafath C. Gnabode, Fray C. Martinez, Shamia N. Shanaha

     With a topic as prominent as depression among college students, there are many different people that need to get the message that is going to be portrayed. It could be the parents of these college students, their peers, the students themselves, among many more. The focus here in the campaign will be for those people who are not essentially grasping the full message. What is this message? The message here is that depression among college students is indeed something prominent and now we are speaking our minds about it, yet is there something that is actually being done to combat it? Are the right people getting the idea that we indeed don’t have it as easy as people think? It is true that college students now have access to more resources now than we ever have before, but that also presents its own challenges. The standards are higher, as well as the expectations. The main audience here are those people who may be stuck in the “old school” way of thinking. It may be those older people who hold a seat on the board of directors of a school, it may be older people who are parents who can’t relate and modernize their way of thinking. Why do we say these types of older adults specifically? We name these groups because they are the two prominent groups here that both directly and indirectly have a significant impact on what we go through. 

Let’s start with the older adults that may be directors of different schools. For example, they grew up in a different time and made it pretty far with a degree of success that they rightfully earned. But, since they felt that they experienced a certain set of growing pains in order to gain the wisdom necessary to succeed in the real world, they feel that today’s generation needs to go through those same growing pains. Yet, they don’t realize that college students go through their own respective growing issues that may seem nonsensical to the older generations but very much relevant to us. In addition to this, the circumstances are very different from how they used to be.

Now to the people you may least suspect that need to hear a campaign about depression among college students, the respective parents of these college students. As could be the case, some parents may be more advanced in age than others. This is geared more for the older parents, maybe 50 years old and above. They fall in the same boat as the directors and even professors of the students. They went through their own set of growing pains, so they try to make the student feel bad for struggling because they are convinced that things are easier just because they are more accessible. That compounded by the high expectations society has for us, the ones our parents have for us, and most importantly, the expectations we set for ourselves, makes our lives so much more difficult and strenuous than people really notice. 

The old way of thinking may undermine and put less  priority on what these college students may be feeling. They may just  push to the side their symptoms and see them as a weak individual which can just lead to more harm. 

“My parents didn’t seem to grasp how serious the situation was, either. Not because they didn’t care, but because of their own issues with stigma, denial, and fear. As a result, it took me a tragically long time to get the support I needed.”(Finch. 2020). Anecdotal Evidence of an adult talking to a college student about their parents’ old way of thinking and how they treated  the signs of the depression with their issues of their own. Due to these issues the parents don’t realize the severity of  these symptoms and it causes the college student and youth as a whole to just deal with it and suffer with little to no help at all. 

 

“Older adults are less likely to seek out and adhere to treatments for depression than are younger adults…Older adults with higher hopelessness tended to exhibit higher stigma, although this was a non-significant trend. ” (Factors, 2016). This behavior could be seen with older men or women whether they are parents or guardians to younger adults such as college students and  they can push it onto them. The fact that they are not willing to seek help and just brush it off and attempt to pretend it’s not there can ultimately hurt these college students and young adults who are suffering through depression. It makes all the more worse with the fact that the youth has an “old way of thinking” role model who thinks they are just going through mood changes. 

Depression is a serious issue in college campuses everywhere. People on campuses may not recognize people who may have depression because they are your typical every day college students. College students are likely to get depression because of stress from school work, home life, or finances (Mayo Clinic, 2020). However, stress is not the only reason students may feel depressed; some of the other reasons are neurological, genetics, stressful life events, medical problems (Harvard Health, 2019). Often students feel hopelessness, loss of interest in activities they used to like, negative changes in their academic performance, anxiety, and feeling of worthlessness(Mayo Clinic, 2020). The symptoms of depression can cause students to have difficulty functioning in their everyday life, and as symptoms increase students feel like their life is not in their control they may even start to feel suicidal. Many students may not know where to get help when experiencing the symptoms of depression. There are many services that can help depressed college students in and outside of their campuses. Such services are the JED Foundation, the National Suicidal Prevention Hotline, counselors at the campus, psychotherapy etc. Parents can also help with their child who has depression in college. Ways parents can help their own child that is going to college is to stay connected to them. Parents should check in with the child and be there for them when they are in distress. Create an atmosphere where the student and the parent can have an open discussion where anything can be discussed (University of Michigan, 2021). 

Depression causes college students to struggle academically, some of these struggles are as follows: “ Low class attendance, failing to turn in assignments, lack of focus, low quality of work, and difficulty taking tests. Some repercussions of this are failing or withdrawing from courses, academic probation, academic suspension, or withdrawal from the university” (Bisson, 2017). 

With our audience being older adults, what is believed to be the best media to effectively communicate with our audience is a newspaper. It’s evident that many older adults don’t frequent social media as much and aren’t able to successfully navigate the internet. So they usually resort to physical media such as a newspaper. The campaign will be in the health and science section of the newspaper and it will be a persuasive piece. Since our goal at the end is to get our audience on our side. We hope that by the end of reading the newspaper, they understand where we’re coming from. In terms of depression being a serious issue that affects college students in many ways. 

(https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-2T6PFvE4UI5Zi1wDLRy7DxLOGpbMRQa3g9HbbZ3L_w/edit?usp=sharing)- link to google slide presentation

                                         

 

References

What causes depression? (2019). Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression 

 

Supporting Your College Student: Parents & Families. (2021). Retrieved from https://parents.umich.edu/page/supporting-your-college-student 

Dylan Finch, S. (2020, July 17). Crazy Talk: I’m Depressed but My Parents Don’t Believe I Need a Therapist. Retrieved March, 2021, from https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/parents-dont-believe-i-need-therapy

University, O. (2016). FACTORS RELATED TO THE STIGMA OF DEPRESSION AND ITS TREATMENT AMONG HOMEBOUND DEPRESSED OLDER ADULTS. Retrieved 2021, from https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/56/Suppl_3/85/2576898 

Purdue University Global. (2018, December 28). The college Student’s guide to depression. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://www.purdueglobal.edu/blog/student-life/college-students-guide-to-depression/

College depression: What parents need to know. (2020, February 14). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/tween-and-teen-health/in-depth/college-depression/art-20048327 

Home. (2021, February 16). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://www.jedfoundation.org/ 

Home. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ 

 

Bisson, K. (2017). The Effect of Anxiety and Depression on College Students’ Academic Performance: Exploring Social Support as a Moderator [Scholarly project]. In Digitalcommons.acu.edu. Retrieved 2021, from https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1057&context=etd