An analysis of college student levels of depression in relation to activity involvement [abstract]

Abstract

Depression is a serious mental illness affecting many people throughout the United States and the world. The focus of this research project is on the affects of depression on the age cohort of college students. Through this research, the goal is to see what effect activity level outside of classes, in recreational and other academic activities (or lack thereof), has on the depression level of the typical college student. Therefore, this research project focuses mainly on depression in college students, in addition to some other important facts about depression in general. It is important to be active to keep your mind and body alert, but some people are not very active, or think they do not have time to be active outside of their daily responsibilities. The topic of this research project is the issue of depression among college students. The main focus is on comparing depression levels among college students who are involved in activities outside of the classroom with college students who are not as involved in activities outside of the classroom. This research will involve several elements. The hypothesis is that students who are involved in more activities outside of class (including studying), and have higher GPAs, will have a tendency to be less depressed. For instance, students who are more involved outside of class, either with on-campus activities, church activities, or maybe other academically focused activities, will feel a higher level of accomplishment, and thus be less depressed. On the other hand, students who just go to class and are not involved in stimulating activities outside of the classroom (including studying), may engage in more drinking, or drug use, or may just be involved in less stimulating activities, leading potentially to an overall sense of less accomplishment. These people, when compared with more active students, may have a higher level of depression. In contrast, students with very high levels of accomplishment can potentially be depressed as well. Some students may push themselves too much and yet never feel satisfied with their accomplishments or themselves. The forum for obtaining all this information will be through surveys. This topic is relevant because depression is a very common illness today, especially among younger generations. People have been suffering from depression for a long time, but it seems as though this illness has been receiving more academic attention over the past century, with increased interests in the psychological aspects of the mind.