Prevalence, Type, Disclosure, and Severity of Adverse Life Events in College Students

Abstract

Research using college samples for the study of stressful life events is a useful and reasonable strategy. The authors discuss implications for research, as well as screening and referral services at universities.

The influence of reported trauma and adverse events on eating disturbance in young adults

“…This item was included to ensure that the trauma categories and severity ratings were accurately capturing students' experiences and not missing many events. These trauma history items were drawn from previous research on college students 31 and were chosen because they adequately describe the nature, frequency, and severity of negative life events in a short, self-report format.…”

“…The six categories were selected based on previous research, suggesting that these events are representative of traumatic events experienced by college students. 31 For each trauma type reported, participants provided a severity rating on a 5-point scale (0 5 not at all traumatic, 4 5 extremely traumatic) for each event. Based on the severity ratings, the sum of all severity ratings (overall severity) and the highest severity rating (most severe) were calculated.…”

Practicing What We Teach: Trauma-Informed Educational Practice

“…In addition, given that 66%-94% of college students report exposure to one or more traumatic event (Frazier et al, 2009;J. M. Smyth, Hockemeyer, Heron, Wonderlich, & Pennebaker, 2008), approximately 9%-12% of freshman meet criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (Bernat, Ronfeldt, Calhoun, & Arias, 1998;Read, Ouimette, White, Colder, & Farrow, 2011), and many more may suffer subsyndromal symptoms (Borsari, Read, & Campbell, 2008;J.…”

“…M. Smyth, Hockemeyer, Heron, Wonderlich, & Pennebaker, 2008), approximately 9%-12% of freshman meet criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (Bernat, Ronfeldt, Calhoun, & Arias, 1998;Read, Ouimette, White, Colder, & Farrow, 2011), and many more may suffer subsyndromal symptoms (Borsari, Read, & Campbell, 2008;J. M. Smyth et al, 2008), it also follows that many, if not most, students enrolled in clinical training programs report trauma histories (Adams & Riggs, 2008;Didham et al, 2011;Elliot & Guy, 1993;Shannon, Simmelink, Im, Becher, & Crook-Lyon, 2014).…”

Stressful Events and Executive Functioning, Working Memory and Academic Performance in Adolescents

“…Studies suggest that 60 to 90 percent of the general population has been exposed to at least one financial, family, social, or psychological stressful event, and considers the event to have been traumatic (Breslau et al, 1998;Kristensen, Parente, & Kaszniak, 2005). Among students, the likelihood of exposure to a stressful situation may range from 10 to 90 percent depending on the type of event considered (Agustini, Asniar, & Matsuo, 2011;Smyth, Hockemeyer, Heron, Wonderlich, & Pennebaker, 2008;Yeager, Lee, & Jamieson, 2016).…”