Fit for work? Comparative mental health of built environment undergraduates

High rates of occupational stress make mental health a critical issue in the built environment (BE) sector.  Research has shown that some aspects of mental health, like burnout, continue over from student days into the workplace. Employers and educators should be concerned then that global evidence shows that the mental health of Generation Y students, born 1978-1999, is deteriorating. Therefore it is important to understand more fully the mental health of future BE professionals before they enter the workforce. Although mental health has been studied in numerous undergraduate disciplines including engineering, science, IT, medicine and law, it is not known whether these results can be generalised to BE students. This study explored the mental health of 433 Generation Y undergraduate BE students in a large metropolitan university. The DASS-21 Depression, Anxiety and Stress scales were used to enable a comparison with eight previously published studies on undergraduate mental health. Means and standard deviations were calculated and the scores were classified into categories ranging from 'normal' (no disorder) to 'extremely severe' using established population norms for the DASS-21. Generally the sample of BE students showed a greater incidence of normal mental health and a lower percentage of mental health disorders than other disciplines. Still it is of concern that one in four BE students experienced depression or stress. Many more of the BE students experienced anxiety (four in ten), a trend also noted in the comparison studies. These findings have implications for educators since mental health problems at university can carry over into the workplace. As the construction industry is known for its high number of stressors and poor mental health, it is important that mental health issues, especially high levels of anxiety, are identified early in the talent supply chain and that interventions are undertaken at university to produce more mentally fit graduates.