Depression and Academic Performance
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Depression and Academic Performance
Depression is characterized by feeling unhappy, empty, hopeless, and uninterested throughout most of the day (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). If you’ve lost a lot of weight, you may notice other symptoms such as insomnia and hypersomnia as well as weariness and a lack of vitality.

You may also feel useless and have thoughts of death as well as suicidal thoughts. To qualify for a depressive illness, five of the symptoms must be present for at least two weeks and produce significant impairment in one’s ability to function.
Furthermore, a number of the symptoms of depression have been shown to impair academic performance. It’s possible that sleep deprivation and exhaustion will make it difficult to attend class or maintain concentration. A student’s inability to remember the material and perform effectively in class may be hampered by a lack of interest in and a persistent sense of sorrow.
Cognitively demanding hobbies can leave people unable to function,” according to the American Psychiatric Association (2013) a sudden and dramatic fall”Poor focus may be reflected in grades”. Depressed people are more likely to have low academic achievement because of these symptoms and impacts.
Over the last year, the American College Health Association (2013) projected that 14% of college students reported experiencing depression (as cited in Holliday et al., 2016). Seven percent of Americans have had a significant depressive episode that has lasted at least a year (APA, 2013). This data shows that college students suffer from depression at a far higher incidence than the general population. Three times as many people between the ages of 18 and 29 suffer from this condition compared to those over the age of 60.
Traditional college students, who are typically between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine, are more likely to suffer from depression. Student depression tends to rise with age (Bostanci, et al., 2005; Naushad, et al., 2014). A greater risk of suicide attempts is associated with females, however, the incidence of suicide completion is lower than for men (APA, 2013).
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders presently does not include any culture-related diagnostic difficulties. In contrast to non-Hispanic female college students, Hispanic female students showed higher rates of sadness and anxiety in research by Holliday et al. (2016).
Academic Success and the Role of Social Support
The level of social support that college students have varies widely, based on a variety of variables, including where they come from, their upbringing, their personality, and other personal characteristics. It is outlined in Cohen and Wills (1985)
The main-effect model and the buffering model are two of the most common ways to think about social support. Using social support as a coping mechanism is emphasized in the first model (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Thirdly, coping with adverse events and minimizing their influence on one’s well-being is an important aspect of social support. Malecki & Demaray, (2002) it is supported by the main effect model that social networks give people a feeling of stability and community, and that good experiences are increased (Cohen & Wills, 1985).
Regular social support is seen as a way to realize one’s own value by those who advocate this approach If a student’s physical or mental health is in jeopardy, the buffering approach is more appropriate. Social support may play a role in buffering the harmful effects of stress. According to this paradigm, other people may be both a source of useful resources and a way to increase a person’s self-perception of their own capacity to deal with life’s challenges. Students may use social assistance to lessen the negative effects of their problems on their academic achievement as well as other aspects of their life.
Because there are so many different ways to define social support, it’s difficult to generalize (Barrera, 1986). Cobb (1976) defines social support as “the sense that a person has about being cared for, loved, and respected, and belonging to a network of individuals that the individual can call on in case of need.” How a person views assistance is based on how confident they are that they can rely on another person in particular scenarios (Barrera, 1986).
Various hypotheses have argued that academic success in college and university is strongly correlated with the presence of strong social support networks. Student success, according to Tinto’s Theory of Student Departure (2006) and Astin’s Theory of Involvement (1999; both mentioned in Brook & Willoughby, 2015), depends on students participating and integrating into larger social systems.
It has been shown that “social and academic goals are linked” in a study done by Brook and Willoughby (2015) and that social activities are important during the transition that college students go through. This has been supported by other literature (Goguen, et al., 2012). As a result, academic success may be hampered by difficulties in forming supportive social networks. Anxiety and sadness, two common mental health problems, may make it difficult to find and keep friends.
It has been established that students who have a strong social support system are more likely to do well academically in elementary and high school (Chen & Rubin 1992; Crean 2004, Elias & Haynes, 2008; D’Avila-Bacarji, Marturano, & Eliason, 2005; Konishi & Zumbo, 2010). There is a dearth of studies examining the link between college students’ social support and their academic success.
Only a small percentage of college students (Iglesia, Stover, & Liporace, 2014) showed a positive correlation between social support and academic achievement in one research. Only female students were shown to have a significant association between academic success and their impression of social support in this research. Students’ GPAs were not greatly influenced by social support, but rather by passing and dropping courses. Those students who felt more supported in their studies performed better academically and missed fewer courses.
Among college students, anxiety and despair are common. As a result, these mental health disorders may have a severe influence on a student’s capacity to succeed academically as well as their general well-being. Students with anxiety and/or depression may benefit from university staff’s knowledge on how to help them.
Several studies have found an association between social support and academic achievement in younger students (Crean, 2004; Elias and Haynes, 2008; Garcia D’Avila-Bacarji, Marturano and dos Santos Elia, 2005); older students (Konishi, Hymel and Zumbo 2010); and college students (Perry, Liu & Pabian 2010), but no such studies have been conducted for college-age pupils.
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