Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented stress to students and educational institutions across the world. We aimed to estimate the effect of the pandemic on the mental health of college students. We used data on 419 first-year students (ages 18-20) at a large public university in North Carolina both before (October 2019-February 2020) and after (June/July 2020) the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. After evaluating descriptive data on mental health and stressors by students' demographic characteristics, we estimated the associations between Covid-19 stressors (including work reductions, health, distanced learning difficulties and social isolation) and mental health symptoms and severity controlling for students' pre-pandemic mental health, psychosocial resources, and demographic characteristics. We found that the prevalence of moderate-severe anxiety increased from 18.1% before the pandemic to 25.3% within four months after the pandemic began; and the prevalence of moderate-severe depression increased from 21.5% to 31.7%. White, female and sexual/gender minority (SGM) students were at highest risk of increases in anxiety symptoms. Non-Hispanic (NH) Black, female, and SGM students were at highest risk of increases in depression symptoms. General difficulties associated with distanced learning and social isolation contributed to the increases in both depression and anxiety symptoms. However, work reductions as well as Covid-19 diagnosis and hospitalization of oneself, family members or friends were not associated with increases in depression or anxiety symptoms. Colleges may be able to reduce the mental health consequences of Covid-19 by investing in resources to reduce difficulties with distance learning and reduce social isolation during the pandemic.

Highlights

  • The Covid-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented stress to the educational system in the US, not least to colleges and their students

  • Female and sexual/ gender minority (SGM) students were at highest risk of increases in anxiety symptoms

  • Non-Hispanic (NH) Black, female, and SGM students were at highest risk of increases in depression symptoms

Read more

Summary

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented stress to the educational system in the US, not least to colleges and their students. The pandemic has brought unprecedented stress to college students, starting with the transition to online instruction over spring break 2020 at many universities [2]. This is further exacerbated by the long summer of social isolation from the pandemic for many, lost employment, and uncertainty about the structure of courses and living arrangements in the 2020/21 academic year [3, 4]. Exploiting data collected for the same students pre- and during the pandemic, we provide new evidence on the effects of the pandemic on mental health of first-year college students, focusing on the effects of different Covid-stressors

Objectives
Methods
Results
Conclusion

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.