Expanding High School Counseling in a Social Media World

by Dr. Akorede Teriba and Dr. Devon Dawson

Social media use has been linked to increases in mental illness than experienced by previous generations. Although social media was intended as a place for connection, it has become a place for adverse comparison that contributes to experiences of suicide ideation, body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and loneliness. According to Pew Research Center, an estimated 95% of 13-17-year-olds use YouTube, 32% use Facebook as opposed to 71% in 2014, 67% use TikTok, 62% use Instagram, 59% use Snapchat, and 23% use Twitter as of 2022. Young people are the most frequent users of social media and also the most at risk of the negative impacts of social media.

High school is a pivotal time in development, with students gaining experiences that can meaningfully impact who they become as adults. High school has become a kind of last line of defense to support individuals before adulthood, especially given that not all students attend college. Many students enter their post high school experience with various unprocessed difficulties that make their academic, family, and career demands more strenuous to manage. An expansion of counseling services, especially in high school, can mitigate the growing crisis of social comparison induced mental illness.

Social comparison is a natural human experience that helps individuals make decisions and become inspired. However, social comparison in this social media culture has led individuals to feel negatively about themselves given that people can create profiles and post pictures that represent their ideal image rather than their authentic selves. Consumers of social media compare themselves to unrealistic displays of success and can overgeneralize what it means to be normal. Individuals who feel like they don’t compare to these unrealistic expectations can struggle to accept their own identity and have hindering psychological experiences like depression.

Although utilization of mental health services can help mitigate the mental illness crisis, many individuals hold negative perceptions about receiving mental health services. Students who want to receive counseling services can become fearful of contacting their school counselors due to not wanting to be treated differently or perceived as weak by others. Rural communities and communities of color particularly struggle with mental health help-seeking stigma due to a culture of toxic masculinity that has historically been utilized by these communities to manage stressful financial and environmental circumstances (e.g., discrimination, lack of education, lack of generational wealth).

To increase the utilization of mental health services and decrease the stigma around mental health, an increase in access to services for mental health will be required. For example, if regularly scheduled counseling sessions were a common experience for all high school students, then students would be able to process their difficulties with trained professionals in a proactive rather than reactive school counseling system while not feeling different from their peers for receiving counseling. This would both lessen the mental health help-seeking stigma of the students receiving counseling and lessen the mental health help-seeking stigma of the community at large.

A national expansion of high school counseling services will require financial support through legislative action for sustainability. Psychotherapy has proven to be effective and now needs to be deployed systematically to mitigate the crisis of mental illness. Teachers have been expected to both teach classes and support students’ mental health without the proper training. Rather than expecting teachers to engage with students in ways outside of their training, teachers should be able to focus on providing students with an education without worrying about the difficult psychological experiences the students are enduring. Rather than minimizing the role of school counselors in the education system, school counselors should be recognized as a vital role in the developmental trajectory and academic success of students.

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Article Details
Expanding High School Counseling in a Social Media World: Improving Student and Community Well-Being
Akorede Teriba, Devon Dawson
First Published September 24, 2022 Research article
DOI: 10.1177/00332941221129138
Psychological Reports

About the Authors

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Dr. Akorede Teriba is an Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology at the University of North Dakota. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Iowa. He conducts research related to human flourishing (e.g., perseverance and passion for long-term goals, growth mindset), social determinants of health (e.g., poverty, identity marginalization), and the role of emotion regulation and self-efficacy in the community. Dr. Teriba advocates for the development of mental health infrastructures and the utilization of positive psychology interventions to increase community well-being.

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Dr. Devon Dawson is a Postdoctoral Neuropsychology Fellow at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA. He obtained his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Iowa. His research interests include career meaning making in underrepresented populations, social determinants of health, and neurorehabilitation following catastrophic injury. Dr. Dawson is an advocate for behavioral health interventions that facilitate community engagement and psychological wellness.