For the past four years, Sewanee undergrad students have been filling out the Healthy Minds Survey (HMS), a survey that asks questions about mental health outcomes, knowledge and attitudes about mental health and service utilization. The HMS is used by a network of colleges and emphasizes understanding help-seeking behavior, examining stigma, knowledge, and other potential barriers to mental health service utilization.

Our team of researchers at Sewanee DataLab have analyzed HMS survey data to answer pressing questions about flourishing at Sewanee. The four years of HMS data we have will allow us to find correlations between student health, habits, and flourishing. This project is in partnership with the Associate Dean of Student Flourishing at Sewanee, Dr. Nicole Noffsinger-Frazier, and under mentorship of Dr. Sylvia Gray, Title IX coordinator.

These graphs show the percentage of students that fit the selected criteria. This is a dataset of 1,375 survey respondents over 4 school years. Some demographics are grouped in “other” to protect the identities of survey respondents.

University Wellness Center Counseling and Psychological Services: 931-598-1325
24/7 Wellness Crisis Line: 931-598-1700
Nationwide Mental Health Emergency and Suicide Prevention Hotline: 988
Director of Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX, Dr. Sylvia Gray: 931-598-1420, Woods 138, smgray@sewanee.edu
CARE Team
Chattanooga Rape Crisis Center: 423-755-2700
24-Hour Sexual Assault Violence Response Team (Nashville): 1-800-879-1999
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): 1-800-656-4673
Southern Tennessee Regional Hospital - Sewanee: 931-598-5691

Fig 1. Clinically diagnosed mental illness rates among students have relatively remained the same since 2017 - around 35%. We hypothesize that factors such as Covid-19 might account for the increase from 2019 onwards.
* Note: There are no responses from 5th year students in the school year 2020/2021

Fig 2. This graph shows how many days students experienced depressive feelings in the last two weeks.

Fig 3. This graph shows how many days students experienced anxious feelings in the last two weeks.

Fig 1. Academic Impairment is measured by how many days per month the respondents felt that emotional or mental difficulties hurt their academic performance.

Fig 2. Students with one or more diagnosed mental illnesses and their activities compared to students without any diagnosed mental illness or illnesses.

Fig 3. Students with one or more diagnosed mental illnesses and their behaviors compared to students without any diagnosed mental illness or illnesses.

Fig 1. 60% of respondents describe themselves as either satisfied or highly satisfied. Their lives are not perfect, but they love their lives and feel that things are going very well

Categories are derived from The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). The scale was developed as a way to assess an individual’s cognitive judgment of their satisfaction with their life as a whole.

Fig 2. How much students that are flourishing agree with the selected wellbeing statement. Flourishing individuals are identified as respondents with a flourishing status of ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Highly Satisfied’ on the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Flourishing individuals are in the 90th percentile of the SWLS.

Fig 1. Flourishing individuals are identified as respondents with a flourishing status of ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Highly Satisfied’ on the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Flourishing individuals are in the 90th percentile of the SWLS.

Fig 2. Flourishing individuals are identified as respondents with a flourishing status of ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Highly Satisfied’ on the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Flourishing individuals are in the 90th percentile of the SWLS.

Student Mental Illness Prevalence

56%

of gender queer/nonconforming students have diagnosed mental illnesses in 2021

100%

of gender self identifying students have diagnosed mental illnesses in 2021

45%

of woman identifying students have diagnosed mental illnesses in 2021

21%

of man identifying students have diagnosed mental illnesses in 2021

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~75% and 67%

of students with mental illnesses have either anxiety or depression, respectively

---

53%

of seniors in 2019 have a mental illness

vs

42%

of freshman in 2019 with mental illness

---

56%

of LGBTQ+ students in 2021 experience mental illness

vs

35%

of non-LGBTQ+ students in 2021

Student Activities

46% and 40%

of students with depression and anxiety, respectively, report experiencing academic impairment for 6 or more days in the past four weeks

vs

30-35%

of students experience academic impairment only one or two days, depending on the loneliness variable

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6 hours

or less is on average how much students sleep per night regardless of mental illness status and demographic

---

42%

of students with mental illness in 2021 reported that they have used therapy before

vs

35%

students without mental illness in 2021

---

~32%

of students, with and without mental illness, in 2021 agree or strongly agree with having knowledge of mental health services on campus

Substance Use

~36%

of students in 2021 have not had any alcohol in the past 2 weeks regardless of mental illness status

---

47%

of students with mental illness in 2021, binge drink three to five times or less in the past 2 weeks

vs

43%

of students in 2021 without mental illness

---

78%

of students of both mental illness statuses in 2021 smoked 0 days in the past 30 days

---

68%

of students in 2021 have not vaped in the past 30 days across both mental illnes statuses

vs

34%

of students in 2021 have vaped

---

16%

of students with mental illness in 2021 have used drugs in the past 30 days

vs

13%

those without mental illness in 2021

Student Flourishing

~40%

of students report being statisfied with their lives

and

~27%

of students report being highly satisfied

---

0%

of gender queer/nonconforming students report being highly satisfied with their lives

---

41% and 31%

of non-LGBTQ+ students report being statisfied and highly satisfied respectively

vs

35% and 11%

of LGBTQ+ students

---

36%

of first year students report being satisfied

vs

41%

of fourth year students

Student Activities

6 hours

or less is on average how much students sleep regardless of flourishing status and demographic

---

46%

of students who are not flourishing use therapy

vs

23%

of students who are not flourishing do not use therapy

---

23%

of students not flourishing in 2021 agree they have knowledge of mental health services

and

13%

of students flourishing in 2021 agree they have knowledge of mental health services

Substance Use

73%

of students in 2021 have not had alcohol in the past two weeks regardless of flourishing status

---

64%

of students who are not flourishing in 2021 binge drink 3 to 5 times or less

vs

26%

of students who are flourishing in 2021 binge drink 3 to 5 times or less in the past two weeks

---

25%

of flourishing students in 2021 smoke zero days

vs

53%

of non-flourishing students in 2021 smoked zero days in the past 30 days

---

67%

of students in 2021 have not vaped in the past 30 days regardless of flourishing status

vs

33%

of students in 2021 who have vaped

---

71%

of both non-flourishing and flourishing students, in 2021, have not used drugs in the past 30 days

vs

29%

of students in 2021 who have used drugs in the past 30 days