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Weekly Digest #129: Students Under Stress

(Cover image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay)

When one of our very first guest bloggers reached out to us recently asking about resources for students under severe stress, we realized that we hadn’t broached this issue on our blog yet. This hugely important issues will take more than a quick digest to explore, so expect more on this topic in the future. Stress can come in many forms, but can be severely exacerbated from lack of access to essential resources such as food, money, and health services. In this digest, we mainly set the scene with respect to the problems many students are facing; in later digests and posts, we hope to provide more resources for interventions or strategies that have helped.

Image by Christine Sponchia from Pixabay

1) It’s Hard to Study if You’re Hungry By Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab @saragoldrickrab

Sara Goldrick-Rab is a tireless advocate for ending student hunger and homelessness. In this article, she explains why the problem of food insecurity exists for students, and calls for changes in the way financial aid is calculated in the US. You will also find many relevant resources on her website.

2) Record Numbers of College Students Are Seeking Treatment for Depression and Anxiety — But Schools Can't Keep Up

By Katie Reilly @katiemacreilly

This article explores the phenomenon of rising anxiety and depression amongst college students, and what different organizations are doing to help.

3) Theories of work-related stress By Dr. Sally Pezaro @SallyPezaro

Sally Pezaro has an interesting blog where she talks about teaching and her research into midwifery. In this post, she explores different theories of work-related stress, a lot of which are also relevant to student stress.

4) Effects of stress on college students’ eating habits By Olivia Shackleton

Hungry students are stressed, but are stressed students hungry? This well-referenced blog post explores the complex relationship between stress and diet.

Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay

5) Mind and Student Minds

We wanted to end this digest on a positive note. Charities such as Mind and Student Minds (both in the UK) are working on providing resources for students who find themselves in difficult situations due to unmet needs.


Every Sunday, we pick a theme and provide a curated list of links. If you have a theme suggestion, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Occasionally we publish a guest digest, and If you'd like to propose a guest digest click here. Our 5 most recent digests can be found here:

Weekly Digest #124: Pesky Learning Myths

Weekly Digest #125: The Science Behind Always Being Late

Weekly Digest #126: Memory Researchers as Science Communicators

Weekly Digest #127: Women in Physics

Weekly Digest #128: Fall Safety