Interesting interview about student stress over the years

Like a lot of Gen X college instructors, I'm often at a loss for how to deal with the effects of student stress, anxiety, and general mental health issues on their work in my classes. One question I often wonder about is why there seems to be so much more of it than there used to be. Or alternatively, is there much more of it than there used to be, or is it just that we have more language for talking about it and less stigma around talking about it? 

This interview that associate professor of psychiatry Jessi Gold had with developmental psychologist Alexis Redding brought up some interesting points from her research on the emotional experiences of college students from the 1970s, based on "lost" transcripts and recordings of interviews that had been done with those students fifty years ago. Dr. Redding and her colleague Dr. Nancy Hill wrote a book based on those old transcripts, entitled The End of Adolescence: The Lost Art of Delaying Adulthood. It looks like it would be a great read for me, both as a college instructor and an archives spelunker. 

She did a TEDx talk about this too, which I'm embedding below.

This part of the interview stood out to me: Dr. Redding talks about the "W-Curve," which I hadn't heard of before:

One strategy I encourage is understanding and talking publicly about the W-Curve, which describes the predictable ups and downs of the college transition. Early on, students face a setback as they acclimate and try to build meaningful connection from scratch. Eventually they make friends and settle into their classes, but when they visit home during fall break, they often hit another setback, perhaps because home doesn’t feel the same as it used to. When campuses talk about the W-Curve and how normal it is, it sets the tone: students realize they’re not the only one struggling.

She also notes that "the W-Curve does one more thing: It helps us spot the student whose struggle is atypical, with dips that are more prolonged or extreme than we’d expect, which is exactly the student who may need clinical support."

She also encourages faculty to share their stories with students, both their successes and failures. Perhaps I should try that more.

Here's the TEDx talk: