Adult Depression
Change in College Student Neuroticism and Depression over 17 Years: Rising Vulnerability to Depression
Natalia Provolo, B.A.
Graduate Student
American University
Washington, District of Columbia
Jazmin A. Nieves, B.S.
Student
American University
Washington, District of Columbia
Nathaniel R. Herr, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
American University
Washington, District of Columbia
Kathleen C. C. Gunthert, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
American University
Washington, District of Columbia
College campuses are seeing an increase in demand for mental health services in recent years. Longitudinal studies have shown that depression has significantly increased among college students (Duffy et al., 2019; Oswalt et al., 2018). Although we know that depression seems to be on the rise, it is important to also track the underlying risk factors for depression to understand how depression vulnerability is changing. Neuroticism, or a tendency toward negative emotionality, is a core personality trait that is conceptualized as a transdiagnostic vulnerability for a range of psychological disorders (Sauer-Zavala et al. (2017). There is little research, however, in changes in neuroticism in college students over time. It seems likely that neuroticism is changing over time, and perhaps driving some of the changes we are seeing in depression and anxiety in college students. The present study is the first of our knowledge to track neuroticism longitudinally across college students for 17 years.
We analyzed mental health data among undergraduate students from the same university (N = 2315) from 18 data sets that span from 2003 to 2020. The studies used self-report measures of depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression [CES-D]; Radloff, 1977), anxiety symptoms (Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire [MASQ]; Watson & Clark, 1991), and neuroticism (NEO-Five Factor Inventory [NEO-N}; Costa & McCrae, 1992).
Time-trend analysis will be used to test the significance of change over time. Our results show a fairly flat trend in both depressive symptoms and neuroticism from 2003 up to 2018. Starting in 2018, depressive symptoms and neuroticism began to steadily increase. For example, in 2003 the mean CES-D score was 16.85 and the mean NEO-N score was 22.25. In 2019, the mean CES-D score was 19.94 and the mean NEO-N score 28.66. It is important to note that the upward trend in depressive symptoms and neuroticism occurred prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, although the pandemic likely exacerbated mental health struggles, it does not entirely explain the rise in depression vulnerability. While these results on depressive symptoms are consistent with previous findings, the change in neuroticism among college students over time is a novel finding. These results indicate that, although depression is clearly on the rise, there is a broader shift in transdiagnostic risk that could underlie an increase in a wide number of mental health issues. It might be helpful to target interventions toward not only depression, but neuroticism more broadly.