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Post-Secondary Student Mental Health and Well-being: A Systems and Intersectionality-Informed Approach

By N. Khanlou, published in 2019 in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

How do we bring together what we are learning from across research teams, institution-specific strategies, national initiatives, and post-secondary students themselves on post-secondary student mental health and wellbeing? As scholars, we can become immersed in our silos of research and intention by focusing on individual-level factors or structural-level interpretations. However, in real life, each student’s individual lived experience matters, as do the changing socio-economic environments affecting their post-graduation opportunities and their current economic barriers and related health disparities. A systems perspective that recognizes the micro-level individual lived experiences and understands these within the context of students’ meso-level influences (such as families, academic institutions, immediate communities), and macro-level trends (such as changing national socio-economic gradients, migration and growing diversities, racism, climate change, and digital literacy) can help provide a holistic and action-oriented perspective. Yet to arrive at equitable and anti-oppressive inter-sectoral and student-centered policies, strategies, and mental health-promoting actions, an intersectionality-informed understanding is also needed. This lens helps in foregrounding student identities in the complex web of power (or lack of) and context as post-secondary students, during a transitional phase of life to which they (and their families) have committed significant resources.

Post-Secondary Student Mental Health and Well-being: A Systems and Intersectionality-Informed Approach

By N. Khanlou, published in 2019 in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

How do we bring together what we are learning from across research teams, institution-specific strategies, national initiatives, and post-secondary students themselves on post-secondary student mental health and wellbeing? As scholars, we can become immersed in our silos of research and intention by focusing on individual-level factors or structural-level interpretations. However, in real life, each student’s individual lived experience matters, as do the changing socio-economic environments affecting their post-graduation opportunities and their current economic barriers and related health disparities. A systems perspective that recognizes the micro-level individual lived experiences and understands these within the context of students’ meso-level influences (such as families, academic institutions, immediate communities), and macro-level trends (such as changing national socio-economic gradients, migration and growing diversities, racism, climate change, and digital literacy) can help provide a holistic and action-oriented perspective. Yet to arrive at equitable and anti-oppressive inter-sectoral and student-centered policies, strategies, and mental health-promoting actions, an intersectionality-informed understanding (Rosenthal 2016) is also needed. This lens helps in foregrounding student identities in the complex web of power (or lack of) and context as post-secondary students, during a transitional phase of life to which they (and their families) have committed significant resources.

Post-Secondary Student Mental Health and Well-being: A Systems and Intersectionality-Informed Approach

August 26, 2025 • YouthREX

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