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Work in Progress: Assessing the Need for Mental Health Curricula for Civil, Architecture, and Construction Engineering

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Student Division (STDT) Technical Session 5: Motivation and Support for Success

Tagged Division

Student Division (STDT)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44175

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44175

Download Count

136

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Paper Authors

biography

Sepehr Khorshid University of Alabama

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Sepehr Khorshid is a Ph.D. student with a background in civil engineering and work experience as a design engineer and civil works supervisor in the telecommunication industry. He serves as a graduate research assistant (GRA) in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama. He is proud to be a member of Dr. Siyuan Song's esteemed research group in the Safety Automation and Visualization Environment (SAVE) lab. Sepehr's research focuses on his areas of interest, which include occupational safety and health, workforce training, and engineering education. He is also involved in developing training materials and programs aimed at enhancing safety in the construction and general industries.

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biography

Siyuan Song University of Alabama

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Dr. Siyuan Song is an assistant professor and the director of the Safety Automation and Visualization Environment (SAVE) Laboratory in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama (UA). Prior to joining UA, she was an assistant professor in the School of Construction and Design at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Song obtained her Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering with a focus in construction engineering and management from UA. Her research interests include occupational safety and health, workforce training and development, engineering education, Building Information Modeling, machine learning and AI in construction, and construction progress monitoring and simulation. Dr. Song is leading research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and NSF to advance worker safety training and workforce development.

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Abstract

The mental health crisis has been experiencing significant growth among US college students. Compared to the general population, engineering students are more prone to mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Before students begin their career, graduating college students may also experience job-seeking anxiety. In addition, engineering students tend to have more psychological issues due to their lack of help-seeking attitudes in comparison to their peers. Because of challenging conditions and high prevalence of mental disorders and suicide rates in the construction industry, it is essential to promote mental health awareness among students studying Civil, Architecture, and Construction engineering fields. Moreover, improving their abilities to support themselves, their peers, and future coworkers can contribute to the development of a more productive and mentally healthy future engineering workforce, with better communication skills. The purpose of this study is to assess stress levels and stressors of Civil, Architecture, and Construction engineering students as well as identify key mental health skills they need to learn to cope with job-seeking and future workplace challenges. To this end and through a questionnaire survey, this study will evaluate the factors and challenges that impact the mental health of senior engineering students, and the concerns and stressors that entry-level and inexperienced engineers may face in the workplace. After collecting demographic information, two sets of questions were administered to evaluate the participants' stress levels related to job-seeking and future career challenges. These questions were categorized as personal and work-related stressors. Also, this study aims to gather opinions on the necessary skills that should be integrated into a mental health educational program. This will provide insights into the required educational content that should be incorporated into future mental health curricula for engineering students.

Khorshid, S., & Song, S. (2023, June), Work in Progress: Assessing the Need for Mental Health Curricula for Civil, Architecture, and Construction Engineering Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44175

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