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Today’s first-year students are slightly less likely to report mental health concerns, compared to their peers in the Class of 2026.
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Today’s college students wear a variety of labels, from the COVID generation to Generation P, as higher education leaders seek to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted learner engagement and worldviews. A new study of traditional-age first-year students finds students are becoming more passive in addressing social issues and less likely to see their peers as supporters in this work.
Recent survey data from Vector Solutions finds, while issues of well-being, bystander prevention and inclusion are important to students, they are slightly less engaged in this work compared to recent cohorts of incoming college students.
Methodology
From June through August, Vector Solutions surveyed 350,517 incoming first-year students (pre-matriculation), from 448 colleges and universities; the subjects were 19 years old or younger. A majority (70 percent) of respondents were white, 16 percent were Asian, 14 percent were Hispanic or Latino, 10 percent were Black or African American, and 1 percent were American Indian or Alaska Natives.
Health and wellness: Compared to classes before them, these incoming students were less likely to need mental health support, but numbers are still high. Twenty-nine percent of students reported needing help for an emotional or mental health problem in the past year (down 11 percentage points since 2022). Sixteen percent of students said they currently need help, down six percentage points.
“Campus administrators should be careful and not assume that the prevalence of mental health challenges has decreased,” according to the report. “Rather, this can provide an understanding that this cohort of students is arriving to campuses with limited prior engagement with resources.”
Today’s first-year students also reported high levels of overall concern about mental health issues and awareness of how to care for their peers who are experiencing emotional distress.
Students were more likely to say they don’t think sexual assault is a problem at their institution (35 percent compared to 20 percent in 2022 and 27 percent in 2023). While a majority of students agree that someone who has been drinking and is sexually assaulted is “never at fault” (77 percent), this figure has decreased since 2022 (when it was 82 percent), which suggests that prevention messaging around consent and responsibility needs to be revisited, according to the report.
“It is critical that the campus fosters an environment where survivors are able to seek the level of care and support they choose without fear of judgment or blame from their peers,” authors wrote.
Students also see value in intervening if their peers are abusing substances; 88 percent of first-year students agreed that intervening with someone who has a substance use disorder could save their life. A majority of students said they would intervene if they thought someone was too impaired to give consent (88 percent) or if they witnessed someone being harassed by another intoxicated individual (81 percent).
Administrators can continue to encourage this behavior by clarifying the significance of personal responsibility in addressing substance misuse and helping create an environment where students feel safe to help peers.
Campus culture: Student responses showed that, while they individually believe it is important to treat others with respect (87 percent), they are less certain that sentiment is shared among their peers (80 percent). Around seven in 10 students said they try to form friendships with people who have different identities, but closer to half (57 percent) of students say they agree their peers do the same.
Despite national pushback on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, students still reported the impact of this work on their perception of their campus.
Four in five respondents believe their institution takes diversity, equity and inclusion issues seriously, and a similar number of students say diversity and inclusion efforts create a campus community of belonging. Three in four students agree faculty and staff reflect aspects of their identities. (The majority of participants were white, and over half were women).
Fewer students agree that they engage with diverse opinions, cultures and values at their institution compared to previous years, falling six percentage points since 2021 to 80 percent of respondents. Around 82 percent of the Class of 2028 say they are confident in their ability to act as an ally to others at their institution, compared to 90 percent of the Class of 2025.
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