Mental health literacy, sleep disturbances, and mental health among those in educational settings post-pandemic
Presentation Type
Presentation
Full Name of Faculty Mentor
Sharon Thompson, Health Sciences, Swain Scholars; Molly French, IRAA
Major
Public Health
Presentation Abstract
In America, almost one in five adults has some form of a mental illness (Parekh, 2018) and those affected by COVID-19 may have a greater burden of mental health problems (Hossain et al., 2020). Sleep disturbances may affect the symptoms and severity of mental illness due to the emotional regulatory role of sleep (Harvey et al., 2011). This is a problem because one-third of Americans report sleeping less than the recommended amount (Blackwelder et al., 2021). While mental illnesses have increased, beliefs about mental health problems in the general population are severely limited as most have minimal understanding of mental health recognition and prevention (Kutcher et al., 2016). Low mental health literacy rates have led to undiagnosed and under-reported rates of mental health conditions (Tay et al., 2018). Moulin (2020) noted that mental health is of rising concern in academic settings and Pressley and colleagues reported that 30.9% of teachers received mental health counseling during the pandemic. College students are also feeling more depressed and anxious post-pandemic (Elharake et al., 2022). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine mental health, mental health literacy, and sleep disturbances in academic settings. An online and paper-pencil survey was developed using the Mental Health Literacy Scale (adapted from O’Connor & Casey, 2015), Sleep Disorder Symptom Checklist (Klingman et al., 2017), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (Spitzer et al., 1999), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (Spitzer et al., 2006). This survey was distributed in a southeastern coastal region. Results will follow.
Start Date
11-4-2023 8:40 AM
End Date
11-4-2023 9:00 AM
Disciplines
Public Health
Recommended Citation
Hatcher, Abigail; Avallone, Alyssa; Cuenya, Clare; and Flemmer, Caitlyn, "Mental health literacy, sleep disturbances, and mental health among those in educational settings post-pandemic" (2023). Undergraduate Research Competition. 7.
https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/ugrc/2023/fullconference/7
Mental health literacy, sleep disturbances, and mental health among those in educational settings post-pandemic
In America, almost one in five adults has some form of a mental illness (Parekh, 2018) and those affected by COVID-19 may have a greater burden of mental health problems (Hossain et al., 2020). Sleep disturbances may affect the symptoms and severity of mental illness due to the emotional regulatory role of sleep (Harvey et al., 2011). This is a problem because one-third of Americans report sleeping less than the recommended amount (Blackwelder et al., 2021). While mental illnesses have increased, beliefs about mental health problems in the general population are severely limited as most have minimal understanding of mental health recognition and prevention (Kutcher et al., 2016). Low mental health literacy rates have led to undiagnosed and under-reported rates of mental health conditions (Tay et al., 2018). Moulin (2020) noted that mental health is of rising concern in academic settings and Pressley and colleagues reported that 30.9% of teachers received mental health counseling during the pandemic. College students are also feeling more depressed and anxious post-pandemic (Elharake et al., 2022). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine mental health, mental health literacy, and sleep disturbances in academic settings. An online and paper-pencil survey was developed using the Mental Health Literacy Scale (adapted from O’Connor & Casey, 2015), Sleep Disorder Symptom Checklist (Klingman et al., 2017), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (Spitzer et al., 1999), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (Spitzer et al., 2006). This survey was distributed in a southeastern coastal region. Results will follow.