The Debate about Increasing College Student Psychopathology: Are College Students Really Getting “Sicker?”

In the past couple of decades, there have been numerous claims made about the increasing severity of college student mental health issues. While the question of increasing severity seems to be well documented by the perception-based surveys of university counseling center directors, very limited data exists to prove that this trend is actually occurring. This article reviews several studies that have attempted to substantiate this perceived trend, and alternative explanations are posed to account for the reasons that these perceptions have lingered in the absence of hard data. Implications for future research are discussed.