Today I came across an article titled “Stress takes Its Toll
on College Students” on the website Bloomberg Businessweek, written by
Francesca Di Meglio. It can be found at this address: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/stress-takes-its-toll-on-college-students
Following my inquiry
into the purpose of the arboretum I decided to investigate some sources
regarding the mental health scene of college students. The article points out
that, though not pertinent to my investigation, there has been a steep increase
in the amount of students who seek psychological help whom have serious
psychological problems, from 16% in 2000 to 37% in 2012. Increases in self harm
and eating disorders have been the most prevalent amongst college populations
according to 228 interviewed university counselors. Later on, it is mentioned
that depression and anxiety command the majority of student issues, both of
which can be helped by getting active and outside. However, this article has
seemed to be a dead end. I found a small graph comparing the amount of stress
recorded by students in 1991, the year the arboretum was created, and found
that 1991 actually had the lowest numbers of students whom considered
themselves stressed. I suppose this goes to show that not all questions are in
fact fruitful.
In all, the article provides good insight into what the main
mental ailments of college students are, and how they correlate in comparison
to reported levels of stress. Regardless, this article has been more of a
learning experience in my researching plight than actually useful for its
information. At the very at least, now I know what direction I shouldn’t go in.
Isaac, you did a great job in this second post of following up the questions and issues raised in your first blog post. It's equally valuable to do some research that doesn't prove fruitful as it is to do useful research because, like you said, both help you know what direction you should go in. You could also still use this source in a documentary to talk about how, despite the arboretum's stated aims of reducing stress, students continue to be more stressed and have more psychological issues today. As valuable as the arboretum is, a fair treatment of it in a documentary would show that it is not an easy fix to a college student's stress problems. Good job with both your summary and reflection this week.
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