The Stress of Being a Student

　　Chi na’s youth are on edge and using warped attempts at humor in their text messages to eachother. “Thanks for not killing me while we were atschool,” is one such text making the rounds. It referencesto two murders that took place in university dormitoriesthis past April, both of which were student-onstudentviolence. The tragic incidents have sparked awave of public concern about the psychological healthof university students in China.

　　Supreme stress

　　On April 25, Huang Yang’s parents received their son’sautopsy report, which explained that he had died ofacute liver failure caused by ingesting N-dimethylnitrosamine, a toxin that had been added to the youngman’s drinking water. Lin Feng, Huang Yang’s roommate,was later arrested as a suspect in the case. Despitesaying little to police investigators, Lin mentioneda recent quarrel between him and the deceased overwater cooler expenses, which police believe may havemotivated Lin to poison his roommate.

　　A day after Huang’s death, a student in Nanjing,Jiangsu Province, was killed by his roommate for takingtoo long to answer the door.

　　Experts believe some students have psychologicalproblems resulting from the change, in their livingenvironments.

　　Students living in a typical dormitory ona Chinese university campus share a room withthree other students, who usually come fromdifferent parts of the country and have differenteconomic backgrounds. Sharing a roomwith other students presents a challenge tomany young people in China who grew upas only children, and are not used to havingto negotiate compromises with peers. Accordingto the Chinese Center for DiseaseControl and Prevention, around 20 percentof university students suffer from psychologicalproblems relating to their studies,employment or interpersonal relationships.

　　This issue was also reflected in theresults of a survey conducted by WuhanYangtze Business University, whichrevealed that only 43 percent of college studentsconsider their relationship with their roommates tobe “normal.” This indicates that more than half of Chineseuniversity students have problems getting alongwith their peers.

　　In addition to interpersonal relationships, academicand job pressures are other major triggers for collegestudents’ psychological issues. This year alone,7 million new graduates entered China’s job market,a record number, and an increase of 190,000 overlast year’s graduating class.

　　“Nowadays, college students feel enormous pressure,especially the senior students,” said WangXiaoxiao, a graduate student in Beijing. “No matterwhat you choose, to continue your education or tofind a job, you will face fierce competition, particularlyif you are a girl.” Earlier in May, a postgraduatefemale student at one of China’s top universitiesjumped to her death from a campus building.

　　“These psychological problems are caused bystress,” said Yang Zhiying, Director of the PsychologicalCounseling Center at Capital Normal University(CNU) in Beijing. “Chinese college students experiencemuch more stress than students in Westerncountries.”

　　However, levels of mental illness in universitiesappear to stable. Freshmen at Beijing’s universitiesare all required to undergo a writtenpsychological evaluation. The results fromrecent years show no apparent rise in theprevalence of psychological problems amongstudents. Yang suggested that the issue nowseems to be a bigger problem than in the pastbecause of an increase in media coverage.Although true mental illness is rare amongcollege students, according to Yang,“many students feel psychologicallydisturbed.”

　　“This generation has a weak capacity for dealing with stress and adversitysince they have little or no experiencemanaging serious frustrations eitherat home or in school,” said Yang. “Oureducation overemphasizes intellectualdevelopment and acquiring knowledge,but neglects a student’s psychological and personaldevelopment.”

　　Campus offers help

　　In 2004, the Ministry of Education declared May 25 tobe Mental Health Day for college students. In Chinese,the number 5/25 (the Chinese abbreviation ofMay 25) sounds similar to “I love myself,” remindingstudents that they need to love who they are beforethey can love others. The recent tragedies made thisyear’s Mental Health Day much more meaningful.

　　Universities around the country organized many differentevents and activities to promote mental healthawareness.

　　Several hospitals based in Beijing worked withlocal educational departments to establish a clinicalcenter that offers guidance and suggestions for schoolpsychologists in order to prevent mental health problemson campuses.

　　In most developed countries, the psychologist-tostudentratio is 1:1,500, while in China, where psychologyhas just started to make inroads, the Ministry ofEducation has mandated that each university shouldhave one psychological counselor for every 3,000students and make sure to have more than two on callat all times.

　　“But in fact, most universities fail to meet thatrequirement,” said Yang, suggesting that this is due toa lack of psychological professionals in China. “Comparedto Western countries, China’s psychological servicesector got a relatively late start.”

　　But Yang believes that the field is growing quickly.Psychological therapy administered to the victims ofearthquake disasters in recent years has led to moreChinese people understanding the importance of suchtherapy. At the same time, televised talk shows discussinginterpersonal relationship issues have become morepopular, and while such shows are not tantamount toprofessional psychological counseling, they indicate anincrease in people’s attention to emotional wellbeing.Yang believes that social awareness about the importanceof psychology is related to economic development.

　　It is only when people are not concerned aboutfood and clothing that they are able to pay moreattention to mental health, said Yang. This explains theincreasing need for psychological help in China over thepast decade.

　　In terms of offering psychological support to students,CNU is a leader among educational institutionsin Beijing. It founded a Psychological Counseling Centerin 1993. The center, which is staffed by around 20 psychologistsand psychological postgraduate students, isopen eight hours a day, and offers counseling servicesto the university’s students. The university has alsoestablished a compulsory course for freshmen thatincludes information on psychology.

　　These efforts seem to be making an impact. Unliketheir parents, who prefer to follow traditional Chinesenorms and keep their stress and pain to themselves,young Chinese pay more attention to theirpsychological health, and nearly 1,000 CNU studentsnow seek psychological help each year. “I think ourstudents realize the importance of asking for help whenit’s necessary,” said Yang. CA

　　Psychological problems emerge as a major issue on China’s college campuses By Zheng Yang