Depression Among University Students: A Multidimensional Review of Causes and Interventions

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_105How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Depression; University students; Mental health; Intervention strategies; Psychological well-being

Abstract

Depression among university students has become an urgent public health concern. University students at this unique developmental stage of young adulthood face heightened vulnerability due to environmental changes, academic pressures, and social challenges. This review synthesizes empirical studies from the past five years examining depression causes and intervention strategies in university settings. Both external factors (such as childhood adversity, campus life, interpersonal conflict, internet addiction, and public crises) and internal factors (including thinking patterns, cognition, and personality traits) are examined. A range of school-based, family-focused, and individual-level interventions are reviewed, including positive psychology programs, music-based activities, systemic family therapy, cognitive therapies (such as value orientation brief therapy) and behavioral strategies (such as mindfulness-based approaches). Findings demonstrate the insufficiency of medication alone, necessitating interventions that are multidimensional, accessible, and culturally adapted. This review concludes that addressing depression among university students requires a comprehensive support system that integrates the efforts of schools, families, and individuals, in order to effectively promote the psychological well-being of the students and to facilitate a stable transition from school to society for them.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Qiao Dai
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/26
TI  - Depression Among University Students: A Multidimensional Review of Causes and Interventions
BT  - Proceeding of 2025 8th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 974
EP  - 981
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_105
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_105
ID  - Dai2026
ER  -