Abstract
BackgroundUniversity students have high rates of depression, and friends are often the most commonly-used source of support for emotional distress in this population. This study aimed to explore students’ ability to provide effective support for their peers with depressive symptoms and the factors influencing the quality of their mental health first aid (MHFA) skills, including students’ gender, course of study, and gender of student experiencing depression.MethodsVia an online survey, students at two British universities (N = 483) were quasi-randomly allocated to view a video vignette of either a male or female student depicting symptoms of depression. An open-ended question probed MHFA actions they would take to help the vignette character, which were rated using a standardised scoring scheme based on MHFA guidelines.ResultsStudents reported low MHFA scores (mean 2.89, out of possible 12). The most commonly reported action was provision of support and information, but only eight (1.6 %) students stated an intention to assess risk of harm. Those studying clinically non-relevant degrees with limited mental health content reported poorer MHFA (p = <0.001) and were less confident about their ability to support a friend with depression (p = 0.04). There was no main effect of vignette gender, but within the group of students on non-relevant courses the male vignette received significantly poorer MHFA than the female vignette (p = 0.02). A significant three-way interaction found that male participants studying non-relevant degrees who viewed a male vignette had poorer MHFA compared to females studying non-relevant degrees who viewed the female vignette (p = 0.005).ConclusionsMost students lack the necessary MHFA skills to support friends suffering from symptoms of depression, or to help them get appropriate support and prevent risk of harm. Students on courses which do not include mental health related content are particularly ill-equipped to support male students, with male students receiving the poorest quality MHFA from fellow male students on these courses. MHFA training has the potential to improve outcomes for students with depression, and could have a valuable role in reducing the excess risk of harm seen in male students.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2887-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
University students have high rates of depression, and friends are often the most commonly-used source of support for emotional distress in this population
The present study aimed to investigate the quality of university students’ mental health first aid (MHFA) actions towards a video vignette depicting either a male or female student experiencing symptoms of depression, and their confidence in using those MHFA skills to help a friend
Over half of the sample (N = 273, 56.5 %) stated they had experienced a similar issue to the vignette or another psychological issue, with 29.6 % (N = 143) meeting the moderate, moderate-to-severe, or severe depression thresholds on the Patient health questionnaire – 9 item version (PHQ-9)
Summary
University students have high rates of depression, and friends are often the most commonly-used source of support for emotional distress in this population. Depression is one of the most commonly experienced mental health problems in university students. The mean age of onset and high prevalence rates mean that either students themselves, or one of their friends, is very likely to experience depression. Untreated depression can have a significant impact on students’ quality of life, affect their educational experience and the skills they need to complete their degree, and can lead to decreased academic productivity, poorer exam results, absenteeism, social isolation, academic probation and withdrawal from university [5,6,7,8,9,10]. Studies with young people tend to find that females experience higher rates of common mental health problems [13], the evidence for this in student populations is less conclusive. The numbers of university students in England and Wales taking their own lives has risen almost 50 % between 2007 and 2011, with male students making up over two-thirds (69.6 %) of student suicides that occurred in 2011 [20]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
