The Relationship of Level of Positive Mental Health With Current Mental Disorders in Predicting Suicidal Behavior and Academic Impairment in College Students

• Published in: Journal of American college health Vol. 60; no. 2; pp. 126 - 133
• Main Authors: Keyes, Corey L. M., Eisenberg, Daniel, Perry, Geraldine S., Dube, Shanta R., Kroenke, Kurt, Dhingra, Satvinder S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis Group 01-02-2012; Routledge; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Adolescent; Adult; Anxiety Disorders; Anxiety-Depression; At Risk Students; College Students; Depression (Psychology); Educational Status; Female; flourishing; Happiness; Health Surveys; Humans; Internet; Low Achievement; Male; Mental Disorders; Mental Health; Mental Health Continuum- Short Form (MHC-SF); Mental Illness; Online Surveys; Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ); Patients; Personal Satisfaction; positive mental health; Prediction; Psychiatric disorders; Questionnaires; Risk Assessment - methods; Screening Tests; Students - psychology; subjective well-being; Subjectivity; Suicidal behaviour; Suicidal Ideation; Suicide; Suicide, Attempted - psychology; Suicide, Attempted - statistics & numerical data; Suicides & suicide attempts; United States; Universities; Well Being; Young Adult; United States
• ISSN: 0744-8481; 1940-3208
• DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2011.608393

Objective: To investigate whether level of positive mental health complements mental illness in predicting students at risk for suicidal behavior and impaired academic performance. Participants: A sample of 5,689 college students participated in the 2007 Healthy Minds Study and completed an Internet survey that included the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form and the Patient Health Questionnaire screening scales for depression and anxiety disorders, questions about suicide ideation, plans, and attempts, and academic impairment. Results: Just under half (49.3%) of students were flourishing and did not screen positive for a mental disorder. Among students who did, and those who did not, screen for a mental disorder, suicidal behavior and impaired academic performance were lowest in those with flourishing, higher among those with moderate, and highest in those with languishing mental health. Conclusions: Positive mental health complements mental disorder screening in mental health surveillance and prediction of suicidal behavior and impairment of academic performance.