In a country-wide survey of over 200,000 college freshmen, researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) found stress is on the rise on colleges campuses. In the annual Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey, UCLA researchers report just 51.9% of the incoming freshmen polled reported having emotional health levels that were “above average” or in the “highest 10 percent” prior to the 2010 school year.

This marks a 3.4% decrease from 2009 and a “significant decline from the 63.6 percent who placed themselves in those categories when self-ratings of emotional health were first measured in 1985,” according to a press release from the California university.

The study reveals that women students reported greater feeling of stress than their male counterparts, with researchers reporting that just under 46% of female students rate their emotional health as ‘very good’, compared to 59% of male freshmen. And female freshmen were more than twice as likely to feel overwhelmed by the demands of the final year of high school and the preparations for their first year of college.

“Stress is a major concern when dealing with college students,” writes CIRP Director, John H. Pryor, said in a statement. “If students are arriving in college already overwhelmed and with lower reserves of emotional health, faculty, deans and administrators should expect to see more consequences of stress, such as higher levels of poor judgment around time management, alcohol consumption and academic motivation.”

The current economic climate is a leading cause of stress for these students. Of the freshmen surveyed, 53.1% are using loans to help cover the cost of their education, and the percentage of pupils receiving grants or scholarships hit a 10-year high at 73.4%. Parental unemployment is an issue, with an all-time high of 4.9% of students reporting having unemployed fathers and 8.6% had unemployed mothers.

“The increasing cost of higher education poses a significant barrier to college access for today’s students,” said Sylvia Hurtado, a co-author of the report. “Students and families are now charged with the task of becoming more resourceful and strategic in finding new and creative ways to pay for college.”

And these economic pressures are having an impact on students’ political views. Almost two-thirds of students surveyed support higher taxes for the wealthy, a sharp rise from a decade ago, when student opinion was split 50-50 on this issue.

Over 72% of students surveyed shared the opinion that the primary value of a college degree was the opportunity it presents to increase earning power, and a record number of students rate their academic abilities (71/2%) and their drive to achieve (75.8%) as either “above average” or in the highest 10%. While the report recognizes these are usually positive traits, the increase in the desire to excel could be the reason for increases in stress levels and a decrease in freshman emotional well-being.