College time: implications for student mental health services.

Abstract

Abstract Time conditions on campus are in many ways extreme and contribute to the distinctiveness and stress of the college or university experience. This paper studies college time by examining the variables of duration, change, and degree of structure across the perspectives of the overall college career, the course of a single semester, and day to day student life. The most salient features that are identified are the interruptions in the college experience caused by vacations and leaves from campus, the extent and pace of change both over the college career and over the semester, and the lack of a set time structure in daily student life. These and other time features, it is proposed, have a dual effect on student mental health services, influencing the content and timing of students' issues in psychotherapy and the nature of the psychotherapy that mental health offices provide. In light of the special features of college time, recommendations are offered regarding waiting lists, duration of therapy, ...