Healthy Minds Study

A study of mental health among college and university students

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Questionnaire Items

Demographics and Other Characteristics

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Race/ethnicity
  • US citizen/resident or international
  • Sexual orientation
  • Residence type
  • Year in program
  • Degree program
  • Field of study
  • Religiosity
  • Current financial situation
  • Family's financial situation when growing up
  • Mother’s educational attainment
  • Father’s educational attainment
  • Current relationship status


Mental Health Status

  • Flourishing/languishing (14-item Mental Health Continuum scale by Keyes)
  • Depressive symptoms, past 2 weeks (PHQ-9 scale, plus item on impairment)
  • Depressive symptoms, past year (first two items of PHQ-9)
  • Panic disorder symptoms, past 4 weeks (PHQ, 1-15 items depending on skips)
  • Generalized anxiety symptoms, past 4 weeks (PHQ, 1-8 items)
  • Eating behavior, current (8-9 items adapted from SCID)
  • Lifetime diagnoses of mental disorders
  • Perceived effect of mental health on academic performance, past 4 weeks
  • Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), past year (types, and follow-up on frequency)
  • Suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts, past year (1-3 items)


Lifestyle and Health-related Behaviors

  • Cigarette smoking, past 30 days
  • Marijuana and other illicit drug use, past 30 days
  • Exercise (moderate or higher intensity), past 30 days
  • Binge drinking, past 2 weeks
  • Gambling, past year
  • Experienced discrimination due to race/ethnicity/culture, past year
  • School work, hours per day in current semester
  • Working in paid job, hours per week in current semester
  • Confidence that completing degree will be worth cost and effort
  • Optimism about job prospects after completing education
  • Overall satisfaction with current college/university
  • Likelihood of donating money to college/university after graduating


Awareness of and Attitudes towards Mental Health Treatment

  • Knowledge about where to go for help with mental health
  • Belief about effectiveness of therapy or counseling for depression
  • Belief about effectiveness of medication for depression
  • Perceived stigma (3 items adapted from Discrimination-Devaluation Scale)
  • Personal stigma (3 items analogous to perceived stigma items)


Use of Mental Health Services

  • Perceived need for help, past year
  • Medications (specific types), regular use for at least 4 weeks in past year
    • Type of physician who wrote prescription (or no prescription)
    • Discussed medication with health provider, how often in past year
    • Medication, current use
  • Therapy or counseling in past year for mental health (yes/no)
    • Therapy or counseling, current
    • Number of visits in past year
    • Types and locations (campus, local community, other community) of providers
    • Satisfaction with therapy/counseling (hours, location, quality, respect for privacy, waiting time for appointment)
    • Open field comments on experiences with therapy/counseling
  • Visit to any health professional in past year
  • Counseling or support from non-clinical sources
    • Actual support received, past year
    • Hypothetical: "whom would you turn to?"


Barriers and Facilitators to Mental Health Services

  • Significant barriers noted from list (which includes items related to financial constraints, time, privacy concerns, lack of quality, and several other issues)
  • Facilitators (factors explaining why people have received services)
  • Health insurance coverage
    • Source of coverage (if any)
    • Coverage for mental health (definitely yes, think yes, no idea, think not, definitely not)
    • Whether plan meets needs for mental health services (and if not, reasons why)


Academic Environment

  • Supportiveness of degree program's department
  • Willingness to talk with various academic personnel about mental health
  • Perceived competitiveness among students in classes
  • Estimated cumulative GPA (A+, A, A-, etc)
  • Grades, relative to average person in same classes


Social Support

  • Perceived support from family
  • Perceived support from friends


© 2011-2012 Healthy Minds Study
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