To understand the mental health status of Chinese postgraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic, we used three online questionnaires: self-rating anxiety (SAS) scale, self-rating depression (SDS) scale, and social avoidance and distress (SAD) scale. A total of 3137 postgraduate students from different regions of China participated in our study. We explored the relationship between participant characteristics and mental health using an analysis of variance (ANOVA). We found that the proportions of respondents with severe, mild, and moderate depression were 1.4%, 10.48%, and 21.99%, respectively, and the corresponding proportions of respondents with anxiety were 1.56%, 4.65%, and 14.69%, respectively. A one-way ANOVA revealed that the mental health statuses of the participants were different between the subgroups based on majors, classes, degree types, and the method of communication with advisors and students. A two-way ANOVA revealed significant effects on interaction and the method of communication with advisors and peers. These findings suggest that the mental health of postgraduate students should be monitored during the pandemic, especially when they are unable to communicate directly with their advisors or peers, and targeted psychological counselling must be focused on anxiety and depression.

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Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic broke out and has spread globally since 2019. It became a public health concern. This pandemic has brought tremendous changes in students’ lives and modes of learning. Graduate students are likely to be more affected as they are a part of a special training program. According to the main-effect model, social support has a positive effect on mental health. The pandemic has exerted a negative impact on the social support of individuals, and as a result, the behavior of a person is more likely to be at risk and has resulted in psychological crisis in people/individuals. Methods A sample of 3137 graduate students responded to the instrument developed to assess the impact of the pandemic on the academic activities and performance, Self-rating Anxiety Scale and Self-rating Depression Scale. Results The results showed that: 1) the pandemic impacted the academic support and performance of graduate students in varying degrees, 21% of graduate students experienced anxiety, and 33.9% of graduate students experienced depressive symptoms in varying degrees; 2) academic support variables (ie, academic exchange with mentors and peers) and academic performance variables (ie, data collection and thesis writing) were significantly associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms; 3) the model fitted the data well (RMSEA = 0.029; SRMR = 0.014; TLI = 0.99; CFI = 0.996). The direct effects of academic support on anxiety and depressive symptoms were significant. The impact on academic performance played a mediating role between the impact on academic support, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Discussion Academic support significantly affected academic performance, which in turn affected anxiety and depressive symptoms. So, it implies that, due to the pandemic, the academic support for graduate students had decreased, resulting in deterioration in academic performance, causing anxiety and depressive symptoms.

To investigate the impact of the pandemic on graduate students’ learning activities, a series of questionnaires were distributed to graduate students in universities across China, and 2,818 responses were collected. A latent class analysis was performed to classify the effects of the pandemic on graduate students’ learning activities. Then, a multinomial logistic regression analysis and an analysis of variance analysis were carried out to explore the impact of demographic variables on the classification and their mental health status. The analysis identified four latent classes: “the overall less affected” (34.83%), “the overall more affected” (31.97%), “course activities were more affected” (19.40%), and “social activities were more affected” (13.79%). The multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that during the pandemic, the learning activities of graduate students in all grades were affected to varying degrees, and the impacts on second-year and third-year graduate students were greater than those of first-year graduate students. The analysis of variance revealed that the scores for anxiety, depression, and social anxiety of “the overall more affected” were significantly greater than those of the other three groups, and nearly one-third of students belonged to this class, suggesting that more attention and care should be given to these students. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of graduate students have suffered mental problems (anxiety and depression). Under the current backdrop of a new normal, schools and teachers should pay attention to graduate students’ mental health, providing targeted assistance to different types of students.

This research aims to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected college students’ entrepreneurial intention (EI), as well as whether the well-studied link between entrepreneurial alertness (EA) and EI is involved. Data were collected from 612 respondents, and using the stepwise regression method we examined the moderating role of college students’ perceived risk of COVID-19 on the connection between EA and EI. The results show that students’ perceived risk of COVID-19 reduces their EI. Furthermore, the perceived risk of COVID-19 attenuates the relationship between EA and EI. Specifically, those who perceived a greater risk tended to show lower EI. This article contributes to a better understanding of how the relationship between EA and EI has changed during the pandemic.