Research Presentation:

How does mental illness

affect your school
performance?
By: Brooklyn Russell, Eliza Morse, and Mia Davis
Our Research Question:
Does mental illness have a negative impact on academic
performance?

o Questions: gender, grade, what college respondents are

enrolled, if they were diagnosed with a mental illness, specify
which*, what treatment they were receiving, GPA, and if they
thought their mental health has affected their coursework.

o Google docs form used to gather data

o 90 responses total, all of which from EDT 180 students at ASU

Graph 1: Average GPA by Class

o To answer research question, academic

performance is measured by GPA
o Overall trend of falling GPA each year
o 1 graduate student, four seniors while
half of respondents were freshmen.
o Could ongoing untreated mental illness
be one cause of falling GPA?
o 15% of freshmen report going
without treatment
o Seniors report that number to be
25%
Graph 2: Average GPA of Mental Illness
by Grade
o Trend of GPA falling each year
o Those with mental illness have a
higher GPA than those who do not
o Seniors have the lowest GPA;
4 respondents
o 1 respondent with Bipolar
Disorder
o 1 Graduate student
 Graph 3: Average GPA by Grade
Receiving Treatment
o Data skewed due to small sample
size
o 1 graduate student
o gaps
o 4 seniors
o Each selected one of the
4 options
o Freshman offer the best sample
size
o Those in therapy and or
taking medication have a
higher GPA than undiagnosed
without treatment
 Graph 4: Has mental illness ever
directly affected your schoolwork?
o 47 of 90 respondents
said yes
o 33 of 47 selected they
were diagnosed with a
mental illness
o Mental Illness can often
go undiagnosed,
especially among college
aged students
 Conclusions: How does mental illness
affect school?
o Freshmen have the highest GPA
o Does mental illness left untreated lead to a decline in
academic performance?
o
Treatment helps with academic performance
o Why is receiving treatment so effective? Do students
feel bettering their mental state provides more
motivation for school?
 Conclusions: How does mental illness
affect school?
o Schoolwork is affected even if they are not diagnosed
o Is the students mental state, diagnosed or not, a large
factor in their productivity of school work?
o
Those with a mental illness have higher GPA than those
who do not
o What techniques are students using to achieve an
effective way to study, despite their illness?
o Data does not reflect what is normally found in other
research which could be due to a number of factors