While we acknowledge that variability might arise due to these differences, the study aims to compare how each group manages and perceives stress, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of stress in higher education. Including both groups allows us to explore how academic stress manifests differently across educational stages and life circumstances, thus providing a more comprehensive view of the factors contributing to academic stress. The discussions were analyzed thematically, complementing the quantitative data and providing a more nuanced understanding of academic stress. Gender differences in stress perception (Martínez-Líbano et al., 2023), employment and academic status (Alhamed, 2023), and economic constraints linked to scholarship availability (Fruehwirth et al., 2023) significantly impact students’ ability to manage academic workloads. By identifying these factors, the study offers practical guidelines for universities to design targeted interventions that better support student well-being in the evolving post-pandemic context. This study aims to fill that gap by contributing to the existing literature, specifically focusing on how universities can implement and adapt effective stress management strategies for students in the post-pandemic context.

Challenges in Implementing Novel MH Promotion and Prevention Strategies

Mental health in higher education has a significant impact on students’ academic success, personal development and overall quality of life. Alongside a range of topics, the study of mental health in higher education has other indicators Research on mental health and social support that highlight its significance as a vital area of research. A meta-analysis on mental health established a strong correlation between poor mental health and lower academic achievement . The mental health of students in higher education has become a significant concern in recent years, reflecting broader societal shifts in the recognition of mental health issues.

Acting Director of NIMH

Specifically, Evans and colleagues found, using the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scales, that graduate students experienced depression and anxiety at rates of 41% and 39%, respectively. A 2015 University of Arizona study found that 73% of graduate students reported greater than average stress, with 23% describing their stress level as “tremendous”89. The Gradresources survey found that 37% of graduate students experienced “more stress than they can handle” as a direct result of their studies, with a total of 45% reporting more stress than they can handle in general. Consequently, several studies report that graduate students experience elevated stress levels, even compared to undergraduate students. Many are afraid that they will not be able to find a job at the end of their studies, and this stress has been found to contribute to depressive feelings among graduate students75. Some studies that have made an effort to distinguish serious thoughts from ideation include Eisenberget al.’s17 and Garlowet al.’s50, which reported 6.3% and about 10% of students had such thoughts within the year the study was performed.

• We recruited participants mainly via mailing lists and our project therefore probably has especially appealed to people who are already interested in health or aware of mental health issues.
• Hispanic students were at a slightly lower risk (47%, 51%, and 10%), followed by Middle Eastern/Arab students (43%, 49%, and 12%).
• However, those studies had an aim to describe either mental health reasons or way to resolve them.
• There is growing evidence suggesting that the prevalence and/or severity of university mental health issues has been increasing over the past half-century.

These countries accounted for 63% of the documents indexed in the Scopus database. There were totally 128 studies in 1960 s while there were 2519 documents in 2024 up to now. Lastly, VOSviewer facilitated both citation and co-citation analyses, visually representing the connections among different structures through social network maps. The metadata for each article was extracted from the Scopus database and organized in an Excel spreadsheet.

It embraces self-care, stress-relief and management, healthy emotional coping, mindfulness, and reaching out for help when necessary. Ultimately, both pieces point to the problematic expectation that academics must forgo family for career success, leaving student-and-scientist-parents with little support. Kokkinoset al. mention that 1/3 of students reported involvement in bullying through online methods, such as over social media.

For example, past reports showed that eruptions of transmittable diseases adversely impact students’ mental health, as seen in the past SARS outbreak 72,73. The studies here further emphasized applying social-ecological theory to demonstrate how several ecological settings have an accumulative and joint impact on well-being 67,68. The cluster identifies a need for intervention at different levels, such as instruction, prevention, care, and follow-up to lessen mental health complications amongst Ph.D. students. The focus of this cluster is on comprehending the mental health of graduate researchers through the conceptualization of doctoral researchers’ mental health and the characterization of the Ph.D. experience. The map reveals five themes representing mental health research among graduate students. The analysis of keyword clusters is a quantitative measure to establish the close connection among items based on their features and certain similarity or dissimilarity pointers in the literature .