Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2024
Journal Title
Mercer Law Review
ISSN
0025-987X
Abstract
A disturbingly high percentage of our students continue to be unwell. In the most recent and comprehensive survey of law student well-being in 2021, almost 70% of law students responded that, in the past twelve months, they believed they needed to seek help for emotional or mental health problems. Embedded screening tools in the survey suggested that 34% of respondents were clinically depressed and 54% suffered from clinical anxiety. 44% of respondents reported being drunk in the past thirty days, 33% had engaged in binge drinking in the preceding two weeks, and 38% had smoked marijuana in the past twelve months. Over 80% of law students responded that they had suffered at least one traumatic event in their lives, with 70% reporting more than one such event. Nearly 16% of law students said they had thoughts of self-harm in the past twelve months, and 11% reported serious thoughts of killing themselves in the last year. These numbers are troubling and above national averages. And for most of these categories, the percentage of students reporting mental health challenges or problematic behaviors has increased since the last comprehensive study of law students in 2014.
First Page
1409
Last Page
1439
Num Pages
31
Volume Number
75
Issue Number
5
Publisher
Mercer University School of Law
Recommended Citation
Aric Short,
Putting the Lawyer First: Framing Well-Being in Law as an Ethical Dilemma,
75
Mercer L. Rev.
1409
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/2049