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1. A Snapshot of Mental Health and Wellness of Engineering Students Across the Western United States

   Danowitz, Andrew; Beddoes, Kacey (January 2020, Frontiers in Education Annual Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   This work in progress research paper characterizes mental wellness in engineering at five institutions across the Western United States to better understand what mental health issues most affect the broader engineering student community. Anecdotal evidence has long suggested that stress and certain mental wellness issues are particularly acute in the field of Engineering, and some recent research has shown elevated rates of mental wellness issues at different institutions around the country. This paper presents the results of a previously validated mental health survey conducted with first– and second–year students at several universities. The results of this work include screening rates for major mental health issues (e.g. DSM diagnosable) and moderate mental health issues as captured by the Kessler 6 screening instrument; screening rates for depressive, anxiety, and eating disorders as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ); and screening rates for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as measured by the Primary-Care Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PC-PTSD) instrument. This work also includes a preliminary analysis of screen rates by demographic groups so that educators and academic facilitators may be better aware of the types of challenges that face a diverse engineering student populace. Overall, we find that 28.4% percent of respondents potentially suffer from a diagnosable mental health condition as measured by Kessler 6. We also find that an additional 55.2% of students screen positive for moderate psychological distress. Breaking measurements down by demographic groups, we find that female respondents, particularly those from historically excluded ethnic groups and races, show elevated rates of Panic and PTSD disorders when compared to the male population. 

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2. Effects of COVID-19 on Stress and Mental Health of Community College Pre-Engineering Students

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE56618.2022.9962570  

   Danowitz, Andrew; Beddoes, Kacey (January 2022, Frontiers in Education Annual Conference)

   This research full paper presents screening rates for mental health issues and life-stress events in engineering-focused community college students during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Specifically, it attempts to answer the following research questions: 1) What is the overall rate of various mental health conditions among engineering-focused community college students, 2) What effects has the pandemic had on baseline stress levels engineering-focused community college, and 3) What effects has the pandemic had on quality of life, such as sleep habits and financial security of engineering- focused community college students? Data for this paper was collected via survey from May–July 2020 and includes responses from 84 students at 24 community colleges. The survey itself was a compilation of several widely- used instruments for measuring overall mental health and stress levels in a population. These instruments include the Kessler-6 for psychological distress, the PHQ for anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, the PC-PTSD for PTSD-like symptoms, and the SRRS for inventorying stressful life events. Among the major findings, 32% of respondents reported a major change in financial situation, 27% reported loss of employment, and 13% reported ceasing formal schooling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, 32% of respondents reported that the COVID-19 pandemic worsened their housing security situation, 38% reported that COVID-19 has worsened their food security situation, and 36% report that COVID-19 has decreased their ability to access instruction, course materials, or course supplies. Finally, of respondents who completed at least one mental health screening instrument, 70% screened positive for at least one potentially diagnosable condition, while only 9% reported ever receiving a mental health diagnosis. Index Terms—Community College, Mental Health, Disability, Accessibility, Equity, Inclusion, Wellness 

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3. Engineering Students Coping With COVID-19: Yoga, Meditation, and Mental Health

   Beddoes, Kacey; Danowitz, Andrew (June 2021, 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access)

   In 2020, we conducted a nationwide online survey of undergraduate engineering students in the United States to examine how the novel coronavirus pandemic was affecting engineering students’ mental health and what strategies they were using to cope with mental health challenges. The survey was a compilation of validated mental health instruments that screen for depression, anxiety, somatoform disorders, eating disorders, non-specific psychological distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Given that prior research has shown that yoga and meditation can help people suffering from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, we were interested in exploring the subset of respondents who said that they were using yoga and/or meditation to cope with mental health challenges during the pandemic. The research questions addressed in this paper are: 1) What are the demographic characteristics of students who used yoga and/or meditation to cope with mental health challenges of the 2020 novel coronavirus pandemic? and 2) Does the mental health of the students who used these strategies differ in any from the mental health of students who did not use yoga and meditation coping strategies? Based on 669 responses from students at 140 different universities, we found that there were 20 survey items for which the yoga/meditation group fared statistically significantly differently than the non-yoga/meditation group. These 20 items appeared in the screens for depression, anxiety, somatoform disorders, eating disorders, non-specific psychological distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder. For example, yoga and meditation practitioners were significantly less likely to have experienced feelings of hopelessness during the prior 30 days, as well as to have experienced feelings of being so depressed that nothing could cheer them up. A causative relationship cannot be claimed, but the correlations we found align with prior research showing that yoga and meditation can support many aspects of mental health. 

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4. How the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped demographic variation in mental health among diverse engineering student populations

   https://doi.org/10.1080/22054952.2023.2184912  

   Danowitz, Andrew; Beddoes, Kacey (July 2022, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education)

   Mental health issues have long posed a challenge on university campuses. While no population is immune, research has shown that students from marginalised backgrounds can have higher rates of mental health issues and suffer worse outcomes as a result. These discrepancies have been attributed to everything from different cultural norms to the micro-aggressions and other barriers that students from marginalised populations face on university campuses. With the onset of COVID-19 in the United States, many residential universities switched to a remote learning model, fundamentally changing the relationship between students, campus, family support. This work uses survey data from students in the United States to explore how COVID-19 affected mental health issues among students from different backgrounds. While the pandemic drastically increased rates of depressive disorder among all respondents, discrepancies between mental health rates for women and Hispanic/Latinx compared to men and White respondents either decreased or disappeared. Additionally, respondents identifying as Asians were less likely to screen positive for several mental health conditions than White, Non-Hispanic respondents. These findings may point to important new insights about the ways in which engineering education undermines some groups’ mental health. 

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5. Duration in Immigration Detention and Health Harms

   https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.56164  

   Saadi, Altaf; Patler, Caitlin; Langer, Paola (January 2025, JAMA Network Open)

   IMPORTANCE Length of custody is a mechanism by which carceral systems can worsen health. However, there are fewer studies examining US immigration detention, in large part because US immigration detention is largely privately operated and opaque by design. OBJECTIVES To examine the association between duration spent in US immigration detention with subsequent health outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This cross-sectional study used a referral sample of recently detained immigrants who were released from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under a series of court orders in 2020 and 2021. Data were analyzed from June 2023 to October 2024. EXPOSURE Detention duration less than 6 months vs 6 months or longer. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES We used multivariable regression analysis to assess the association of detention duration and several variables: (1) self-rated health, (2) mental illness (Kessler 6-item psychological distress scale), and (3) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Primary Care-PTSD-5 Screen).We then calculated the likelihood of experiencing each outcome, controlling for covariates. As a robustness check, we conducted sensitivity analyses with detention duration as a continuous measure. RESULTS The study included 200 respondents (mean [SD] age, 40.3 [10.1] years; 175 male [87.5%]; 149 Hispanic or Latino ethnicity [74.5%]). Results revealed a high prevalence of poor self-rated health, mental illness, and PTSD for all respondents, but especially among those who had been detained for 6 months or longer, who had significantly higher likelihood of poor or fair self-rated health (49.1% [95%CI, 40.5%-57.6%] vs 30.4%[95%CI, 21.8%-39.1%]; P < .001), mental illness (37.0%[95%CI, 28.2%-45.8%] vs 20.7%[95%CI, 12.6%-28.7%]; P < .001), and PTSD (59.3%[95% CI, 50.3%-68.3%] vs 34.8%[95%CI, 25.3%-44.3%]; P < .001). Sensitivity analysis confirmed the general robustness of these findings, with longer detention duration significantly associated with mental illness (OR, 1.11 [95%CI, 1.02-1.20]; P = .01) and PTSD (OR, 1.11 [95%CI, 1.03-1.20]; P = .005) in our adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this cross-sectional study, detained immigrants experienced a high prevalence of poor health, mental illness, and PTSD, with detention periods of 6 months or more associated with higher rates compared with those detained less than 6 months. Duration of custody is one mechanism by which immigration detention might be a catalyst for worsening health. 

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