Real-time Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Students: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Abstract

Background College students’ mental health may be disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because of the abrupt shift off campus and subsequent loss of a social network and potential long-term impact on job prospects. Objective We sought to assess the nature of COVID-19’s mental health impact among a sample of undergraduates who were experiencing the pandemic as it occurred in real time. Methods In total, 140 college students completed smartphone-based ecological momentary assessments of anxiety and optimism related to COVID-19 and other generic mental health variables 6 times daily. Results Participants completed >23,750 surveys. Overall, >75% of these surveys indicated at least some level of anxiety about COVID-19. On average, the proportion of responses each day at the highest levels of anxiety about COVID-19 was 7 times greater than the proportion of responses at the highest levels of non–COVID-19–specific anxiety. Structural change analyses indicated a significant downward trend in COVID-19 anxiety after the first week of June, but even at the lowest point, >15% of the participants in the sample still reported high levels of COVID-19 anxiety each day. Participants felt more anxious about COVID-19 on days when the number of new cases and deaths due to COVID-19 were higher. When participants felt anxious about COVID-19, they also felt sad, anxious (in general), and had a greater desire to drink and use drugs. Participants felt more optimistic about COVID-19 when they received more support from others and from their university. Conclusions This study demonstrated the widespread mental health impact that COVID-19 has had on college students.

Impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on the health of university students

“…There is now a large body of published, peer-reviewed research papers assessing the impacts of the pandemic on university students, the majority of these are surveys investigating topics such as student adaptations to online learning, [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Covid-19 impacts on mental health, 4,5,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] or less frequently, both of these factors in parallel. [27][28][29][30] Other studies that have taken a broader approach to understand how the pandemic has altered academic, societal, health, lifestyle and behavioural elements of the student experience.…”

COVID-19 and Eating Problems in Daily Life: the Mediating Roles of Stress, Negative Affect and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

“…Moreover, it should be noted that all of our participants were college students. During the pandemic, the role of university support was positively associated with optimism about COVID-19 (Kleiman et al, 2020). Future research should examine more cognitive appraisal factors such as perceived support and control expectancy to explore the COVID-19 effect on mental health.…”

Using Multimodal Assessments to Capture Personalized Contexts of College Student Well-being in 2020: Case Study (Preprint)

“…All of the aforementioned health-related concerns for college student mental health have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic [33,34]; universities across the states have converted into remote learning centers, sending college students home, disrupting their previous routines and daily rhythms, upending job prospects and the economy, and increasing uncertainty and anxiety across the United States [35][36][37][38][39]. Altogether, a tremendous shift has occurred from the excitement and opportunities of collegiate life to turbulence, trauma, and stress, relating to increased rates of mental health problems in this population [40][41][42][43]. The uncertainty with the ongoing pandemic renders many of the stabilizing factors in the college experience even harder to attain; therefore, there may be added stressors in maintaining social support networks and uncertainties with financial support for current college students, as well as worries about the quality of one's education and career prospects for students close to finishing their degree.…”

“…Our purpose is to thus incorporate these multimodal assessments together in studies examining contexts. As prior studies have documented evidence of the negative associations of the pandemic among college students [33,34,[40][41][42][43], capturing daily life during the pandemic, shelter-in-place orders, social distancing, and remote learning among college students may help to better understand the individualized increased risks for student mental health. In turn, this may ultimately further expand our understanding of the pandemic experience and its association with college student well-being.…”