Mental Health and Academic Performance

Group 4: Mia Davis, Eliza Morse and Brooklyn Russell

EDT180A

Gary Lewallen

4/26/19
 For the purposes of this research project, our group decided on a driving question that

focused on the mental health of students here at Arizona State University and their corresponding

academic performance. The first of the questions we assembled provided a baseline as who is the

group we were to analyze, questions like gender, year in school, and what college respondents

are enrolled in. In addition, we asked questions more pertinent to our research topic; if the

respondent had ever been diagnosed with a mental illness and if so, to specify their diagnosis.

(We only gave the option of anxiety, depression, bipolar or other, as we found these to be the

most common among students). As well as what treatment the student was receiving, their gpa

and if they thought that their mental illness had ever directly affected their coursework. To gather

this data we used a google docs form, surveying just students in ASU’s computer literacy course

(EDT 180). We had a small sample size, only 90 responses to work with.

This first graph illustrates the grade point averages of each respondent broken down by

class. Again, looking at the size of our sample, the results are slightly skewed as more than half

of our responses were from freshmen students resulting in a higher overall average for that class.

In fact, the graduate bar is only representative of one respondent, so it would be difficult to draw

any general conclusions from such a limited sample size. Although, what we can gather from
analyzing this graph is a notable decline in GPA through the progression of college years.

Exploring this idea with the lens our research question provides; could it be that mental illness

left untreated leads to a steady decline in academic performance? If academic performance is

measured purely by GPA then this hypothesis could be proven true if the freshmen, who have the

highest GPA of the five classes, had a lower percentage of students diagnosed but not treated

than the seniors who had the lowest GPA overall. As it turns out, the freshmen reported to have

15% of students who are diagnosed but not treated while seniors are seen to have that number

jumped up to 25%. One conclusion to be drawn from this data is that untreated mental illness in

students could possibly have a direct and negative impact of their long-term academic

performance.

This graph shows the average GPA by class of each mental illness. You can see that the

senior GPA is the lowest for each illness, which is due to the fact that there were only 4

respondents. There was only one student who responded as diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder as

well which is why their grade point average is so high. There is also a visible trend of GPA’s

falling each year, with anxiety having the highest, or equal to the highest, GPA. As compared to

the graph of the GPA for each grade, those with a mental illness have a higher GPA than those
who are not diagnosed with a mental illness, which is the opposite of what one might find in

other research.

This graph shows the average GPA by grade taking into account the treatment, or lack of

treatment, they were receiving. The gaps are due to a small sample size and limiting results. As

there was only one graduate student and four seniors each of those five bars is only based off one

person so an average could not be taken. Looking at the freshman class, with the best sample size

of 52, on average students receiving treatment have a higher GPA than students not receiving

treatment.
 This graph summarizes the questions on our form asking; has mental illness ever directly

affected your schoolwork? To break it down, when asked this yes or no question 47 (about half)

our respondents selected yes, of those, only 33 have been previously diagnosed. This speaks to

the bigger issue that most people are never diagnosed. It is becoming a more prevalent problem

among the college aged demographic as rates of anxiety and depression increase at an alarmingly

fast rate. It is important to seek a licensed professional rather than self-diagnosing or avoiding

the label due to stigma.

Our graphs show the freshmen having the higher overall GPA than the grades after them.

They also explain how those who are receiving treatment have a higher GPA than those who are

not. This can help show the effectiveness of treatment and how it is suitable for college students.

Our charts also show that students with mental illnesses are receiving better grades than those of

which it is not applicable. Breaking down each mental illness by year showed how their GPA

was higher than the average GPA without taking into account the illnesses. One question that

was previously asked in the analysis was if mental illness left untreated leads to a decline in

academic performance. This question would need to be researched outside of our abilities;

however, it would be interesting to see the effects of mental illness on academic performance

throughout the years. We also wondered if a large quantity of schoolwork leads students to have

mental illness symptoms similar to anxiety or depression, which may be why so many

undiagnosed students claimed mental health affected their schoolwork. Our data does not reflect

what is usually found in these studies which is that those with a mental illness have lower GPAs

than those who do not have mental health issues. Our data shows that students who have a

mental illness receive higher grade point averages than students who are not diagnosed, which

may be due to our sample size as well as the number of students who are receiving treatment.
This leads us to further questions such as: have students found ways to study and get their work

finished despite their diagnosis? And what techniques are they using to help them achieve this?

Our conclusions are not equal to other research done on the topic, however, there are many

factors that could be influencing the outcome.