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Characterizing Mental Health and Wellness in Students Across Engineering Disciplines

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Conference

2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference

Location

Crystal City, Virginia

Publication Date

April 29, 2018

Start Date

April 29, 2018

End Date

May 2, 2018

Conference Session

Undergraduate Track - Technical Session IV

Tagged Topics

Diversity and Undergraduate Education

Page Count

10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29522

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29522

Download Count

2316

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Paper Authors

biography

Andrew Danowitz California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4842-2005

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Andrew Danowitz received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2014, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. His engineering education interests include student mental health, retention, and motivation.

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biography

Kacey Beddoes University of Massachusetts, Lowell

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Kacey Beddoes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She received her Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Virginia Tech, along with graduate certificates in Women’s and Gender Studies and Engineering Education. Dr. Beddoes serves as Deputy Editor of the journal Engineering Studies and as Chair of the SEFI Working Group on Gender and Diversity. Further information can be found on her website: www.sociologyofengineering.org

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Abstract

Anecdotal evidence has long supported the idea that engineering students have lower levels of mental health and wellness than their peers. It is often posited that the large number of courses, low overall retention, difficult courses, and the abundance of intensive engineering projects lead to an unhealthy work-life balance and eventually lower levels of mental health for this population. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive study on the prevalence and types of mental health conditions that afflict engineering students, or any data on whether certain disciplines within engineering may see a greater prevalence of certain mental health conditions among students than other disciplines.

This paper presents the results of a one-year study performed at California Polytechnic State University to address the knowledge gap surrounding mental health across students in different engineering disciplines in higher education. For this study, the authors developed and administered a comprehensive mental health questionnaire to both undergraduate and graduate students across eleven different engineering disciplines. The instrument screens for likelihood of depression, anxiety, PTSD, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and other major mental illnesses. An analysis of the data shows that while mental health and wellness issues are prevalent across all majors, specific disciplines appear to have very different mixes of conditions and issues affecting their students.

Danowitz, A., & Beddoes, K. (2018, April), Characterizing Mental Health and Wellness in Students Across Engineering Disciplines Paper presented at 2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference, Crystal City, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--29522

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