skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Report: Parents in College Face Mental-Health Stressors

play audio
Play

Wednesday, June 9, 2021   

RICHMOND, Va. - Many of the more than 4 million student-parents in the United States struggle with mental-health issues in college, and a new report says they need more emotional and financial support.

About 43% of student-parents describe feeling stressed all or most of the time, the report found, and 40% claim they feel overwhelmed.

Nicole Lynn Lewis just published a memoir of her own experience as a single, African American mother attending William and Mary College. She said financial hardships and facing parenting alone on campus were two major stressors.

"Having a support network would have been huge for me," she said. "I was an anomaly at William and Mary. There were not a group of other parents and students that I could connect with and we could talk about our experiences, and it could be really difficult and isolating."

The report backed Lewis's experience. Released by the Jed Foundation and Ascend at the Aspen Institute, it found that 54% of student-parents said they've felt "less than welcome" on occasion at their schools. Only 37% feel their school is supportive of them.

Lewis said she was a high school senior with college plans when she found out she was pregnant, and was sensitive about stereotypes of Black single parents. She said she had a good financial aid package, but still had to take out $30,000 in student loans. Lewis added that Black student parents have the most college-loan debt of any other group.

"You're trying to cover expenses that go beyond tuition and fees. You're trying to pay for food, housing; for child care," she said, "and not to mention the fact that we know students of color are already coming into the college experience often with the racial wealth gap."

Lewis now is chief executive of Generation Hope, a nonprofit that helps young parents earn college degrees. She said most Americans don't realize that one in five college students is parenting, and nearly half of all Black female undergraduates have children. The report recommended providing more mental-health support for student parents on campus.

---

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Out-of-state money is pouring into Texas as the contentious issue of "school choice" looms large ahead of November's election. (Dzmitry/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

Social Issues

play sound

Women are treated much differently than men by the criminal justice system, according to a new report detailing how and why mass incarceration is …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021