Changes in Religious Discrimination after 10/7/2023 for Students Seeking College Counseling Services

The Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on 10/7/2023 and subsequent war in Gaza has had a profound regional and global impact. While the devastating effects from the events since 10/7/2023 are too vast and complex to summarize in this blog, one of the many areas of ongoing concern is the loss of safety experienced by members of religious communities, particularly those who identify as Jewish and Muslim. In fact, the Anti-Defamation League (2023) reported an increase in antisemitic incidents within the United States since 10/7/2023, which has involved assaults, property damage, harassment, and threats. Additionally, the Council on American Islamic Relations (2023) reported a substantial rise in reports against those who identify as Muslim, including assaults, threats of bodily injury, intimidation, harassment, and workplace discrimination.

College students have also been affected by the post-10/7/2023 dynamics, which has included heightened anti-Muslim and antisemitic climates on campuses. Given these reports and the critical need to better understand the current charged environment within higher education, CCMH explored if there were changes in self-reported recent religious discrimination since 10/7/2023 for those students who sought college counseling services nationally. In this study, CCMH analyzed data from all religious groups, including students who identified as Jewish and Muslim, to capture how college students receiving counseling services are experiencing religious discrimination after the events of 10/7/2023. Specifically, the following questions were answered:

  • What was the overall prevalence of religious discrimination across all religious identities before 10/7/2023?
  • Did the prevalence of religious discrimination change for students who identify as Jewish and Muslim after 10/7/2023?

The sample used for this investigation included 114,527 students who received mental health treatment at 96 college counseling centers between 2021 and 2024. Data on discrimination and religious identities were collected via self-report using the national Standardized Data Set (SDS). Religious discrimination was measured with the SDS question, “In the past 6 months, have you experienced discrimination or unfair treatment due to any of the following parts of your identity?” Students responded yes or no for six aspects of their identity, which included religion.

What was the overall prevalence of religious discrimination across all religious identities before 10/7/2023?

The figure below displays the prevalence of recent religious discrimination reported by students entering college counseling services before 10/7/2023. The bars representing the different religious groups are listed in descending order, with the groups reporting the highest rates of religious discrimination presented first. The results indicate that students who identified as Muslim and Jewish demonstrated the highest rates of discrimination before 10/7/2023, with respective percentages of 19% and 14%. Other religious identities had reported rates of religious discrimination ranging from 1% (No preference) to 7% (Self-identify).

Did the prevalence of religious discrimination change for students who identify as Jewish and Muslim after 10/7/2023?  

After 10/7/2023, students who identified as Muslim and Jewish continued to report the highest rates of religious discrimination, and the gap between these two identities and the other religious groups significantly grew.  In fact, after 10/7/2023, the percentage of Jewish students reporting religious discrimination more than doubled (14% to 30%). Additionally, the percentage of Muslim students reporting religious discrimination grew from 19% to 20%, which was a noteworthy relative proportion increase of 6%. 

 

 

Summary and Implications

  • The attack on Israeli civilians on 10/7/2023 and subsequent war in Gaza has had a profound regional and global impact. College and university students have been affected by the ongoing post-10/7/2023 dynamics, which has led to an escalation in anti-Muslim and antisemitic climates. Given this, CCMH explored if there were changes in self-reported religious discrimination after 10/7/2023 for those students who sought college counseling services in the United States.
  • Prior to 10/7/2023, students who identified as Jewish and Muslim reported, by far, the highest rates of religious discrimination compared to the other identities, and this disparity significantly increased after 10/7/2023. In fact, after 10/7/2023, the percentage of Jewish students reporting religious discrimination more than doubled (14% to 30%). Additionally, the percentage of Muslim students reporting religious discrimination grew from 19% to 20%, which was a notable relative proportion increase of 6%. 
  • While discrimination is a societal problem and not a mental health diagnosis, it provides vital information about environmental circumstances and contextual factors that are associated with more severe mental health symptoms (CCMH 2023 Annual Report). These findings underscore the importance of specifically assessing whether students have experienced religious discrimination at the outset of counseling services. This is particularly important for students who identify as Jewish and Muslim given the prevalence and recent increase in reported discrimination since 10/7/2023. Awareness and further assessment of these discriminatory experiences can help clinicians better understand their clients in context, enhance the affirmative support they provide during counseling services, advocate for their clients, and identify essential adjunctive services that might help students self-advocate and directly address their experiences at the individual and systemic levels. While religion may be relatively challenging topic for college students to discuss, particularly in an increasingly polarized climate, these results highlight the imperative of clinicians to broach religion and in particular experiences of religious discrimination with their clients.
  • The current findings highlight the concerning landscape of religious discrimination experienced by students who identity as Jewish and Muslim. College counseling centers can effectively support these students; however, addressing their experiences and distress during counseling services is only a very small piece of the solution. Colleges and universities must understand the importance of following their documented policies regarding discrimination and bias incidents, while also developing and fortifying a robust array of services available for impacted students. Specifically, adjunctive support and accountability services (e.g., cultural centers, identity-based programs, religious and spiritual centers, office of student conduct and accountability, campus police) are essential to buffer the impact of discrimination, provide education/professional development to the campus community, offer spaces to listen and share, maintain accountability for incidents that violate the law and student code of conduct, and initiate advocacy to remedy campus and broader societal sources of discrimination.
  • It is important to note a few considerations related to these findings. The rates of religious discrimination could be impacted by students' comfort levels in disclosing experiences of discrimination and their religious identities. Additionally, the SDS item that inquires about discrimination neither specifies the source(s) of the discrimination nor the frequency of the experiences. Thus, it is unknown if the religious discrimination was experienced within the collegiate community or elsewhere, and how often it occurred. Finally, although outside the scope of the current research blog, future investigation should evaluate the affect of intersectional identities on experiences of religious discrimination and how presenting concerns/levels of distress at the beginning of services have changed after 10/7/2023 for these religious groups.

 


 Published October 28, 2024

 

 

 

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