Liv Chu

UWRT 1103- 013

Peer review is beneficial not only to the person’s work you are reviewing, but also the
reviewer. Peer review requires you to critically read and write which are skills that are useful to
have when writing in the future.

Inquiry Proposal
My inquiry proposal is derived from the question; what are the positive or negative

effects that college attendance and its rigorous course-load have on a student’s mental health?

Why do these changes occur? How can we prevent and manage this phenomena? This inquiry is

driven by the increasing appearance of mental illness in all individuals in today’s society -

especially students. Studies show that roughly one-fifth of adults suffer from some form of

mental illness, whether it be depression, anxiety, stress, personality disorders etc, and it’s nearly

twice as much for college students. This is an important question to be asked, because anyone

can be diagnosed with a mental disorder, but what makes college students specifically more

susceptible to illness, and why?,this is what my question is based off of. I am personally familiar

with the topic because family members, friends and myself have all experienced some form of

mental illness. I learned from our past experiences the kind of emotions you exhibit and

(generally) the science behind why this happens. I researched articles and studies that have

found correlations between mental illness and the rigor of college-level assignments -

specifically depression and NSS (non-suicidal self-harm). I have found titles of E-books and

articles including “​Depression in College Students”, “Addressing Self-Harm on College

Campuses” ​and ​ “Mental Health and Help Seeking Behavior in College Students ​that are
relevant to what I am asking. When researching my inquiry proposal in databases I can use

synonyms to generate a variety of results; for “higher education” you can use synonyms such as

“college”, “university”, and “post-secondary education”. For “mental illness” you can use

synonyms such as “mental disorders”, “mental health”, “psychological disorders/illnesses” and

even use specific examples like “stress”, “depression”, and “anxiety”. The best places to look

for perspectives on inquiry questions include scholarly articles, news articles, and atkins online

as well as in-library. This question can be limited or enlarged in any way - from a single

household to the world as a whole; anywhere that there are college students is where this

question remains pertinent. I find it is especially relevant during this society and time period

because the amount of mental illness cases have only increased in number in recent years.

Specifically, I’d like to know what in particular causes the change of mental status amongst

young adults, as well as why college students exhibit this change and what can be done to help

prevent and manage it. This inquiry proposal could be important to my peers and the UNCC

community because it is not only a very serious issue plaguing a large range of society today, but

could also be something they are experiencing, or those around them. Learning why this happens

would be beneficial to the entire community to understand why or how it might be happening to

them.