24 | P a g e psychological, and social factors, but these identified factors have not saturated the discourse on depression because of the heterogeneity of living contexts that people find themselves in.
25 | P a g e Poor academic performances and high expectations also impact their mental health. Being compelled to adapt to studying in the English language at a higher level than in secondary school, heavy lecture schedules, pressure to succeed, and lack of adequate planning are also issues that most university students have to contend with, and hence depression has become prevalent among student bodies. Lowering et al. (2014) and Sullivan Kashubeck-West (2015) assert that most students are overwhelmed by the need for academic self-efficacy, acculturation difficulties, language inabilities, as well as procrastination behaviour in terms of their academic tasks. Beiter et al. (2015, cited in Cheung, 2020) agree that mental illness, or depression, is a public health issue that does not exclude university students. Their research findings suggest that depression is most common in first-year university students. The latter are vulnerable to mental health problems because they are experiencing a double transition: the developmental transition from adolescence to adulthood and a life-changing transition from one institution (such as a high school or community college) to another that is very different, such as a university with high academic standards and expectations. Thomas et al. (2020), Gale and Parker (2014), and Hunt and Eisenberg (2010) conducted ethnographic studies on university students and agree that the transition from secondary school to a university and its academic challenges is traumatic for many students.
Research findings thus suggest that this academic transition is no longer celebrated because it inflicts fear, anxiety, and depression on most students who are expected to adapt without the support of their families. They are often overwhelmed with a sense of doubt as they wonder if they will ever cope or if they will be able to successfully do well in their university modules.
A report by Pedrelli (2015) confirms that depression is a leading cause of suicide amongst university students and that this phenomenon has been recorded since the early 1950s. It is mentioned that student suicide initially occurred mainly among white male university students as most African cultures at the time did not believe in this type of mental illness. Other parts of the report mention that recent trends indicate that female students of all races now succumb to suicide and that this is linked to a state of depression. In 2013, the WHO (2019) estimated that, by year 2020, unipolar depression would have become the second cause of disability globally and it is estimated that, by 2030, major depression will have become the main contributor to ill health worldwide.
26 | P a g e University students have recently been diagnosed with various levels of depression ranging from minimal, mild, moderate, moderately severe, to serve, and it is concerning that most students do not report their depression state and conceal what they are going through. Lepine and Briley (2011) conclude that such levels of depression have a direct life-threatening effect on students. These consequences include occupational and social dysfunction, increased risk of suicide, and increased morbidity and mortality rates. The latter authors report that, internationally, about 31% of students in 2011 had had common mental disorders in the previous twelve months and that depression, anxiety, and attention difficulties contributed to alarming statistics of student morbidity and mortality cases. South African data (Bantjes et al., 2019) revealed that approximately 20.8% of first-year students reported experiences of anxiety and 13% had experiences of depression. It was also reported that many African students confessed that they had considered suicide because their families didn’t believe in being depressed as they believed that it was a medical condition associated with Western societies. This denial of a very real risk is a matter of concern. Islam et al. (2018) affirm the importance of students’ mental health and argue that university students have the potential to influence their families and the country’s work force as soon as they are employed.
For these reasons it seemed pertinent to conduct a case study on the causes and role of depression in students’ lives.
Elmer (2020) confirms that depression is indeed a mental illness that is experienced by many university students who have symptoms of stress and anxiety. Such students are most likely to be medically diagnosed with depression, hence most who have consulted medical professionals are on antidepressants (Elmer,2020). Quek et al. (2019), Shamsuddin et al. (2013), and Wong et al.
(2006, cited in Cheung et al., 2020) reveal tangible evidence that university students in different countries encounter different levels of challenges that trigger mental problems such as anxiety and depression. The latter research findings reveal different variables but all conclude that depression does not exclude a particular gender even though previous studies pointed out that female students accounted for higher rates of depression. Quek et al. (2019) corrected this gender lens by suggesting that there is no significance data to confirm that depression or anxiety in university students is gender-based. According to the World Health Organization (201, n.p.), barriers to effective care of the depressed include a lack of resources, lack of trained health-care providers, and the social stigma associated with mental disorders. Another barrier to effective care is
27 | P a g e inaccurate assessment. Regardless of income levels, people who are depressed are often not correctly diagnosed, while those who do not have the disorder are too often misdiagnosed and prescribed antidepressants. This lack of definitive diagnosis of depression has been marked as a leading cause of disability worldwide and as a major contributor to the overall global burden of mental disease (WHO, 2018). Birhanu and Hassein (2016:28) assert that high rates of depression among university students, coupled with factors such as educational demands and social factors such as alcohol abuse, drug addiction, family problems, family history of depression, and staying away from home, impact students negatively. Both undergraduate and post-graduate students experience depression because high expectations of them keep on mounting on a daily basis.