Depressive Symptoms during the Transition to College: Evaluating Trajectories and Predictors among Freshmen & Transfer Students.

In recent years, there has been increasing concern about the emotional welfare of students on college campuses. Mental health problems, like depression, are common in the college student population and are associated with significant impairments in academic and psychosocial functioning. The transition to a postsecondary institution may be a time of increased risk for mental health problems as students must adjust to new academic, social, and living environments. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to improve our understanding of the processes that confer risk for depression during this transition. We approached this task using a cognitive-behavioral framework which posits that pessimistic cognitive style and frequent avoidant behaviors interfere with the development of social connectedness within the campus community. This, in turn, increases risk for depressive symptoms. This dissertation is comprised of three separate studies evaluating mental health outcomes of undergraduate students. The purpose of Study 1 was to evaluate the course of depressive symptoms among first-semester freshmen and transfer students (N = 351) and evaluate the impact of these symptoms on functioning. Additionally, we evaluated the hypothesis that social connectedness buffers against the negative impact of stress. In Study 2, we developed a multidimensional measure of avoidant behavior using a large cross-sectional data set (N =703). We then used this questionnaire to evaluate the role of avoidant behaviors in the development of depressive symptoms during the college transition in a smaller longitudinal data set (N = 82). In Study 3, we evaluated whether there are significant differences between freshmen and first-semester transfer students in the development of depressive symptoms during the college transition using two separate data sets. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for early identification and prevention efforts.PhDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93919/1/stevemb_1.pd