Exploring the Associations Among Self-Harm, Anxiety, and Suicidal Ideation in the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment II

The focus of this research was to explore self-harm, anxiety, anxiety’s impact on academic performance, and suicidal ideation in university student populations using secondary data from the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment II (ACHA NCHA II) survey. This research also explored these variables with the covariates graduate status, gender, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity. This secondary research included undergraduate and graduate students from 140 universities across the United States with 88,178 total responses. The universities self-selected to administer the ACHA NCHA II and the students in each university were randomly sampled. This study used Pearson’s Chi-square Test for Association to explore how overwhelming anxiety, anxiety’s impact on academic performance, and suicidal ideation presented in university students with a history of self-harm. Each of the three variables were further analyzed in students with a history of self-harm based on graduate status, gender, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity. The findings of this study suggest that overwhelming anxiety, anxiety’s impact on academic performance, and suicidal ideation rates are elevated in university students with a history of self-harm, specifically in students who have self-harmed in the past 12 months. The covariates with the highest reports of experiencing these mental health concerns include the gender minority group, sexual orientation minority group, and race/ethnicity minority groups