Students under lockdown: Comparisons of students’ social networks and mental health before and during the COVID-19 crisis in Switzerland

Abstract

This study investigates students' social networks and mental health before and at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, using longitudinal data collected since 2018. We analyze change on multiple dimensions of social networks (interaction, friendship, social support, co-studying) and mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness) within two cohorts of Swiss undergraduate students experiencing the crisis (N = 212), and make additional comparisons to an earlier cohort which did not experience the crisis (N = 54). In within-person comparisons we find that interaction and co-studying networks had become sparser, and more students were studying alone. Furthermore, students' levels of stress, anxiety, loneliness, and depressive symptoms got worse, compared to measures before the crisis. Stressors shifted from fears of missing out on social life to worries about health, family, friends, and their future. Exploratory analyses suggest that COVID-19 specific worries, isolation in social networks, lack of interaction and emotional support, and physical isolation were associated with negative mental health trajectories. Female students appeared to have worse mental health trajectories when controlling for different levels of social integration and COVID-19 related stressors. As universities and researchers discuss future strategies on how to combine on-site teaching with online courses, our results indicate the importance of considering social contacts in students' mental health and offer starting points to identify and support students at higher risk of social isolation and negative psychological effects during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Negative Affect, Fatalism, and Perceived Institutional Betrayal in Times of the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Control Beliefs

“…While the population had not been required to be in quarantine, it was strongly recommended for people to remain at home during the time of the data collection. As in Israel, first studies conducted in Switzerland among student populations suggest that COVID-19 specific worries, lack of interaction and emotional support, and physical isolation were associated with negative mental health trajectories [e.g., (40)]. Unemployment rates in Switzerland were reported to be 3.3% in April and 3.4% in May.…”

Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Life of Higher Education Students: A Global Perspective

“…[7,12,15,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] and social life (closed dorms and therefore moving back home, no meetings with friends, university colleagues, relatives, no parties, no traveling, staying trapped overseas etc.) [7,13,[29][30][31], as well as their financial situation (losing a student's job, worries about own financial situation, about future education and career) [14,32,33] and emotional health (fears, frustrations, anxiety, anger, boredom etc.) [7,14,28,29,34].…”

“…Besides many challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic brought also some positive changes in habits and mindsets, such as paying more attention to personal hygiene, taking care of their own (quitting smoking, eating organic food from local farms) and relatives' health, especially of those in risk groups, taking more time for doing sports, etc. [30,33,35].…”

“…Additionally, most of the studies focus (1) on a single higher education institution and/or country (e.g. from Asia -China [7,29], India [45], Pakistan [46], Philippines [47] Saudi Arabia [26], Vietnam [48]; from Europe -Germany [36], Spain [49], Switzerland [33], Ukraine [50]; from Africa -Ghana [15]; from North America -the U.S. [51,52]) and/or (2) on a single academic field (e.g. medical students from Iran [53], Mexico [54], Philippines [55], Saudi Arabia [56], Turkey [57], the US [19,58] and nursing students from Croatia [59], England [60], Israel [61] and the U.S. [62]).…”

Strangers in a Strange Land: Designing a Mobile Application to Combat Loneliness and Isolation Among Foreign University Students

“…A cross-national study with university students found associations between loneliness and subjective health status, such as sleeping problems, tobacco use, aggressive behavior, injury, and sexual risk behavior (Peltzer and Pengpid 2017). Furthermore, students have become even more affected by loneliness due to the absence of face-toface contact caused by the social isolation measures adopted to reduce the COVID-19 spread (Elmer et al 2020).…”