College Students’ Perceptions of Stigma Surrounding Depression and Anxiety

Abstract

An increasing aspect of diversity in higher education is disability, with a challenge being lower retention rates of students with disabilities as compared to students without disabilities (National Council on Disability, 2015). A large part of the issue with retention of these students is the concern for the campus environment and attitude towards students with disabilities, or stigma. Studying stigma from both the perspectives of students with disabilities as well as students without disabilities is key to a holistic understanding of stigma. A high comorbidity rate of 87% between depression and anxiety (D&A) indicates the importance of studying the two disorders in tandem rather than as separate issues. Further, given the increasing numbers of students who report having depression and/or anxiety on self‐report surveys such as the National Collegiate Health Assessment (NCHA, 2018), it is important to explore college students' perceptions of these disorders, and more specifically, the prevalence of stigma towards these disorders. The purpose of this study is to explore the prevalence of D&A on the UWEC campus and student experience with stigma surrounding D&A.