Booth Id:
BEHA050
Category:
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Year:
2025
Finalist Names:
Hanson, Jenilynn (School: Tioga High School)
Abstract:
The purpose of this experiment was to understand the effect of working in a high-stress field like the agriculture industry.
1. Create a simple survey using Google Forms.
2. Publish the survey and edit its settings so anyone with the link can access it.
3. Post the survey link on social media pages to be filled out by people within the agricultural industry aged 18 and older to Reach out to NDSU Extension agents to send the survey to their list of contacts.
In this experiment, I observed responses to a survey about mental health in agriculture from eleven participants. These participants represented two countries and eight U.S. states.
My experiment proved this first part of my hypothesis true as 9 out of eleven participants expressed that they felt some stress within their job, either at a certain time of the year, such as harvest, or calving season, or even year-round.
72.7% of the participants in my survey were female, and 90.9% of participants were between the ages of 18 and 29. I believe that this result happened because my survey was posted to online social media groups where the main demographic was younger generations in agriculture.
The final part of my hypothesis was that people who take this survey will report to have not having used in-person or online mental health resources; however, they will express the need for more easily accessible mental health resources for people with demanding jobs within the agricultural industry. This was another part of my hypothesis that was proven to be true. When participants were asked if they had ever used mental health resources, 45.5% of participants reported having used in-person or virtual mental health resources.
Awards Won: