Since it is the end of the summer, most of
the McNair scholars have finished their research. This could mean they have created their poster used to present, analyzed all of the data, and maybe even completed their research paper. While I have been staying on schedule, I have not completed my research paper. However, I have completed the research poster, and my mentor and I are currently still working on the final research paper. We put together our findings, and got to a conclusion.
The information that we found were from each of the different opened ended questions. For the first one, participants were asked how they have seen their mental health impact their academic performance in their college career. The responses were coded by single words and split into external factors and internal factors. Internal factors were also split into negative, positive, and other. The word that was used the most within the negative internal factors was Unmotivated. This word was used 19 times, each by an individual participant. Nervous/Anxious was used the second most, 18 times, and stress the third most, 17 times. One thing to note is that external factors had 26 words used. In internal factors, positive and other had 32 words used, and negative factors had 148 different words used.
For the next question, Participants were asked how their mental health has affected relationships with friends, professors, and or classmates. The responses were split into two categories- external and internal factors. Internal factors was split into negative, positive, and other. The word used the most in the internal negative factors category was Self-Isolation , used 19 times. The second most used term was Detached from Others which was used 12 times. In the internal other factors, Feeling Like a “Burden” was used the most. A term mentioned the most in the external factors was Open About Mental Health with Friends.
With the last open ended question, Participants were asked what extracurricular activities they were a part of, and what extracurricular activities could be added to further assist students. Counseling services was the campus opportunity that was mentioned being used the most, 19 times. The writing center was campus opportunity that was used, being mentioned 12 times. When asked what opportunities could be used to further assist students, participants stated having emotional support animals more available, having mental health days/breaks from school, and meditation or yoga classes available.
After looking at all the data together, and When looking at the impact mental health has on student academics, we could see from the data that many students felt that their mental health made them unmotivated, anxious, and stressed out. With their relationships, it shows that their mental health made them isolate themselves, feel detached from others, and even feel like a burden to professors and peers. Higher ACE scores have been seen to be directly associated with negative mental health outcomes, and a lower well being overall (Chamberlain, 2020). When taking this information into account, our data also shows that college students dealing with mental health have more negative experiences, and more problems with professors, peers, and friends. This could also mean that having a higher ACE score would lead to having a negative impact on academics and relationships.