In 2014, UPenn freshman Madison Holleran leapt to her death from a parking structure on her college campus. Her suicide made national news, and the New York Times decried the "pressure for perfection" causing college students to take their own lives. The article joined a chorus warning of a mental-health crisis at US colleges, pointing to everything from trigger warnings in lecturesto long wait times at counseling centers as proof that today's undergrads are vulnerable and easily broken.
But a large body of evidence, including a study published last month in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, casts doubt on this narrative. Historical data suggests that college students might actually be better off than ever before—and that those who don't go to college are at a higher risk of suicide.
The study, led by researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), found that people aged 18–25 who don't go to college are more likely to attempt suicide with a plan than their college-attending peers. (Attempting suicide with a plan is usually considered more dangerous than attempting it without one, as planned suicides are more likely to end in death or serious injury.)
"We don't want to ignore the problems of college students," study co-author Richard McKeon, branch chief for suicide prevention at SAMHSA, told VICE. "The important thing is that people don't think that college students are actually at greater risk [than their non-student peers] when the opposite is true."
[For more of this story, written by Nathalie Lagerfeld, go to http://www.vice.com/read/menta...th-crisis-in-college]
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