Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among Chinese College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study.

Xinli Chi,Raissa Li,Tianyou Guo,Daniel L Hall,Kaixin Liang,Liuyue Huang,Md Mahbub Hossain

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.759379

Abstract

A longitudinal assessment of the prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and risk factors is indispensable for further prevention and/or treatment. The longitudinal web-based survey enrolled 1,164 college students in China. Measured at two time points (February and August 2020), PTSS, demographic information, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), resilience and self-compassion information were collected to explicate the prevalence and predictors of PTSS concurrently and over time. Results showed that although PTSS generally declined throughout the 6 months after the outbreak of COVID-19, the prevalence remained relatively high. Resilience and self-compassion negatively predicted PTSS concurrently and longitudinally. While subjective family socioeconomic status (SES) and ACEs at Wave 1 did not predict PTSS under COVID-19 at Wave 1, but both significantly predicted PTSS at Wave 2. Findings implicate potential targets for detecting and intervening on symptoms of trauma in this vulnerable population.

Highlights

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are commonly reported after experiencing or witnessing major stressful or distressing events
This study showed the prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) under COVID-19 among Chinese college students with an interval of 6 months
The prevalence of PTSS was almost as high as that of the SARS outbreak (31.18%) among the public in epidemic-affected areas [11]. This may be because COVID-19 occurred over a longer time period in contrast to the Wenchuan earthquake which was sudden

Summary

Introduction

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are commonly reported after experiencing or witnessing major stressful or distressing events. In addition to direct exposure to life-threatening events, witnessing traumatic events may cause PTSS [2]. Existed studies of severe infectious respiratory diseases demonstrated that being threatened with infection or witnessing the death or serious injuries of others may conduce to PTSS [3,4,5]. The catastrophic consequences (e.g., a surge of critically ill patients, and the paralysis of medical systems) generated by the outbreak of COVID-19 were frequently reported by media [6], which were widely accessed by college students through the mass media, generating vicarious traumatization [7]. Different from most studies on PTSS caused by one-off events, COVID-19-related PTSS is a global

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