That first year of college has always been tough. But tight economic times have made it even harder.

Pressures to pay for college and choose studies that will produce good jobs have stressed this year’s college freshmen at unprecedented levels.

In a new report, college freshmen rated their emotional health at the lowest level in the 25 years of the survey.

The data, published by the University of California, Los Angeles, mirrored observations of high school and college counselors in the Kansas City area.

“In the last couple of years of the recession, students’ parents are more stressed, and the natural idealism and optimism in the young adult population has been eroded,” said Rick Hanson, director of student counseling at Rockhurst University and a past president of the American College Counseling Association.

Lauren Sander, a Rockhurst freshman, agreed that new college students were feeling a lot of stress, especially if they didn’t have good coping skills.

Read the complete story at kansascity.com