Westborough High School Mental Health Predictive Analyses

Kresge, Ben

Student Work

Westborough High School Mental Health Predictive Analyses

Public Deposited

In response to increasing concern over adolescent well-being in recent years, Westborough Public Schools (WPS) began collecting mental health data through self-report surveys in 2022-2023, in an effort to identify at-risk students. Performing such collection can be difficult and expensive, so accurate predictions using existing data would be potentially useful for WPS and other schools. This provides an opportunity for the application of Computer Science expertise to meet an immediate and practical social need. While this work is a continuation of a previous project, there were some significant differences: the data include a wider demographic range (students at additional ages/grade levels), but lack question specific resolution for mental health. Using the machine learning technique of Random Forest Classifiers (RFCs) and statistical analysis including ANOVA, some important features and trends were identified that align with existing research.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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